Blackmore: The Bull. Parish Council Steps In

The Bull, Church Street

has made a planning application to

‘Change of use from public house on ground floor and living accommodation on upper floor to residential use of whole building’.

As this application potentially affects you as local residents and neighbours we felt we should bring it to your attention in order that you may make your views known. The details to do so are:

Case Officer: Mrs Charlotte White

Application Number: 15/00314/FUL

The closing date for comments is Thursday 23^rd April but I have asked this be extended to Thursday 30^th April. You can view and comment on the application via the Brentwood Borough Council website at www.brentwood.gov.uk under planning applications or write into the planning department at Brentwood Borough Council, Ingrave Road, Brentwood, CM15 8AY

Andrew Watley - Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green Parish Council

Blackmore: The Bull. Owner Seeks Planning Permission to Change to Residential Use

The long running saga around the future of The Bull, Blackmore, continues.  Residents living close to the Church Street pub - which has been closed since 2010 - have received a letter from Brentwood Borough Council's Planning Department giving notification of an application (15/00314/FUL) for a "Change of use from public house on ground floor and living accommodation on upper floor to residential use of whole building".  The letter is dated 26 March 2015 with 21 days sought for response.  Internet users may wish to make representations via e mail planning@brentwood.gov.uk to http://publicaccessbrentwood.gov.uk quoting the above application number.  This could be last orders for The Bull, and comes as no surprise. 

Blackmore: Tribute to Those who Served in Afghanistan

A service to commemorate the end of Britain's military involvement in Afghanistan was held today (Friday 13 March 2015) at St Paul's Cathedral, attended by members of the Royal Family. Proceedings concluded with a flypast. C130 JHercules appeared over Blackmore five minutes later.  We remember today those who served, particularly sons and daughters of families with connections with the village. Particular remembrance to the 453 who fell.

'The Wonderful World of Disney: Collecting Classical Antiquity': a Lecture at Ingatestone on 20 March 2015

The Essex Society for Archaeology & History

Presents

The Morant Lecture 2015

The subject of this year’s lecture is

The Wonderful World of Disney

John Disney (1779-1857) was a Barrister and Archaeologist and son of Rector John Disney. John Disney inherited his father’s antiquities, upon his death and continued to add to the collection. In 1850 Disney donated most of the sculptures to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. John Disney established the Chair of Archaeology.  The Disney family lived at the Hyde in Ingatestone and their monument is in Fryerning churchyard.

Presented by

Professor David Gill

Professor David Gill is a Professor of Archaeological Heritage and Director of Heritage Futures at the University Campus Suffolk.

On Friday 20th March 2015 at 7.30 pm

Venue: St Edmund & St Mary’s Church, Ingatestone

Members £5.00 in advance, Non-members and on the door £6.00. Booking required For refreshments PLEASE contact                 Dr Graham Gould on 02085561423, email drgegould@aol.com

1000th Post on Blackmore History Blog

This is a milestone for this blog. With 165000 page views that means an average 165 hits per item.  Blackmore Area Local History is about the history and heritage of the local area - and has reflected changes which inevitably happen. We have covered all aspects of life in the past in this area of Essex, and an eye on the future too. 

Brentwood Borough Council Development Plan

Received by e mail

Blackmore Village and our Green Belt.

Did you know:-

•    That Brentwood Council’s Development Plan has identified land within Blackmore Village, sufficient for well in excess of one hundred new homes to be constructed?

•    Two, well known, Housebuilding Companies have already acquired Options to purchase two fields in Blackmore? One of these is between Redrose Lane and Woollard Way, the second  being the other side of Fingrith Hall Road, linking with Orchard Piece.

The two Builders have indicated to the Council that c.90 homes can be built on one field and c.40 homes on the other. If the smaller scheme finds its way into the final Development Plan, it will increase the number of homes in Blackmore by almost 10%, and obviously much more if the larger scheme happens….or both of them…..The infrastructure of the Village will struggle to cope and the look and feel of the Village would change forever.

If you like Blackmore ‘the way it is’ and if you are interested in helping to protect our Green Belt,  then please do not wait and see what happens, rather make sure that: 

1.    You read the recent note circulated by our Parish Council

2.    You spend proper time on the Brentwood Council web-site and read the Development Plan in full…..yes, it’s dull, but they promised to consult with residents and this is our opportunity to help shape the future.

