Stondon Massey: "For King and Country"

The presentation given at Blackmore (9 November 2018) was greatly enriched by the writing of local historian and Rector of Stondon Massey, Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve who was incumbent for 42 years beginning in 1893.

Reeve records in detail the events of the War as it affected his parishioners. 

He notes in February 1916 the introduction of Conscription whereby all men between 16 and 41 years of age were deemed to be enrolled for the war effort.  In September that year Reeve wrote, “The War Office is calling men up.  Lads who are now eighteen are finding themselves called for, and among them Leonard Hasler, Ernest Baines, Alfred Baines, of Stondon, and Thomas Roast, formerly of Stondon School, now living in Blackmore.  Our Church Clerk Ernest Baines, (father of E Baines junior) is now discharged, having done good service, chiefly at Welsh centres, in the Army Training Corps.”

One of the victims was Leonard Hasler, whose name appears on the War Memorial tablet inside St Peter & St Paul’s Church.  Leonard died in October 1918 in a hospital in Boulogne having suffered a severe shrapnel wound.  His mother, Mrs Conn, who Reeve described as “no traveller” made the journey to see her injured son in hospital.  “Many of the soldiers greeted Mrs Conn cheerily as ‘Mother’, and seemed pleased to see a countrywoman again, and to have tidings first-hand of ‘Blighty’, which is their familiar name for the old country.  Everything was high-priced in the market-place, and she paid 1/8 for a single pear for her sick lad, and sevenpence for a banana!”   Leonard died, and his mother attended his funeral.  “Leonard was buried with five other soldiers with military honours.  The day previously the funeral service had been read over 60 poor fellows at one time.  These are the harrowing accompaniments of the war.  Up and down the neighbourhood we are constantly hearing of sad losses.”

His brother, Herbert, died in 1920 from the debilitating effects of gas upon his lungs.  He is buried in Stondon Churchyard.

The young Ernest Baines, aged 19, was severely injured in both legs and later returned home have had his right leg amputated. 

His father, also named Ernest, also served in the War.  When Armistice came on Monday 11^th November 1918, “Some in Stondon heard the distant bells at Brentwood.  But it was not till the afternoon that definite tidings reached the villages and then it filtered through chiefly the form of private messages.  … As soon as I had this official intelligence the Stondon Church bells were chimed with all the old vigour by Ernest Baines, our sometime sexton.”

The Stondon War Memorial includes six names.

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF/

William Chantry    Sapper RE

Robert James Ellis    RAF

Herbert Walter Gann    Sapper RE

Herbert Hasler    Pte Middlesex Regt

Leonard Hasler     Pte East Surrey Regt

William Hasler   Pte Ryl Innskg Fusrs

MEN OF STONDON MASSEY WHO FELL FIGHTING FOR KING/ AND COUNTRY OR WHO DIED FROM SICKNESS CONTRACTED/ THROUGH SERVING IN THE GREAT WAR A.D. 1914-1918/ THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE/ ERECTED BY PARISHIONERS AND FRIENDS.

“We will remember them”.

1st July 1916: The Opening Day of the Battle of the Somme

The Revd. Edward Reeve, rector of Stondon Massey, kept a diary called ‘Notes for a Parish History.  In it he wrote his observations of the First World War from his study in what is now Stondon Massey House.

“1^st July 1916: As I write, the reverberation of the great guns and explosion of mines are shaking the windows of the Rectory and of all the other houses, I suppose, in the southern and south-eastern counties of England.  There is evidently a very heavy bombardment in progress."

Interregnum at Blackmore and Stondon Massey

Revd. Toni Smith leaves today (11 January 2015) having been parish priest of St Laurence, Blackmore and St Peter & St Paul, Stondon Massey for the past five years.  The vacancy (or interregnum) will probably mean the end to an appointment of a Vicar of Blackmore and Rector of Stondon Massey, current practice now for the Church of England to employ a priest-in-charge.  The Parochial Church Councils of both parishes in the benefice will be responsible for finding a replacement through job advert and interviews, the appointment of which is formally made by the Bishop of Chelmsford.

