Panfield

St Mary and St Christopher was locked with no keyholder listed. It's a really charming little church and the graveyard, or rather large parts of it, has been set aside as a nature reserve - an idea also followed at Little Sampford. This adds huge interest to a large graveyard particularly when the different areas have such informative signage as they do here. I do hope the local primary school, assuming there is one, makes full use of it as a learning tool.

I rather suspect the interior would be a disappointment so I wasn't too disappointed to find access denied.

ST MARY. Nave, chancel, and belfry. All C15. The belfry on timber posts, the S porch also of timber with pretty side openings. Tomb Recess in the nave N wall with depressed pointed arch. - PULPIT with re-used early C16 tracery panels similar to several used in furniture at Panfield Hall. - STAINED GLASS. Two whole C15 figures of saints (N window, nave). - PLATE. Late C16 Paten; late C17 Cup.

PANFIELD. Though it has nothing Norman to show, it has a link with the Conqueror, Great Priory Farm being the 17th century successor of a priory belonging to St Stephen’s at Caen, the abbey where William was buried. The church is nearly all 15th century, with a wooden turret, a charming porch, and the original door still on its hinges. Another doorway is 14th century, and has heads of a bearded man and a plump-faced queen. In a little fine old glass are two golden-haired saints, one with an orb and one with a yellow cross; and in a circle the eagle of St John is pecking at its wing. The modern pulpit has tracery 500 years old. Nearly as old as the church is Panfield Hall half a mile away, remarkable for its projecting tower and a group of Tudor chimneys.

Flickr set.

Newport

When I visited St Mary the Virgin I came away thinking that it had been utterly destroyed by the three usual suspects: the Reformation, Dowsing and the Victorians but a subsequent reading of the church guide reveal a more complicated story and Arthur Mee adds more intrigue. His Essex visitation was first published in 1940 and subsequent editions were not updated to reflect war damage to buildings; when he visited St Mary there were poppyheaded stalls in the chancel which are no longer present. This poor church has a long and, apparently, continuing (although thankfully no longer) history of neglect and destruction.

The chancel, nave and transepts of the church were built in the early 13th century giving the building a cruciform shape. The chancel had a low steeply pitched roof, the outlines of which can be seen externally at the east end, and was possibly thatched. There may have been a central tower between the transepts.

Today you enter the church through the south door, passing through the 15th century porch. Over the porch is a priest’s room, or parvise, which in the past probably provided living quarters for a priest and now houses one of the four Bray libraries in Essex, established in the 18th century for the use of the local clergy. The church doorway is 14th century restored – this could be said of any part of the fabric of the church.

This is another village church which is huge - the nave is 66 feet long and 22 feet wide. The chancel arch dates from c.1240 and the tower arch at the west end from the 15th century, with graceful slender lines which symbolically lead the eye towards Heaven. I’d put good money on a Doom originally and equal amounts that it has not survived.

The clerestory is late 15th or early 16th century and was restored in 1858-59.The angel roof is late 15th century with some later oak timbers. The north transept arch dates from 1220-1240 and the pillars of the north arcade are c.1390.The south transept arch is 1220—1240 and the pillars of the south arcade are c.1320.

The oak chancel screen is early 15th century as is the oak lectern, which swivels and can be adjusted for height, and still retains the ring and chain to which the Bible was once attached. The pulpit is 19th century and was given to the church at a cost of £45. It replaced a three tier pulpit with clerk and reader’s desk which formerly stood at the south end of the screen.

The south aisle was added, or possibly rebuilt, early in the 14th century. The windows in this aisle are 19th century reconstructions, except for the rear arch and splays of the western one. The font has a 13th century bowl, a 15th century oak cover but a Victorian base.

On the floor of this aisle, near the organ console, is a brass commemorating Thomas Brond and Margery his wife. The inscription under the figures reads ‘Here lieth Thomas Brond whose soule God pardon 1515’.

The south transept was built in 1220-1240.The present roof and the east window date from the 15th century. The curved braces of the tie beams rest on roughly carved head corbels on the east wall and moulded corbels on the west. The arch to the south aisle is c.1320.

The altar chest in the south transept, known as the Newport Chest, is a portable altar of the late 13th century with space for communion vessels, vestments and missals. The false bottom conceals a secret compartment. The lid is raised to form a reredos and the panel depicts, from left to right, St Peter, the Virgin Mary, the Crucifixion, St John and St Paul, and these are some of the earliest known oil paintings on wood. I think this must have been hidden several times in its lifetime to have survived the various religious pogroms.

