Group Visit – An Afternoon in Blackmore

Blackmore, a village four miles east of Chipping Ongar, is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. It grew due to the founding of an Augustinian Priory in 1160 by the Samford family who later married into the powerful Essex family, the de Veres (Earls of Oxford). The Priory Church of St Laurence, is inextricably linked with the history of the village, with the Nave being that of the former Priory and its ceiling (dated 1381 to 1397) bearing 16 shields among whom are the 81h, 9th and 10h Earls of Oxford, Richard II, Thomas of Woodstock (the King's uncle who was murdered at Calais in 1397), John of Gaunt (who became Henry IV in 1399) and Thomas Braybrooke (Bishop of London).

The oldest graves in the churchyard date from the last year of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century. Writing in 1940, Arthur Mee records that the churchyard contains "two Twogoods from Queen Anne's time, each with a skull and crossbones on his grave"³. This motif was common as symbols of death and not, as once supposed, signs of plague victims. Nearer the lychgate (built 1914) are slabs to the memory of the Baker and Petchey families. William Holman (1719) transcribed the inscriptions from these graves which today are now almost illegible. Like the Twogoods, these are graves of rich families. For example, the Will of William Baker (1704) *:

Skull and Crossbones Grave, John Twogood

In the Name of God. Amen. William Baker of Fingrith Hall in the parish of Blackmore in the County of Essex Gentleman being sick in Body but Sound and perfect in mind and memory (thanks be to God therefore) ... doo give and devise unto my Sonn William Baker [all] ... Margaret my deare and loving Wife ... the summe of Twenty pounds of lawfull money of England by quarterly payments ... unto my Daughter Anna Wearia Baker the sum of two hundred pounds ... at her Age of One and twenty years and in the meanetime ... unto my said Wife (who I thereby appoint her Guardian) ... the yearly sum of Six pounds .. unto my son Robert Baker ... messuage ... in High Ongar ... called Humphreys ... 3" sonne Alexander ... One Hundred Pounds of lawfull money .... my sister Cornish and her two daughters tenn shillings a piece to buy them Rings ... my Sonn John Baker my Silver Saltsellers and my silver Beaker ... Mary Godbold the widdow of John Goldbold ... twenty shillings a year for five yeares ... And to the poore of the parish of Blackmore I give twenty shillings to be distributed ...

Many visitors to the church are intrigued by the house behind the wall known as Jericho Priory. Whilst some know that this was the birthplace of Henry Fitzroy (1519 - 1536). King Henry VIII's bastard son, others are then disappointed to learn that the building was subsequently reconstructed. The house occupies the site of the demolished proportion of the former Priory. Today the south and east side of the church are only accessible by the church members for special purposes (e.g. quinquennial inspections, repairs).

Revd. Philip Morant (1768) suggested that, "This is reported to have been one of K. Henry the Eighths Houses of Pleasure ... Here was born his natural son, by Elizabeth Tailbois, daughter of Sir John Blount".

It is highly unlikely that Henry Fitzroy was conceived in Blackmore. as some locals would like to claim. What is more probable was that Elizabeth Blount, later married to Gilbert Tailbois, was sent for a period of confinement to Blackmore Priory when clearly seen in Court she was with child. Blackmore Priory in 1518 was a small. quiet, Augustinian Priory which nine years later was suppressed by Wolsey having only four Canons in residence. Had Henry Fitzroy not died at the age of 17 the course of English history could well have changed.

During the Second World War, as one of our senior members recalled, the house was used for military purposes. The aftemoon brought back fond memories of the village where she lived in 1943 and was a driver.

Church Street has a number of old buildings, all well described in the new Buildings of England volume on Essex. Little Jericho House: "with projecting two storey porch, possibly built as a vicarage c1600"⁶. Hareton House, a late C18 brick house, purchased to be used as a Vicarage, and extended to three bedrooms in 1891. The new Vicarage (1957) was built in the former large garden after Hareton House was sold. Opposite is Longbeam Cottage, "the earliest house in the street, dating from the early C14 but with the front wall rebuilt e1600. Five bays with continuous jetty and exposed timbers of the upper storey".

