Extract from ‘Notes For A Parish History’ (ERO T/P 188/3) written by Revd. E. H. L Reeve of Stondon Massey (Essex).
4th August 1918
This day, the fourth Anniversary of the entrance of Great Britain into the War has been marked by special Services of Prayer and Thanksgiving.
At Stondon we had a good congregation at Church in the Morning, and in the evening about 100 persons attended an Open-Air Service in a field opposite Soames’ Farm House.
Monday, 4 August 2008
Sunday, 3 August 2008
BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - Ninety Years On. Series Preview
Over the next three months, Blackmore Area Local History will be devoting space to the events of World War One, not from a military history perspective of battles and campaigns but giving, hopefully, a local insight to the effects of the war on the civilian population of Blackmore, Stondon Massey and the surrounding district.
The First World War began on 4th August 1914 and ended on 11th November 1918, so it seems appropriate to begin ninety years ago on its fourth anniversary and end on the date when hostilities ceased.
I will be posting a series of entries recorded in Revd. Edward Reeve’s ‘Notes For A Parish History’. Reeve was Rector of Stondon Massey from 1893 to 1935 and enthusiastic parish historian. On spare evenings, away from clergy duties, he wrote these notes in his study. (Some of this writing may be found in the book ‘Revd. E H L Reeve: Chronicler of the Great War’, currently available).
Every Friday evening, when the Reverend is not found in the study, I will post an entry. There will be notes on the Zeppelin air raids and attacks on London in Gotha aeroplanes.
Links to other sites will be given and some refreshed to give, as far as possible, comprehensive coverage. Also invited are Readers’ Comments and stories for inclusion. Contact me, either through the E mail link here or on the main website: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk
Above all, the site will be remembering those who served and those who gave their lives in Blackmore and Stondon Massey, whose names are carved on local war memorials.
“In the going down of the sun and in the morning: We will remember them”.
The First World War began on 4th August 1914 and ended on 11th November 1918, so it seems appropriate to begin ninety years ago on its fourth anniversary and end on the date when hostilities ceased.
I will be posting a series of entries recorded in Revd. Edward Reeve’s ‘Notes For A Parish History’. Reeve was Rector of Stondon Massey from 1893 to 1935 and enthusiastic parish historian. On spare evenings, away from clergy duties, he wrote these notes in his study. (Some of this writing may be found in the book ‘Revd. E H L Reeve: Chronicler of the Great War’, currently available).
Every Friday evening, when the Reverend is not found in the study, I will post an entry. There will be notes on the Zeppelin air raids and attacks on London in Gotha aeroplanes.
Links to other sites will be given and some refreshed to give, as far as possible, comprehensive coverage. Also invited are Readers’ Comments and stories for inclusion. Contact me, either through the E mail link here or on the main website: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk
Above all, the site will be remembering those who served and those who gave their lives in Blackmore and Stondon Massey, whose names are carved on local war memorials.
“In the going down of the sun and in the morning: We will remember them”.
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Vaughan Williams and Essex
Fifty years ago, on 26th August 1958, the famous British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams died. Whilst he never lived in Essex we can claim that this locality had a major influence on his musical output.
Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. He studied at the Royal College of Music at a time when English music was popular in “the organ loft and the festival platform rather than the stage” [Day, p8]. His tutor Charles Stanford had failed at opera whilst Arthur Sullivan was succeeding at operetta, but then this was not considered serious music.
Looking for a musical style, Vaughan Williams became interested in folk song. The Folk Song Society had been formed in 1898 but was struggling despite Stanford being its Vice President. Cecil Sharp declared in 1904 that it was necessary to “get out into the field and listen to what the country folk had to sing” [Day, p18] rather than endlessly discuss the merits on folk song in London.
Vaughan Williams heartily agreed with Sharp’s views and had already been working separately from the Society, giving lectures on folk music across England and at the Montpelier House School for Girls (later renamed Brentwood County High School) in Brentwood (Essex). He described folk music in 1902 as “real music”. “What we need in England, is real music, even if it be only a music-hall song. Provided it possess real feeling and real life, it will be worth all the off scourings of the classics in the world” [Heffer, p22].
Vaughan Williams’ lectures at Brentwood had inspired one of the pupils, Georgina Heatley. After the final lecture she handed him a piece of paper with songs sung by one of the housemaids at her home, which was the Rectory at Ingrave. Georgina suggested that much folk song was rendered, but was unrecorded. With it came an invitation from her father to attend a Parish Tea, which he accepted. At the tea was a 75 year old labourer (a shepherd) by the name of Charles Potipher, dressed in his Sunday best, and probably not comfortable with attending such functions above his station in life at the Rectory. In any case “the old songs he knew were about young love and sex, taboo subjects in the oppressive Victorian atmosphere of the rectory” [Kent, p161]. He was reluctant to sing to Vaughan Williams at tea but promised that if the composer visited his cottage the following day he would sing for him.
So it was that on 4th December 1903 that VW collected – that is noting down the words and tunes – his first folk song, ‘Bushes and Briars’, from the voice of Charles Potipher. This visit to a humble labourer’s cottage ignited the composer’s passion for folk song. In 1904, Vaughan Williams came on a 10-day cycling tour of Ingrave, Willingale, Little Burstead, East Horndon and Billericay collecting further examples. In January 1905 he collected songs from around the Kings Lynn district of Norfolk and whilst on holiday in Sussex and Yorkshire later that year. In 1906 he visited Samuel Childs at the Bell, Willingale, noting down ‘Sweet Primroses’. Vaughan Williams earnestly believed that if these songs were not noted down they might be lost forever. Vaughan Williams became one of the greatest folk song collectors of the early twentieth century. It inspired the writing of his three ‘Norfolk Rhapsodies’ and ‘In the Fen Country’.
Ralph Vaughan Williams jotted the folk songs using pencil and paper. He later made some wax cylinder recordings. One singer was Mrs Humphries, also of Ingrave, who recorded ‘Bushes and Briars’. She had heard her father and grand-father sing this while a youngster living at Blackmore (Essex).
While this mammoth project was in its early stages, Percy Dreamer approached Vaughan Williams to edit a new hymn book. His name had been recommended by Cecil Sharp and Canon Scott Holland. Intended to be a short task it absorbed VW who spent £250 out of his own pocket and took two years. The result was the ‘English Hymnal’ published in 1906. Folk song tunes were included as musical accompaniment to sacred words: ‘Monks Gate’ was a tune Vaughan Williams had collected from a place near Horsham. He used it in the setting of the famous ‘To Be A Pilgrim’.
The English Hymnal draws on a wide range of musical styles but as he wrote in the Preface, “where there is congregational singing it is important that familiar melodies should be employed”. Tunes were written based on folk songs collected: ‘I think when I read the story of old’ was set to a tune named ‘East Horndon’; ‘There’s a friend for little children’ to the tune ‘Ingrave’ and, the most familiar of the three still sung today, ‘It is a thing most wonderful’ set to a tune ‘Herongate’.
“On 4th August 1914 war was declared on Germany, and Vaughan Williams, like the heroes in many of the folk songs he loved so much, felt his duty to enlist as a soldier” [Day, p29].
Charles Potipher died in 1909 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Ingrave churchyard. In early 2001, Brentwood Borough Council decided to commemorate him in the naming of a road on the then new Clements Park estate – Potipher Way. Other roads were named in remembrance of the Vaughan Williams connection, for example, Vaughan Williams Way, Pastoral Way (after his third symphony).
Three years before his death, in 1955, Vaughan Williams revisited Brentwood and recalled his first visit to the town which had had such a profound effect on his music.
In 2003, to mark the centenary of Vaughan Williams’ visit to Ingrave, the Essex Record Office mounted an excellent exhibition entitled ‘That precious legacy’ commemorating the composer and folk singing. The exhibition led to the publication of a book by Sue Cubbins, sound archivist, and is highly recommended for further reading.
Bibliography
The English Hymnal (1906)
Cubbins, Sue. That Precious Legacy. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Essex Folksong (Essex Record Office, 2006)
Day, James. Vaughan Williams (Dent & Sons, London, 1972)
Heffer, Simon. Vaughan Williams (Phoenix, 2000)
Kent, Sylvia. Folklore In Essex (Tempus, 2005)
Brentwood Gazette. 4 January 2001. 8 August 2003.
Other sources
BBC Radio 3 broadcast Twenty Minutes, a Proms Interval programme, entitled ‘Fantasia on a Theme: Bushes and Briars’ on 24 July 2008. The Promenade Concerts featured a whole day devoted to Folk Music, reflecting the musical legacy begun by Vaughan Williams, culminating in sets by Bella Hardy, Martin Simpson and 11-piece band, Bellowhead. Bella Hardy sang a Christmas carol – ‘Down In Yon Forest’ - collected in her native Derbyshire (Castleton) by RVW.
Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. He studied at the Royal College of Music at a time when English music was popular in “the organ loft and the festival platform rather than the stage” [Day, p8]. His tutor Charles Stanford had failed at opera whilst Arthur Sullivan was succeeding at operetta, but then this was not considered serious music.
Looking for a musical style, Vaughan Williams became interested in folk song. The Folk Song Society had been formed in 1898 but was struggling despite Stanford being its Vice President. Cecil Sharp declared in 1904 that it was necessary to “get out into the field and listen to what the country folk had to sing” [Day, p18] rather than endlessly discuss the merits on folk song in London.
Vaughan Williams heartily agreed with Sharp’s views and had already been working separately from the Society, giving lectures on folk music across England and at the Montpelier House School for Girls (later renamed Brentwood County High School) in Brentwood (Essex). He described folk music in 1902 as “real music”. “What we need in England, is real music, even if it be only a music-hall song. Provided it possess real feeling and real life, it will be worth all the off scourings of the classics in the world” [Heffer, p22].
