Ongar: Roll of Honour in new Health Centre (1)

Derek Berwin is undertaking research to produce a complete roll of names for the new Ongar Health Centre, currently under construction in Shelley Road, which is a replacement for the former Ongar War Memorial Hospital.  His research includes local parishes.  (see previous correspondence regarding Navestock, for example http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/01/navestock-war-dead.html ).

Derek has contacted Blackmore Area Local History regarding outstanding queries.

Received 5 July 2011

Hi! again Andrew.

Both I and the CWGC have reached an impasse with tracing the details on W Broomfield. Bobbingworth. Can you assist?

Regards Derek.

Replied 5 July 2011

No, sorry Derek, Bobbingworth is not a parish I have researched.

Andrew

Received 5 July 2011

Thanks Andrew for the response. Think I am at the end now of the district’s roll: 601 names.

I have made my research based on any connections, first birth, then resided in.  I have checked your own VERY comprehensive research as a basis [which covers Blackmore, Stondon Massey and Doddinghurst].

I should have the first example of the proposed layout  by a top calligrapher. It is likely to be around 60 inches wide.

Have 2k so far, which will  pay for the roll and hope to get some more from various Parish Councils to help pay for the book and web site maintenance.

Regards Derek.

Replied 16 July 2011

Dear Derek

Thanks for you r E mails, which I will publish on the blog.  Publication online has clear benefits, as demonstrated by the Blackmore Area Local History blog and main site.  The blog is free to set up and maintain.  The website requires hosting which is about £50 a year from streamline.net – but costs keep rising.  I suggest you shop around.

I would really encourage you to consider a blog and to publish, even in a basic form, what you have.  Relatives will contact you!

The areas of our research covers Blackmore, Stondon Massey and, to a lesser extent, Doddinghurst.  I received a lot of information on Doddinghurst from a gentleman who has moved away.  It lies unpublished.  As always there is never enough time!   If you are able to send over information I am happy to compare it with what I have.

Regards

Andrew

Area: "High Country History Group" Journal No. 37

This edition has been out for some while. The October 2010 edition includes:

- Essex Dialect and Accent, Part 2

- William Byrd Library (published on http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com)

- Blackmore War Memorial Recarved (covered extensively on this blog)

- Good Essex. A poem by G. Sarham (1947)

- Fred Cearns. From Plaistow to Passechndaele

- Pole, Rod or Perch?

- White's Directory of Essex 1848. Bobbingworth

- A History of Epping Drinking Fountain

- Executions at Springfield Gaol

BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - December 2010

Welcome to this month’s round-up of local history and heritage in and around Blackmore, Essex.

Disney Family of Blackmore and Ingatestone

The bicentenary of the birth of Edgar Disney is remembered on the blog this month. Edgar lived at Jericho Priory, but his father John lived at The Hyde in Ingatestone. He gave a large number of sculptures to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, which I visited recently to see what is still known as the ‘Disney marbles’. The gallery (Room 21), containing items from Roman and Greek times, has recently been refurbished with the story retold. The museum entry is free – though a suggested donation of at least £3 is welcome – and is an interesting way to spend a dull winter day. Another highlight of our afternoon visit – we must go back – was the slipware pottery made in the Harlow area of Essex, presumably around Potter Street.

Blackmore Area Local History

Today marks the third anniversary of this online project, which has grown significantly over the past year thanks to continued research as well as correspondence from its readers. There are now 109 pages on the main website, double that of last year, and over 500 entries on this blog.

Plans for the website for the next year include:
- posting all the correspondence and photographs I have received from former pupils who were at The Gatehouse School and The Hyde during the 1940s and 1950s (the same property as the Disney family a century earlier).
- creating a series of pages called ‘Blackmore. The Library Collection’ which will feature photographs I received from a collector who had a display in the former Blackmore local library back in the 1980s. This is outstanding from the last twelve months
- commemorating those recorded on the Doddinghurst and Stondon Massey War memorials with new pages

The blog will continue to focus on local history news and feedback from readers. I am not planning new online projects for publication next year – although I wrote this twelve months ago and immediately became involved with others on the Blackmore War Memorial project.

‘Offline’ I am researching the life of Rev Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, Rector of Stondon Massey (Essex) from 1893 to 1935. Reeve died unmarried but his half-brother had descendants with a surname Hawkins. Is there anyone out there related to this interesting Anglican clergyman and gentleman? The only way to find out is to post an entry on the blog! There is also May’s William Byrd Festival which I am promoting.

