ST MICHAEL. In the N wall one blocked Late Anglo-Saxon window visible from outside and inside. In the chancel N wall one small C13 lancet. The rest is C14 and C15. C15 the big W tower with higher SE stair-turret and diagonal buttresses - looking proudly across the marshes, C14 the S aisle as wide as the nave and separated from it by an arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. C14 also the chancel and S chancel chapel (modern arcade pier). The timber S Porch is typical C15 Essex work. Original C15 roofs inside chancel and chancel chapel, nave and aisle. - FONT. C13, Purbeck marble, octagonal, with shallow blank trefoil-arched arcades; two panels to each side. - PULPIT, plain C18. - BENCHES in the S aisle, plain, c. 1500. - IMAGE. Virgin and Child, headless, only about 10 ins. high, C15? (S chapel, E wall). - PLATE. Cup of 1633. - MONUMENT. Inscription tablet of c. 1340: ‘ Fur lamur Jesu Crist priez pur sa alme ke ci gist pater noster et ave Thomas de Crawedern fur apelle’.
FOBBING. It is very compact with thatched and tiled roofs side by side, and an inn of the 15th century. The low hills on which the village stands are divided by a creek from the flat meadows reaching toward the Thames, which would still be marshes but for the river-wall built by Dutchmen 300 years ago. By the river stands a lighthouse on stilts.
The grey tower of Fobbing church is a landmark for miles, and by climbing the hundred stairs of the turret we can gaze out to open sea, or inland to the Langdon Hills, the heights of Essex. A round ring of stones above the 15th century west door shows us that the Normans started the tower, while a double-splayed window in the wall of the nave tells us of an earlier Saxon building. The door to the right of this window has remarkable strap-hinges 700 years old, and we notice their curious prongs. To the same period belongs the font, supported on eight pillars. A little barrel organ stands close by.
It is 600 years since the chancel, chapel, and aisle were added, the aisle being wider than the nave. A bearded king and a placid nun look down from the chancel wall, and inset in the wall is a stone inscribed in Norman French. The chapel has a gem of sculpture, Mary with the infant Jesus on her knees. Though it is but a fragment, we can realise how lovely it must have been when first placed by the altar. In the windows are fragments of old glass.
In one of the spandrels of the porch are the great head of a king . and a seated man boldly opening a dragon’s mouth. Fobbing comes into history with the ill-fated rising of the labourers under Jack Straw, one of the mystery men of history, towering as a dragon for three weeks, and dying at the executioner’s hands in the days of Wat Tyler and John Ball.
England was still in the Dark Ages, yet here was a marvel of organisation and co-operation which brought the men of Essex to East London at the very hour the men of Kent camped at Blackheath and the men of Hertfordshire at Highbury, while in all a dozen counties were in arms. Young Richard the Second rode to Mile End to meet the Essex men, heard their grievances, promised complete reform and pardon, and set 30 clerks to work writing out the necessary documents to implement his pledges. The rebels retired content to their homes, but as soon as quiet was restored, and concerted action by the peasants was no longer possible, the young king came upon them with an army and those who were not hewn down in the field were hanged.
Jack Straw left only a name. Associated with his rising was the immortal poem of Piers Plowman and the many writings of John Ball, who made Essex his centre, pouring out writings which were the direct forerunner of the political pamphlets of Milton and Burke.
The grey tower of Fobbing church is a landmark for miles, and by climbing the hundred stairs of the turret we can gaze out to open sea, or inland to the Langdon Hills, the heights of Essex. A round ring of stones above the 15th century west door shows us that the Normans started the tower, while a double-splayed window in the wall of the nave tells us of an earlier Saxon building. The door to the right of this window has remarkable strap-hinges 700 years old, and we notice their curious prongs. To the same period belongs the font, supported on eight pillars. A little barrel organ stands close by.
It is 600 years since the chancel, chapel, and aisle were added, the aisle being wider than the nave. A bearded king and a placid nun look down from the chancel wall, and inset in the wall is a stone inscribed in Norman French. The chapel has a gem of sculpture, Mary with the infant Jesus on her knees. Though it is but a fragment, we can realise how lovely it must have been when first placed by the altar. In the windows are fragments of old glass.
In one of the spandrels of the porch are the great head of a king . and a seated man boldly opening a dragon’s mouth. Fobbing comes into history with the ill-fated rising of the labourers under Jack Straw, one of the mystery men of history, towering as a dragon for three weeks, and dying at the executioner’s hands in the days of Wat Tyler and John Ball.
England was still in the Dark Ages, yet here was a marvel of organisation and co-operation which brought the men of Essex to East London at the very hour the men of Kent camped at Blackheath and the men of Hertfordshire at Highbury, while in all a dozen counties were in arms. Young Richard the Second rode to Mile End to meet the Essex men, heard their grievances, promised complete reform and pardon, and set 30 clerks to work writing out the necessary documents to implement his pledges. The rebels retired content to their homes, but as soon as quiet was restored, and concerted action by the peasants was no longer possible, the young king came upon them with an army and those who were not hewn down in the field were hanged.
Jack Straw left only a name. Associated with his rising was the immortal poem of Piers Plowman and the many writings of John Ball, who made Essex his centre, pouring out writings which were the direct forerunner of the political pamphlets of Milton and Burke.
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