Vaughan Williams’ lectures at Brentwood had inspired one of the pupils, Georgina Heatley. After the final lecture she handed him a piece of paper with songs sung by one of the housemaids at her home, which was the Rectory at Ingrave. Georgina suggested that much folk song was rendered, but was unrecorded. With it came an invitation from her father to attend a Parish Tea, which he accepted. At the tea was a 75 year old labourer (a shepherd) by the name of Charles Potipher, dressed in his Sunday best, and probably not comfortable with attending such functions above his station in life at the Rectory. In any case “the old songs he knew were about young love and sex, taboo subjects in the oppressive Victorian atmosphere of the rectory” [Kent, p161]. He was reluctant to sing to Vaughan Williams at tea but promised that if the composer visited his cottage the following day he would sing for him.
So it was that on 4th December 1903 that VW collected – that is noting down the words and tunes – his first folk song, ‘Bushes and Briars’, from the voice of Charles Potipher. This visit to a humble labourer’s cottage ignited the composer’s passion for folk song. In 1904, Vaughan Williams came on a 10-day cycling tour of Ingrave, Willingale, Little Burstead, East Horndon and Billericay collecting further examples. In January 1905 he collected songs from around the Kings Lynn district of Norfolk and whilst on holiday in Sussex and Yorkshire later that year. In 1906 he visited Samuel Childs at the Bell, Willingale, noting down ‘Sweet Primroses’. Vaughan Williams earnestly believed that if these songs were not noted down they might be lost forever. Vaughan Williams became one of the greatest folk song collectors of the early twentieth century. It inspired the writing of his three ‘Norfolk Rhapsodies’ and ‘In the Fen Country’.
Ralph Vaughan Williams jotted the folk songs using pencil and paper. He later made some wax cylinder recordings. One singer was Mrs Humphries, also of Ingrave, who recorded ‘Bushes and Briars’. She had heard her father and grand-father sing this while a youngster living at Blackmore (Essex).
While this mammoth project was in its early stages, Percy Dreamer approached Vaughan Williams to edit a new hymn book. His name had been recommended by Cecil Sharp and Canon Scott Holland. Intended to be a short task it absorbed VW who spent £250 out of his own pocket and took two years. The result was the ‘English Hymnal’ published in 1906. Folk song tunes were included as musical accompaniment to sacred words: ‘Monks Gate’ was a tune Vaughan Williams had collected from a place near Horsham. He used it in the setting of the famous ‘To Be A Pilgrim’.
The English Hymnal draws on a wide range of musical styles but as he wrote in the Preface, “where there is congregational singing it is important that familiar melodies should be employed”. Tunes were written based on folk songs collected: ‘I think when I read the story of old’ was set to a tune named ‘East Horndon’; ‘There’s a friend for little children’ to the tune ‘Ingrave’ and, the most familiar of the three still sung today, ‘It is a thing most wonderful’ set to a tune ‘Herongate’.
“On 4th August 1914 war was declared on Germany, and Vaughan Williams, like the heroes in many of the folk songs he loved so much, felt his duty to enlist as a soldier” [Day, p29].
Charles Potipher died in 1909 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Ingrave churchyard. In early 2001, Brentwood Borough Council decided to commemorate him in the naming of a road on the then new Clements Park estate – Potipher Way. Other roads were named in remembrance of the Vaughan Williams connection, for example, Vaughan Williams Way, Pastoral Way (after his third symphony).
Three years before his death, in 1955, Vaughan Williams revisited Brentwood and recalled his first visit to the town which had had such a profound effect on his music.
In 2003, to mark the centenary of Vaughan Williams’ visit to Ingrave, the Essex Record Office mounted an excellent exhibition entitled ‘That precious legacy’ commemorating the composer and folk singing. The exhibition led to the publication of a book by Sue Cubbins, sound archivist, and is highly recommended for further reading.
Bibliography
The English Hymnal (1906)
Cubbins, Sue. That Precious Legacy. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Essex Folksong (Essex Record Office, 2006)
Day, James. Vaughan Williams (Dent & Sons, London, 1972)
Heffer, Simon. Vaughan Williams (Phoenix, 2000)
Kent, Sylvia. Folklore In Essex (Tempus, 2005)
Brentwood Gazette. 4 January 2001. 8 August 2003.
Other sources
BBC Radio 3 broadcast Twenty Minutes, a Proms Interval programme, entitled ‘Fantasia on a Theme: Bushes and Briars’ on 24 July 2008. The Promenade Concerts featured a whole day devoted to Folk Music, reflecting the musical legacy begun by Vaughan Williams, culminating in sets by Bella Hardy, Martin Simpson and 11-piece band, Bellowhead. Bella Hardy sang a Christmas carol – ‘Down In Yon Forest’ - collected in her native Derbyshire (Castleton) by RVW.
Friday, 1 August 2008
BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - August 2008
Welcome to this month’s round-up of local history and heritage in and around Blackmore.
Who Do You Think You Are?
The BBC magazine of the same name (Issue 12) tells me that ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ series 5 begins on Wednesday 13 August, 9pm, BBC One. Celebrities featured are Patsy Kensit (13 August), Boris Johnson (20 August), Jerry Springer (27 August), Esther Rantzen (3 September), David Suchet (10 September), Ainsley Harriott (17 September), Jodie Kidd (24 September) and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (1 October).
There are always a number of interesting articles in the magazine. This time there is a look at old post boxes. Coming soon to this blog – after our commemoration of the First World War – I will be on the look-out for Victorian pillar boxes (and lamp boxes) in the Blackmore Local Area. Incidentally, in 1512, Henry VIII appointed Sir Brian Tuke as Master of the Posts. Tuke has a local link in that he acquired land around the Blackmore (Essex) district around the time of the Dissolution.
Family History – Blackmore
Blackmore Area Local History is here to encourage folks to look further into local, family and social history so I was interested to learn from the Daily Mail how Roy Blackmore has traced his family back to medieval England and the time of William The Conqueror. He began researching his family tree in 1975, long before the days of Internet. Like some of my relatives, genealogy then was poring over old records and footslogging around churchyards.
“Once Roy had assembled what family historians call the 'bones' of the tree - names and dates of births, deaths and marriages - he set about giving them flesh. He tracked the Blackmore surname to a village in Essex of the same name.
'In the tenth century, monks spoke of the Blackmores as being yeoman farmers. They were Saxons, fair-skinned people from northern Germany, who came over in the fifth century after the Romans had left. The original spelling was Blachmer.'”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040009/Meet-family-How-eccentric-spent-30-years-tracing-family-tree--hes-related-William-Conqueror.html
Ingatestone United Reformed Church bi-centenary
The history of an Independent Chapel in Ingatestone, which later became part of the Congregational Union and more recently Ingatestone United Reformed Church, is being researched by an amateur local historian. Chris Harvey, a former resident in the village, aims to publish a book two hundred years after the Church’s founding in 2012. Chris writes on Great Baddow online (link below): “I am particularly interested in people with memories and/or photographs of the 1970s or earlier, for example uniformed organisations such as Boys Brigade or Girls Brigade. I am already in touch with local church members and have access to church records, and also those in the Essex Records Office dating back to the 19th century, but any other information from anyone with knowledge of that church in the last century would be appreciated.”
http://www.greatbaddowonline.co.uk/300706newsletters/020708july2008newsletter/view?searchterm=ingatestone
Folklore In Essex
I have just finished reading a book entitled ‘Folklore in Essex’ by Sylvia Kent. It is a broad sweep of life and tradition in Essex and has much coverage of the local area, including the Wheat Whoppers Ball at Blackmore, our village’s link with Henry VIII and William Byrd of Stondon Massey to name but three. There is also a chapter on Essex’s musical tradition: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ visits to Ingrave, Brentwood and other places in Essex in the pursuit of folk song collecting. You can read more about RVW this month on this blog. Coincidentally the day I finished reading this interesting book, Sylvia Kent announced on her blog a reprint of the work. Sylvia Kent is a local photographer and freelance writer.
http://sylviakent.blogspot.com/2008/07/folklore-of-essex-from-history-press.html
Ingatestone Hall is Wicked
A history of Ingatestone Hall, home of the Petre family for over 500 years, has appeared on Wikipedia. Follow this link: http://www.powerset.com/explore/semhtml/Ingatestone_Hall
Brentwood and District Historical Society visit Blackmore & Stondon churches
On 12 June 2008, as part of their summer programme, a local history group visited two of our local churches. Follow this link to see The Society’s web entry: http://www.essexinfo.net/brentwoodhistorical/photos/album?album_id=996810
Blackmore Area Local History
Blackmore Area Local History will be launching a website very shortly – http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/. Pages on the site will include an index of Blackmore people, a transcript of the 1910 Electoral Register for Blackmore (Essex) and a copy of the booklet I wrote in 2005 entitled ‘Hatched, Matched and Despatched’, which is a brief survey of Blackmore’s Baptism, Marriage and Burial registers. This blog will not be closed and will continue alongside the main website. As mentioned, over the next three months the blog will be dedicated to local events surrounding the First World War (the Great War as it was then known), it being 90 years since the end of hostilities in 1918.
Who Do You Think You Are?
The BBC magazine of the same name (Issue 12) tells me that ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ series 5 begins on Wednesday 13 August, 9pm, BBC One. Celebrities featured are Patsy Kensit (13 August), Boris Johnson (20 August), Jerry Springer (27 August), Esther Rantzen (3 September), David Suchet (10 September), Ainsley Harriott (17 September), Jodie Kidd (24 September) and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (1 October).
There are always a number of interesting articles in the magazine. This time there is a look at old post boxes. Coming soon to this blog – after our commemoration of the First World War – I will be on the look-out for Victorian pillar boxes (and lamp boxes) in the Blackmore Local Area. Incidentally, in 1512, Henry VIII appointed Sir Brian Tuke as Master of the Posts. Tuke has a local link in that he acquired land around the Blackmore (Essex) district around the time of the Dissolution.
Family History – Blackmore
Blackmore Area Local History is here to encourage folks to look further into local, family and social history so I was interested to learn from the Daily Mail how Roy Blackmore has traced his family back to medieval England and the time of William The Conqueror. He began researching his family tree in 1975, long before the days of Internet. Like some of my relatives, genealogy then was poring over old records and footslogging around churchyards.
“Once Roy had assembled what family historians call the 'bones' of the tree - names and dates of births, deaths and marriages - he set about giving them flesh. He tracked the Blackmore surname to a village in Essex of the same name.