Christmas Day 1914

The Christmas truce of 1914 has become a legendary halt in hostilities in what was a war of attrition, killing millions and lasting four and a half years.  Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, of Stondon Massey, kept notes for a parish history (now preserved in the Essex Record Office).  He gives this account of Christmas Day 1914 on the Western Front.

28^th January 1915

“When travelling by train to London from Ongar on Jan 25^th I had for a fellow passenger for part of the way a Lancashire man who had returned wounded and frost-bitten from the front, and was now sufficiently convalescent to be going for a short spell to his native county before returning to France.

“His first-hand report of the conditions of things abroad was very interesting.  He had often been for days together standing in water in the trenches, and the plight of the soldiers in the cold, wet, and filth was, he said indescribable.  The Germans were in as bad or worse plight.  During an interval on Christmas-day some of the enemy had approached our trenches and joined in conversation with our men.  One German soldier had given his cigarettes and offered him brandy. 

“In reply to the German invitation to drink with him the British soldier declined, until by way of assuring him took a pull himself at the flask he was offering!  Lancashire shyness was then overcome, and the soldier accepted a draught of the “Cognac” for such it proved to be.  The time was soon over for these pleasantries, and the two dropped back again into their several positions, having apparently no special desire to kill one another, save at the call of duty!  I wished my fellow passenger a safe return to England at the close of war.”

Stondon Massey: Old Folks Christmas Dinner 1980

A photograph taken in 1980, soon after Revd. Montagu Knott became Rector of Stondon Massey.  He had already been Vicar of Blackmore since 1957 and was to remain incumbent until 1985.  Here he is pictured with an unnamed 'old folk'.

Stondon Massey Postcard

St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey
Interior
(from an old postcard)

Book Review: Byrd, by Kerry McCarthy

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

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

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

Andrew Smith

Stondon Massey on the Map

BBC Radio 3 is building a music map of Britain.

Stondon Massey and William Byrd got a mention on air this morning (2 hours and 7 minutes into “Breakfast” on Radio 3) inclusing a mention of the Stondon Singers, but if people read the details on the map, they’ll find us there. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qkwbz

It was followed by the Gloria from the Mass for Four Voices.

Stondon Massey: Cardinall's Musick on 'Byrd Tour'

Cardinall's Musick
at St Peter & St Paul Church
Stondon Massey

The Cardinall’s Musick under their music director Andrew Carwood gave two concerts at Stondon Massey Church as part of their ‘Byrd Tour 2012’ on Sunday (2 September).  The eagerly anticipated event was one of the highlights of a year-long programme celebrating William Byrd’s Latin work and the successful recording cycle by the internationally known Choir.  The first concert included the Mass for Three Parts and the second a number of Byrd’s motets.  Cardinall’s Musick’s members’ voices blended together in an extraordinary and powerful way filling every corner right up to the belfry with the most beautiful sound.  The Mass was interspersed with the Propers for Lady Mass from Christmas to the Purification and performed as a sequence without applause ending ‘Ite missa est’ (‘The Mass is ended’).  In the audience one or two were visibly moved by the music and many bought copies of the Cardinall’s CDs including a recording of ‘The Great Service’ which is not on general release by Hyperion Records until 1 October.

During the period between the two concerts – a prolonged interval for some who attended the whole event – Andrew Carwood spoke about William Byrd in context of anti-Catholicism which was sweeping the country at the time.  The music of the middle period of his life (1580s) is darker and perhaps reflects a time when he was under house arrest on suspicion of involvement in the Throckmorton Plot (to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne).  Byrd knew the ringleader, Thomas Paget.  A year later, in 1585, Thomas Tallis, his good friend and fellow composer was dead (“and music dies”).  Byrd appears to come out of his mid-life crisis through his friendship with the Petre family.  While other composers and Catholic sympathisers fled the country Byrd stayed.  He moved to Stondon Massey by the mid-1590s in semi-retirement where he began to write his very best and joyful music.  Andrew Carwood believes that ‘The Great Service’ was a farewell piece to his colleagues in the Chapel Royal Choir.  Although Byrd remained a member of the Gentlemen his visits were far less frequent.