We had the owners of Little Jordan with us on our walk. They added to Bettley's description that it "has a sashed front to Church Street but original early C17 windows on the return front in Bull Alley" by saying that there is a blocked up window and that property might have once been a fishmonger's but this fact had not been proved.

The Bull Public House at the top of the street is described as "Originally two houses of the C15 and early C16, with much exposed timber framing". The pub website gives a date of 1385, one which would fit romantically with the notion that pilgrims would come to the village to the Priory and require board and lodgings.

A Baptism Register entry records:

1607
Marie Lanes - du of -----? & Maria. Born at Wm. Cooke's of ye Bull.
17 May.

Mr Stock (aged 85 in 1932), in an interview for the Essex Chronicle, recalled 14 pubs.

Walking on along The Green, "The pond, a well known beauty spot, was originally constructed as a watering-hole for cattle going to market and horses travelling between London and East Anglia".

The Barge and pond
(taken from an engraving by Ernest Moul, 1905)

Taking what we might regard as oral history. the Essex Chronicle article reported that one in four residents in Blackmore drew the Old Age Pension. The healthiness of the village was suggested to be the Blackmore water "which came off iron".

"I spoke to Mrs Elizabeth Bugler, who is 92, and still conducts a small business at 'The Old Barge' down by the river.

"'I've nothing to grumble at', she said except that I think they mighi put a little more on the old age pension.

"She has never been to London. 'No use for the place' she said 'too much trumpery there'. The old lady has a great suspicion of paper money. 'I like silver' she explained 'that's real money"*".

Laurences (photographed in 1974)

A large house on the north side of The Green, Laurences, "a residence with 4 bedrooms, outbuildings, gardens and orchard and about 1 acre of meadow land" ** , had once been called Poplars. It had been owned by the Caton family and recently I have been in correspondence with once of his descendents. Her Gt.Grandfather William Oliver Caton lived at Diggens Farm, Willingale. He died there in 1901 but also mentions this property.

We then paused opposite the War Memorial. It contains the names of the fallen on the front face and on the other faces the names of the men from the village who served are inscribed. "One in every five had paid the supreme sacrifice"¹⁰.

Horsefaryre Green

Horsefayre Green and the Leather Bottle remind us of a local leather trade and horses. Today there are three pubs in close proximity: The Bull, The Prince Albert and The Leather Bottle. "The Bottle", rebuilt following a fire in 1954, was, since 1769, a public house. A local remembers being there on reopening night in 1956.

Those who attended Debden's Royal Mail Store on 3 September spotted the K6 telephone kiosk by the Post Office. This is a listed building: originally designed in 1935.

The Post Office has a plaque "JHA 1888" referring to John Henry Arthy who was postmaster.

Opposite is The Prince Albert where we recalled a story from the Essex County Chronicle, 10 April 1908. "Essex farmers in the Blackmore district did not appear to be suffering from an epidemic of stack fires" but there had been a fire at High Elms Farm, the property for Messrs W & G Osborne. Leaving the Prince Albert a little worse for wear, William Bentley boasted "They think it's me". He was subsequently arrested.

In Court William Osborne deposed that "I saw some footprints came up to the stack and back again in the direction of Fingrith Hall Road".

"PC Vale said. At 11.5pm on the 7th inst I was on duty near Red Rose Farm, when 1 saw a fire at High Elms Farm. Proceeding to the farm I found the stack well alight. At 5.30 next Morning I searched around the stack and found some footprints coming from the prisoner's lodgings. With PC Marjoram I compared prisoner's boots and saw they corresponded with the footprint".

The prisoner was remanded in custody but later found not guilty.