'In the tenth century, monks spoke of the Blackmores as being yeoman farmers. They were Saxons, fair-skinned people from northern Germany, who came over in the fifth century after the Romans had left. The original spelling was Blachmer.'”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040009/Meet-family-How-eccentric-spent-30-years-tracing-family-tree--hes-related-William-Conqueror.html
Ingatestone United Reformed Church bi-centenary
The history of an Independent Chapel in Ingatestone, which later became part of the Congregational Union and more recently Ingatestone United Reformed Church, is being researched by an amateur local historian. Chris Harvey, a former resident in the village, aims to publish a book two hundred years after the Church’s founding in 2012. Chris writes on Great Baddow online (link below): “I am particularly interested in people with memories and/or photographs of the 1970s or earlier, for example uniformed organisations such as Boys Brigade or Girls Brigade. I am already in touch with local church members and have access to church records, and also those in the Essex Records Office dating back to the 19th century, but any other information from anyone with knowledge of that church in the last century would be appreciated.”
http://www.greatbaddowonline.co.uk/300706newsletters/020708july2008newsletter/view?searchterm=ingatestone
Folklore In Essex
I have just finished reading a book entitled ‘Folklore in Essex’ by Sylvia Kent. It is a broad sweep of life and tradition in Essex and has much coverage of the local area, including the Wheat Whoppers Ball at Blackmore, our village’s link with Henry VIII and William Byrd of Stondon Massey to name but three. There is also a chapter on Essex’s musical tradition: Ralph Vaughan Williams’ visits to Ingrave, Brentwood and other places in Essex in the pursuit of folk song collecting. You can read more about RVW this month on this blog. Coincidentally the day I finished reading this interesting book, Sylvia Kent announced on her blog a reprint of the work. Sylvia Kent is a local photographer and freelance writer.
http://sylviakent.blogspot.com/2008/07/folklore-of-essex-from-history-press.html
Ingatestone Hall is Wicked
A history of Ingatestone Hall, home of the Petre family for over 500 years, has appeared on Wikipedia. Follow this link: http://www.powerset.com/explore/semhtml/Ingatestone_Hall
Brentwood and District Historical Society visit Blackmore & Stondon churches
On 12 June 2008, as part of their summer programme, a local history group visited two of our local churches. Follow this link to see The Society’s web entry: http://www.essexinfo.net/brentwoodhistorical/photos/album?album_id=996810
Blackmore Area Local History
Blackmore Area Local History will be launching a website very shortly – http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/. Pages on the site will include an index of Blackmore people, a transcript of the 1910 Electoral Register for Blackmore (Essex) and a copy of the booklet I wrote in 2005 entitled ‘Hatched, Matched and Despatched’, which is a brief survey of Blackmore’s Baptism, Marriage and Burial registers. This blog will not be closed and will continue alongside the main website. As mentioned, over the next three months the blog will be dedicated to local events surrounding the First World War (the Great War as it was then known), it being 90 years since the end of hostilities in 1918.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Area: "High Country History Group" Journal No 30
The Quarterly Journal of the High Country History Group has just been issued to members. It contains a number of items about and beyond the local area including:
- Stanford Rivers – Report on the Administration of the Poor Laws 1833
- Retrospect. W W Reed on Mountnessing (previously published on this blog)
- Shopping at Piggott Brothers & Co.
- Bye Laws for the Parish of Stapleford Tawney, by the School Attendance Committee of the Ongar Union
- Robinsons in Stanford Rivers
- Favourite Trees
- The Strange Case of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd of Theydon Garnon
- Line to be Electrified
For a copy of the High Country History Group Journal you need to be a member. This costs £6 per year (£9 for family). In addition a series of talks are held at Toot Hill Village Hall during the winter season (members £1, non members £2 – includes coffee and biscuits) a summer walk or visit is organised.
Forthcoming talks announced are:
23 October 2008. 8pm: The Essex Earthquake and The Great Essex Hailstorm. Anne Brooks & Andrew Smith.
27 November 2008. 8pm: Sutton Manor Explained. Anne Padfield
And in December, look out for ‘A Magic Lantern Evening’
For membership and further information contact this blog.
- Stanford Rivers – Report on the Administration of the Poor Laws 1833
- Retrospect. W W Reed on Mountnessing (previously published on this blog)
- Shopping at Piggott Brothers & Co.
- Bye Laws for the Parish of Stapleford Tawney, by the School Attendance Committee of the Ongar Union
- Robinsons in Stanford Rivers
- Favourite Trees
- The Strange Case of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd of Theydon Garnon
- Line to be Electrified
For a copy of the High Country History Group Journal you need to be a member. This costs £6 per year (£9 for family). In addition a series of talks are held at Toot Hill Village Hall during the winter season (members £1, non members £2 – includes coffee and biscuits) a summer walk or visit is organised.
Forthcoming talks announced are:
23 October 2008. 8pm: The Essex Earthquake and The Great Essex Hailstorm. Anne Brooks & Andrew Smith.
27 November 2008. 8pm: Sutton Manor Explained. Anne Padfield
And in December, look out for ‘A Magic Lantern Evening’
For membership and further information contact this blog.
Saturday, 12 July 2008
Friday, 11 July 2008
Great Warley: Edwardian Postcards (2)
These are two almost identical views of Warley Barracks demolished in the 1960s to make way for the substantial offices of the Ford Motor Company. All that remains is the Chapel.The Barracks held an important part in the history of Brentwood. These were built by the War Office in 1805 on 116 acres of land taken from Warley Common. Two troops of horse artillery were stationed there. The population of the town rose from 1001 to around 3000.
Various army units used the barracks until 1832. After being empty for about a decade, in 1843 the site was purchased and expanded by the East India Company.
In 1861 the India Office transferred the Barracks back to the War Office. From 1873 until its closure in 1959 Warley Barracks was the depot of the Essex Regiment. Our postcard appears to show the Essex Regiment on parade around the time of the First World War.
The Essex Regimental Museum - currently closed for rebuilding - is situated at the Chelmsford Museum at Oaklands Park, Moulsham Street, Chelmsford.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Great Warley: Edwardian Postcards (1)
A postcard of the Mental Hospital in Warley. It was referred to in some contemporary publications as the Lunatic Asylum.Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Shenfield: Edwardian Postcards (3)
Timber features both inside and outside of St Mary's Church, Shenfield. The belfry - one of over one hundred in Essex - is white weather-boarded and probably fifteenth century in date. Inside, at the west end of the Nave, it stands on sturdy posts. The north aisle piers are not of stone or brick but of oak also. Other examples are at Theydon Garnon and Upshire, but Shenfield is probably the earliest example.Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Shenfield: Edwardian Postcards (2)
Still recognisable after a hundred years, this is Tabors Corner at the junction of Hutton Road (A129) with Shenfield Road looking north towards Chelmsford Road (A1023, former A12). In the foreground is The George and Dragon public house. Out of shot to the left is Courage Playing Fields, land given by the brewing family, leading to the church.Monday, 7 July 2008
Shenfield: Edwardian Postcards (1)
A busier road today with more houses, Priests Lane links Brentwood and Shenfield.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - July 2008
A round up of all things history in our locality.
Barleylands Agricultural Museum: farm machinery for sale
Report of the big sell off of the former ‘Barleylands Farm Museum’
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local/display.var.2334811.0.years_of_farming_history_goes_under_the_hammer.php
Galleywood Heritage Centre
The Essex Chronicle reports that councillors have approved a plan to convert part of the former grandstand of the Galleywood Racecourse into a Heritage Centre which will be used to display exhibitions on the history of the parish.
Read more by local historian Keldon: http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/history/
Ingatestone Hall on the map
Quite literally! This is a plan of nearby Ingatestone Hall, seat of the Petre family since 1540 and featured recently on television.
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/map-ingatestone.html
Ongar Union Workhouse
I came across a list of staff and inmates in the Ongar Union Workhouse at Stanford Rivers in 1881. Follow this link
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ESSEX-UK/2002-01/1011002149
The Times Archive
Keldon says that “For an unspecified period of time, The Times archive 1785-1985 is available for free. This will be welcome news for those unable to gain access to the archive through Gale International.
“The archive can be searched on http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/. Registration is required to view the extracts. It is not known how long it will remain free, so grab it while you can".
Barleylands Agricultural Museum: farm machinery for sale
Report of the big sell off of the former ‘Barleylands Farm Museum’
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local/display.var.2334811.0.years_of_farming_history_goes_under_the_hammer.php
Galleywood Heritage Centre
The Essex Chronicle reports that councillors have approved a plan to convert part of the former grandstand of the Galleywood Racecourse into a Heritage Centre which will be used to display exhibitions on the history of the parish.
Read more by local historian Keldon: http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/history/
Ingatestone Hall on the map
Quite literally! This is a plan of nearby Ingatestone Hall, seat of the Petre family since 1540 and featured recently on television.
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/map-ingatestone.html
Ongar Union Workhouse
I came across a list of staff and inmates in the Ongar Union Workhouse at Stanford Rivers in 1881. Follow this link
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/ESSEX-UK/2002-01/1011002149
The Times Archive
Keldon says that “For an unspecified period of time, The Times archive 1785-1985 is available for free. This will be welcome news for those unable to gain access to the archive through Gale International.
“The archive can be searched on http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/. Registration is required to view the extracts. It is not known how long it will remain free, so grab it while you can".
Monday, 23 June 2008
Blackmore: Sitch Family History
16 June 2008
Question
Julie Jennings has written to me with a query relating to the Sitch family.
“I am researching the Sitch family tree. I have attached an email from a relative who has a question for me, regarding Catherine's surname, maybe you can help. I have found out that James was married previously to Ann Harvey and on your Blackmore website it has paragraph regarding the Sitch name and burials in 1821.
“Earlier spellings of the surname have been Saitch and Setch and they appear all to originate from Blackmore.
”From the Essex Record Office I received an email with their marriage registration
D/P 112/1/8 Entry No. 38 page 13 All Saints Church, Doddinghurst
”James Sitch widower of this parish, and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey spinster of this parish, were married in this Church by Banns published on 12 December, 19 December and 26 December this 27 day of December 1830 by Bridges Harvey, Rector. This marriage was solemnised between us James Sitch (his mark) and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey (signed) in the presence of William Mead, Jane Mead. Simon Collop also signs [possibly a parish official].