The central work in the second concert was the Propers for The Annunciation.  Concerts in which conductors turn round and engage with the audience are always appreciated.  Andrew Carwood is both informative and entertaining.  One of the shorter pieces in the second concert was ‘Dileges Dominum’ (known to Anglicans as the ‘Summary of the Law’).  It is a Canon in which the first sings a number of notes, but is followed by the second who sings the notes in reserve: a kind of mirror musically.  Byrd clearly intended this in the mirroring the words “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.

Andrew Carwood commented on the lovely acoustics the church has.

The focus of local organisers is inevitably turned 180 degrees towards the audience: ensuring that those who came had an enjoyable time and knew where to go for refreshments (in addition to the complex car parking arrangements at the small church).  Some who attended had never heard music of William Byrd.  Others were seasoned aficionados and knowledgeable about Byrd and his music.  We met someone who had just completed a dissertation on William Byrd – and had come from Dublin to be in Essex on a kind of pilgrimage.  Some had travelled many miles to Stondon while others were members and supporters of local choirs including the Stondon Singers.  Someone gave me an old newspaper cutting of Stondon Place, Byrd’s home (although subsequently rebuilt), which was for sale at that time for (wait for it!) £55,000.

The queue outside the church before the first concert stretched the entire length of the path to the gate.  The event was advertised as two concerts but for many was an enriching and spiritual occasion.  

BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS: July / August 2012

Memories of the Olympics: Tower Bridge (4 August 2012)

Welcome to this month’s round-up of local history and heritage in and around Blackmore, Essex.   … and welcome to our new look page layout thanks for the Blogger!

Willingale Bells

Six bells rang out for the first time on 27 May 2012, the day when the newly augmented peal was dedicated.  See http://www.willingalebells.org/newsletters/WoiW_May_2012_extended_v1.pdf

Successful History Event

Ingatestone United Reformed Church, in association with the local Historical Society, hosted a history event linked with its 200^th anniversary on 14 & 15 July.  On display were a number of old village photographs and other memorabilia.  The event was the official launch of an e-book written by Chris Harvey to commemorate the anniversary.  A large number of people attended.

Ingatestone stone dislodged

One of the ancient ice-age stones on the corner of Fryerning Lane, which gives the village its name, was dislodged when a delivery lorry collided with it on 21 July 2012.  The stone awaits resetting. See http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Historic-Ingatestone-rock-knocked-road-lorry/story-16560850-detail/story.html

Olympic connection with Railway Museum

The East Anglian Railway Museum, at Chappel and Wakes Colne, can claim two links with the Olympic Games.  One of their steam engines, currently on loan to the Churnet Valley Railway, was built at the Temple Field works site in Stratford in 1924.  Temple Fields made way for the Olympic Park beside the Liverpool Street London railway line.  The other link is that Blur, the Indie Band, performed their first gig at the Museum back in 1989. Blur, now re-formed, was one of the artists involved in the Closing Ceremony of the Games on 12 August inasmuch that their song ‘Parklife’ was included as a quirky cover version. (They performed 'live' at the Mayor of London's gig at Hyde Park that evening.)

The museum itself tells the story of the railways in the local area.  Its collection includes the two Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) which were used on the Stour Valley Line until the 1980s.  signal boxes rescued from local lines are also preserved.  The Museum is the current resting place for a three-car electric train (Class 306 017) which was in service from London Liverpool Street to Shenfield and Chelmsford from 1949 to 1980 (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=class+306).  There is a relatively new exhibition space.  Worth a visit.  See http://www.earm.co.uk/

Local news connection with the Olympic Games

The Red Arrows flew over the Olympic Park about 45 minutes before the opening ceremony on 27 July.  We heard the roar of them over the houses in Blackmore on their return journey.  They had long gone by the time we had raced into the garden.

Earlier that day a family went to Blackmore Church to ring the church bells, and participate in Martin Creed's project 'Work No. 1197'.  Across that country at 8.12am that day everyone was encouraged to ring bells as loud and fast as possible for three minutes.  Welcome to Britain everyone!


Followers of tennis may remember a young lad giving Andy Murray a congratulatory hug after winning a gold medal.  The 11 year old Henry Caplan comes from Blackmore. (see http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2012-08-06/cool-essex-boys-verdict-on-gold-hold/)

The Olympic flame was in our area on 6 & 7 July.  See http://www.brentwoodweeklynews.co.uk/news/9804316.Olympic_flame_will_never_be_forgotten__residents_say/

The London 2012 Olympics was a triumph both in its organisation and the success of the athletes.  It was a hugely memorable Festival for those who were lucky enough to get tickets and enjoy the site afterwards.  Local people were among the 70000 Games Makers who made the whole event so pleasurable for spectators. 