The purpose of ‘Blackmore Area Local History’ is to share knowledge of local heritage. Thanks for visiting the sites. Enjoy, and keep posting comments!

Ongar War Memorial Hospital demolished

Work has now gone ahead to demolish the old Ongar War Memorial Hospital which closed in 2009.

Chelmsford: St John’s Hospital closes

St John’s Hospital, in Chelmsford - where countless local babies were born – closed its doors for the last time on 19 November. For more read: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/news/End-era/article-2906715-detail/article.html

Willingale Churches

Willingale is, of course, unique to Essex in that two churches share the same churchyard. A new item has appeared on the internet thanks to a churchaholic. Read Stepney Robarts blog entry: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/willingale-essex.html

The busy blogger has also been to:
Bobbingworth: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/bobbingworth-essex.html
Fyfield: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/fyfield-essex.html
High Laver: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/high-laver-essex.html
High Ongar: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/high-ongar-essex.html
Roxwell: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/roxwell-essex.html
Shelley: http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/11/shelley-essex.html

If you are interested in Arthur Mee, of ‘King’s England’ fame, there is an interesting biography. http://stepneyrobarts.blogspot.com/2010/10/arthur-mee.html

It’s fair to sum up that the writer does not like Victorian churches or Victorian restorations at all. I enjoyed surfing this site.

Stanford Rivers Parish Register

Kathryn Lake commemorates ‘Church Record Sunday’ (I never knew it existed) with an item about parish registers and about Stanford Rivers specifically. Read on http://www.looking4ancestors.com/2010/11/church-record-sunday-peeking-at-parish.html

William Byrd Festival

The ‘William Byrd Festival’ will be held at St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, on 7, 8, 14 & 15 May 2011. For the latest information visit http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com/.

A Folk Song A Day

Don’t forget the marvellous site http://www.afolksongaday.com/

Links

For an extensive list of links to other sites go to: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/externallinks.html

Ninety Years On. Remembering the First World War (9)

Extract from ‘Notes For A Parish History’ (ERO T/P 188/3) written by Revd. E. H. L Reeve of Stondon Massey (Essex).

26th September 1918

There are now some 25 aeroplanes at North Weald aerodrome. About 40 men are attached to each ‘plane for refitting etc: and some 1500 will probably be eventually at the station if it becomes a Flying School.

Over 400 Officers have passed through the Convalescent Hospital at Blake Hall since its inauguration in 1916 – 18 months ago.

Ninety Years On. Remembering the First World War (6)

Extract from ‘Notes For A Parish History’ written by Revd. E. H. L Reeve of Stondon Massey (Essex).

10th September 1918

I visited the Convalescent House for Officers at Blake Hall today for the special purpose of calling on a Lieut Eyre commended to me by a mutual friend at Hampstead. I found the patient a bright young man of 23 or 24 years slowly recovering from a spinal wound received at Passchendaele in July 1917 which has partially paralysed his lower limbs and necessitated crutches. He had great hopes of the war being brought to a conclusion in 1919, but believed that in any case the weight of America would tell by 1920.

Bobbingworth: War Memorial

The War Memorial Tablet for Bobbingworth (also known as Bovinger) can be found inside St Germain’s Church. I spotted it when visiting the parish’s Bank Holiday Monday “At Home” fete.

It reads:

REMEMBER THE MEN OF
BOVINGER WHO DIED FOR
KING AND COUNTRY IN THE
GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918

C Bowles DVR RFA
W Broomfield Pte AVC
J T Burling Pte R Suss Rgt
C Dawkins Pte Northants Rgt
G Hudson Pte Middlesex Rgt
A Knight L Cpl R Berks Rgt
W Knight Pte Essex Rgt
O J Lazell GNR RGA
F Millar Pte Worc Rgt
W Page GNR RGA
F Shipway Pte Worc Rgt
M I Wright Pte Essex Rgt

Their name liveth for evermore

Bobbingworth: Blake Hall Station

John Betjeman is said to have liked Blake Hall Station, (photographed here after closure in 1985). Is this the truth, or was it an April Fool’s Joke?

The following is quoted from a recent book.

"This bucolic line [Epping to Ongar branch] was to become the most unlikely electric outpost of London Transport's Central Line when the last steam trains ran in 1957.

"Betjeman once said that his ideal job would have been station master at Blake Hall, a pretty little red brick station (now a private residence) along a line that might have been two hundred miles for the City of London in the 1950s" (Clancey p4).


Bibliography

Clancey, Jonathon. John Betjeman. On Trains (Methuen, 2006):

For more information on this branch line see my notes on ‘North Weald: Stepping Back Into History’.