"The death registrations seem to be correct with the 1851 and 1861 Censuses supporting them.
“The marriage registration was found by a cousin who lives in England and says this is the correct one. Then why is Catherine's surname Harvey and not Curtis?
”Catherine's father was James Harvey Curtis and we know that they were related to the Harveys and that Catherine was born in Romford.”
Julie adds, ”Alice Sitch born 1902 is my grandmother and married Walter Jennings b 1904. Alice's father at one time lived at Begger Hill, Ingatestone, I was spent my childhood in Ingatestone as did my mother Pamela Jennings (nee Wash). ”Do you have any further information?”
17 June 2008
Answer
Firstly, I am not able to answer your question regarding why Catherine’s former name was Harvey and not Curtis, but am able to throw some further light on the marriage register entry.
Doddinghurst is the neighbouring parish to Blackmore. In 1830, Bridges Harvey was Rector of Doddinghurst and perpetual curate at Blackmore.
Rev. J Bridges Harvey became the Perpetual Curate of Blackmore in 1808. Entries in the Registers suggest that he was frequently absent from Blackmore. In 1813, except for one baptism, on 13th January, and five between June and October, the remaining 15 were conducted by Rev John Oldham, Vicar of Stondon Massey (1791 to 1841), or his son, “also in Holy Orders, whose name occurs in 1813 and 1815 as assisting his father at Stondon” [note 1]. Likewise in 1814 and 1815 respectively Rev Oldham conducted 18 then 9 baptisms of a total 22 and 20 [note 2].
There was an ecclesiastical requirement that the incumbent should live in the parish. Exemption could be granted by the Bishop of London on receipt of a letter. Bridges Harvey wrote to the Bishop throughout the 1830s to state “that I have been resident in the Glebe House of my Rectory of Doddinghurst … during the whole of the last year … and that I deem this residence a legal Exemption from residence on my Perpetual Curacy of Blackmore, in the same County” [note 3].
Bridges Harvey died in 1849 and is buried at Doddinghurst.
I find it interesting that James Sitch and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey are described as “of this parish”. They were married at Doddinghurst yet James Sitch is thought to have come from Blackmore. Under current ecclesiastical law, a bride and groom may only get married in the Church of England if they have been resident in the parish for 15 nights or are on the Electoral Roll (i.e. are regular church attendees at that particular church). Otherwise a Bishop’s Licence is required – approval from the Bishop to marry rather than the reading of Banns on three consecutive Sundays in public worship. The reading of Banns quaintly asks the congregation if they know of any reason in law why a couple may not marry. This arrangement has been in place since 1753. It seems irregular that the couple were “of this parish” when clearly they were not. Maybe this arrangement was historically legitimate. Does any reader know? I wonder where the Banns were read. Blackmore’s Banns register is preserved at the Essex Record Office (ERO D/P 266/1/22). It could be that James Sitch lived at Wyatts Green (I don’t know) which geographically is closer to Doddinghurst though in the Blackmore parish. It could be that he attended church at Doddinghurst for the same reason (again I have no idea) so by today’s rules was on the Electoral Roll if such a thing existed in 1830. But what seems more plausible is that Bridges Harvey found this arrangement more convenient! I wonder if any more Blackmore residents were married at Doddinghurst? We know that Thomas Smith, Rector of Stondon Massey during the 1700s, married people outside the parish. Reeve (later Rector and historian) wrote, “Out of 121 marriages between 1708 and 1754 entered in the book only 17 show one of the parties to have belonged to Stondon. In every other case both bride and bridegroom belonged to outside parishes.” He adds, “One wonders whether other Rectors were as much in request for tying the nuptial knot as Mr Smith, and whether, in cases where the entries were merely records of their work done in other parishes, the parishes interested were favoured with a copy for their own books. Otherwise the work of hunting up materials for a pedigree must be felt to be a harder one than has been realized hitherto.” [note 4]
I looked at the Sitch family when writing the booklet ‘Hatched, Matched and Despatched’ because I was intrigued to learn of four deaths of children in a family in quick succession in 1821 when there were only 9 burials at Blackmore during the whole year. My theory is that poor drinking water from a well killed off these children. Any other ideas? I have tried to establish who their parents were and suspect that they were James and Ann Sitch. The baptism of Joseph to this couple is recorded in the Blackmore register on 22nd April 1821 but there are no later children of this marriage. James is recorded as being a farmer.
Later in the Blackmore register I find the baptism of “Thomas, son of James and Catherine Sitch” (15th January 1832) and “John Harvey, son of James and Catherine Sitch” (4th May 1834). In 1832 the father was a farmer but in 1834 he had become a shopkeeper.
I noted that I could not find an entry in the Blackmore Marriage Register.
I noted a Thomas Collop in 1829 whose profession was a ‘cow doctor’. He might be related to Simon Collop?
I think that all this evidence is convincing – that James was widowed and remarried Catherine Harvey at Doddinghurst.
In 1836 I find James Sitch in occupation of a house in the centre of Blackmore village (perhaps the Church Street area), where he probably was a shopkeeper. The house belonged to Thomas Page. Conversely I find James Sitch in ownership of three parcels of land at Elkins Green: a cottage and garden in the occupation of Sarah Chalk; a cottage in the occupation of William Doe; and, a cottage and garden in the occupation of Henry Horsnell. [note 5] My theory of occupation at Wyatts Green probably collapses. I later find a John Chalk (or Chaulk) as a farmer at Red Rose Farm. (Kelly's Directory 1848). Looking at the map in the publication, it could be that the Sitch family were once farmers at Elm Farm.
In addition I have noted a Harriet Sitch, baptised on 30th October 1829, whose parents were John and Mary Seach. John Seach was a labourer.
I should mention that my objective was not to study one particular family but to write a general introduction to the BMD registers for Blackmore. There may be other Sitch’s who I have not recorded. A visit to the Essex Record Office at Chelmsford is essential!!
By way of additional material. William Sitch was Churchwarden in 1778 [GLM 9583/29]. John Seach was Churchwarden in 1810 [GLM 9583/36].
The family name does not appear on the 1841 census for Blackmore. Where did they go?
21 June 2008
Karen Shirley (nee Sitch) in Canada provides some further information and poses more questions
“I was the relative that was in contact with Julie wanting to know about Catherine Sitch's maiden name....Curtis or Harvey.
“Thank you for doing all the wonderful research on Blackmore and surrounding area. I was most fascinated with your insight into James and Catherine's marriage registration.
“I would like to set one thing straight though. The parents of the children that died in 1821 were John (1775) and Mary Sitch"s (nee Shearman) married 1802 in Blackmore. John was an older brother of my gr-gr-gr grandfather James (1781) (wife Catherine). There were other children.
Mary 1805
Joseph 1809
Samuel 1811
Adam 1822
Walter 1822
Charles 1825
“If they had poor drinking water, why didn't the others die as well? I guess we'll never really know what happened.
“The births of the ones that died can be found in the IGIs with John and Mary as the parents.
“I did find James Sitch in the 1841 census.
RG number: HO107 Piece: 325 Book/Folio: 22 Page: 1
Sub District: Ingatestone
Parish: Fryerning
Address: Wool Pack, Fryerning
SITCH, James age 65 Ag Lab
There are others listed at that address also:
John Dawson age 50 Ind
Isabella dau age 35
Ann Pussons age 25 F.S.
Richard S. age16 M.S.
Sussanah Woods age 35
“What is Wool Pack? I cannot find Catherine and their older children.
“In the 1851 census Fryerning
HO 107/1775 f 222 pg43
James Sitch Head 70 House proprietor b: Blackmore
Catherine Wife 41 b: Romford
Thomas 19 Ag Lab b: Blackmore
John 17 Ag Lab b: Blackmore
George 15 Ag Lab b: Ingatestone
William 13 Ag Lab b: Ingatestone
Edward 9 b: Ingatestone
Samuel 7 b: Ingatestone
Catherine 5 b: Fryerning
“1861 census
Beggars Hill, Fryerning
Catherine Sitch Head Wid. 51 House Holder Property
William
Edward
Catherine
“What is a House Proprietor?
“I had always been told that Beggar(s) Hill was in Ingatestone. Which is correct?
“My gr-gr grandfather Samuel (age 7 in 1851 census) lived at Rose Cottage, Beggars Hill, Ingatestone(?) with his wife Sarah Ann Roast.
“My gr-grandfather Ernest and most of his siblings (9 of 13) came to Canada in the 1890s to early 1900s just southwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario as the townships were opening up. Land was available for farming.
“Before Ernest came to Canada, he left home at age 14 and went to sea as a cabin boy sailing around the world. I believe he was around age 21 or so when he settled down here.
“Thanks again for all your research and a terrific website/blog!!”
22 June 2008
Answer
Thank you for confirming the parents of the four children who died in 1821. I will update the record. Of course, we will never know why these children died. It would appear to have been some illness unique to this family. If it were cholera then perhaps the fittest survived and the weakest members died. If anyone has any observations then please comment below.
The Woolpack is now a trendy restaurant but was, until 2002, a public house. It is near the church at the top of Fryerning Lane. In the 1970s the pub was called ‘The Huntsman’ but reverted to its original name about ten years later. A look at the 1841 census might establish the sequence of properties and confirm that James Sitch lived there.
Beggar Hill is in Fryerning, although since 1889 Ingatestone and Fryerning were merged as a single civil parish and ecclesiastically they remain separate (note 6). A look at the old parish boundaries for Essex shows that Fryerning was a wide ribbon of land running roughly north-west to south-east with Ingatestone on both sides of a (very) roughly oblong-shaped area (note 7) . Anciently both Ingatestone and Fryerning were on the eastern side of Blackmore parish. A large proportion of Ingatestone High Street was in the parish of Fryerning.
I am not sure what a ‘house proprietor’ meant. By the age of 70 James was probably retired, though of course reliant on his children’s income to support the family.
