ESAH160: Archaeological Notes: Transactions n.s. Volume 10 ...

ESAH160: Archaeological Notes: Transactions n.s. Volume 10 ...: Archaeological Notes, published in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society in 1907, include the following - Scott, of Wolst...

ESAH160: Quarterly Meeting and Excursion, Saturday 6th Octo...

ESAH160: Quarterly Meeting and Excursion, Saturday 6th Octo...: An extract from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, published in 1907: report of a visit to Doddinghurst, Stondon Massey...

ESAH160: Christmas: Essex Archaeological News, Spring 1973

ESAH160: Christmas: Essex Archaeological News, Spring 1973: Essex Archaeological News, Spring 1973 (No 42) CHRISTMAS Christmastime led to some research into drinking habits, and in parti...

High Country History Group: High Country History Group: Journal No 50 (Decembe...

High Country History Group: High Country History Group: Journal No 50 (Decembe...: Celebrating with a silver balloon with '50' on its front cover, the High Country History Group has reached a significant landmar...

ESAH160: Biggest Storm Surge Since 1953

ESAH160: Biggest Storm Surge Since 1953: A low pressure system, high tides and onshore winds is the combination of weather events which cause coastal flooding.  This happened last...

High Country History Group: The Poor in Essex: Thursday 28 November 2013

High Country History Group: The Poor in Essex: Thursday 28 November 2013: 'The Poor in Essex: how society treated the poor between Elizabethan England and the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834' is the subject o...

ESAH160: ESAH Storeroom Clearance

ESAH160: ESAH Storeroom Clearance: Many new books which will be of interest to Essex people are now on offer by the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.  The organis...

High Country History Group: High Country History Group Book Sale: Thursday 28 ...

High Country History Group: High Country History Group Book Sale: Thursday 28 ...: The High Country History Group will be holding a book sale at its Christmas meeting on Thursday 28 November. (Meeting at 8pm, Toot Hill ...

ESAH160: Books 'Written Off' by Essex Society for Archaeolo...

ESAH160: Books 'Written Off' by Essex Society for Archaeolo...: Written off books Members of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History may have back numbers of its books free of charge.  The S...

ESAH160: Remembrance Sunday

ESAH160: Remembrance Sunday: War Memorial outside St Andrew's Church, North Weald Andrew Smith, blogger for the Essex Society for Archaeology and History writ...

ESAH160: Breaking News: Essex County Council in drastic mea...

ESAH160: Breaking News: Essex County Council in drastic mea...: Cressing Temple Site (taken April 2007) THE FUTURE OF CRESSING TEMPLE SITE: A "DEATH KNELL" Essex County Council have ...

Mountnessing: V2 Rocket

Received via Blogger enquiry: 10 October 2013

I lived in Mountnessing from 1939 until I married in 1962. I was sitting cleaning the mud off my shoes very close to where the V2 rocket came down, as were several children.  It was nice to read your account which brought back many memories.Brenda

Regards,

Littlejohns. nee Dawson

Replied: 11 October 2013

Thank you for your e mail.  As a child in the 1970s I remember going to Lodge Wood and being shown a crater caused by one of those unmanned weapons of war.

Regards

Andrew

Inscription on Chelmsford Cathedral

Received: 13 October 2013

Hello Andrew.  I am trying to get the correct wording for an inscription found on the exterior of the Nave of St. Mary the Virgin’s cathedral in Chelmsford.  Can you help?  Thank you.

Al DeFilippo

Replied: 13 October 2013

Hello Al

When you mean the exterior of the nave (which is the main body inside in the church flanked by aisles) are you referring to the outside of the C15 building?  Also, what do you think the wording might be?

I have a very old book on St Mary’s Church Chelmsford as it was before 1914 so might, at a long shot, be able to help.

But I need a bit more to go on please.

Regards

Andrew

Received: 13 October 2013

Thank you Andrew.  At British History Online they list it partially as the following: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=122620

Cathedral Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Plate p. 42) stands in the town. The walls are of flint-rubble intermixed with some blocks of freestone; the dressings are partly of limestone and partly of Reigate stone; the roofs are leaded. The old details are all of the 15th or early 16th century. The S. and W. arches of the North Chapel and the W. arch of the S. chapel are of c. 1400–1410, indicating that at that period the plan included at least a Chancel, North Chapel, North Aisle, and South Aisle. Probably c. 1430 the South Chapel was added or re-built. The South Porch was added in the second half of the century, and c. 1489 the N. and S. arcades were re-built and a clearstorey added to the nave. The exterior of the nave is said to have borne the following inscription: "Pray for the good estate of all the townsheps of Chelmysford that hath . . . good willers and procorers of helpers to this werke and . . . them that first began and longest shall continowe . . . in the yere of our Lorde I thousand IIII hundreth [LXXXV]IIII." 

