High Country History Group

Some 49 members attended the Annual General Meeting in March. Following the business of the evening, a number of members gave short talks on ancestors they had discovered. All were fascinating and it is hoped that we will give a short resume of all the talks in future newsletters. However we start in this one with the talk given by our treasurer David Welford which you can find on page.... You will also find details of the programme that has been arranged over the next 12 months, which we trust will appeal to everyone. If you have any ideas for talks or visits then please mention them to the committee.

Details of the Officers and Committee elected at the AGM can be found on the back page of this newsletter. Maurice Padfield decided to stand down from the Committee. This does leave a vacancy on the committee and if any member is interested in joining then please contact Rob Brooks. The Committee only meet 3-4 times a year and so the work is not onerous.

The Diocese of Chelmsford, which was created in 1914, has over 600 churches of which 410 represent medieval parishes. Although the Diocese includes those parts of Essex now in Greater London, the modern county of Essex contains over 400 listed church buildings, as well as about 40-50 listed Non-Conformist chapels and Catholic churches. Church buildings in use are exempt from listed building legislation on condition that the religious organisations have their own system of control in place. The County Council gives advice to the Church of England, which owns the great majority of listed churches, through the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches.

The parish church occupies a unique position in the landscape, symbolising the life and history of the community in which it is situated. In the monuments, glass, fittings and furnishings it is often possible to trace the outline of the history of the parish, and also the evolution of changing architectural and artistic fashion from the Middle Ages up till the present day. Essex churches range from small buildings tucked away in surprisingly rural locations, little altered in the last 500 years, to fine gothic buildings which reflect the prosperity of the medieval wool and cloth industry in the north of the county.

Many village churches today stand in isolation next to the manor house or hall. This apparently puzzling situation is the result of them having originally been the property of the lord of the manor and of subsequent settlement shift, and also of the dispersed (as opposed to nucleated) settlement pattern which characterises parts of the Essex countryside.

The county has few well preserved Anglo-Saxon churches. The outstanding example is Hadstock in the north-west, a big church with transepts and some carved decoration. The west door and one of the window frames are also believed to be of Saxon date. A smaller church in the same part of the county is Strethall with a narrow chancel arch, whilst towers can be found at Holy Trinity, Colchester, and Little Bardfield.

These are all late Saxon, datable to the 11th century. Only one church building definitely dates to a much earlier period, St. Peter’s chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea. It stands at the edge of the marsh on the site of a Roman fort, and was founded by St. Cedd in c.654. Today it is a simple rectangular structure, but once it had an apse and projecting porticus or side chambers on the model of contemporary churches in Kent.

Unique to Essex is the only timber stave or log built church in Britain at Greensted-juxta-Ongar. This used to be considered Anglo-Saxon, but tree-ring dating indicates that it was probably built just after the Norman conquest in 1066. The walls are built of the original log boarding, but the rest of the church dates mainly from a restoration of 1848.

As might be expected in a county well known for its timber-framed buildings, Essex churches have some fine roofs, from the early scissor-braced ones like that at St. Nicholas chapel, Little Coggeshall, to the elaborately carved flat or camber-beamed roofs of places such as Bocking, Saffron Walden and High Easter, and hammer-beamed ones as at Great Bromley, Castle Hedingham and Gestingthorpe. As many as one hundred Essex churches have timber belfries or, more spectacularly, timber bell towers located against the west wall of the nave. The latter occur at Blackmore, Margaretting, Magdalen Laver and Bulphan. There are also a number of notable timber porches, as at South Benfleet and Runwell.

Timber was much used in Essex because of the shortage of good building stone. The oldest churches made extensive use of brick and tile quarried from the ruins of Roman buildings. Flint and anything else that came to hand is the usual material of which church walls are made. Some other stones do occur locally, notably septaria, ferricrete or ferruginous conglomerate, and tufa, and these can again be found in older work, typically of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Increasingly, though, use was made of a limited range of other better quality stones. These are oolite from the Barnack area (Northants.); Reigate from Surrey; Kentish Ragstone; clunch from Cambridgeshire or Bedfordshire; and Caen stone from Normandy.