Essex suffered badly from the agricultural depression in the late 1800s. There were particularly bad harvests in the 1870s (1879 in particular) which was not helped by cheap imports of grain from America. Wheat prices by 1895 reached an all-time low. Many farms went out of business. In Ingatestone and Fryerning farmers changed to dairy farming. Fortunately there is a railway station at Ingatestone so milk could be transported to the London markets with ease.
Sources
1. Reeve. Stondon Massey (1900) p90
2. Essex Record Office. D/CR 38. Bishop’s Transcripts on Blackmore registers.
3. Guildhall Manuscripts ms19226/95.
4. Taken from ‘Stondon Massey. A Short History’ currently available.
5. The Tithe Place-Names of Blackmore. Recorder Elizabeth Lamb. ERO 2003
6. Kelly's Directory 1899
7. Cecil R Humphrey-Smith. The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Phillimore, 2003)
Question
Julie Jennings has written to me with a query relating to the Sitch family.
“I am researching the Sitch family tree. I have attached an email from a relative who has a question for me, regarding Catherine's surname, maybe you can help. I have found out that James was married previously to Ann Harvey and on your Blackmore website it has paragraph regarding the Sitch name and burials in 1821.
“Earlier spellings of the surname have been Saitch and Setch and they appear all to originate from Blackmore.
”From the Essex Record Office I received an email with their marriage registration
D/P 112/1/8 Entry No. 38 page 13 All Saints Church, Doddinghurst
”James Sitch widower of this parish, and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey spinster of this parish, were married in this Church by Banns published on 12 December, 19 December and 26 December this 27 day of December 1830 by Bridges Harvey, Rector. This marriage was solemnised between us James Sitch (his mark) and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey (signed) in the presence of William Mead, Jane Mead. Simon Collop also signs [possibly a parish official].
"The death registrations seem to be correct with the 1851 and 1861 Censuses supporting them.
“The marriage registration was found by a cousin who lives in England and says this is the correct one. Then why is Catherine's surname Harvey and not Curtis?
”Catherine's father was James Harvey Curtis and we know that they were related to the Harveys and that Catherine was born in Romford.”
Julie adds, ”Alice Sitch born 1902 is my grandmother and married Walter Jennings b 1904. Alice's father at one time lived at Begger Hill, Ingatestone, I was spent my childhood in Ingatestone as did my mother Pamela Jennings (nee Wash). ”Do you have any further information?”
17 June 2008
Answer
Firstly, I am not able to answer your question regarding why Catherine’s former name was Harvey and not Curtis, but am able to throw some further light on the marriage register entry.
Doddinghurst is the neighbouring parish to Blackmore. In 1830, Bridges Harvey was Rector of Doddinghurst and perpetual curate at Blackmore.
Rev. J Bridges Harvey became the Perpetual Curate of Blackmore in 1808. Entries in the Registers suggest that he was frequently absent from Blackmore. In 1813, except for one baptism, on 13th January, and five between June and October, the remaining 15 were conducted by Rev John Oldham, Vicar of Stondon Massey (1791 to 1841), or his son, “also in Holy Orders, whose name occurs in 1813 and 1815 as assisting his father at Stondon” [note 1]. Likewise in 1814 and 1815 respectively Rev Oldham conducted 18 then 9 baptisms of a total 22 and 20 [note 2].
There was an ecclesiastical requirement that the incumbent should live in the parish. Exemption could be granted by the Bishop of London on receipt of a letter. Bridges Harvey wrote to the Bishop throughout the 1830s to state “that I have been resident in the Glebe House of my Rectory of Doddinghurst … during the whole of the last year … and that I deem this residence a legal Exemption from residence on my Perpetual Curacy of Blackmore, in the same County” [note 3].
Bridges Harvey died in 1849 and is buried at Doddinghurst.
I find it interesting that James Sitch and Catherine Elizabeth Harvey are described as “of this parish”. They were married at Doddinghurst yet James Sitch is thought to have come from Blackmore. Under current ecclesiastical law, a bride and groom may only get married in the Church of England if they have been resident in the parish for 15 nights or are on the Electoral Roll (i.e. are regular church attendees at that particular church). Otherwise a Bishop’s Licence is required – approval from the Bishop to marry rather than the reading of Banns on three consecutive Sundays in public worship. The reading of Banns quaintly asks the congregation if they know of any reason in law why a couple may not marry. This arrangement has been in place since 1753. It seems irregular that the couple were “of this parish” when clearly they were not. Maybe this arrangement was historically legitimate. Does any reader know? I wonder where the Banns were read. Blackmore’s Banns register is preserved at the Essex Record Office (ERO D/P 266/1/22). It could be that James Sitch lived at Wyatts Green (I don’t know) which geographically is closer to Doddinghurst though in the Blackmore parish. It could be that he attended church at Doddinghurst for the same reason (again I have no idea) so by today’s rules was on the Electoral Roll if such a thing existed in 1830. But what seems more plausible is that Bridges Harvey found this arrangement more convenient! I wonder if any more Blackmore residents were married at Doddinghurst? We know that Thomas Smith, Rector of Stondon Massey during the 1700s, married people outside the parish. Reeve (later Rector and historian) wrote, “Out of 121 marriages between 1708 and 1754 entered in the book only 17 show one of the parties to have belonged to Stondon. In every other case both bride and bridegroom belonged to outside parishes.” He adds, “One wonders whether other Rectors were as much in request for tying the nuptial knot as Mr Smith, and whether, in cases where the entries were merely records of their work done in other parishes, the parishes interested were favoured with a copy for their own books. Otherwise the work of hunting up materials for a pedigree must be felt to be a harder one than has been realized hitherto.” [note 4]
I looked at the Sitch family when writing the booklet ‘Hatched, Matched and Despatched’ because I was intrigued to learn of four deaths of children in a family in quick succession in 1821 when there were only 9 burials at Blackmore during the whole year. My theory is that poor drinking water from a well killed off these children. Any other ideas? I have tried to establish who their parents were and suspect that they were James and Ann Sitch. The baptism of Joseph to this couple is recorded in the Blackmore register on 22nd April 1821 but there are no later children of this marriage. James is recorded as being a farmer.
Later in the Blackmore register I find the baptism of “Thomas, son of James and Catherine Sitch” (15th January 1832) and “John Harvey, son of James and Catherine Sitch” (4th May 1834). In 1832 the father was a farmer but in 1834 he had become a shopkeeper.
I noted that I could not find an entry in the Blackmore Marriage Register.
I noted a Thomas Collop in 1829 whose profession was a ‘cow doctor’. He might be related to Simon Collop?
I think that all this evidence is convincing – that James was widowed and remarried Catherine Harvey at Doddinghurst.
In 1836 I find James Sitch in occupation of a house in the centre of Blackmore village (perhaps the Church Street area), where he probably was a shopkeeper. The house belonged to Thomas Page. Conversely I find James Sitch in ownership of three parcels of land at Elkins Green: a cottage and garden in the occupation of Sarah Chalk; a cottage in the occupation of William Doe; and, a cottage and garden in the occupation of Henry Horsnell. [note 5] My theory of occupation at Wyatts Green probably collapses. I later find a John Chalk (or Chaulk) as a farmer at Red Rose Farm. (Kelly's Directory 1848). Looking at the map in the publication, it could be that the Sitch family were once farmers at Elm Farm.
In addition I have noted a Harriet Sitch, baptised on 30th October 1829, whose parents were John and Mary Seach. John Seach was a labourer.
I should mention that my objective was not to study one particular family but to write a general introduction to the BMD registers for Blackmore. There may be other Sitch’s who I have not recorded. A visit to the Essex Record Office at Chelmsford is essential!!
By way of additional material. William Sitch was Churchwarden in 1778 [GLM 9583/29]. John Seach was Churchwarden in 1810 [GLM 9583/36].
The family name does not appear on the 1841 census for Blackmore. Where did they go?
21 June 2008
Karen Shirley (nee Sitch) in Canada provides some further information and poses more questions
“I was the relative that was in contact with Julie wanting to know about Catherine Sitch's maiden name....Curtis or Harvey.
“Thank you for doing all the wonderful research on Blackmore and surrounding area. I was most fascinated with your insight into James and Catherine's marriage registration.
“I would like to set one thing straight though. The parents of the children that died in 1821 were John (1775) and Mary Sitch"s (nee Shearman) married 1802 in Blackmore. John was an older brother of my gr-gr-gr grandfather James (1781) (wife Catherine). There were other children.
Mary 1805
Joseph 1809
Samuel 1811
Adam 1822
Walter 1822
Charles 1825
“If they had poor drinking water, why didn't the others die as well? I guess we'll never really know what happened.
“The births of the ones that died can be found in the IGIs with John and Mary as the parents.
“I did find James Sitch in the 1841 census.
RG number: HO107 Piece: 325 Book/Folio: 22 Page: 1
Sub District: Ingatestone
Parish: Fryerning
Address: Wool Pack, Fryerning
SITCH, James age 65 Ag Lab
There are others listed at that address also:
John Dawson age 50 Ind
Isabella dau age 35
Ann Pussons age 25 F.S.
Richard S. age16 M.S.
Sussanah Woods age 35
“What is Wool Pack? I cannot find Catherine and their older children.
“In the 1851 census Fryerning
HO 107/1775 f 222 pg43
James Sitch Head 70 House proprietor b: Blackmore
Catherine Wife 41 b: Romford
Thomas 19 Ag Lab b: Blackmore
John 17 Ag Lab b: Blackmore
George 15 Ag Lab b: Ingatestone
William 13 Ag Lab b: Ingatestone
Edward 9 b: Ingatestone
Samuel 7 b: Ingatestone
Catherine 5 b: Fryerning
“1861 census
Beggars Hill, Fryerning
Catherine Sitch Head Wid. 51 House Holder Property
William
Edward
Catherine
“What is a House Proprietor?
“I had always been told that Beggar(s) Hill was in Ingatestone. Which is correct?
“My gr-gr grandfather Samuel (age 7 in 1851 census) lived at Rose Cottage, Beggars Hill, Ingatestone(?) with his wife Sarah Ann Roast.
“My gr-grandfather Ernest and most of his siblings (9 of 13) came to Canada in the 1890s to early 1900s just southwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario as the townships were opening up. Land was available for farming.