Al DeFilippo

Replied: 20 October 2013

Dear Al

Thinking about your query a little more I remembered that the Nave collapsed in 1800 and was rebuilt.  So the inscription would no longer exist.  I happened to be at Chelmsford Cathedral last evening (at a concert of The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers) and looked up as I queued before the doors opened.  No inscription now exists it seems.  The Historic Monuments List – which you refer to – mentions the nave collapse later in the paragraph.

I attach an engraving of the damage caused at the time.

Regards

Andrew

High Country History Group: High Country History Group: Journal No. 49 (Septem...

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Ingatestone: Foreman Family

Received: 27 August 2013

Just spent a lovely half hour reading about Ingatestone and Shenfield on your website.

Stephen Foreman who was baptised at Shenfield and lived at Wood Barns, Ingatestone for many years, and died there in 1887 was the brother of my 3* great grandmother (who lived in Great Baddow). Stephen and his wife Eliza (Windley) were witnesses at my 3* great grandparents’ wedding. Great to put more than just the facts to the story. There appear to be many Foremans in the Essex and Suffolk area over the years, so plenty more searching to keep me busy.

Deirdre (Cardiff)

Replied: 27 August 2013

Thank you. I’ll add your comment to the blog.

Regards

Andrew

Blackmore: The Bull Planning Applications - Results

Campaigners against the alteration of The Bull Public House in Church Street, Blackmore have lost their plea to Brentwood Borough Council.  The Planning Authority has permitted the demolition of various "out-buildings" including the cellar, rendering the Listed Building inoperable as a Public House in the future many claim.  It remains to be seen whether the pub will reopen after a closure since 2010.  Other establishments are available is the clear message. The Bull had been an inn for over 400 years.

However, the crazy plan to erect two dwellings and a car barn facing The Green, using a large proportion of the (beer) garden has been given the thumbs down.  The application has been refused and is a victory to protect the heritage of the village conservation area.  Blackmore residents will remain vigilant against further applications. 

Book Review: Byrd, by Kerry McCarthy

Book Review: Byrd, by Kerry McCarthy (Oxford University Press, 2013)

An eagerly anticipated biography of Essex composer William Byrd (c.1540-1623) has just been published by Oxford University Press in their ‘The Master Musicians’ series – Byrd, by American musicologist Kerry McCarthy.   Naturally it brings together all the latest thinking on the composer’s enigmatic life as a Catholic living in Elizabethan England at a time of persecution. Recent discoveries of the composer include the books he owned – some being tirades against Papists – and his age: he was 58 or thereabouts in 1598, so did not die at the age of eighty as previously (i.e. before the 1990s) thought.

The book presents, for me, a fresh emphasis on Byrd’s religious beliefs suggesting a gradual sympathy and conversion to Catholicism.  He married a Catholic, and as an artist was appalled by the treatment of Jesuits such as Robert Campion so as to be moved to write a lament.  We read again of the protection he received from Queen Elizabeth I through her personal intervention into a case brought before Byrd of non-attendance at his parish church before his move to Stondon Massey, perhaps in January 1595.  But it was the Stondon Massey years, in semi-retirement from the Chapel Royal, where he advanced further his Catholic beliefs through the writing of Latin set text for the clandestine Catholic worship of his friends, for example the powerful Petre family of Ingatestone Hall.

Andrew Smith

Billericay: Aftermath of the Zeppelin

Photograph not published before.
After the Zeppelin: Snails Hall Farm, Billericay

On 24 September 1916 a German Zeppelin brought down in flames landed in a field of Snails Hall Farm, South Green, Billericay.  John Maryon told how thousands visited the site (see elsewhere on this blog).  This photograph has recently come to light and was kindly shown to me by a family member and scanned for publication.   It shows where the Zeppelin landed, the charred field boundary and the barn, in the background, where the German crew - all dead - were placed.  John Maryon, tenant farmer, is photographed with his wife.  

Ingatestone and The Great Essex Road (2): Fryerning Church Plate

Munt in Essex?