There are many small Norman churches in the county, consisting simply of a nave and chancel. Good examples are Faulkbourne and Bradwell-juxta-Coggeshall. A few have apses (e.g. Little Tey, Little Braxted), which excavation has shown to have formerly been a common feature of Norman buildings. Grander Norman parish churches survive at Copford and Clacton which, uniquely in the county, formerly had vaulted naves. The best Norman interior is to be found at Waltham Abbey where the nave of the 12th-century abbey is now the parish church. Substantial remains of the early Norman priory of St. Botolph can be seen at Colchester. An important late Norman church, as impressive in it its way as the Norman castle in the same town, is St. Nicholas at Castle Hedingham.

The transition to gothic and the development of the Early English style, is not well represented in Essex, apart from some chancels provided with lancets (or narrow pointed arched) windows (e.g., Easthorpe, Great Easton, Good Easter) and some doorways with slender columns and foliate capitals. Stifford has a fine chapel on the south side of the chancel in this style, Little Dunmow preserves an arcade of the chancel of the former priory church, and Great Sampford has a transept which has a window with early tracery. Perhaps the most complete building of this period is St. Nicholas, Little Coggeshall, the little gate chapel of the Cistercian abbey, which dates from c.1220 and like the other abbey buildings is remarkable for being one of the earliest instances of the use of brick in England after the departure of the Romans.

Traceried windows became fully developed in the subsequent Decorated style in the 14th century. Richly ornamented work of this type can be found at Tilty and Lawford. A number of churches have fine 14th-century arcades with piers of a quatrefoil section (e.g., Thaxted, Bardfield Saling, Finchingfield and Orsett). Stebbing and Great Bardfield are exceptional in having stone rood screens.

Essex churches in the 15th-century Perpendicular style are perhaps not as grand as those of Suffolk, only Saffron Walden, Coggeshall (rebuilt after war damage) and Dedham having been totally rebuilt at this time. Bocking, Thaxted, Brightlingsea, Great Bromley and Colchester St James are examples of imposing churches which are predominantly Perpendicular in character. A partially lost Perpendicular church is Chelmsford cathedral, which was reconstructed after a collapse in 1800.

A feature of 15th-century work was the successful reintroduction of brick as a building material, resulting in a large number of fine 15th and 16th-century brick towers (e.g., Theydon Garnon, Rochford, Rayne, Tolleshunt Major) and porches (e.g., Sandon, Feering), as well as a few brick churches (e.g., Layer Marney, East Horndon).

The Reformation tended to bring a halt to church building, as well as drastically affecting the appearance of their interiors, the wall paintings being limewashed over, sculpture and images removed, and much stained glass taken out. Two churches however that date from this time Woodham Walter (1563-4) and Theydon Mount (1611-14), both on new sites to accommodate the view from the neighbouring Tudor mansions.

Similarly, there is relatively little 18th-century or Georgian work in Essex churches, though Lambourne is a remarkable instance of an attempt to make a small Norman church look like a church in the City of London. It was cased in Roman cement and given a west door with a handsome doorcase and an oval window above. Inside, parts of the roof, including the medieval crown post, were remodelled in plaster.

A more convincing town church is Colchester St. Peter which although of medieval origin was provided with a new tower in 1758 and was partially modernised in the 18th century. At Debden, the chancel was rebuilt with an octagonal neo-Gothic chapel with a plaster ribbed vault by Trench Chiswell in 1792. Ingrave church is the only entirely 18th-century church, a curious brick building perhaps to the design of Leoni who worked for the eight lord Petre, whose improvements to his house at old Thorndon Hall included moving the parish church away from it to this more distant location.

By the 19th century, there had been little building work at parish churches apart from the most urgent repairs for over 200 years. The poor condition of churches at this time has to be considered before being too critical of the very thorough restorations often carried out by the Victorians. These restorations also satisfied the revived interest in medieval architecture and liturgy brought about by the Oxford Movement and the Ecclesiological Society.