Epping and Ongar Railway brings visitors to Ongar

Trade in Ongar and North Weald has increased thanks to an influx of tourists coming to the newly opened Epping and Ongar Railway. The attraction is running an old London bus (christened the 339 route) from Harlow to North Weald on event days. See http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9819390.ONGAR_NORTH_WEALD__Modern_day_railway_gold_rush_for_high_street_traders/

William Byrd

Stondon Massey Church has a copy of the original Will of William Byrd, composer, in which he expresses a wish to be buried in the churchyard of the Parish where he lived.  The congregation will be welcoming The Cardinall’s Musick to two concerts at the church on 2 September. The event is a sell-out.  Separately another website has published the Will: http://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/the-will-of-william-byrd-modern-english-version/.  For more information on William Byrd visit http://williambyrdfestival.blogspot.co.uk/

Essex Record Office celebrates Heritage Weekend

The county’s archive resource is throwing open its doors for a special event on Saturday 8 September to mark Heritage Weekend.  Their keynote speaker is family history expert Nick Barratt, radio and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ fame.  Any information I glean will be posted on the website.  For more, and to see Nick Barratt in aeries of videos, go to http://www.familyhistoryshow.net/essex-record-office-discovery-day

Writtle Calling

To celebrate the 90^th anniversary of 2MT, Britain’s first radio station, enthusiasts are mounting  recreation series of broadcasts starting 11 September.  For more go to http://www.writtlecalling.co.uk/pr3.pdf

Essex Voices

A Great Dunmow based history website: Essex Voices, is a resource of note.  Here is an illustration of how Queen Mary was confused with Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic, executed at Fotheringhay: http://www.essexvoicespast.com/history-howlers-mary-i/.  Go to the ‘home page’ to find the latest entries: http://www.essexvoicespast.com/

Brentwood & Shenfield history

‘Changes over a century’ is well worth a look: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Changes-century-leave-mark-today/story-16751829-detail/story.html

 War Memorial unveiled at Ongar Medical Centre

A ceremony to unveil a War Memorial at the new Ongar Medical Centre was held on 10 May 2012.  It contains the names of those who died from the local area, predominantly during the First World War.  It replaces the War Memorial which existed in the former building, the War Memorial Hospital, which occupied this site.  A separate post will feature this event.

Doddinghurst War Memorial

A War Memorial tablet to those who died in the First World War at Doddinghurst is sited in All Saints Church.  (see http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/doddinghurstwwone.html)

I have now completed the work to provide a tribute page online for all of those named.  New pages are available on ‘Blackmore Area Local History’ for:

Arthur Benton - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_arthur_benton.html

Harry Benton - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_harry_benton.html

George Everett - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_george_everett.html

Arthur Hammond - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_arthur_hammond.html

George Hammond - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_george_hammond.html

St George Swaine Showers - http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ww1_swaine_showers.html

Pages have already been set up for Herbert Miller, Gerald Wellesley Pigott, James Roast and Harry Riglin because their names also appear on the War Memorial at Blackmore.

Commonplace Book of Edward Reeve

The complete series of posts can be viewed by following this link: http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Commonplace%20Book

Chelmsford City

The county town now has official City status, conferred by HM Queen Elizabeth II in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee.

Blackmore Church photos

Some interesting photographs of St Laurence Church Blackmore have appeared, taken by a visitor on a Teas In The Tower day: http://toomanyphotos.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/blackmore-church/

In brief

Ingatestone WW2 airmen’s lives remembered: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Airmen-s-lives-remembered/story-16355291-detail/story.html

Still for sale – The Bull, Blackmore: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/7189872671/

Links

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

BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - April 2012

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

Blackmore Ancestors

My booklet, previously called ‘Hatched, Matched and Despatched’, has had a makeover and is now available again as ‘Blackmore Ancestors’.  The 24-page booklet “does not regurgitate the contents of the [Baptism, Marriage and Burial] Registers [of Blackmore, Essex] but uses two late Victorian sources – one written appropriately in the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (1897) – to comment on the social changes of the parish over the past 400 years”.  It is available from Megarrys and the local church, priced £2, and sold in aid of funds for the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore.