Received: 8 June 2013

Andrew

Hi

I have been researching an ancestor John Archer showing on 1851 and 1881 census as being born abt 1814 in Stanford Rivers and 1861 and 1871 census as being born in Munt Essex.   I have been unable to find a village called Munt are you able to tell me if it is known by any other name.  On the Family Search site i did find a John Archer born in 1814 in Theydon Mount and was wondering if this is the same village.   If you know anything of a village called Munt I would appreciate your help.

Thanks Deanna Clay

  

Replied:  8 June 2013

Dear Deanna

There isn't a village called Munt in Essex.  Stanford Rivers and Theydon Mount are neighbouring parishes.  Mountnessing is a few miles away.

You might wish to investigate further clues by looking at the Essex Place Names Project which can be accessed via  www.esah160.blogspot.co.uk

Regards

Received:  9 June 2013

Andrew

Thank you for your reply to my enquiry and the link you sent. I was > able to find Munt mentioned on there as a parish.  Munt appears to have been the original parish with these place names Munt (parish); Theyden Lessington; Theidon Parva. This obviously later became Theydon Mount. Thanks again for your help Deanna

Replied: 11 June 2013

Deanna

Many thanks for this.  I am a member of a History Group covering this village so this will be of interest to members.

Andrew

Ingatestone and The Great Essex Road (1): Contents and Illustrations listing

‘Ingatestone and The Great Essex Road’ by E E Wilde (with four chapters on the early history by Mrs Archibald Christy) was published in 1913.  Even though it is now a hundred years old, the book contains a wide range of items of historical interest, as a copy of the Contents and Illustrations pages show.

CONTENTS

PART I

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF INGATESTONE AND FRYERNING

BY MRS. ARCHIBALD CHRISTY

CHAPTER I. BEFORE THE SAXONS … 3

 II. THE MONTFICHETS … 10

 III. THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS AND OTHERS … 20

IV. GINGATTESTONE MONASTERY … 30

PART II. THE PARISHES

BY E. E. WILDE

CHAPTER I. THE CHURCHES AND WORSHIP • 49

 II. FRYERNING CHURCH . • 61

 III. INGATESTONE CHURCH • 71

 IV. THE FONTS . . • 84

 V. BELLS AND BELL-FOUNDING • 98

 VI. BRASSES AT FRYERNING . 107

 VII. FRYERNING RECTORS, 1195-1687 110

 VIII. RECTOR D'OYLEY AND HIS PARISHIONERS • 136

 IX. FRYERNING RECTORS, 1733-1913 . • 146

 X. INGATESTONE RECTORS, 1370-1913 . • 164

 XI. THE REGISTERS . . . • 193

 XII. INSCRIPTIONS ON MONUMENTS AND TOMBSTONES • 205

 XIII. OTHER CHURCHES . 221

 XIV. CHARITIES . 225

 XV. SIR WILLIAM PETRE 229

 XVI. THE PETRE FAMILY 237

 XVII. PETRE MONUMENTS 251

 XVIII. DANIEL SUTTON AND INOCULATION   260

 XIX. SUTTON, HIS HOUSES AND HIS FAMILY  271

 XX. HOUSES . . . 278

 XXI. INNS AND TRADE TOKENS  320

XXII. NATURE . 335

 XXIII. DIALECT WORDS  345

xii  CONTENTS

PART III. THE GREAT EAST ROAD

CHAPTER I.  EARLY DAYS . . 349

 II. TUDOR AND STUART DAYS   360

 III.  As OTHERS SEE US .  368

 IV. TWO QUEENS AND A PRIZE FIGHT  376

 V. PASSERS BY . 389

PART IV. PAST ANDI FUTURE

CHAPTER I. YESTERDAY . • 399

II. TO-MORROW . 406

APPENDIX

A. EXTRACTS FROM CHARTERS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS • 409

B. FRYERNING CHURCH RESTORATION ACCOUNTS • 412

C. LISTS OF RECTORS, PRIESTS, AND MINISTERS . • 413

D. EXTRACTS FROM RECTOR HAWDEN'S WILL. RECTOR RALPH'S BOOKS .. • 416

E. NOTES ON REGISTERS, BY THE REV. O. W. TANCOCK, AND EXTRACTS FROM INGATESTONE REGISTERS • 418

F. CHARITIES . 454

G. FRYERNING FIELD-NAMES • 463

H. FRYERNING VESTRY ACCOUNTS * . .468

I. EXTRACTS FROM FRYERNING MANOR COURT ROLLS * AND ARCHDEACON'S BOOKS 471

K. A. E. I. O. U. . 475

L. NAMES OF PARISHES AND HOUSES FOUND IN OLD MAPS, DEEDS, AND BOOKS 475

M. NOTES ON INGATESTONE CHURCH PLATE, BY THE REV. W. J. PRESSEY • 477

INDEX OF NAMES • 478

SUBJECT INDEX . • 487

* We only had access to these after the book was in the hands of the Printer. See Preface.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I am indebted to several friends for many of the pictures, and to them I tender my sincere thanks.