As a result, most churches underwent some degree of significant restoration in the 19th century, which on occasion was a rebuild from the foundations upwards (e.g. South Weald by Teulon) and which has sometimes left spectacular interiors like the work of Butterfield and Geldart at Ardleigh, of Geldart at Little Braxted, and of Eden Nesfield at Radwinter. The Victorians also built numerous new churches, of which George Gilbert Scott’s ones at Greenstead Green and Halstead, Bodley and Garner’s at Epping, Lee’s at Brentwood, St. Aubyn’s at Galleywood and Widford, and Caroe’s at Stansted are but some of the more notable examples. A remarkable art nouveau church with a richly decorated interior by Harrison Townsend is to be found at Great Warley.

Churches in the gothic style continued to be built into the 20th century; especially good are those by Sir Charles Nicholson at Frinton St. Mary, Westcliffe St. Alban and Leigh-on-Sea St. Margaret. Lawrence King’s St. George at Brentwood has a hint of Art Deco about it, whilst more modern in style are St. Paul’s in the new town at Harlow, Insall’s extension to the tiny medieval church at Thundersley, and the recently completed unique glass belfry at Basildon.

Unfortunately, the penalty of recurrent vandalism and theft is that most churches are now kept locked. To be certain of being able to see inside them, it is worth making an appointment beforehand. There is much to discover. The extensive remains of the 12th-century wall paintings at Copford give a good impression of the richness of the interior of the medieval church. Recent discoveries are high quality 13th-century work at Little Tey, and cartoon strip sequences covering most of the wall of the south aisle at Great Burstead. 15th-century paintings of St. Christopher can be found at Little Baddow and Lambourne. Wall painting was a casualty of the Reformation, to be revived again the 19th century, notable examples of which occur at Little Braxted, Halstead, and Foxearth.

Stained glass suffered the same fate as paintings and lacks the potential for rediscovery. Not a great deal survives, though Rivenhall has some important French glass of the 12th century, and Thaxted has extensive fragments, including scenes from Genesis. 19th-century glass includes work by Burne Jones at Waltham Abbey and Frinton, and Henry Holiday also at Waltham Abbey and Chelmsford. Notable are the windows by Leonard Walker at Stifford and Bocking St. Peter.

Modern personalities and events can be found recorded in stained glass: Airey Neave, assassinated by the IRA, is commemorated in a window at Fryerning, and the captivity and release of John McCarthy at Broxted. Essex churches are rich in monuments and memorials of all types; they range from the wooden knights at Danbury, to the beautiful Renaissance monument to the rascally Richard Lord Riche at Felsted, to the baroque splendour of Humphrey Carpenter at Rettendon. Woodwork includes mediaeval screens (Clavering, Rickling), Jacobean pulpits (Great Baddow), the 18th-century reredos and panelling at Hatfield Broad Oak, and the more recent work of modern carvers like Ernest Beckwith (screen to design of Sir Charles Nicholson at Saffron Walden, lych gates at Great Waltham and Gestingthorpe) and Ken Mabbitt (Birdbrook).

Non-Conformist and Catholic churches and chapels

With the passing of the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 and then the 1689 Toleration Act, Non-Conformists were enabled to have their own places of worship.

One of the oldest of these is the Friends’ Meeting House at Stebbing, a lovely brick building dating from 1674. Another fine early building (with a very interesting burial ground) is the Congregational chapel in Bocking of 1707 though altered in the early 19th century. These early buildings were domestic in style with two doorways in their long sides. With changing fashion, they became neo-classical and then gothic in style, these options being preferred by different groups at different times as being more in harmony with their beliefs. Catholics only obtained full freedom of worship in the 19th century and therefore have fewer old buildings, but the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Bocking has a chapel by J.F. Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, whilst the new Brentwood Cathedral is a major work by Quinlan Terry, a leading exponent of the neo-classical style.

ECC. © 2000.

Further reading

Fitch, J. ed. 1996 Essex churches and chapels – a select guide, Stamford: Paul Watkins

Hewett, C.A. 1982 Church carpentry. A study based on Essex examples, Chichester: Phillimore

Kaye, R. 1999 Chapels in Essex, Chellow Dean Press
Pevsner, N. 1954 The buildings of England. Essex, London: Penguin Books

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1916-1923 An inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, 4 vols, London: HMSO

Starr, C. ed. 1980 A guide to Essex churches, The Essex Churches Support Trust

It is surprising what you come across when carrying out research. The following items are just a few.