The chancel was completely restored in 1911, but contains much older work. The lower walls date from 1220-1240 and the upper walls were last rebuilt in the 15th century – no mention of the stalls.

The paving throughout the church dates from the major refurbishment of 1858-59, which was made necessary by the fact that the building had deteriorated to a very poor state. The nave roof was restored and the clerestory walls rebuilt, the internal walls were re-plastered and the pillars and the porch restored. Unfortunately during this restoration work many of the ledger stones over the vaults were removed or destroyed, and no record was kept of the actual location of the intra-mural burials in the church.

The tower was completely rebuilt in 1858-59 as the former 15th century tower had been struck by lightning and was dangerously cracked.

At the base of the tower but not presently accessible to visitors there is a memorial brass to Katharine Nightingale, who died in 1608, and her husband Geoffrey.

It seems to me that the crux of St Mary’s desecration was a combination of poor, not to say appalling, priests, the triumvirate aforesaid and the poverty of the living.

For example Brian Hughes (incumbent 1779) was an eccentric vicar who cut the heads and wings off the angels on the nave roof as he insisted that they were idols in God’s house; Thomas Bell’s (incumbent 1794) relationship with the people of Newport was acrimonious and he was not on speaking terms with his churchwardens for many years, and was sued for libel by Mr Pochin, the local magistrate. During the incumbency of Bell the church building again fell into a bad state of repair.

Newport was not a wealthy parish. Prior to the Reformation the ‘great tithes’ went to St Martin le Grand, and the vicar received the lesser tithes and the income from obits and chantries. After the Reformation, when these were abolished, the income of Newport was so low that the parish was without a priest for much of the 17th century and the church building became neglected. The registers are blank for the period of the Civil War – from 1636 to 1690 there are no records which seem to indicate a similar lack of incumbent over that period.

Almost 50 years without an incumbent would, surely, have taken its toll on any church; more so with a church fabric of this size. Add to that the Commonwealth, the prior ravages of the Reformation and the Victorians you end up with a church in peril.

On top of all these tragedies at some stage in the last 70 years, and I suspect somewhat recently, the chancel stalls have gone, along with nave pews which are replaced with 1970’s looking stackable chairs – it might as well have become a Bingo Hall.

ST MARY THE VIRGIN. Big church, formerly collegiate. It lies back, away from the main road. W tower of 1858 with embattled polygonal pinnacles, the chief accent of the church. It has a crossing and transepts, dating from the C13, as is shown by the forms of the arches separating them (responds with nailhead ornament) and the two N and one S lancet windows. The chancel is wide and not too high and in its masonry also C13. S arcade early C14 with octagonal piers and double-chamfered two-centred arches. To the same time belongs the S aisle W window. N arcade Early Perp with sturdy quatrefoil piers with hollows in the diagonals, slightly decorated capitals and double-wave-moulded arches. - C15 S porch and nave clerestory, later C16 brick clerestory over the chancel. - FONT. Octagonal, with heavy gabled trefoil arches, an unusual design, probably early C13. - COMMUNION TABLE, with three Flemish early C17 reliefs. - SCREEN. Fragments of a C15 screen with six-light divisions with broad panel tracery. - LECTERN. Oak, with octagonal base and stem, tracery panels on it, and tracery in the triangle between the top book-rests. - CHEST. An extremely interesting later C13 piece. The front has three friezes of ornament, circles, lozenges, and shields. Paintings inside the lid (Crucifixion, the Virgin, St John, St Peter, St Paul), coloured chiefly in red and green. - BENCHES. Some poppy-heads survive. - STAINED GLASS. N transept, with several whole figures (St Katherine, St Michael), early C14, bought about 50 years ago. - BRASSES of 1515 (Thomas Brond and wife, S aisle floor, 18in. figures) and 1608.

NEWPORT. Standing by the River Cam on the Roman road to Cambridge, it has taken toll of the centuries as they passed, and stops us, too, with its display of old houses and its wonderful church treasures, the earliest English oil paintings among them. Monk’s Barn and the Priory are characteristic tributes from the 15th century. The timbered Monk’s Barn is a charming house overhanging the pavement on each side of coved eaves, with carving in the wooden arch of its studded door, and under the oriel window a bold bracket showing the crowned Madonna rising from the clouds, a sceptre in her hand, and two angels making music for her Child. The Priory has another wooden-framed oriel window, and close by is the graceful Crown House from the 17th century, with a plaster front and a lovely shell hood over the door. Even the chimney which collects the smoke from four 16th century fireplaces in Martin’s Farm is a work of art. Set in a wall by the road are stones carved 700 years ago for the hospital which once stood close by in the park of Shortgrove House, a home old and new, which has been growing for 300 years.