“Before Ernest came to Canada, he left home at age 14 and went to sea as a cabin boy sailing around the world. I believe he was around age 21 or so when he settled down here.
“Thanks again for all your research and a terrific website/blog!!”
22 June 2008
Answer
Thank you for confirming the parents of the four children who died in 1821. I will update the record. Of course, we will never know why these children died. It would appear to have been some illness unique to this family. If it were cholera then perhaps the fittest survived and the weakest members died. If anyone has any observations then please comment below.
The Woolpack is now a trendy restaurant but was, until 2002, a public house. It is near the church at the top of Fryerning Lane. In the 1970s the pub was called ‘The Huntsman’ but reverted to its original name about ten years later. A look at the 1841 census might establish the sequence of properties and confirm that James Sitch lived there.
Beggar Hill is in Fryerning, although since 1889 Ingatestone and Fryerning were merged as a single civil parish and ecclesiastically they remain separate (note 6). A look at the old parish boundaries for Essex shows that Fryerning was a wide ribbon of land running roughly north-west to south-east with Ingatestone on both sides of a (very) roughly oblong-shaped area (note 7) . Anciently both Ingatestone and Fryerning were on the eastern side of Blackmore parish. A large proportion of Ingatestone High Street was in the parish of Fryerning.
I am not sure what a ‘house proprietor’ meant. By the age of 70 James was probably retired, though of course reliant on his children’s income to support the family.
Essex suffered badly from the agricultural depression in the late 1800s. There were particularly bad harvests in the 1870s (1879 in particular) which was not helped by cheap imports of grain from America. Wheat prices by 1895 reached an all-time low. Many farms went out of business. In Ingatestone and Fryerning farmers changed to dairy farming. Fortunately there is a railway station at Ingatestone so milk could be transported to the London markets with ease.
Sources
1. Reeve. Stondon Massey (1900) p90
2. Essex Record Office. D/CR 38. Bishop’s Transcripts on Blackmore registers.
3. Guildhall Manuscripts ms19226/95.
4. Taken from ‘Stondon Massey. A Short History’ currently available.
5. The Tithe Place-Names of Blackmore. Recorder Elizabeth Lamb. ERO 2003
6. Kelly's Directory 1899
7. Cecil R Humphrey-Smith. The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers (Phillimore, 2003)
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Ingatestone: Hall on TV again
Ingatestone Hall was on television again when the visit of Queen Elizabeth I's to Lord Petre's stately home in 1561 was recalled. The BBC has been running a series "Supersizers go ... " in which Giles Coran and Sue Perkins don the costume of an historical period for a week and eat their way through the food of the time. In truth Coran is always the wealthy merchant so does not survive of bread and gruel in every programme as my ancestors probably did. Last night it was the turn of the Elizabethans.
In the final sequence (day 7) they meet Lord Petre at Ingatestone Hall for a dinner fit for a Queen. His guests included the local Vicar and a lady from the WI. The dinner included, as a first course, goose in sorrell sauce and roast sucking pig with manchet bread and claret, followed by a second course including Battalia Pie (containing various meats including oysters and lambs' testicles) and a fine 'banquet' of sweet fruit. To entertain the ladies live frogs jumped out of pastry cases and a pie created which had a pig's bladder filled with wine which when cut bled! (I'll have a green salad please).
We know much about the Royal Visit to Ingatestone Hall because the "shopping lists" have been kept. F G Emmison in his book 'Tudor Secretary' devotes a chapter to the occasion. William Petre, one of our first civil servants, managed to survive the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I because he kept his mouth shut: a highly diplomatic and face saving (or should that be 'head saving') move.
'Supersizers Go ... Elizabethan' is repeated on Saturday 21 June and is available on I player.
Preview by national daily newspaper
http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/todaystv/2008/06/17/the-supersizers-go-elizabethan-89520-20610676/
See the programme on I Player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c4y5m
In the final sequence (day 7) they meet Lord Petre at Ingatestone Hall for a dinner fit for a Queen. His guests included the local Vicar and a lady from the WI. The dinner included, as a first course, goose in sorrell sauce and roast sucking pig with manchet bread and claret, followed by a second course including Battalia Pie (containing various meats including oysters and lambs' testicles) and a fine 'banquet' of sweet fruit. To entertain the ladies live frogs jumped out of pastry cases and a pie created which had a pig's bladder filled with wine which when cut bled! (I'll have a green salad please).
We know much about the Royal Visit to Ingatestone Hall because the "shopping lists" have been kept. F G Emmison in his book 'Tudor Secretary' devotes a chapter to the occasion. William Petre, one of our first civil servants, managed to survive the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I because he kept his mouth shut: a highly diplomatic and face saving (or should that be 'head saving') move.
'Supersizers Go ... Elizabethan' is repeated on Saturday 21 June and is available on I player.
Preview by national daily newspaper
http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/tv/todaystv/2008/06/17/the-supersizers-go-elizabethan-89520-20610676/
See the programme on I Player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c4y5m
Friday, 6 June 2008
Stanford Rivers: Ongar Union Workhouse
From the time of Queen Elizabeth I to that of Queen Victoria, the established Church of England took responsibility for the affairs of the parish, including upholding the law, the maintenance of highways, and providing for the poor. The main business was carried out through the Vestry, with the Vicar and Churchwardens holding considerable power over the parishioners.
By the early 1800s the cost of providing for the poor had increased to unacceptable levels. A new approach was required. In 1834 the Government passed the ‘Poor Law Amendment Act’ which transferred responsibility away from the parish to a Board of Guardians within the Poor Law Union. For the parish of Blackmore, the poor were sent to the Ongar Union Workhouse at Stanford Rivers. The Union comprised of 26 parishes (listed below). Life in the workhouse was feared: men, women and children were segregated, and forced to work hard. To enter the workhouse was a last resort. This was the abode for the infirm and destitute – the “undeserving poor” – who were not obliged to work as hard as their counterparts. The Stanford Rivers Workhouse, extended in 1838, had capacity for 240 inhabitants [ERO T/Z 13/154].
The Workhouse System was abolished in 1931. Today a Welfare State supports those in need.
For more information on the Ongar Union Workhouse, go to the following link: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Ongar/Ongar.shtml
This is one page of a website dedicated to the subject.
Parishes in the Ongar Union
Abbess Roding (or Abbots Roothing)
Beauchamp Roding (or Roothing)
Berners Roding (or Roothing)
Blackmore
Bobbingworth
Chipping Ongar
Doddinghurst
Fyfield (or Fifehead)
Greensted (or Greenstead)
High Laver
High Ongar
Kelvedon Hatch
Lambourne
Little Laver
Moreton
Navestock
Norton Mandeville
Shelley
Shellow Bowels
Stanford Rivers
Stapleford Abbots
Stapleford Tawney
Stondon Massey
Theydon Mount
Willingale Doe
Willingale Spain
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Theydon Mount: Church Records at Hertford
Bound Diocesan records for the period 1877 to 1914 are held at the ‘Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies’ at the County Council offices in Hertford. Whilst searching for information on Blackmore, I came across the following information relating to the High Country parishes.
Theydon Mount
Rural Dean. Lambourne. [1883] 8 March. The Bishop appointed Lewis Newcomes Prance Clerk MA Rector of the Rectory of Stapleford Tawney with Theydon Mount in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans to Rural Dean of the Rural Deanery of Lambourne in place of Cavendish Harvey Foster Baronet Clerk BA resigned [HALS DSA 1/14/1. Bishops Act Book 1877 – 1890. f182].
Theydon Mount
Rural Dean. Lambourne. [1883] 8 March. The Bishop appointed Lewis Newcomes Prance Clerk MA Rector of the Rectory of Stapleford Tawney with Theydon Mount in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans to Rural Dean of the Rural Deanery of Lambourne in place of Cavendish Harvey Foster Baronet Clerk BA resigned [HALS DSA 1/14/1. Bishops Act Book 1877 – 1890. f182].
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Stapleford Tawney: Church Records at Hertford
Bound Diocesan records for the period 1877 to 1914 are held at the ‘Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies’ at the County Council offices in Hertford. Whilst searching for information on Blackmore, I came across the following information relating to the High Country parishes.
Stapleford Tawney
Stapleford Tawney. Co Essex. Petition for consecration of addition to churchyard. [1882] To the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Legh by Divine Permission Lord Bishop of St Albans – The humble Petition of the Rector Churchwardens and certain Inhabitants of the Parish of Stapleford Tawney in the county of Essex and your Lordship’s Diocese – Sheweth that the Churchyard of the Parish of Stapleford Tawney aforesaid is so full of graves that it requests enlargement – That by a Deed dated the twentieth of July One thousand eight hundred and eighty two under the hand and seal of Sir William Bowyer Smyth Baronet of Hill Hall in the parish of Theydon Mount in the said County and under the authority of the “Consecration of Churchyards Act 1867” a piece of ground in the parish of Stapleford Tawney aforesaid containing one the North side or end thereof next Stapleford Tawney School House Garden sixty feet or thereabouts on the East side or end thereof next the High Road, running from Passingford Bridge to Stapleford Tawney Common one hundred feet or thereabouts on the south side or end thereof adjoining part of Stapleford Tawney Churchyard seventy five feet or thereabouts and on the west side or end thereof next to and adjoining the other part of the said Churchyard ninety five feet or thereabouts and which said piece of ground is more particularly delineated … That the said piece of ground so conveyed as aforesaid is suitably situate adjoining the said Churchyard and has been properly levelled and added to and enclosed with the said Churchyard and is now fit and proper condition for interments and may advantageously form part of the said Churchyard – Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your Lordship will be pleased to consecrate the said piece of ground …
Lewis W Prance Rector of Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount. Chas Smith. A Churchwarden for the parish of Stapleford Tawney. W Sworder Churchwarden. John Lovell Fry. Cornell Fitch. Daniel Miller. Miller Bros. Jacob Miller [HALS DSA 1/15/3. Muniment Book 1882 – 1885. f71].