1. Sir William Petre, from Holbein's painting at Thorndon Hall. Donald Macbeth. Frontistiece

2. Seal of Barking Abbey   11

3. Ingatestone Church, showing entrance to Rood-loft E. E. W.   53

4. Fryerning Church . , Mr. E. H. N. Wilde. 61

5. Fryerning Church. Interior “ 65

6. Fryerning Church Plate" 70

7. Ingatestone Church . . E. E.W. 71

8. Ingatestone Church. Nave with hour-glass 74

9. Fryerning Font. Sun, Moon, and Stars . 84

10. “ Tree of Jesse .. 84

11. “ Vine . . 91

12. “ Cross and Crown . 91

13. Abbess Roding Font. The Eight Stars . 93

14. “ The Four Planets in Earth's shadow 93

15. “ Vine 93

16. Little Laver Font. The Seven Planets and Lilies 94

17. “ Vine and Rose and Hortus Inclusus 94

18.. Blackmore Church . . . . . . 103

19. Blackmore. Tomb of Thomas and Margaret Smyth (d. 1594) Miss G. A.Jones 103

20. Fryerning Church. Berners Brass . . Mr. Miller Christy 107

21. “,(Fragments)  107

22. Fryerning Register. Rector's and Churchwardens' signatures Mr. E.H.N. Wilde 193

23. lngatestone Register . . . . E. E. W. 203

24. Fryerning Churchyard, with Disney Tomb 205

25. lngatestone Church. Petre Monument . 205

26. Ginge Petre Hospital . . Mr. E. H. N. Wilde 225

27. Sir William Petre's Tomb in Ingatestone Church 229

28. lngatestone Hall . E. E. W. 236

29. Sir William Petre 251

30. Dame Anne Petre Mr. E. H. N. Wilde 252

31. Lord Petre's Monument in Ingatestone Church Vestry E. E. W .  253

32. Daniel Sutton (from a Pastel Drawing)  Arthur V Elsden  271

33. Fryerning Hall. Oak Room .  E.E.W.  279

34. “ Oak Bedroom . . “  280

35.  “ Linen-fold Panelling  Miss N M Wood  281

36.  “ Oak Moulding and Panelling  “ 281

37. Fryerning-Hall. From garden . Mrs Rankin   282

38. Burrins Pond, Furze Hall . .E.E.W.  282

39. Furze Halll . . . Mr E. H. N. Wilde   287

40. Dutch Fire-back. Ingatestone Grange    Mr J P T Foster  289

41. Huskards . . Mrs Rankin  290

42. Fryerning Parish Room . . “ 290

43. Thomas Hollis (from a painting made in by Rome by R. Wilson) .  .E.E.W.  293

 44. Thomas Brand Hollis (from a drawing by Pozzi)   Donald Macbeth  294

45. Ingatestone Hall   E.E.W.  299

46. “ Facing the Lime-Walk  “ 303

47. “ Entrance Gate . “  304

48. “ Old Barn “ 305

49. Old Mill Green House (from an old sand picture in the possession of Mr. Clift)  E.E.W.  308

50. St. Leonards .  Mr R Miller  313

51. Potter's Row Farm, Mill Green .   E.E.W.  317

52. Seventeenth-century Mantelpiece, with Eighteenth-century Hot-Air Stove, Eagle Inn .  “ 327

53. Eighteenth-century Stove, “  327

54. “  327

55. Ingatestone High Street (from an old print) Mr. E. H. N. Wilde 329

56. Ingatestone Tradesmen's Tokens (seventeenth century) Donald Macbeth  333

57. Hall Mark on Fryerning Paten Mr. E. H. N. Wilde   333

58. Great Oak and Fryeming Hall E. E. W.  336

59. Old Cottages, Beggar Hill  “  349

60. Fryerning Fair . . . Mrs. Rankin  362

61. Will Kempec and Tom Slye . Miss N. M. Wood   362

62. Ingatestone, from Churchyard E. E. W.  370

63. Ingatestone Street, with Bell Inn . . “ 370

64. Old Cottages in Ingatestone Street, formerly Poor House Miss D. Rock   399

65. Joseph Poole, clerk, and William Asher, sexton, Ingatestone (from old photograph) Fred Spalding & Sons, Chelmsford  400