Titanic connections

An event which cannot be avoided on television at the present time is the maiden voyage and sinking to the SS Titanic one hundred years’ ago on 15 April.  The Catholic Priest of St Helen’s Church, Ongar, was one of those who perished.  Father Andrew writes in the Spring 2012 edition of the Stondon Massey News (follow link http://www.stondonmasseypc.co.uk/local-information/parish-magazine/ ) how Father Thomas Byles helped women and children get into the few lifeboats which were available and how he ministered to those who would likely perish by giving absolution and blessings.  “he then began the recitation of the rosary”.  Many times Father Byles was asked to board a lifeboat, but he refused.  A survivor recalled that he could distinctly hear the priest’s voice as his craft left the stricken vessel.  Father Byles is commemorated in a stained glass window at the church: “Pray for the Reverend Thomas Byles, for eight years Rector of this Mission, whose heroic death in the disaster to SS Titanic, earnestly devoting his last moments to the religious consolation of his fellow passengers, this window commemorates.”

Scott of the Antarctic

Less has been made in the media of the expedition by Captain Scott and his comrades one hundred years ago – which is a shame.  The party were just a few days too late to be the first to reach the South Pole and all perished on their return journey.  Captain Oates, whose family lived at Gestingthorpe in the north of Essex, is famously recorded as saying “I am just stepping outside for a moment … “.

Miscellaneous

Blackmore:  ‘Antique Road Trip’ televised 21 February 2012.  Megarrys in Blackmore village green featured.  http://www.antique-teashop.co.uk/?p=638

Fryerning: Unusual church photo. http://ellispictures.com/2012/02/24/the-church-at-fryerning/

High Ongar:  British Legion branch closes after 82 years. http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/post-British-legion/story-15351662-detail/story.html

Ingatestone:  Old bottles discovered on High Street fire station site.  Former dump.  http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Old-bottles-unearthed-builders-dig-deeply/story-15587726-detail/story.html

Stondon Massey:  William Byrd article ahead of Cardinall Musick’s tour.  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/73e967be-597c-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1qfnHxThM .  For more visit http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com

Writtle:  Lead stolen – again.  It is part of a major problem in which thieves target historic buildings for personal gain, which caring one jot about the consequences on the local churchgoers and community.  Hands off I say!!   http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Writtle-church-victim-second-lead-theft/story-15295682-detail/story.html

Links

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

Area: "High Country History Group" Journal No. 41

The Quarterly Journal of the High Country History Group was issued to members in September 2011.  It contains a number of items including:

-          High Country.  An extract from ‘The People’s History of Essex’ on Greensted (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/greensted-peoples-history-of-essex-1861.html)

-          The Bells of St Christopher’s Church, Willingale (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/07/willingale-bells-of-st-christopher.html)

-          After Dinner Anecdotes, written by Edward Henry Lisle Reeve

o   Revd. Thomas Smith (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/stondon-massey-revd-thomas-smith.html)

o   Revd. John Oldham (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/stondon-massey-revd-john-oldham.html)

o   Revd. Thomas Hubbard (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/stondon-massey-revd-thomas-hubbard.html)

o   Captain Reeve (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/stondon-massey-captain-edward-reeve.html)

o   Revd. Edward James Reeve (see http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2011/10/stondon-massey-revd-edward-james-reeve.html)

-          The Greensted Road

-          Kellys Directory of Essex 1933 – Greensted

-          Richard Thomas Dutton Budworth (part 1)

-          The Essex Earthquake of 1884

For membership and further information go to http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/hchg.html

Stondon Massey: Cardinall's Musick to sing Byrd

Cardinall’s Musick to perform Byrd at Stondon Massey

The multi Gramophone Award winning Choir the Cardinall’s Musick will be coming to St Peter and St Paul Church Stondon Massey on Sunday 2 September to perform two short concerts as part of their Byrd Tour 2012. 