3.    And don’t delay in sending back your Consultation Feedback Forms.

Yes, a resounding ‘vote’ in favour of a large scale development at Dunton Garden Suburb will help alleviate the pressure to ‘grow’ the Villages, but it’s important that we do all that we can to take care of OUR destiny here in Blackmore.

THE CLOSING DATE IS 17^th FEBRUARY, so please don’t delay. Your views will count.

British Newspapers Online

10 million pages now searchable at The British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) hit a major digitisation milestone this month: it’s added its 10 millionth historic newspaper page.

The website launched with 4 million pages in November 2011, so you’ll now find 150% more to explore. If you’ve not used the collection for a while, it’s definitely time to come back and take another look.

Much more to search and a great-value subscription

It’s not just The British Newspaper Archive’s coverage that has improved in the last few years. Back in 2011, a 30 day package was £29.95. Today, a 1 month subscription is just £9.95.

A subscription will give you access to the whole collection of historic newspapers and you can keep the pages you view forever by saving them to your computer or printing them out.

View the full list of subscription options at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/payments

Thousands of pages are digitised every week and some fantastic content has been added in the last few months. Here are just some of the highlights:

1)      The Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror

Copies of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror from 1914-1918 are now available to search online. These national newspapers provide fascinating daily news, photographs and illustrations from World War One.

2)      58 new Irish newspapers

The collection of newspapers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has grown substantially in the last few months. At launch, seven newspaper titles were available, but you can now search a total of 65.

3)      Newspapers from World War Two

More than 350,000 pages from 1939-1945 are currently available to search at The British Newspaper Archive. 60 newspaper titles are already online, including the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, Lancashire Evening Post and Kent & Sussex Courier.

You’ll find more information at http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2015/02/11/10-million-newspaper-pages-are-now-fully-searchable/

ENDS

ESAH160: Brumfelda History Group. 'Broomfield's Lost Prince...

ESAH160: Brumfelda History Group. 'Broomfield's Lost Prince... A talk on Wednesday 11 February

Ingatestone: Pathe Film of Chase Hotel Swimming Pool

Here is some footage I have never seen before.  The Chase Hotel and swimming pool was demolished in the 1960s to make way for housing.  The Brentwood Gazette report includes some film shot in the 1930s: http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/Old-1930s-footage-shows-Ingatestone-Lido-heyday/story-25877905-detail/story.html 

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.”

Blackmore: Christmas at the Priory Church of St Laurence, 1960s

Familar Nativity scene by children of Blackmore in the 1960s

Brentwood Council Sites for 5500 homes by 2030

Sites in and around the village of Blackmore appear frequently in Brentwood Borough Council's proposals to build 5500 homes across the district by 2030. This just published by the Brentwood Gazette: http://www.brentwoodgazette.co.uk/Proposed-development-areas-Brentwood-revealed/story-25700826-detail/story.html 

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'.

ESAH160: ESAH Archives: S/LIB/9/4

ESAH160: ESAH Archives: S/LIB/9/4: Essex Society for Archaeology and History Archives S/LIB/9/4: Blackmore, Stondon Massey, Doddinghurst and Ongar featured in 100 year old notebook.  Publication to follow in 2015 or 2016 on website.

ESAH160: ESAH Archives: S/LIB/9/3

ESAH160: ESAH Archives: S/LIB/9/3: Essex Society for Archaeology and History Archives S/LIB/9/3 - Ingatestone and Fryerning church references.

Blackmore: St Laurence Church in the 1960s (5)

Lady Chapel Altar.  The Lady Chapel was removed
from the church in 1988 during reordering

Imperial War Museum's library and services under threat

ESAH160: High Country History Group: Imperial War Museum's ...: High Country History Group members finds out that Imperial War Museum's Library and services are under threat.  £4m annual deficit because of government funding.  Online petition to save closure of unique library, cut in important education services, loss of 60+ jobs. closure of popular 'Explore History' facility in London. Threat of sell off of library contents.

Blackmore: St Laurence Church in the 1960s (4)

West Door leading from bell tower to nave

Blackmore: St Laurence Church in the 1960s (3)

Interior of Church looking west - photograph from the 1960s