The spacious church on rising ground in the middle of the village has been growing more than twice as long, the chancel and transepts being 13th century, the aisles 14th, the clerestory and the two-storeyed porch 15th, the two doors to the upper porch room 16th. The transept roofs and the angel-borne roof of the nave are 500 years old. The chancel roof, the poppyhead stalls under it, and the panels in the altar table are all 400 years old, the panels of Flemish carving showing the Cruciiixion with Mary Magdalene kneeling, and in the background two men in high pointed hats, a crowded Epiphany scene, and Christ triumphant over Death.

The light and graceful screen was made 500 years ago when the cover was made for the 13th century font, and the oak lectern was carved with its double book-rest turning on a swivel, the Old Testament chained on one side and the New on the other. There is a tablet in memory of Joseph Smith of Shortgrove House, Pitt’s private secretary, and 16th century brass portraits of Thomas Brond with his wife and four children, and later ones showing Geffrye Nightingale in a Jacobean cloak and ruff and his wife in an embroidered pannier skirt.

But the great rarity here is the portable altar in one of the transepts. It was made 700 years ago to be carried from place to place and set up in camp or battlefield. For this alone it would be remarkable, but on it are the earliest oil paintings on wood known to English art. The altar is made as a chest, with three handles and five locks, and a false bottom with a secret sliding panel. The vestments and books would be kept in the locker and the altar stone in the secret place. A fine band of metal tracery ornaments the outside, and the 13th century paintings are on the inside of the lid, which lifted up to form the reredos as we see it today, with its five panels of the Crucifixion, showing three saints and the Madonna at the foot of the Cross, the heads undoubtedly drawn from life, probably likenesses of the artist’s friends. Each saint stands on a mound in a strikingly dramatic pose, delightful representatives of a now old art in its infancy.

Flickr set.

Mount Bures

St John the Baptist in Mount Bures is rather odd. It sits on a hill to the south west of Bures, just over the Suffolk/Essex border, seemingly randomly placed for no obvious reason - the village doesn't seem large enough to have ever warranted a church. It is apparently Norman and to the north is a large mound which was constructed by the Normans as a motte and bailey.

William the Conquerors successful warfare campaign was mainly due to the use of such earth and timber castles, already common in France. The motte at Mount Bures is one of those strongholds, it was within easy reach of the river and the roads such as they were.

From the top of the bailey the views of the river would have been extensive, at least 3 miles in any direction including the river crossings at Bures and Wormingford. Consequently from the summit, defenders could easily see the enemy, including approaches by the River Stour.

 

The construction of the motte was influenced by the local terrain and geology. As the army was moving forward, speed of construction was essential in positioning a garrison to provide fortifications. In the case of the Mount Bures mound it would have been constructed by local labour force. It would be expected that the experienced troops would also assist with the work. Some historians estimate a mound such as this could have been built in something like 40 - 50 days.

In 1959 a stone statue of St. John the Baptist by B. Dobson was placed in a niche over the high altar on the north side. 

So I imagine the church was built by the local Norman lord of the manor and remained when the motte and bailey disappeared.Whatever the reason it's charming and the views are terrific.

On a hill overlooking Bures and the river Stour. The Normans built a CASTLE here, of which the mound survives, 200 ft across and 35 ft high. The bailey lay to the SW, that is W of the church.

ST JOHN. The unusual shape of this village church is no doubt to be explained by the connexion with the castle. Nave and chancel, crossing-tower and transepts. All Norman, but crossing tower and transepts rebuilt in 1875. The Roman quoins of the old parts can easily be distinguished from the new bricks. Norman windows (with Roman brick dressings) in the W wall, high up (a reticulated C14 window below), in the S wall, blocked, and in the N wall, where there is also a plain Norman doorway. S porch Perp with three-light windows and a doorway with decorated spandrels.- PLATE. Cup and Paten of 1641.

MOUNT BURES. It takes its name from a wooded mound where a fortress stood, the silent guardian of a few cottages and an ancient church. Romans and Normans have helped to build the church, the Normans using the bricks the Romans left behind. A Norman doorway here is shaped with them, and others can beseen at the corners of the chancel and transept. Another doorway is 14th century, and both have doors 500 years old. The porch is 15th century; one of its shields has the Sackville arms. There is a Jacobean table, a chest about the same age, and a memorial to a rector for 50 years in the 18th century, Philip Gurdon, whose proud epitaph says that as a minister he was a burning and a shining light.