Stapleford Tawney
Stapleford Tawney. Co Essex. Petition for consecration of addition to churchyard. [1882] To the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Legh by Divine Permission Lord Bishop of St Albans – The humble Petition of the Rector Churchwardens and certain Inhabitants of the Parish of Stapleford Tawney in the county of Essex and your Lordship’s Diocese – Sheweth that the Churchyard of the Parish of Stapleford Tawney aforesaid is so full of graves that it requests enlargement – That by a Deed dated the twentieth of July One thousand eight hundred and eighty two under the hand and seal of Sir William Bowyer Smyth Baronet of Hill Hall in the parish of Theydon Mount in the said County and under the authority of the “Consecration of Churchyards Act 1867” a piece of ground in the parish of Stapleford Tawney aforesaid containing one the North side or end thereof next Stapleford Tawney School House Garden sixty feet or thereabouts on the East side or end thereof next the High Road, running from Passingford Bridge to Stapleford Tawney Common one hundred feet or thereabouts on the south side or end thereof adjoining part of Stapleford Tawney Churchyard seventy five feet or thereabouts and on the west side or end thereof next to and adjoining the other part of the said Churchyard ninety five feet or thereabouts and which said piece of ground is more particularly delineated … That the said piece of ground so conveyed as aforesaid is suitably situate adjoining the said Churchyard and has been properly levelled and added to and enclosed with the said Churchyard and is now fit and proper condition for interments and may advantageously form part of the said Churchyard – Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your Lordship will be pleased to consecrate the said piece of ground …
Lewis W Prance Rector of Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount. Chas Smith. A Churchwarden for the parish of Stapleford Tawney. W Sworder Churchwarden. John Lovell Fry. Cornell Fitch. Daniel Miller. Miller Bros. Jacob Miller [HALS DSA 1/15/3. Muniment Book 1882 – 1885. f71].
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Stanford Rivers: Church Records at Hertford
Bound Diocesan records for the period 1877 to 1914 are held at the ‘Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies’ at the County Council offices in Hertford. Whilst searching for information on Blackmore, I came across the following information relating to the High Country parishes.
Stanford Rivers
Ongar Union Workhouse Chaplaincy. [1894] 23 August. The Bishop signed and sealed a Licence in the following words: John Wogan by Divine permission Bishop of St Albans. To our well beloved in Christ Samuel Coode Hare, Clerk, Greetings. Whereas we have received an application to licence you to perform the Office of Chaplain to the Ongar Union Workhouse in the parish of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex within our Diocese and Jurisdiction the same being a public Institution within the provisions of “The Parish Chapels Act 1871” to which you have been appointed now. We do by these presents give and grant to you our Licence and Authority (during our pleasure only) to perform as Chaplain to serve the Chapel belonging to the said Union Workhouse in preaching the Word of God and in reading the Common prayers and in celebrating the Holy Communion of the Lord’s Supper according to the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer made and published by authority of parliament and the Canons and constitutions in that behalf lawfully established and promulged [HALS DSA 1/14/2. Bishops Act Book 1890 – 1899 f165].
I note that, on 28 July 1901, the Bishop appointed John Ishmael Thomas, Clerk, BA, as Chaplain to Ongar Workhouse [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f156].
Stanford Rivers. R Res. [1901] 3 July. The Bishop accepted the resignation made by Robert Bolleston, Clerk, BA of the Rectory of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans and declared the same to be vacant [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f59].
Stanford Rivers. [1902] 27 January: John Samuel Thomas, Clerk, BA was instituted to the Rectory of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans vacant by the resignation of Robert Bollaston, Clerk, the last Incumbent there. On the presentation of His Most Gracious Majesty the King by reason of the Duchy of Lancaster in full right (as it is asserted) And Mandate was issued to the Archdeacon of Essex to induct him [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f73]
Stanford Rivers
Ongar Union Workhouse Chaplaincy. [1894] 23 August. The Bishop signed and sealed a Licence in the following words: John Wogan by Divine permission Bishop of St Albans. To our well beloved in Christ Samuel Coode Hare, Clerk, Greetings. Whereas we have received an application to licence you to perform the Office of Chaplain to the Ongar Union Workhouse in the parish of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex within our Diocese and Jurisdiction the same being a public Institution within the provisions of “The Parish Chapels Act 1871” to which you have been appointed now. We do by these presents give and grant to you our Licence and Authority (during our pleasure only) to perform as Chaplain to serve the Chapel belonging to the said Union Workhouse in preaching the Word of God and in reading the Common prayers and in celebrating the Holy Communion of the Lord’s Supper according to the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer made and published by authority of parliament and the Canons and constitutions in that behalf lawfully established and promulged [HALS DSA 1/14/2. Bishops Act Book 1890 – 1899 f165].
I note that, on 28 July 1901, the Bishop appointed John Ishmael Thomas, Clerk, BA, as Chaplain to Ongar Workhouse [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f156].
Stanford Rivers. R Res. [1901] 3 July. The Bishop accepted the resignation made by Robert Bolleston, Clerk, BA of the Rectory of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans and declared the same to be vacant [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f59].
Stanford Rivers. [1902] 27 January: John Samuel Thomas, Clerk, BA was instituted to the Rectory of Stanford Rivers in the County of Essex and Diocese of St Albans vacant by the resignation of Robert Bollaston, Clerk, the last Incumbent there. On the presentation of His Most Gracious Majesty the King by reason of the Duchy of Lancaster in full right (as it is asserted) And Mandate was issued to the Archdeacon of Essex to induct him [HALS DSA 1/14/3. Bishops Act Book 1899 – 1909 f73]
Monday, 2 June 2008
Greensted: Church Records at Hertford
Between 1877 and 1914, Essex parishes formed part of the (then new) Diocese of St Albans. It was created in response to the great increase in population in areas adjoining London. The counties of Essex and Hertfordshire were taken from the Diocese of Rochester (to which See Essex was transferred from London in 1846). Thomas Legh Claughton, the first Bishop, transferred from being Bishop of Rochester. His place of residence was Danbury Palace, now a management training centre and public park. John Wogan Festing succeeded him in 1890, then Edgar Jacob in 1903.
Bound Diocesan records for this period are held at the ‘Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies’ at the County Council offices in Hertford. Whilst searching for information on Blackmore, I came across the following information relating to the High Country parishes.
Greensted
Greensted-juxta-Ongar. Co Essex. [1880] Sequestration on death of Rector. Thomas Legh by Divine Permission Lord Bishop of St Albans. To our beloved in Christ Philip John Budworth Churchwarden of the parish of Greensted-juxta-Ongar in the County of Essex and within the Diocese and jurisdiction Greeting. Whereas the Parish Church of Greensted-juxta-Ongar aforesaid is become vacant by the Death of the Reverend Philip William Ray the late Incumbent thereof and at present is destitute of an Incumbent. We therefore lest the fruits tithes rents profits and other rights and emoluments ecclesiastical now due to the said Church or arising or becoming due during the vacancy thereof should be embezzled wasted or applied to improper uses have devised the same to be sequestered and Do sequester the same according and we do by these presents ordain and appoint you Sequestrator and Special Collector of the said Church during the vacancy thereof as aforesaid and do enjoin you forthwith to publish or cause to be published this our Sequestration at the Church – aforesaid and such there public and proper places as you shall most expedient and also during the said vacancy to demand recover and receive into your hands and keep under safe sequestration All and singular the fruits tithes rents profits and other rights and emoluments ecclesiastical belonging to the said church in whose hands soever being or remaining or which hereafter be or remain. And with the same collected received or sequestered to cause the cure of souls in the said Parish to be served and all other charges belonging to the said church to be sustained and discharged. And to render unto us our Vicar General and Official Principal or other competent Judge in this behalf when you shall be – thereunto lawfully required a true and faithful account of the residue for the use of the next Incumbent or such other person or persons as shall do or cause to be done in the premises you shall duly certify to us our Vicar General and Official Principal aforesaid or other competent Judge in this behalf the seventh day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty. Geo H Knight. Registrar [HALS DSA 1/15/2 Muniment Book f73].
Greenstead by Ongar. [1902] Faculty to reserve part of the churchyard and erect a Mural Tablet. John Wogan by Divine permission Lord Bishop of St Albans. To all whom it may concern and more especially Howel John James Price of Greenstead Hall Greenstead by Ongar in the County of Essex Esquire Greetings. Whereas it hath been represented unto the Worshipful Alfred Bray Kempe Master of Arts Vicar General and Official Principal of our Consistorial and Episcopal Court of St Albans … a petition under the name of the said Howel John James Prince … is the Widower of Mary Catherine Prince late of Greenstead Hall aforesaid … resided in and owned the above property for upwards of 50 years past … is desirous of reserving to himself and his family an additional space next to the above grave and of enclosing the whole of the said space with a marble or stone kerb … 10 feet in length and 10 feet in breadth … is also desirous of placing on the East Wall of the Nave … a plain copper and iron mural Tablet … with the following inscription namely “In memory of Mary Catherine Price died March 20th 1902 aged 43. This Tablet is erected in memory of one who lived a happy life in this parish beloved by all who knew her and died trusting in Christ her Saviour”. That a meeting of the Vestry of the said parish was duly summoned on the 27th day of June 1902 … the Rector alone was present no parishioners being present … That the Reverend Arthur George Breeks Atkinson the present Rector ... consents to such application. [Granted. 31 August 1902] [HALS DSA 1/15/9. Muniment Book 1899 – 1904. f448].
Bound Diocesan records for this period are held at the ‘Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies’ at the County Council offices in Hertford. Whilst searching for information on Blackmore, I came across the following information relating to the High Country parishes.