Essex Assizes - July 19th 1839.

Edward Ayley, 27 years, a labourer, pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of high shoes belonging to his fellow workman, John Baker at Stapleford Tawney. The shoes were stated in the indictment to be of the value of three pence, but were so thickly nailed that his Lordship said they must be worth more money as old iron.

Sentence – 1 month hard labour, the first and last weeks in solitude.

1841 Census Stanford Rivers

The 1841 Census of the parish of Stanford Rivers gives some indication of the people who resided there at that time. At the Rectory we would find the Rev C. Dowdeswell, aged 77 years. To look after his needs he employed a butler, a gardener, a housekeeper and two housemaids. How times have changed.

The following items come from the Essex Calendar of Records – Sessions Records, which record the cases heard before the Essex Quarter Sessions at Chelmsford.

Jan 1592/53

We present a bridge called Pissingford Bridge in the parishes of Stapleford Tawney and Stapleford Abbots in the common highway which leads from Chipping Ongar towards London, to be very sore decayed in the planking thereof, which if it be not repaired very shortly the Queen’s subjects shall not pass that way neither with horse nor cart without danger, which bridge has been made new not long since by the County.

Midsummer 1674

House of Correction in Barking. Sam Cliffe committed 25th May for being an idle, dissolute and disorderly person and can give no account of himself, brought by the constable of Stanford Rivers before them (to be whipped and sent to “Bradfeild in Yorke”)

Easter 1691

20 Feb. Jas. Stace of Stanford Rivers (occ. not given) to answer the inhabitants of the parish for refusing to take a poor child of the parish as an apprentice. (owes 2 shillings).

Epiphany 1692/3

19 Dec. Geo Eve yeoman; to answer Tho. Staines for refusing to pay him his wages due for work; both of Theydon Mount. They are agreed.

1561/2 Hundred of Ongar.

William Tynge of Stanford Rivers is ordered that he shall not further frequent the society of Joan Palmer, widow of Chipping Ongar, because they are suspected persons and of dishonest conversation under a penalty of forfeitet as often as they are found associating, to wit the said William Tynge 13s.4d and the said Joan 6s 8d.

Tuesday 12 April 1681.

For not coming to their Parish Church. Ann wife of Wm. Peters esq., Henry Todd (gent) and Margaret his wife, and Dinah Poley and Alice Smyth, his servants, Margt. wife of Edw. Greene and Alice wife of Tho. Besouth, all of Stanford Rivers.

Michaelmas 1691

John Groves of Stapleford Abbots (27), Edw. Brown of Thornwood Hamlet (28), Giles Harding of Stanford Rivers (29) Edw. Elthorp (30) and John Ingold (31) both of Stapleford Tawney, all farmers, John North sen. (for John North jun.) [occupations not given] (32), Ralph Linney (33) and Nick Boules (34), both farmers all of Theydon Mount; each to appear and do what the court shall enjoin him for being in an unlawful assembly in the parish of Theydon Mount on 16 Sept last which was a solemn feast appointed by their Majestys’ proclamation to be religiously and strictly observed and kept throughout the Kingdom. All owe 2 shillings.

And finally……
Mashams

Many members of the High Country History Group will remember the evening visit to Mashams in High Laver two years ago. A combination of circumstances, including a reduction in the number of school visits made to the house, has resulted in the intended sale of the property by the Mashams Trust (Charity No. 1068328).

Many members of the High Country History Group will remember the evening visit to Mashams in High Laver two years ago. A combination of circumstances, including a reduction in the number of school visits made to the house, has resulted in the intended sale of the property by the Mashams Trust (Charity No. 1068328).

The following follows a short article that was written for the Newsletter of the Friends of Historic Essex.

Thousands of local historians enthusiastically and diligently research and document their church, their parish, their town, their industry or a local notable, for example. Singly, their role is significant but collectively their contribution to the community is immense. Unrewarded financially, they will nevertheless take much satisfaction from their work.