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS   XV

MAPS AND PLANS

I. Map of Ingatestone and Fryerning 

2. Plan of Hide Hall in 1731 (from an old plan in the possession of Mr Norton Disney)  Mr. Donald Salter 299

3. Map of Eastern Counties River Basins (by kind permission of Dr. H R Mill and the British Rainfall Organization) . 339

4. Map of Afternoon Storms of June 24, 1897 Mr. Donald Salter  344

5. Ogilvy’s Road Map, c. 1722 . . . . E. E. W. 368

6. Map of Essex, by Thomas Kitchen (from England illustrated, 1764)    at end.

ESAH160: Some Interesting Essex Brasses (2): Transactions n...

ESAH160: Some Interesting Essex Brasses (2): Transactions n...: The second part of publication of this article from 1907.  Brasses covered in this part include East Horndon, Fryerning, Grays Thurrock, G...

ESAH160: Old Chigwell Wills: Transactions n.s. Volume 10 Pa...

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High Country History Group: High Country History Group: Journal No. 48 (June 2...

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Essex Churches: Writtle

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Essex Churches: Willingale

Essex Churches: Willingale: Willingale is another of those extraordinary villages that has two churches just yards from each other, one St Andrew and All Saints, under...

Essex Churches: Widford

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Essex Churches: Theydon Mount

Essex Churches: Theydon Mount: St Michael is locked with no keyholder listed. The church really does sit on a mount above the Roding valley and has commanding views. It is...

Essex Churches: Stapleford Tawney

Essex Churches: Stapleford Tawney: In all honesty I can bring myself to say anything complimentary about St Mary and when I look at the nave picture I actually think oh no, so...

ESAH160: Smallpox: Daniel Sutton and Ingatestone

ESAH160: Smallpox: Daniel Sutton and Ingatestone: Smallpox inoculation is one of the topics covered in 'The Local Historian' (May 2013, Volume 43 No. 2).  The author, Mary South, m...

Blackmore: Cresset Stone

Cresset Stone in Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore

Essex Review

Extract from No. 185 Volume XLVII (January 1938)

A Cresset Stone at Blackmore

By John Salmon, B.A.

Some years ago I noticed a cresset stone among several fragments (including parts of the monument to Thomas Smyth, 1594) lying loose in the tower of Blackmore Church.  More recently I took the opportunity of revisiting the church while staying with friends near by, on which occasion I photographed and took some detailed notes of this particular stone.  That it is a cresset stone no one who is familiar with these objects will, I think, deny, more especially since Blackmore was a monastic church.  A cresset stone has several cup-shaped hollows or recesses varying in number from 5 to 12.  These recesses were filled with oil in which was placed a floating wick.  Cresset stones were generally used in monastic houses.  Blackmore was a house of Austin Canons founded in the middle of the 12^th century.  The present church was always parochial and so was preserved at its Dissolution.  Of the eastern, monastic half of the church, nothing remains, the gardens of Jericho covering the site.  One of the commonest uses of cresset stones was to light the night stairs down which the monks came from the dormitory to the church for the night offices.  The ‘Rites of Durham’ mention three cresset stones, one in the church, two in the dormitory.

As far as I am aware the Blackmore specimen is the only cresset stone in Essex, though other examples are to be found elsewhere.  I recently noticed several in the museum adjoining the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey at York.  At Westow in the East Riding of Yorkshire is perhaps the most interesting cresset stone in England.  On its face are 12 of the usual cup-shaped hollows, but on the back is carved a well preserved and most interesting Crucifixion (of early, possible Saxon, date) with the attendant figures of the Virgin and St. John, also (at the top) the hand of God the Father and the Dove, presumably to complete the three persons of the Trinity.  This stone may have come from Kirkham Priory, only two miles distant.

To return to the Blackmore example.  As will be seen from the illustration the stone is square in shape with five recesses, one at each corner and a fifth in the centre.  The stone has been broken at two corners thus mutilating two of the recesses.  These recesses are just over three inches in diameter, the stone itself being some 13 inches in width.  The Blackmore cresset stone is more carefully worked than other examples.  Between each of the corner recesses is a slight carving in relief and the underside of each recess is capital shaped, all, however, uniting in one circular shaped base.

