Friday 1 November 2013

South Ockendon

The last and most southerly of the six round tower churches of Essex [or seven if you include the 'modern' tower of St Patrick in Barking, which is further south], St Nicholas was locked with no keyholder listed. Apart from the tower and the Norman north door the building is pretty much meritless Victorian work. The brasses sound good - shame it's locked.

ST NICHOLAS. Not much old, but a splendid Late Norman N doorway with three orders of supports, the middle colonnettes spiral-fluted and enriched by shaftrings. The three orders of voussoirs of three-dimensional varieties of the zigzag motif. The date, say, c. 1180. Of the C13 the fine circular flint tower. Perp N chancel chapel, two-and-a-half-bay N arcade (octagonal piers and double-hollow-chamfered arches) and rood-stair-turret on the S side. The rest of 1866. - HOURGLASS STAND. Wrought iron, C17. - MONUMENTS. Brass to Sir Ingram Bruyn d. 1400 (headless). The figure 4 ft long, surrounding of thin architecture fragmentary. - Brass to Margaret Baker d. 1602. - Sir Richard Saltonstall d. 1601, Lord Mayor of London; standing wall monument of alabaster. The usual kneeling figures, the six sons and nine daughters in the ‘predella’.

St Mary the Virgin (3)

N door (1)

SOUTH OCKENDON. It has a moated rectory and a moated hall, a round tower and a windmill, and a barn with rafters five centuries old; it has cottages of the 17th century, Norman walls, and patches of Roman tiles. The tiles are among the flints of the Norman church. The tower is also Norman, though it was partly rebuilt in the 13th century. From these far-off days comes the wonderful doorway with its studded wreaths and chevron mouldings, and the flower-decked capitals and shafts so exquisitely carved.

Most of the treasures are in the medieval chapel. Here is the brass of Ingelram Bruyn, headless but showing his plate armour of 1400, his long sword, and his dagger. On his breast are the words, Lo, now I sleep in the dust, but I know that my Redeemer liveth. Two centuries later Margaret Barker was buried here, and they set her graceful form on her tomb, fashioning her rather like her queen, Elizabeth.

An imposing monument of marble recalls the brave adventures of that reign; in a recess on this noble tomb kneels Sir Richard Saltonstall in the robes and chain of London’s Lord Mayor. His wife, of the famous Poyntz family of North Ockendon, raised this shrine to his memory in 1601, and in a companion recess she kneels, in a rich furred gown and widow’s veil. Below are portraits of her six sons and nine daughters. Sir Richard was Lord Mayor in Armada year and was knighted for his services in raising money and troops to resist the threatened invasion. The recessed font is of the 15th century, a carved coffin lid is two centuries older, a 14th century chest has broad iron bands and rings, and there is an ornamental hourglass stand of the Puritan days of long sermons.

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