Occasionally such a contribution really stands out. Without earnestly looking for examples of good writing in local history, sometimes one is confronted by writing that is as notable for its clarity and elegance as for its history. You may have had the good fortune (as I did in rambling through the Essex Record Office for possible sources of details on the Royal Forest of Hatfield) to stumble upon George Eland’s small book At the Courts of Great Canfield, Essex¹.

The C15 embattled porch of the parish church of St Mary, Great Canfield, enclosing the ornate south doorway.

George Eland lived in Great Canfield. He is still remembered there - as an eccentric. During his lifetime, which exceeded ninety years, he resisted the introduction of running water, gas and mains electricity to his house. He was known locally as ‘Boots’ since even into late age he walked in those boots to Great Dunmow, a round trip of several miles, two or three times each week.

George wrote uncommonly well. His writing, like his house, has a quality that seems to be lodged in a time not far removed from the courts that he wrote about. The Lord of the Manor allowed him access to the court-rolls of Great Canfield no, George has said it much better . . . in the first two paragraphs of his preface to the book.

“PREFACE

Whilst there can never be a real justification of an unwanted book, a few facts may be offered by way of condonation. Destiny cast its compiler almost in the middle of the manor, and between the sites of the two largest common fields. The western boundary of a wide horizon is one of the ancient demesne woods, and a clear sunset lights up the church which lies two miles to the south and stands against the tree-clad mount of the Norman castle. In a very actual sense therefore his theme lies all around him, and, however slender his qualifications to handle court-rolls, he had not sufficient strength of mind to refrain from the attempt when the kindness of the manor’s lord entrusted him with the documents as soon as they were returned from the safe retreat found for them during the war by the Essex Record Office.

On a golden day in autumn the editor could cross the stubbles in any direction to visit one of the tenements or inclosures which have a recorded history of five or six centuries, and he could return with notes to compare with the written words of the rolls:

“Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.”

Whether capable of profiting by them or not, he has had opportunities during the last few years for which he is unfeignedly thankful.”

Within the first paragraph, George has introduced his landscape and his purpose. The final paragraph of the Preface is worth repeating, again in its entirety.

“The editor lays down his pen with some sadness, for this must be his last effort to preserve local records in an easily accessible form. A hobby-horse is for pleasure, not for draught, and his has led him for nearly forty years to beautiful places and amidst many charming people; its consumption of com is moderate, and that suggests the greatest of all hobby-horsical riders. When Mr. Walter Shandy told my Uncle Toby that his fortifications would ‘in the end make a beggar of you,’ he replied, ‘What signifies it if they do, brother, so long as we know ‘tis for the good of the nation?’

GREAT CANFIELD
G.E
September, 1949”

Maybe the prose just brushes with the pedantic. Is the quotation - from Milton’s Il Penseroso - wholly fitting? It matters not. The tone is gentle, modest and apologetic, but has the fascination of exploring local history been stated more gracefully and so concisely?

As a postscript, taken from the body of the book, consider how George Eland paints the numerous courtly problems of Thomas Hawkyn.

The quote comes from a short section in the book dealing with some problems created by animals.

“The 14 July 1507 was a black day for Thomas Hawkyn, and he had several matters to answer for at the court held then. He had assaulted John Dene, and was fined 6d. He had finished his year’s service as ale-taster so badly that he was fined 3d. for that. He had drawn from his well a latten bucket, holding 1 1/2 gallons, which was ranked as a stray, value 3s. 4d. and seized for the lord’s benefit. He lived close by the church-yard, his kitchen had fallen down and he had burned the timbers, for this and other ‘waste’ made in the dwelling, the bailiff was ordered to take it into the lord’s hands. At length we come to the story which brings him within the heading of this section; he had a dog which was noxious, for it bit the king’s lieges. This is not to be wondered at because it was no less than a ‘mastygreyhounde’ – a name which combines all the vices of the mastiff and the greyhound. At all events he was to get rid of it before 25 July, eleven days ahead, or pay 3s. and 4d. So Thomas Hawkyn left the court with a lighter purse, to seek his dilapidated home by the churchyard from which he was to be ejected; as the howls of the mastygreyhounde reached him from the ruined kitchen, he could reflect on the futility

‘Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.’”