The term cresset was originally used to describe a metal cup filled with charcoal or other material for burning.  The was either attached to a pole and so used as a kind of portable lantern or it was placed in a fixed iron frame.  A cresset of the latter type was often placed in a framework on top of a church tower so as to guide travellers after nightfall.  A modern reproduction of such a beacon may be seen on the tower of Monken Hadley church in Middlesex.  A similar beacon with cresset cup is carved on the south porch of Sutton Courtney church in Berkshire, and four are also engraved on an early 16^th century brass formerly in Netley Abbey Church, Hampshire, but now in private possession.  A fire beacon was a badge of the Compton family, two members of which this brass commemorates. 

Essex Churches: Stanford Rivers

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Essex Churches: Roxwell

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Essex Churches: Navestock

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Essex Plan in the 1950s

Essex Review

Extract from No 245 Volume LXII (January 1953)

The Plan for Essex

By Hervey Benham

“After three years’ work by the County Planning Advisor, Mr F Longstreth Thompson, and his staff … the County Plan has in the past three months been exhibited at Walthamstow, Ilford, Romford, Rayleigh, and, Colchester.  During the coming year a public inquiry will be held on it, and thereafter its provisions will control the next twenty years’ development within the county.

“The main feature of general county interest is, of course, the creation of the two new towns in Harlow and Basildon, each of which will have a population of 80,000.

“The Plan also shows these expansions of existing towns for purposes of accommodating what is picturesquely termed the ‘London overspill’:  Aveley, Grays, Tilbury, from 63,300 to 82,000; Benfleet from 19,570 to 25,000; Billericay from 7,100 to 15,000; Braintree from 15,200 to 21,000; Brentwood from 26,200 to 38,000; Chelmsford from 47,000 to 68,000; Colchester from 53,000 to 70,000; Epping from 5,900 to 8,900; Rayleigh from 9,300 to 14,000; Rochford from 9,300 to 15,000; Stanford-le-Hope from 8,600 to 20,000; Wickford from 6,100 to 14,000, and Witham from 6,200 to 21,000.

“It is certain that the National Farmers’ Union will be a principal objector … .

“Road improvements naturally bulk large in the Plan. The most important project is for a new ring road (the North Orbital) running from Hoddesdon north of Theydon Bois, and south of Brentwood to link up with the proposed Dartford Tunnel, and connecting with a new road into London at Noaks Hill, west of Brentwood.  Two existing main roads are drastically replanned, the London-Norwich-Newmarket (A11) over most of its length along the Essex-Hertfordshire boundary, and the London-Norwich (A12) by the provision of by-passes at Brentwood, Ingatestone, Hatfield Peverel, Witham, Kelvedon, Copford, Stanway, and Stratford St Mary.  Long-term rail electrification is shown to Colchester and Bishop’s Stortford.  The latter is likely to be first served, thanks to Harlow.

“Civil aerodromes are conspicuous by their absence … .”

Navestock: James Ford

Essex Review

Extract from No. 198 Volume L (April 1941)

James Ford, A Forgotten Essex Antiquity (1779-1850)

By the Rev G Montagu Benton, F.S.A.

The Rev John Ford, B.D., a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and for the last twenty years of his life vicar of Navestock, where he was succeeded by the Rev William Stubbs, B.A., afterwards Bishop of Oxford and the famous historian, appears to have received scant recognition in Essex.  the long inscription on his monument in Navestock church, which has been printed in the Essex Review (iv. 229), records that he founded and endowed the Professorship of English History in the University of Oxford, and in Trinity College, four studentships, one student thereof to be elected from Brentwood Grammar School.  But his researches into local history, of which he was a life-long student, seem to have been overlooked by Essex antiquaries, this, no doubt, being due to the fact that his work relates to Suffolk, where, in consequence, he is better known.  An excellent account of him appeared under the heading ‘Worthies of Ipswich – No 33’ in the East Anglian Daily Times of 22 June, 1935, and it is from this source that the following information has for the most part been derived.