Flickr set.

Messing

As far as I remember I was running late and briefly stopped at All Saints which was open but undistinguished so I just took a couple of quick exteriors and dashed off. This may have been ill-judged since a quick Google search shows some interest:

The nave of the church is 14th century or earlier; the chancel is 13th century or earlier; the tower and transept date from the 1840 improvements. At the back of the nave is an early 19th century font. Notice the carved heads around the base of the bowl. The original ancient font, was given to Wakes Colne church by a former vicar, Revd. Thomas Henderson, who was also rector of that parish. 

The Nave is undistinguished except for the roof, which is its most striking feature. The nave dates from the 14th century, or possibly earlier. The tracery in each of the windows is different. The roof can be dated to 1360 by the carved heraldry held by the angels bearing the arms of the Baynard family. Notice also the carved roses at the apex of the main trusses. The 2 hammer beams at the chancel arch have lost their angel heads probably during the Reformation, or during the English Civil War. The 2 most western roof bays belong to the 1840 restoration.

The large window near the pulpit replaces the 1840 North transept, badly damaged and subsequently demolished after the 1884 Colchester earthquake. Near this window are the remains of a monument, sadly lost in the early 19th century. It was described in “A Gentleman’s History of Essex” 1772, as being of an armed knight, cross-legged, made of wood and reclining under an arch in the north wall. Tradition reports that he was the founder of this church and believed to be called Sir William de Messing. In an Essex guide book published in 1845, “Suckling Papers,” is this amusing comment: “My sole object in visiting this church was to draw this ancient monument, and my regret may easily be conceived, on learning that the late vicar had given it a short time before to the parish clerk, to be burnt as a piece of useless lumber…. The parish clerk has obeyed the directions of his tasteless superior to the very letter; not a fragment of this monument remains.”

Suckling also writes: “On the chancel floor lies a small effigy of a female… I have made a drawing of it lest parochial iconoclasm should consign it to the fate of the templar.” Fortunately, this did not happen!

The Royal Arms. This fine work is dated 1634 and almost uniquely bears the arms of the Prince of Wales on the reverse. Also can be seen the arms of the then Patron and donor, Hanameel Chibborne. It was presented at the time of absolute government by Charles I. The arms mark Chibborne’s loyalty to the King as well as commemorating his entering upon his inheritance, which was in the King’s hands during his minority. It could also mark Chibborne’s marriage to Mary Newton of Canterbury, on Christmas Day 1634 in this church. Notice the text, on the back; “Give thy judgements to the King O Lord: Thy righteousness to the King’s sonn”. The royal arms may originally have hung in the chancel arch: notice the 2 holes in the wooden hammer-beam arch next to the chancel arch.

The East Window. This beautiful window represents the Acts of Mercy: St Matthew 25:35,36, and in the top part – Faith, Hope and Charity. The window was probably placed here by Sir Charles Chibborne who died 1619. It is believed that it may originally have been at New Hall, Boreham.

Notice particularly the delightful details of the distant landscapes, the window and brick details of the buildings and the bold use of the colours red, blue, yellow. Do not miss the four-poster bed in the lower light! During the English Civil War and the siege of Colchester, 1648, the window was carefully removed and hidden in the great chest, together with other church treasures, and hidden in the church’s vault, thus preserving it from destruction.

After the destruction of much stained glass in the reformation reign of Edward VI religious stained glass became acceptable once more, especially during the early years of the 17th century. By far the most significant of the glass painters at this time were 2 Flemish brothers – Abraham and Bernard Van Linge. Our window is by the famous Abraham.

Horace Walpole, the famous 18th century antiquarian, collected ancient stained glass. In 1749 he made a special visit to Messing to see this window, and described it as “an extreme fine window of painted glass”.

I think a re-visit is on the cards allowing more time for a proper appraisal!

I've re-visited and it was indeed worthwhile the chancel window alone being worth it.