Within the Essex Record Office, sadly, only one other booklet is attributed to George Eland - that being a guide to the parish church.

. . . and the final quotation is from Cowper, The Task. Book iii. The Garden.

In September 1898, Lady Cunliffe Smith opened the fountain in front of Stanford Rivers parishioners who assembled en masse,. Through the tap, water from the terra cotta fountain gushed forth “bright and clear”. Two gunmetal cups, inscribed “V.R.”, were attached. Messrs F. N. Noble and Sons built the fountain, the architect being a Mr. F. Rowntree of Glasgow. The cost was £90 in all.

The school has gone but the fountain remains today. In recent years, local residents have successfully opposed the removal of the fountain by the local authorities.

A photograph of the event appears on the cover of this newsletter.

I had intended to write about one Essex airfield near to the High Country but was diverted onto another, literally but not physically! Of the two, only one of these is still in operation and neither of them is at North Weald.

Edward Hillman

The airstrip at Stapleford Tawney has an interesting history. The early days of the airfield were closely connected with a man called Edward Hillman. Hillman was one of the early entrepreneurs involved in air travel within the United Kingdom. Edward Hillman was born in Croydon in 1889. He started on the buses, purchasing his first bus in 1928. He drove the bus himself on his first commercial route in December of that year between Stratford and Brentwood. By the end of the following year, the route was extended to Colchester calling at Chelmsford on the way.

Services were tailored to customer needs, and through his success Hillman was able to expand his fleet of coaches from 18 in March 1930, to 57 by December of that year. The service now ran to (wider) East Anglian destinations including Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, Clacton and Norwich. As an indication of the quality of the service the single journey from Stratford to Chelmsford took 90 minutes at a fare of two shillings, but sixpence was discounted for the return fare.

Hillman was quick to realise the opportunity to link his coach business with the developing commercial air transport activity. After purchasing two aircraft, Puss Moths, Hillman took over the licence of Maylands aerodrome from its former licensee in November 1931. His initial charter business was transformed into an air taxi operation, offering greater convenience, as a matter of course. Trips from Hillman’s Aerodrome, as it was now known, flew from 8 am until dusk. Long distance flights were priced at 3d. per mile, and destinations extended to Belfast, Dundee and Plymouth. You were invited to; “Meet your friends and watch the flying over a Cup of Tea” and the advertising included “All Refreshments at Popular Prices.” You could; “Drive your car onto the Ground where it will be safe whilst you are taking Refreshments or in the Air, or travel by our Coaches direct to the Ground.”

In 1932, and one can be amazed at the pace that Hillman generated, he instigated an Aviation Display on 24 September 1932. The attractions included the flight of the Lord Mayor of London to the display, and an air race for the Hillman Trophy. The publicity that was created for Hillman was invaluable and his first service to Paris was introduced in April 1933.

The period of rapid and seemingly unfettered growth was to be checked. The bus routes had been under threat from acquisition by the London Passenger Transport Board, who had taken over the majority of the road transport side of the business. The final 28 coaches (from a peak of 116!) were sold to Eastern National in 1934, and Hillman could now devote himself and his growing investment to his commercial air business.

Essex Airport, Stapleford Tawney

He was to move from Maylands, having been squeezed by the need to run larger aircraft and the restrictions placed on his operation because of the size of the aerodrome. He bought some land at Stapleford Tawney and opened the Essex Airport there on 23 June 1934. Advertising ran as follows:

ESSEX AIRPORT
Stapleford, near Abridge, Essex
Telephone – Stapleford 291 (10 lines)
Open Day and Night

The Essex Airport is situated on the main road between Abridge and Passingford Bridge, and is a forty minute run by road from King’s Cross.

All Hotel facilities are available at the Airport, and our own Express Coach service operates between King’s Cross Coaching Station and the Airport in connection with the arrival and departure of all Air Liners.

Private Charters are carried out from 5/- upwards, and machines are available day or night.

The Essex Airport has fully equipped workshops, and private owners can have their machines cleaned, housed or repaired at any time of the day or night, and complete C. of A’s are undertaken. A free Car Park is also provided.

In order to avoid delay passengers passing through Customs are requested not to leave the Customs Office until all the necessary formalities are completed.