Before coming to Essex, Ford was for 22 years perpetual curate of St Lawrence’s Church, Ipswich.  During this period he compiled The Suffolk Garland (1818); he was also the author of The Devout Communicant (1815), A Century of Christian Prayers of Faith, Hope and Charity, with Morning and Evening Devotion (1817, second edition 1824), and the privately printed Memoir of Thomas Green, Esq., of Ipswich, with a Critique on his Writings and an Account of his Family and Connections (Ipswich, 1825).  He was at the same time investigating, with tireless energy, the history of the district.  Two MS. volumes, in his handwriting, dealing with Ipswich, and another, with Woodbridge, are now in the Reference Department of the Ipswich Public Library.  They were acquired, we are told, with others, by W S Fitch, after Ford’s death.  Fitch declared: ‘I am bewildered and amazed at it and his work – all in Ford’s writing.  Plenty of work for the binder, the whole will make 20 volumes … Ford must have worked hard at the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries.’  Various contributions under his initials are to be found in The Gentleman’s Magazine, of which his friend, John Mitford, was editor from 1834 to 1850.

On 28 October, 1830, Ford was presented by the college to the living at Navestock.  He was a bachelor, aged 51, but on leaving Ipswich in the following month, he married, at St George’s Church, Bloomsbury, Letitia Jermyn, a spinster some ten years his junior.  From this time onwards it was natural that his interests should be mainly centred in the county of Essex.  According to the writer of the article previously referred to, he projected the Morant Society, the aim of which was to continue to the work of the historian of Essex, while he himself toiled assiduously at the history of the hundred (Ongar) in which he lived.  It is further stated that his Essex collections are preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Oxford.  This led me to communicate a few years ago with the Librarian, who, in reply to my enquiry, informed me that Ford’s Collectanea relate almost entirely to persons and matters connected with the history of Trinity College; but that there is also in the Library some material collected by him for the history of the parish of Ongar.  From the evidence adduced it seems likely that these papers deal with several parishes in the hundred of Ongar; for it is certain that his own parish of Navestock would have engaged Ford’s attention.  But it is, of course, possible that some of his Essex manuscripts are to be found elsewhere.  The matter requires further investigation.

Mrs Ford, who died in 1848, was also a woman of some note.  Her monumental inscription records that she was ‘the youngest daughter of George Jermyn, Gent., of the Town of Ipswich.’  Jermyn, who was a well-known local bookseller, having died, she was at the time of her marriage stepdaughter of John Raw – Ford’s publisher.  Thus Mrs Ford had certain literary associations; she was, moreover, the author of at least one small book, namely, The Butterfly Collector’s Vade-Mecum.

High Country History Group Launches New Blog

The High Country History Group, covering the small Essex parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount, has its own dedicated blog. 

Blackmore Area Local History will be handing over coverage to this dedicated website.  Andrew Smith is the new Secretary and author of the site.

Visit: www.highcountryhistorygroup.blogspot.co.uk

ESAH160: High Country History Group

ESAH160: High Country History Group: The High Country History Group, covering the small parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount has a new...

High Country History Group: Welcome to the High Country History Group

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ESAH160: Essex Monastic Inventories. Transactions n.s. Volu...

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High Country History Group: Coming soon ...

High Country History Group: Coming soon ...: The blog of the High Country History Group: covering Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount in Essex, England. W...

Essex Place Names

Essex Review

Extract from No. 226  Volume LVII (April 1948)

Essex Place Names

By Margaret Seals

Written in reply to Theodora Roscoe’s Buckinghamshire Place Names.

Come, travel through our Essex land

In mighty Caesar’s train,

And read in history’s living page

Of Saxon, Norman, Dane.

For Romans lived at Fingringhoe,

Near Colchester’s great camp,

And many a little village church

Still bears the Norman stamp.

There’s Margaret Roding, Stow Maries,

Mountnessing and Marks Tey,

Great Baddow, Foxearth, Colne Engaine,

And Layer-de-la-Haye.

See Shelley, Norton Mandeville,

The Lavers, Netteswell –

The ancient Cluniac Priory

That stands at Prittlewell.

There’s Tollesbury with its oysters

And Tolleshunt with its Knight;

Matching’s Marriage Feast Room,

The Notleys – Black and White.

Recall that Saxon children played

In Saffron Walden’s lanes,

And Maldon’s hero Brihtnoth, fell

In victory o’er the Danes.

Pass through our fields aglow with grain –

Or seek the North Sea’s tide,

Our place names, with our ancient bells

Sweet music will provide.

Willingale Community Archive Project

Willingale Community Archive Project celebrates three years' work with an open afternoon at the Village Hall.  Sunday 9 June, 2.00 to 5.00pm

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Essex Churches: Ingatestone

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Essex Churches: Highwood

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Blackmore: Smyth Family Connections

Memorial to Thomas Smyth before repair

Received: 22 May 2013

Sir,

Thomas Smith is my 10th great grandfather. Are there any photographs of the tomb and history in the Church records that you could share?