Cardinall’s Musick is an internationally recognised Choir specialising in early music.  In 2010, under the direction of Andrew Carwood, the singers released their 13^th disc concluding the complete Latin choral works of William Byrd.  ‘Infelix Ego’ won them the Recording of the Year. 

The Byrd Tour 2012 celebrates the recording achievement by taking the music of the great Elizabethan composer to venues both great and small.  St Peter and St Paul Church, the only stop planned in Essex, is one of the smallest on the tour but has such a strong association with Byrd that Andrew Carwood felt that the opportunity to perform here should not be missed.  The tour will be extensively advertised by Cardinall’s Musick in national newspapers and the music press.  The Choir can be heard on the cover CD of the BBC Music Magazine soon.

Members of Stondon’s congregation will be there on the day to supervise car parking, provide front of house support and post-concert refreshments.  The professional Choir will be offering tickets for sale online for about £10 for each of the two concerts.  (However please indicate to us now whether you are interested so that we can seek to secure tickets for sale locally).

Provisional times for the concerts are 3.00pm and 5.30pm on Sunday 2 September 2012.  Each hour-long offering will include a different Mass by William Byrd plus motets.

Notes:

The Financial Times carried an interesting article giving information on Byrd and heralding the Byrd Tour 2012, which began at the Wigmore Hall in London on Monday 5 March (was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and is available to hear on the I Player until Monday): http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/73e967be-597c-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nN4pStYi . For the latest tour information go to http://www.cardinallsmusick.com/news/byrd-tour-2012 and specifically, for Stondon Massey Essex, follow the link to the William Byrd Festival blog, http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com/ .

BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - March 2012

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

Cardinall’s Musick launch Byrd Tour 2012

William Byrd (see picture), composer and one-time resident of Stondon Massey, is the focus of a nine-month tour by Cardinall’s Musick.  Under the direction of Andrew Carwood the internationally renowned Choir begin their series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London on Monday 5 March.  The tour will include two short concerts at St Peter and St Paul Church, Stondon Massey, on Sunday 2 September.  The Financial Times has carried an interesting article giving information on Byrd and heralding the tour: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/73e967be-597c-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nN4pStYi . For the latest tour information go to http://www.cardinallsmusick.com/news/byrd-tour-2012 and specifically follow the link to the William Byrd Festival blog, http://www.williambyrdfestival.blogspot.com/ .

Petre Chapel Refurbishment at Ingatestone

The Petre Chapel in Ingatestone Parish Church, the resting place of John Petre patron to the aforementioned William Byrd, has just been refurbished.  See http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Historic-chapel-time-400-years/story-15214431-detail/story.html

Antique Road Trip


Megarrys Antique Shop on The Green, Blackmore, was featured on the BBC day-time show 'Antique Road Trip' on 21 February.  It was recorded last August.  Since then there has been an influx of visitors to the village.


Dr Livingstone I presume

Ongar United Reformed Church hosted a talk on the explorer and missionary David Livingstone.  Before going to Africa the young man stayed in Ongar for about nine months.  He is famously recalled locally for being lost for words when about to give a sermon one evening at Stanford Rivers Congregational Church.   Ongar URC is one of the oldest non-conformist chapels in the country, having been formed in 1662.  It celebrates its 350^th anniversary in May.

Miscellaneous

Buttsbury churchyard accident: Drivers misjudge sharp bend at Buttsbury Church causing road accident – locals refer the two right-angle turns as ‘dead cyclists’ bend’, warning of extreme care required on this country lane.  http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/smash-danger-road/story-15130659-detail/story.html

Doddinghurst history: http://www.tonicbooks.com/post/2012/02/15/Doddinghurst-History.aspx

Fry family of Blackmore: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=qnco05i3o09jr8lrjaf2mk1jc2&topic=580830.0

Greensted Church theft: http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Thief-takes-painting-church-service/story-15130653-detail/story.html

Links

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

A Trilogy of Books: "After Dinner Anecdotes"; "Relatively Speaking"; "Captain's Reflections"

Three new books relating to the Reeve family of Stondon Massey and beyond are now on sale priced £2 each (plus P&P).  Pictured below is part of the display of archive material shown at St Peter & St Paul Church last weekend.

Stondon Massey: Today at St Peter & St Paul Church

Open 10.00am to 4.00pm for annual Gift Day, refreshments, plus ...