Note that the phone has ten lines, the airport is just forty minutes from King’s Cross, and car parking is free. How flying has changed!

Two Accidents

The early days at the Essex Airport saw a further strengthening of Hillman’s commercial air business. The General Post Office awarded Hillman an airmail contract, which enabled him to fly to Glasgow. However, tragedy was to visit the company. A Hillman airliner crashed on 2 October 1934 - remember this was would have been only about six years from the purchase of his first bus. The plane, an 89 Dragon Rapide, crashed into the sea four miles off the coast at Folkestone and the pilot and six passengers perished. Lack of navigational skills by the pilot was stated to be the official cause of the accident. Two months later, on the 31 December 1934, Edward Hillman died at the age of forty-five.

On 21 February 1935, a further catastrophe befell the airline. Two American girls, the only passengers, apparently fell out of one of Hillman’s planes. They were the daughters of Coert Du Bois, the American Consul in Naples, Jane and Elizabeth, aged 20 and 23. The inquest was held on 25 February and considered the two bodies, lying close together on the ground in Upminster, and the deserted items found in the cabin - a lady’s shoe, a whisky bottle and sealed letters address to Mr and Mrs Du Bois. It was a celebrated accident, and there had already been considerable speculation in the press about the deaths of two apparently wealthy, high-living young girls. The deaths of two Air Force officers, who had died in a flying-boat disaster in Sicily on 15 February 1935, with whom the girls were believed to have formed close attachments, were thought to be connected and to have resulted in severe depression within the girls that might have culminated in the suicide of the girls “whilst the balance of their mind was disturbed”.

The passenger door of the aircraft was insecure and it was likely that the weight of both girls would have been necessary to force the door open against the slipstream of the aircraft. Suggestions were made that to avoid such accidents in the future; either a central locking system should be installed, or a flight attendant would be required to close the door. Shortly after, the board of Hillman Airways was to change and the pilot involved in the incident, Joe Kirton, left the company, hastened by an unrelated incident a week before the accident when a cargo of gold bullion was lost from the same aircraft.

Decline

In September 1935, plans were being worked out to merge United Airways and Spartan Airways with Hillman Airways, to form a new company, Allied British Airways which later the following month became known as British Airways. Hillman was dead and his airline had ceased to exist but, through Edward Hillman, Stapleford Tawney had formed an important chapter in the development of a national airline.

Stapleford Tawney airfield had seen the rapid expansion of a charter and taxi service into an airfield with international destinations. The period contrasts dramatically with the post-war years and the development of the de Havilland Comet just twenty years away. The controversy regarding the siting of the Third London Airport in the early 1970s, and the furore over the expansion of the resulting airport at Stansted, contrast markedly with the less dramatic, faster moving but considerably less regulated business growth at Stapleford Tawney in the mid-1930s.

Text from United Dairies “Our Notebook January 1926”.

The growth and development of Welford and Sons Limited. during the past 80 years affords an instructive illustration of the process of evolution in the dairy trade, which has been fostered by the ever-increasing population of London. Since 1845 the name of Welford has been famed and respected by all engaged in supplying the metropolis with its milk. In that year Mr. Richard Welford, a cowkeeper of Holloway took over Warwick Farm. Paddington, and thus founded the firm which eventually became the largest retail milk business in London. The locality of Warwick Farm is to-day commemorated in the names of Warwick Avenue, Warwick Place, and Warwick Crescent. The cowsheds were situated between the Harrow Road and Warwick Crescent. It is interesting to note that the “mother” dairy shop still flourishes on the site of the old farm in Warwick Avenue.

To make way for the Great Western Railway and the consequent encroachment of the ubiquitous builders, the cow-sheds had to be removed a few years later to Oakington Manor farm at Wembley, then in its most rural state. At this date the Harrow Road from the crossing of the Grand Junction Canal was “quite in the country,” with a residence here and there dotted on the south side, and in particular Westbourne House, once in the occupation of Mrs. Siddons, the famous actress. The bridge over the canal in that now busy thoroughfare-Great Western Road-was not in existence, but a punt was provided to take foot-passengers across at a fare of a halfpenny- But these topographical details are a digression.