Were any of the Smiths actual blacksmiths?

"The monument of Thomas Smith (1594) and his wife Margaret is in the south aisle of the east end of the Parish Church of St. Laurence at Blackmore. It is an altar tomb of modern brick and cement with two enriched alabaster pilasters, and upon it repose recumbent effigies of a man in amour and a woman in ruff and close dress, all of the alabaster repaired with plaster. In the bell chamber are numerous fragments of the tomb including parts of the kneeling figures of four sons and two daughters."

HAPPY TRAILS,

WILL FRARY

Replied: 25 May 2013

Dear Will

The Smyth family were very important in Blackmore during the 15^th, 16^th and early-17^th century, and have been the subject of much correspondence over the years, all of which can be found on http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Smyth%20family.

The website has much more information. Go to http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/blackmore.html

You will be pleased to know that the memorial to Thomas Smyth in the Priory Church of St Laurence was restored in the 1960s and the fragments of kneeling figures etc put back in their rightful place.

These Smyths weren’t blacksmiths when they were in Blackmore.

I’ll post your note onto the blog to add to the storyline.

Regards

Andrew

Fyfield: Water Mill

St Nicholas Church,
Fyfield

Received: 15 May 2013

Hello.

I am researching my family history, and have found that one of my ancestors was recorded as being a miller and living in Fyfield on the 1841 census.

I am hoping that you may have records of the residents/millers at the Fyfield water and wind mills, covering the first half of the 1800s.

My ancestors name was William Emson and his wife was Louisa.

Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.

Regards.

Julian Lloyd.

Replied: 25 May 2013

Hello Julian

I don’t have any information, but will publish this on www.blackmorehistory.blogspot.co.uk

Regards

Andrew

Doddinghurst: A New War Memorial Planned

Doddinghurst War Memorial Tablet
inside All Saints Church

Villagers in Doddinghurst are raising money to erect a nine feet high War Memorial at All Saints Church next to the Priest’s House.  The cost will be £12,000.  For more on the story go to http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Villagers-Doddinghurst-want-war-memorial/story-18990899-detail/story.html#axzz2U33Z3UPH  .  it will act to supplement the Tablet inside All Saint’s Church commemorating those who died during the First World War.

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Essex Churches: Chelmsford, Essex p2

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Essex Churches: Chelmsford, Essex p1

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Essex Churches: Chelmsford, Essex

Essex Churches: Chelmsford, Essex: No. On all levels and in all regards. HOLY TRINITY, Trinity Road, Springfield. Neo-Norman by J. Adie Repton, 1843. The date corresponds to ...

Essex Churches: Buttsbury, Essex

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Essex Churches: Bobbingworth, Essex

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Essex Churches: Billericay, Essex

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Essex Churches: Berners Roding, Essex

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Essex Churches: Aythorpe Roding, Essex

Essex Churches: Aythorpe Roding, Essex: St Mary the Virgin is locked with no hint of a keyholder so I can't comment on the interior but the exterior is in the style of a lot o...

Essex Churches: Stondon Massey, Essex

Essex Churches: Stondon Massey, Essex: SS Peter & Paul professes to be normally open but if it is closed provides a number you can call to arrange an appointment to view - not...

Essex Churches: Blackmore, Essex

Essex Churches: Blackmore, Essex: The Priory Church of St Lawrence is locked with no keyholders listed - I actually think this a criminal act and utterly outrageous. I'l...

ESAH160: Pleshey Castle

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ESAH160: Stondon Massey and Its Chapelry: Transactions n.s....

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Mountnessing: Windmill

Essex Review

Extract from No. 185 Volume XLVII (January 1938)

Mountnessing Mill

By Edward S Knights

On the bluff of a hill next to the great high road,

Stands the ancient mill with sails now still,

Lonely and quiet since the last heavy load

Went lumbering down the hill.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.

Weather worn timbers of grey lichened base.

Post and Roundhouse, Windshaft and Sails,

Time in passing has marked the place,

And the wind drives past and wails.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.

Old creaking timbers and a gaping side,

Where doorless hinges catch the nettle tops,

And loosened boards the winds deride,

Which still know golden crops.

Song of the reaper and Harvest Home,

Mill and Harvest Lord,

Working together on Essex loam,

But time has reaped and stored.

High Ongar: Demolition of Farm Buildings at Nine Ashes Farm

Demolition of these farm buildings finished this week:
former dairy farm acquired for development
(Photographed 29 September 2011)