Reeve Family Archive

The Reeve family moved to the Stondon Massey Rectory in 1849, and lived in the village for almost a century.  This archive is a generous donation by one of their descendants.  It represents an interesting social history of a well-to-do family of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Please handle these items with care.

1.                   The commonplace book of Captain Edward Reeve (1785-1867).  He wrote this manuscript at The White House, Ongar, in about 1860.  Edward Reeve purchased the Rectory for himself and the advowson for his clergyman son Edward James for £700 in 1849.

2.                   ‘Jottings’ by Edward Henry Lisle Reeve (1858-1936) written in 1881.  He was known as Lisle to his family.

“My father you know is always telling us the same old stories, and then he will turn to me and ask ‘if I remember that’.”

3.                   ‘Plauti Comoediae. Tom. I’.   Lisle was educated at Harrow School.  This book is dated September 1875.

4.                   Lisle was a keen athlete and cyclist during his youth.   The trophy shows success in 1880 in a one-mile and ten-mile race, with a contemporary photograph.  ‘Safety bicycles’ had just been invented, allowing the rider to touch the ground with their feet, and were first catalogued in 1885. 

5.                   Two books belonging to Edward Reeve.  ‘Watts’, a hymn book dated 1815.  Highlighted is the hymn ‘Give to our God immortal praise’.

6.                   ‘Prayer’ dated 1815.  The Book of Common Prayer, which then included prayers for the deliverance of King James I from the Gunpowder Treason, and a form of prayer with fasting in remembrance of the martyrdom of King Charles I.  These remained in the Prayer Book until 1859.  The service of Morning Prayer included a prayer for “our most gracious Sovereign Lord King GEORGE” (George III who had reigned since 1859 – and by 1815 was bonkers) and “our gracious Queen Charlotte, their Royal Highnesses George Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family” (George Prince of Wales was Regent and later, from 1820 to 1830 King George IV).

7.                   ‘Church Services’.  A Book of Common Prayer inscribed “Elizabeth Jane Reeve. Aug^st. 22^nd 1884. With her father’s love”.  Jane was one of three daughters of Edward James Reeve (1821-1893), then Rector of Stondon Massey.  The book was given on her 25^th birthday. The same Morning Prayer records “our most gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen VICTORIA” followed by a prayer for “Albert Edward Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales and all the Royal Family” (Albert Edward eventually became King Edward VII in 1901.  Queen Victoria’s consort, Albert, had died in 1861).

8.                   ‘Hymns for a Week’ and ‘Concordance’.

9.                   ‘Death Certificate of Edward James Reeve’ and Hymns sung at his funeral at Stondon Massey, August 1893.

10.               ‘British Museum. Reading Room’. Rules, dated 1894, reflecting Lisle’s interest in local history.

11.               ‘Stondon Massey’.  The parish history written by Revd. E H L Reeve (Lisle).

12.               Miscellaneous Papers.

The archive is the generous donation of a great great niece of Edward Henry Lisle Reeve.

Available today from the back of the church are three booklets transcribing extracts from the two commonplace books on display – each booklet is priced £2.00, in aid of church funds.

-          After Dinner Anecdotes

-          Relatively Speaking

-          Captain’s Reflections

Also, the recently published ‘Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve. The Last Gentleman Clergyman of Stondon Massey’

Andrew Smith

15 October 2011

Stondon Massey: Revd. Edward James Reeve

An extract from ‘Jottings’ by EHL Reeve written in 1881 and now available in a booklet entitled ‘After Dinner Anecdotes’.

 “In medio tutissimus ibis” is the Rector’s of Stondons motto.  Imbued with a firm belief in the English Church, he is equally uncompromising to Roman Catholic and Dissenter, courting neither the one nor the other out of fear or favour.

Mr Ely, Rector of Broomfield near the Curacy of Little Waltham, said to him in those early days of his ministry, “Your sentiments are right, but you will never be popular”.

[Edward James Reeve was Curate of Little Waltham, near Chelmsford, Essex, from 1847 to 1849 having previously served as Curate at Ide Hill, near Sevenoaks in Kent, from 1844 to 1846.]