ALL SAINTS. Mostly 1840, i.e. the W tower of red brick, not at all Essex in style, and the long S transept. Medieval are part of the nave and most of the chancel. In the chancel is what makes the church worth a visit, the PANELLING and CHANCEL STALLS of c. 1634 (date on the Royal Arms in the S transept). No classical features yet, the stall fronts with rusticated oval frames, the backs with rusticated blank arches separated by Corinthian pilasters. The ornament entirely Jacobean, but hardly any strapwork. - STAINED GLASS. In the E window, contemporary with the panelling and attributed to van Linge (Abraham who worked at Peterhouse, Cambridge rather than Bernhard). The Works of Mercy and figures of Faith, Hope and Charity. - CHEST. Iron-bound probably C13. - PLATE. Whole set of 1634, given by Captain Chibborne whose arms also appear on the reverse side of the carved Royal Arms. - BRASS to a Lady, c. 1540 (chancel).

 

MESSING. There are fragments of the Roman Empire in its church walls, and in its cottages huge beams that have supported their roofs four or five hundred years. Its church is one of the few that were enriched in the brief revival of church building in the early days of Charles Stuart. It happened that its vicar was a friend of Archbishop Laud, and in his day many things of beauty were added to the chancel. The vicar was Nehemiah Rogers, a fervent Royalist and "man of good note," as Laud said; he wrote on the parables, and one of his books commands a good price today.

He was also rector of Great Tey and Doddinghurst, where he lies. Round the walls is elaborate oak panelling divided by pilasters, with little cherubs peeping out above, and there are fine stalls for the choir. Swinging from a beam in a chapel is a gabled panel with the Royal arms of 1634 and Charles Stuart’s Prince of Wales feathers in faint colours on the back. There is an altar table of the same period, and in the tracery of the east window, with 14th century stonework, is 17th century glass by Van Linge, who knew so well how to paint the costumes of his age in vivid yellows, blues, and reds. In the upper lights are figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and six scenes below showing six kindly works of charity. This fine window was new when the fury of the Civil War burst over Essex, and we owe its existence today to the fact that it was taken out and buried. In the roof are 15th century angels, and there is a long ironbound chest in which the village documents have been kept for 600 years and are still kept today.

Simon K -

Open. Pax Vobiscum, it says on the door, this church is open every day. The outer doors were wedged open.

At first sight, this is rather an ugly church, a red brick tower dressed with freestone, as if in imitation of St Benet Pauls Wharf in the City, and beyond it a large Victorian nave, a result of earthquake damage and a rich and enthusiastic patron.

But the chancel and south transept are enough to propel the church into my Essex top 40. It is one of the best surviving examples of a Laudian worship space, all the fixtures, fittings and windows dating from 1637.

The glass depicts the Works of Mercy, a vast and exceptionally rare scheme for its date, and there are lovely Jacobean stalls, not choir stalls but communion stalls, where Laud imagined people would kneel to take the sacrament. There is a fabulous carved royal arms with the Prince of Wales feathers behind it, and the inlaid stone floor has an inscription from the new King James Bible.

It is a fascinating insight into a model of the Church of England that lasted barely ten years before Cromwell and his henchmen extinguished it.

Flickr.

Littlebury

Holy Trinity was closed with no keyholder listed when I first visited but recently I was passing and on a whim stopped to have another look and, fortuitously, a group of very pleasant ladies were tidying up post Harvest Festival and allowed me to have a look around (I also gathered that locked is its normal condition); following another whim I stopped again today [28/03/14] and found it open which appears to be the new norm.

The church dates from the middle of the 12th century when the manor of Littlebury belonged to the Bishop of Ely who had a house here.

The North Aisle and what was originally a South Transept were built about 1225; the South Aisle was added, and the South Transept was merged into it about the middle of the 13th century. The tower was built about 1325 (writing in 1773, Morant mentions a spire), the Nave was made a bit longer when the tower was built, the Western arches of the Nave arcade will be seen to be wider. In 1875 the Chancel was entirely rebuilt, the Tudor windows of the aisles and clerestory were replaced at this time. Some ancient wills between 1484 and 1504 mention: "The 3 aulters of the churche"; "The tabernacle of Sainte Anne within the chauncelle"; "The rode loft there"; "The alter of Sainte ]—— in the South ile"; and "The fraternytie of Saynte Petir holden within the church".

The font is also Transitional Norman, and is encased by a masterpiece of Tudor wood-carving. It is both beautiful and very unusual. Three tiers of linen-fold panelling form a case which has double doors. The hinges are engraved with swords, hammers and other devices. From a carved cornice rises an elaborate pinnacle top with buttresses, the whole being surmounted by a figure of Our Lord.