Greensted
Greensted-juxta-Ongar. Co Essex. [1880] Sequestration on death of Rector. Thomas Legh by Divine Permission Lord Bishop of St Albans. To our beloved in Christ Philip John Budworth Churchwarden of the parish of Greensted-juxta-Ongar in the County of Essex and within the Diocese and jurisdiction Greeting. Whereas the Parish Church of Greensted-juxta-Ongar aforesaid is become vacant by the Death of the Reverend Philip William Ray the late Incumbent thereof and at present is destitute of an Incumbent. We therefore lest the fruits tithes rents profits and other rights and emoluments ecclesiastical now due to the said Church or arising or becoming due during the vacancy thereof should be embezzled wasted or applied to improper uses have devised the same to be sequestered and Do sequester the same according and we do by these presents ordain and appoint you Sequestrator and Special Collector of the said Church during the vacancy thereof as aforesaid and do enjoin you forthwith to publish or cause to be published this our Sequestration at the Church – aforesaid and such there public and proper places as you shall most expedient and also during the said vacancy to demand recover and receive into your hands and keep under safe sequestration All and singular the fruits tithes rents profits and other rights and emoluments ecclesiastical belonging to the said church in whose hands soever being or remaining or which hereafter be or remain. And with the same collected received or sequestered to cause the cure of souls in the said Parish to be served and all other charges belonging to the said church to be sustained and discharged. And to render unto us our Vicar General and Official Principal or other competent Judge in this behalf when you shall be – thereunto lawfully required a true and faithful account of the residue for the use of the next Incumbent or such other person or persons as shall do or cause to be done in the premises you shall duly certify to us our Vicar General and Official Principal aforesaid or other competent Judge in this behalf the seventh day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty. Geo H Knight. Registrar [HALS DSA 1/15/2 Muniment Book f73].
Greenstead by Ongar. [1902] Faculty to reserve part of the churchyard and erect a Mural Tablet. John Wogan by Divine permission Lord Bishop of St Albans. To all whom it may concern and more especially Howel John James Price of Greenstead Hall Greenstead by Ongar in the County of Essex Esquire Greetings. Whereas it hath been represented unto the Worshipful Alfred Bray Kempe Master of Arts Vicar General and Official Principal of our Consistorial and Episcopal Court of St Albans … a petition under the name of the said Howel John James Prince … is the Widower of Mary Catherine Prince late of Greenstead Hall aforesaid … resided in and owned the above property for upwards of 50 years past … is desirous of reserving to himself and his family an additional space next to the above grave and of enclosing the whole of the said space with a marble or stone kerb … 10 feet in length and 10 feet in breadth … is also desirous of placing on the East Wall of the Nave … a plain copper and iron mural Tablet … with the following inscription namely “In memory of Mary Catherine Price died March 20th 1902 aged 43. This Tablet is erected in memory of one who lived a happy life in this parish beloved by all who knew her and died trusting in Christ her Saviour”. That a meeting of the Vestry of the said parish was duly summoned on the 27th day of June 1902 … the Rector alone was present no parishioners being present … That the Reverend Arthur George Breeks Atkinson the present Rector ... consents to such application. [Granted. 31 August 1902] [HALS DSA 1/15/9. Muniment Book 1899 – 1904. f448].
Sunday, 1 June 2008
BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - June 2008
Welcome. Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street!!
William Kemp
He danced through Brentwood and Chelmsford in 1601 on his way to Norwich, so Will Kemp deserves a mention. Go to: http://www.villagecoop.com/events/kemp/kemp.htm
Blackmore Morris Dancers
A friend of mine suggested that I should publicise the Blackmore Morris Men Dance Programme for 2008. On Wednesday evenings until 3 September, when they return to the Leather Bottle at Blackmore, the group can be seen performing at various country pubs in our area. Follow the link to:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/blackmoremorris/wheretosee.htm
For more about the side, see
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/blackmoremorris/index.htm
Number One on Google search engine
I typed in the words ‘blackmore history’ into Google only to find that ‘Blackmore Area Local History’ is number one!
Copped Hall
Recommended this summer is a visit to Copped Hall near Epping. The Hall was destroyed by fire in 1917 but is now under repair, thanks to the Copped Hall Trust. But one has to marvel at the garden which is in the course of restoration, rescued from a mass of overgrown trees and brambles. The transformation over the past ten years has been amazing. It is a labour of love for Trust members who tend their own patch. In the large walled garden you can see the newly planted orchard and restored glasshouses. However, the house and, separately, the grounds are open to the public only on rare occasions. Follow these links for more information. http://www.coppedhalltrust.org.uk/
http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/community/history/Copped_Hall_Part_I.asp
Barleylands Agricultural Museum: farm machinery for sale
Seems like this is possibly the end of a second era. A collection of bygone farming machinery goes under the hammer at Billericay. The auction is on 7 June 2008. Lots will include “around 500 artefacts from its museum, including bygone farm machinery and tractors”.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local/display.var.2291125.0.farm_history_for_sale.php
Byrd Books fly off the shelves!
‘William Byrd: Some Notes’, released to coincide with the BBC TV Series ‘Sacred Music’ and ‘Through Changing Scenes’ at Stondon Massey Church, is selling surprisingly well at £1.50 a time. It is available from Blackmore and Stondon Massey churches. An order has also been placed by Ingatestone Hall Gift Shop. Byrd lived in Stondon Massey between 1593 and 1623 and was composer to the Petre family of Ingatestone.
Libraries: Where Have All The Books Gone?
Libraries have changed. More space is given to surfing the net with a consequence that less space is being given over to books on shelves, either for loan or reference. One of the more alarming changes in the past two years is a contraction of the areas devoted to Local Studies. I am told at Colchester the Local Studies Section is a shadow of its former self, and know that at Brentwood ad Chelmsford, for example, precious books are now locked away in a store-room. The problem with this is that the casual browser does not know of the existence of complete runs of Essex Review (1892 – 1957), the Transactions of the now Essex Society for Archaeology and History (1852 to date), Essex Recusant, Essex Life which was formerly the Essex Countryside (1952 to date) etc. The thing about these books is that often the writers have first hand accounts of events: Zeppelins over Essex during the First World War; the hailstorm over Essex in 1897, memories of Victorian life etc. In the tidy world of the Essex Libraries Service, these are hidden gems to the local historian. You need to ask for them – and be determined. Once the staff member knows of their existence they are only too happy to help. At Brentwood, Essex Review etc are in the store-room in the corner of the Library. Whilst researching William Byrd in February I was allowed into this secret room of antiquarian pearls. You can, of course, photocopy the pages you want. At Chelmsford, they are stored on locked but moveable shelves. My concern is that someone in a few months’ or years’ time comes along, taking the view that because no one looks at them and decides to flog them off alongside the trashy fiction. I am concerned that this might become a race against time.
Ninety Years On
I will be commemorating the First World War (the ‘Great War’ as it was then known) on this site beginning on 4 August – the date when war was declared in 1914 – and ending on 11 November – the date of the Armistice in 1918. The end of this great struggle was 90 years ago this year.
William Kemp
He danced through Brentwood and Chelmsford in 1601 on his way to Norwich, so Will Kemp deserves a mention. Go to: http://www.villagecoop.com/events/kemp/kemp.htm
Blackmore Morris Dancers
A friend of mine suggested that I should publicise the Blackmore Morris Men Dance Programme for 2008. On Wednesday evenings until 3 September, when they return to the Leather Bottle at Blackmore, the group can be seen performing at various country pubs in our area. Follow the link to:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/blackmoremorris/wheretosee.htm
For more about the side, see
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/blackmoremorris/index.htm
Number One on Google search engine
I typed in the words ‘blackmore history’ into Google only to find that ‘Blackmore Area Local History’ is number one!
Copped Hall
Recommended this summer is a visit to Copped Hall near Epping. The Hall was destroyed by fire in 1917 but is now under repair, thanks to the Copped Hall Trust. But one has to marvel at the garden which is in the course of restoration, rescued from a mass of overgrown trees and brambles. The transformation over the past ten years has been amazing. It is a labour of love for Trust members who tend their own patch. In the large walled garden you can see the newly planted orchard and restored glasshouses. However, the house and, separately, the grounds are open to the public only on rare occasions. Follow these links for more information. http://www.coppedhalltrust.org.uk/
http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/community/history/Copped_Hall_Part_I.asp
Barleylands Agricultural Museum: farm machinery for sale
Seems like this is possibly the end of a second era. A collection of bygone farming machinery goes under the hammer at Billericay. The auction is on 7 June 2008. Lots will include “around 500 artefacts from its museum, including bygone farm machinery and tractors”.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local/display.var.2291125.0.farm_history_for_sale.php
Byrd Books fly off the shelves!
‘William Byrd: Some Notes’, released to coincide with the BBC TV Series ‘Sacred Music’ and ‘Through Changing Scenes’ at Stondon Massey Church, is selling surprisingly well at £1.50 a time. It is available from Blackmore and Stondon Massey churches. An order has also been placed by Ingatestone Hall Gift Shop. Byrd lived in Stondon Massey between 1593 and 1623 and was composer to the Petre family of Ingatestone.
Libraries: Where Have All The Books Gone?
Libraries have changed. More space is given to surfing the net with a consequence that less space is being given over to books on shelves, either for loan or reference. One of the more alarming changes in the past two years is a contraction of the areas devoted to Local Studies. I am told at Colchester the Local Studies Section is a shadow of its former self, and know that at Brentwood ad Chelmsford, for example, precious books are now locked away in a store-room. The problem with this is that the casual browser does not know of the existence of complete runs of Essex Review (1892 – 1957), the Transactions of the now Essex Society for Archaeology and History (1852 to date), Essex Recusant, Essex Life which was formerly the Essex Countryside (1952 to date) etc. The thing about these books is that often the writers have first hand accounts of events: Zeppelins over Essex during the First World War; the hailstorm over Essex in 1897, memories of Victorian life etc. In the tidy world of the Essex Libraries Service, these are hidden gems to the local historian. You need to ask for them – and be determined. Once the staff member knows of their existence they are only too happy to help. At Brentwood, Essex Review etc are in the store-room in the corner of the Library. Whilst researching William Byrd in February I was allowed into this secret room of antiquarian pearls. You can, of course, photocopy the pages you want. At Chelmsford, they are stored on locked but moveable shelves. My concern is that someone in a few months’ or years’ time comes along, taking the view that because no one looks at them and decides to flog them off alongside the trashy fiction. I am concerned that this might become a race against time.
Ninety Years On
I will be commemorating the First World War (the ‘Great War’ as it was then known) on this site beginning on 4 August – the date when war was declared in 1914 – and ending on 11 November – the date of the Armistice in 1918. The end of this great struggle was 90 years ago this year.
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