Until the nineteenth century, educational standards in England were very poor. As official documents testify, many people were illiterate, signing marriage registers etc with "their mark". This changed from 1870 when Forster's Education Act set up School Boards. A 'School Return' in 1870 confirmed that Blackmore, with a population of 644. had "nothing but a site to supply the deficiency". It adds: "Mr Callender [the Vicar] tells me that there is no probability of getting a Church School built. They will have a Rates school in their parish"¹¹. The school was opened seven years later and bears the date 1877. Having been a Youth Centre since a larger school was built in 1970, it is now virtually unused, awaiting possible conversion to a house. I hope that it is not demolished.

We then walked to the modem Village Hall and along Green Lane.

The Black Death swept England in 1348, reaching Essex in the following year. Locally the manors of Fingrith and Blackmore suffered badly. New roads bypassed Blackmore Manor; these remain as Green Lane (Service Lane) and Red Rose Lane. They serve as a reminder to those dark days. Near the church are boulders thought to cover plague pits, containing the bodies of victims of the epidemic.

Back at the church, and before tea and cake, the afternoon concluded with a tour of the building and a talk on its famous bell tower which Nikolaus Pevsner (1954) describes as "one of the most impressive, if not the most impressive. of all timber towers in England"¹².

Bell tower interior

Inside the floor area measures 28 feet by 26% feer, making it the largest of the ten bell towers in Essex. It was built at the west end of the church, covering the Norman doorway to the Priory. It is an amazing construction: "a most elaborate piece of carpentry and looks very powerful"¹³, says Pevsner. It is of "superlative quality" says Cecil Hewett, with similar joints to that of the Wheat Barn at Cressing Temple¹⁴. Unlike other belfries and bell towers, much of the timber is considered to be original. One expert says that the bell tower is over-engineered: some 30% of the timber could be removed and the structure would still stand.

Plan of Bell Tower (taken from Essex Review 1899)

In 2004. I led a project with the PCC to have the bell tower tree-ring dated. Dendrochronology, as it is called, applies the simple fact that all trees grow at different rates year on year, depending on weather conditions. Each year will leave a tree ring and by comparing the greater or lesser growth of samples of trees, by reference to surviving trees and dated timbers it is possible to determine the age of timber used in buildings. This is called cross-matching or cross-dating. This technique excites archaeologists because timber framed buildings were generally constructed using 'green' wood, which means that the age of a building can be determined with some precision, sometimes within a year of felling, provided the sapwood is present.

Samples are taken by using a hollow corer about 15 millimetres in diameter, connected to an electric drill. The core extracts data containing a number of annual tree rings.

In all, nine samples were taken from Blackmore's bell tower for analysis under the microscope: seven at ground floor level and two more from the bell frame. The samples from the bell frame failed to date, so it could not be determined whether or not the bell frame is contemporary with the construction of the tower. One other sample at floor level also failed to date.

Of the six remaining, three gave precise felling dates. This is because, during fieldwork, complete bark edge and sapwood was found to be present in various locations. It was found that the oaks were "felled over the space of three winters, in 1397/98. 1398/99 and 1399/1400, suggesting a date for construction of the tower in 1400. or one or two years after this date"¹⁵. Until then the date of construction was thought to have been 1480.

The west window of the bell tower, thought to have been a later insertion, was also determined as being contemporary with the construction of the bell tower.

The date is a major new discovery and has the effect of rewriting the history of Blackmore. For the first time, we know that the north doorway to the church must have been pierced about the same time. Also, the date is near to that of the construction of the roof over the Nave. At the end of the nineteenth century the sixteen coloured heraldic devices on the ceiling were analysed and a date of 1381 to 1397 determined. These shields have strong associations with the de Vere family, and it is possible that they were the benefactors of both the nave roof and the bell tower1.

This indicates that the wealth of the Priory was at its greatest at the end of the fourteenth century and that since then Blackmore has not been as rich.