The north doorway is early English and the magnificent door is 200 years later. It has a small wicket above which are carved two pairs of shears showing the connection of the parish with the wool industry. The Porches are decorated, the fan vaulting has almost disappeared in both porches, and later roofs have been added, the windows have no drip-stones. Wills dated 1504 and 1505 besides making bequests for repairing church and bells go on to the "Makynge of a new Porche on the South syde."

The best feature, though, are the collection of brasses. These have all been set-up and placed on the walls. Near the pulpit are two brasses, a priest wearing Eucharistic vestments and holding a chalice (1510); and a civilian (whose two wives and family are missing). He wears a long gown fur-tipped gypciere, double-tasselled rosary, cap on right shoulder, and scarf to knees (date 1475). Around the font are five more brasses, Anne Byrd (1624), wearing a hat with a wreathed crown, neck ruff, cloak, shows and bows; a civilian (about 1520) has unusual hands, gypciere, fur-lining; a civilian and wife (1510), here the man’s gown is fur-lined, the wife has a pedimental head-dress and a girdle with an ornamental ending; Jane Bradbury is a good specimen of typical 1578 costume, for she wears a French hood, with frills at neck and wrist, the sleeves are striped and the petticoat embroidered with a diagonal diaper pattern, her over-gown is sleeveless and she has a high collar. It was this Jane Bradbury who founded a school here.

The other brass is an inscription commemorating James Edwards, a bailiff who died here in 1552, it is in Latin and the date is put in Arabic figures, the 5 being very peculiar. It is one of the earliest instances of the use of these figures, here is a translation of the inscription:

"Here lies James Edward, Steward formerly of Hadstock and Hadarn, afterwards of this Manor, who filled this office with complete integrity and discharged its duties with unqualified approval of Redman Lord Bishop of Ely, till at length seized by a deadly disease he devoutly breathed his last on the 28^th September in the year of grace 1522".

Henry Winstanley, who built the first Eddystone light-house, lived in Littlebury. He was Clerk of the Works to Charles the Second at Audley End House. He built himself a house in the meadow opposite our Church, and here fantastic tricks were played on visitors. Among the curious things invented and made by this unusual man were, an armchair which imprisoned anyone who sat in it, a slipper lying on the floor which gave a shock to whoever attempted to pick it up, and a trap door which precipitated the visitor into the next room! By 1703 his great Lighthouse was completed and had already been tested in minor storms. In November of that year, however, came the Great Storm in which the great superstructure was totally destroyed and Winstanley and five friends perished therein.

HOLY TRINITY. The E parts of 1870-5 by Edward Barr. At the same time much restoration of the other parts went on. All windows for example look new except that in the W tower which has flowing tracery. That dates the tower. It has half-angle buttresses, because both aisles extend nearly as far W as the tower, a feature very uncommon in Essex. The S doorway must be re-set. With its waterleaf capitals on two orders of columns and its two roll—mouldings of which the outer is keeled it cannot be later than the late C12. Here we may well have the date too of what originally was a S transept - see the E bay of the S arcade - and it is most probably that of the N arcade as well, with circular piers and one-step arches with one slight chamfer. The S arcade in its W parts is later. The details here tally with the tower arch, i.e. correspond in date to the Dec style. The most ambitious pieces, at least in their conception, are however the two porches. For when they were rebuilt (or built) early in the C16, they were given entrance arches much taller than usual, two-centred, with large two-light openings in the sides. What is more, fan-vaults were begun with their springers and their panelling - no doubt on the pattern of Saffron Walden. They were not completed. - FONT-CASE. A unique feature in the county. Square, with linenfold panelling and a pyramidal canopy with niches, gables, buttresses, crockets and finial - early C16. - LECTERN. On a concave hexagonal base, with buttressed stem, C15, the bookrest not original. - SCREEN to the N chapel. With much pretty inlay work and other ornamental details in the Neo-Early-Renaissance taste; 1911, designed and carved by the Rev. H. J. Burrell. - DOOR (N doorway). Late C15. On one horizontal batten two shears as the only decoration, referring no doubt to the source of income of the donor. - PAINTING. Kneeling Angel, 1879 ; signed F. S. Is it by Frederick Shields? - PLATE. Cup of 1626. - BRASSES. Civilian, c. 1480, and Priest, c. 1510 (N aisle E end); Civilian and wife, c. 1510 (figures 2 ft long); Civilian, c. 1520; and two others, of 1578 and 1624 (S aisle S wall).