On some points of Church doctrine or discipline my father feels so strongly, that in speaking of them he seems almost inspired to inveigh against those who would make breaches in her walls.  On such occasions he feels as though he would like to be addressing a huge mass of people on some wide plain, and fancies them still pouring in to hear him.  “How many are there?” he supposes to himself to ask, “20000 Sir” is the reply, “and they are still coming up”. “Let them come on”.  And when assembled, he can imagine himself addressing them all, and like Samson, dying at the hour of triumph.

Mr Wyndham Holgate Inspector of Schools, sent by the Government round the Country to inquire into the state of school buildings – whether or no they were adequate to the number of children etc – in due course came to Stondon.  Had the cubic weight of air in the room been deemed insufficient, the Government could have obliged the parish to build another school of proper proportions.  It was however deemed to be sufficient.  My father is in possession of the title deeds of the ground on which the school stands, it being given to the rector by Mr Philip Herman Meyer the Lord of the Manor for use as School property as long as the school should be conducted according to the principles of the Church of England.  Mr Wyndham Holgate endeavoured to persuade my father that he only had to accept the conditions of Government called the “Conscience Clause” (by which children, whose parents objected to the teaching of the English Church, might be instructed in secular learning only) to obtain a Grant from Government, instead of paying the salary of the governess himself.  This was just the proposition to call forth his best energies, and I have it from Mrs Meyer herself who was present at the time, that she never heard such a torrent of eloquence, such pithy and witty sentences; such speedy, such sharp retorts. He had the best of the argument throughout, and his adversary retreated, assuring him that there were only two other such in the kingdom, and that he was a regular old John Bull.  On wishing the Rector good-day, the Inspector said, “You are quite right, Mr Reeve, there is no doubt, in your view of the matter.”

Stondon Massey: Captain Edward Reeve

An extract from ‘Jottings’ by EHL Reeve written in 1881 and now available in a booklet entitled ‘After Dinner Anecdotes’.

When my father [Revd. Edward James Reeve (1821-1893)] first came to Stondon Massey as Rector [for 44 years from 1849 to 1893], Captain [Edward] Reeve [(1785 – 1867)] lived at the Rectory House at Stondon with him, with my grandmother [Anna Reeve, nee Stutter (1791 – 1862)] and Aunt Mary [Mary Wheatley Reeve (1823 – 1916)]. 

They had lately become possessed of a young donkey which Miss Mary Reeve used to drive about.  One day the animal was not forthcoming, and Captain Reeve with characteristic activity put an advertisement in the paper offering 1£ reward for its safe restoration.  Three or four days passed, and the beast did not appear; at last the coachman had occasion to go to an old cowshed where the main supply of hay was kept, and there to his astonishment was the truant donkey. Evidently it had got in when the man last went to the shed in the evening, and the key had been turned on it.  The donkey had enough to eat, but his good fortune had been somewhat tempered, for he had nothing to drink, and when the door was opened he made immediately for the pond, and began to drink with an energy which bade fair to prove fatal.  Captn. Reeve, though glad to recover his lost property, was still annoyed to think of the disturbance which his advertisement had created, and the more so that friends would from time to time gently chaff him upon the subject.

Mrs Edward Reeve [the Captain’s wife] was the eldest daughter of Mr James Stutter of Higham Hall [Suffolk].  She was a great invalid in her later years, and during her residence at Stondon seldom was seen outside the house.  The Captn. would vainly try to entice her out declaring that the sun was shining brightly, but even if he elicited a promise from her to try its charms he would return a few moments later only to find her putting on her boots – the lacing of which was a work of time.  When a new domestic was wanted, great troops of applicants would appear at the window to be called in one by one, and the Capt. would be outside and wink significantly if he saw one approaching whom he thought would suit!  On one occasion Mrs Reeve in questioning one more likely than the rest, asked her if she had been confirmed, and received a somewhat amusing reply, that she “had not yet, but that she was good at her needle”. 

Mrs Reeve was of silent habits, and particularly reticent at meals, when, if she chanced to make a remark which caused merriment to the party, she would merely smile and say “I am glad you are amused”.

If the said party assembled grumbled at the fare provided for them, but the good lady afterwards found devouring the same, and even applying for a second helping, she would sarcastically say, “You seem to eat it, though”.