LITTLEBURY. Its cottages line two Roman roads by the River Cam, and its ancient stronghold a mile away is hidden among the trees, an oval earthwork of 16 acres with a ditch 50 feet wide. The church is at the cross-roads, and has a 14th century tower, a Norman nave, and 13th century aisles. The two porches have vaulted roofs left unfinished by 15th century builders, and one of them shelters a beautiful doorway made at the great change of style from Norman into English, its capitals showing both the Norman waterflower ornament and the stiff foliage which was to be so popular with 13th century carvers. The other porch has a true 13th century doorway, and in it is a magnificent nail-studded door which has been opening and closing for 500 years. It has a little wicket, and is carved with two pairs of shears to remind us of Littlebury’s ancient connection with the wool trade. There is a lectern whose stem and base were carved in the 15th century, two handsome chairs from Stuart days, and an attractive modern screen, the work of a son in memory of his father, a churchwarden. But the masterpiece of woodcarving here is the Tudor structure which completely encloses the 13th century font. Three tiers of linenfold panelling form a case with double doors, the hinges engraved with swords and other devices; and, rising from a carved cornice, is an elaborate pyramid top, with buttresses and pinnacles leading up to a figure of Our Lord. It is of rare beauty, rivalled in Essex only by the font cover at Thaxted. The church has a 19th century wall-painting of the Crucifixion; and a memorial to one of its modern benefactors Lord Braybrooke, who rebuilt the chancel.

Quite a gallery of Littlebury folk are here in brass, from a man with a long robe and a curious hat, who died just before the Tudor Age began, to Anne Byrd, with a ruff and high-crowned hat from

Jacobean times, she being possibly a kinswoman of the immortal William Byrd whom we come upon at Stondon. One of the last priests before the Reformation is shown in his robes, holding a chalice and a wafer; a man and his wife are shown from the same time; a civilian of about 1520 has a portrait not very flattering, perhaps engraved by an unskilled village craftsman; and Jane Bradbury is here in a fine Elizabethan dress, with striped sleeves and a French hood. A brass inscription to James Edwards, who died of the plague in 1522, is interesting as an early example of the use of Arabic figures, the 5 being a curious shape. It is interesting also because he was a bailiff working for the Bishop of Ely, which reminds us of the ancient link between the village and the bishopric. In Norman times the manor belonged to the Bishop, who is said to have had his house where Gatehouse Farm now stands. The farm is a gabled Tudor building, with a roof sweeping down very low.

Flickr set.

Little Walden

This is another of those rare villages that Mee did not chronicle.

Little Walden is a quiet little hamlet a few miles from Saffron Walden, on the way to Hadstock. Near the Hall Farm is said to be the line of a Roman road, and there is some evidence of transitory Roman settlement hereabouts - grave goods of the first and second century AD can be seen in Saffron Walden Museum. The present Hall Farm dates to about 1800, with three barns and a fine brick wall also nearly 200 years old. Newer cottages have been built on plots which originated as smallholdings in medieval times, but there is at least one old house, Thatched Cottage, built around 1700.

Almost opposite the farm is a little church, remnant of Victorian concern for the spiritual welfare of the very poor labourers who lived here then. While Methodists held outdoor services here, and Congregationalists opened a chapel in a house opposite the pub, the Anglican church was actually paid for by a Quaker! In 1842, a missionary employed by Saffron Walden churches to visit the poor, reported that ‘Little Walden is highly favoured, and the people of that place seem fully to appreciate their privileges’.

The 18th-century Crown Inn was formerly three cottages, and is very pleasant, with good food and hospitality. Nearby is the Petlands estate, built to meet the post-war housing shortage, and presumably named from the field on which it stands,Perritt Land, which may derive from a Saxon word pirige meaning pear trees. The little village green once lay beside an old road, Water Lane, now abandoned in favour of the present road, Petts Lane which follows what used to be just a field boundary.

The hamlet was founded at the head of the Madgate Slade. The land along Petts Lane was called North feilde in medieval times when it was a common field. There are also little crofts named after past farmers, lots of ponds, hedges and woods and, in the countryside around, some attractive, old timber-framed houses such as Burntwood End Farm, Ravenstock Green Farm, Cloptons, St Aylotts, Sadlers and Mitchells, whose 17th century owner, Charles Parris was one of those who suffered anti-Catholic persecution, accused of ‘popish recusancy’, and had his estates confiscated.

Nearby is the site of Little Walden Park, the hunting ground for the lords of the Walden Manor and one of 150 deer parks in medieval Essex. In 1578 the Saffron Walden Corporation spent two shillings ‘for mendynge the way at Little Walden Park’, the same year that Elizabeth I came to Audley End so quite possibly she came here to hunt. The park declined during the 16th century, and much of its history was erased when the nearby airfield was developed during the last war – among lost buildings is the 16th century Little Walden Park mansion. The USAAF airfield was operational from 1942-45, but has long since gone back to agriculture. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of a headless young airman!

Jacqueline Cooper (this is an edited extract from Discover Walden: Saffron Walden countryside history & wildlife walks, on sale at Saffron Walden tourist information centre).

Matching

St Mary the Virgin sits in the grounds of Matching Hall with the vicarage and a few other cottages whilst the main body of the village has, over time, moved away.

There is no mention of a church in the Domesday Book but a Norman church was probably built on an old Saxon site during the Lordship of the Gernons.

The present building was constructed on the site of a Norman church, of which the chancel survived until 1875. In the early 13th century, the nave and aisles were rebuilt. The columns are all of the same pattern with round plain bases and capitals. The arches are in the early pointed style. The south aisle was widened in the 14th century. St. Mary’s was renovated in 1730 and again in 1770, when the roof was repaired and ceiled.

In 1875 the church was extensively restored by Sir Henry Selwin-Ibbetson, later Lord Rookwood of the Down Hall estate. He gave £3,000 to fund the rebuilding programme to the designs of Sir Arthur Blomfield, a distinguished architect and President of the ARIBA. The old chancel was completely demolished and the nave and aisles were lengthened by one bay so that the new chancel arch was built on the old foundations at the east end. A chapel was built on the south side with an organ chamber and vestry on the north side. At the same time the walls were rebuilt and a loftier porch of brick and timber replaced an earlier one. The piscina in the south wall near the only remaining old window shows that an altar was once nearby.

So in affect the church is a modern(ish) rebuild but done exceptionally well.

The memorial brasses of John Ballett, his wife, and their children with a large coat of arms and the following inscription lie on the north wall: "Here resteth the body of John Ballett, Gent., who departed this life the 7th day of Aprill, Anno Dni 1638, aged 65 years, and had issue by Rosa his wife 2 sonnes and 6 daughters". The Ballets lived at Down Hall but not this family. This brass used to lie on the floor of the old chancel with other memorials in black marble to the Ballett family but they are now lost.

ST MARY THE VIRGIN. The church makes an extremely pleasing picture with Matching Hall, its barn and dovecote, the pond with a brick fishing hut and the Rectory on the other side. C15 W tower, late C14 S aisle wall, and C13 N and S aisle arcades (W parts only, with circular piers and double-chamfered arches. The rest 1875 by Sir Arthur Blomfield). - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with quatrefoils with shields and flowers. - PULPIT. A good Jacobean piece with strapwork decoration, given in 1624. - BENCHES. Four, C16, plain. - PLATE. Large Cup of 1685, with trumpet-shaped stem; Paten of 1685. - MONUMENT. Brass of 1638. - Epitaph to Nicholas Ashton d. 1716, with putti, skulls, and leaf sprays, excellently carved.

MARRIAGE FEAST Room, W of the church. Timber-framed and plastered, with over-sailing upper storey. C15, and not specially interesting visually. Its purpose however gives it a claim to attention.
 

Flickr set.

MATCHING. Who does not love to think of Mr Chimney and his marriage feast? He was one of the kindliest men who ever lived and had one of the best ideas that has ever brought the glow of humanity into village life. He was part of medieval England, a Matching man who helped to make the matches of this village pleasant events indeed, and does so to this day. He set up a long building between the church and the green, with a room overhanging four rooms below, and to this upper room the brides and bridegrooms of the village have climbed for 500 years to feast with their friends. The room is called the Marriage Feast Room, and on Sundays it serves as a school for those who may look forward to a feasting when the years have rolled away. It has an open kingpost roof and is in every way a notable survival from the Middle Ages.

Matching is one of the gems of the county, with two greens, a medieval cottage, a lovely gabled house, a 17th century barn across a moat, and a church that hides itself away within field gates. It was founded by the Dean of St Paul’s 700 years ago, and its tower was added in the 15th century. There are grotesque corbels in the oldest wall, showing two poor people with toothache; Mr Chimney must have seen them when he came to church. There is more beautiful carving of his time on the font, and a family portrait later than his time (1638) showing John Ballett with his wife, two sons, and a lively group of six daughters. It is in brass.

In a modern window is a picture of the first Easter morning in memory of Lord Rookwood, who died in our own century; it shows the three women, two angels, and the hurrying disciples.