In 1858 Mr. Richard Welford died at the early age of 41 and the business was taken over by his son, Mr. John Welford, then a youngster in his teens, but possessed of an unusual amount of ambition and perseverance.

The milk trade was then a puling infant and certainly did not rejoice in the reputation it has to-day; but it was Mr. Welford’s confirmed opinion that quality always won, the truth of which was proved in ~~ uncertain fashion during his long and successful career. The London Dairy Trade in those days was quite unorganised, and the need for a trade status became so pronounced that the four stalwarts of the Trade-Mr. George Barham (afterwards Sir George), Mr. S. S. Dancocks, Mr. E. S. Tisdall and Mr. John Welford-with others, were prominent in founding the British Dairy Farmers’ Association, the Metropolitan Dairymen’s Society, and the Metropolitan Dairymen’s Benevolent Institution.

About this time an interesting and enlightening brochure was issued, and in it customers were told that “During the Passover cows will be brought to those who wish it and milked direct into their own cans” A pleasing thought!

For the production of milk fresh from the cow three farms were taken at this period-College Farm, at Kensal Rise, which is now entirely built over, the Home Farm, Harlesden, and Haycroft Farm, Harlesden. Haycroft has recently been converted into the local bottled milk distributing depot.

In the meantime, with great foresight. Welfords had secured the co-operation and assistance of eminent medical men. The first medical officer associated with the business was Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, and he introduced as their first active medical officer Dr. Mahomet, the then leading authority on the control of infectious disease, and he in turn, was followed by Sir Lauder Brunton.

In glancing through the Guard Books one is struck by a portion of a letter dated April 13th, 1882, from the Medical Officer of Health of St. Marylebone. He wrote :-“I shall be doing a service to the public health by expressing in strong terms my approbation of the arrangements I have recently inspected at the Warwick Dairy. I have always held the view that the milk supply of a great city should be in the hands of men of considerable capital, and carried out on a large scale; in this way, and in this way only, can there be that costly installation absolutely necessary to prevent the possibility of contamination of the milk by disease. The entire arrangements are equal, if not superior, to anything of the kind ever established in this country and are well worthy of imitation.”

By this time the horse van was rapidly superseding the yoke and pail as a method of delivery, and this was soon followed by the now familiar hand cart, or “pram.” Surprising as it may sound, it is none the less true that a small dairy firm which was taken over by Welfords as recently as 1913, was then still employing the yoke and pail for the delivery of their milk. The Welford brothers were keen exhibitors at the London Dairy Shows, and the Company holds to-day the Silver Cup; awarded for the best pair of dairy cows at the last Royal Agricultural Show held in London at Kilburn in 1879. Mr. Harry Trotman joined the firm early in the year 1884, and was appointed Manager of the Company’s working dairy (including a herd of cows) at the International Health Exhibition at South Kensington in the same year. The exhibition provided the opportunity of a lifetime for the furtherance of the scope of this rapidly growing business. The dairy was the sensation of the day, particularly amongst the aristocracy, and for charitable purposes on several occasions the dairy sales counters were presided over by ladies of title. The working dairy was patronized time and again by the then Prince of Wales (the late King Edward VII.), and for their exhibit the Company was awarded a gold medal.

In 1896 the Company was called upon to supply nursery milk for the use of H.R.H. the present Prince of Wales, and all the Royal children were brought up on Welford’s milk. The appointment of “Dairyman” to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (now H.M. King George V.) was granted on March 1st. 1902, to Mr. John Welford. Chairman and Managing Director of Welford & Sons.

The business grew by leaps and bounds, and the leading society paper indicated that “it was fashionable to deal with Welford.” Additional branches were opened, and it was felt that the time had come for the business to be converted into a public company. Messrs. Welford & Sons, Limited was incorporated in 1885 and Mr. Trotman was appointed Secretary. The Company’s business continued to expand, and eventually their service extended from Chiswick on the west, to Stroud Green on the north, and Poplar on the east. New machinery was introduced, and the Company was amongst the first to use refrigerating plant in their London dairies, the keynote of the business in all stages being cleanliness, freshness and high quality.

In 1914, the year of the outbreak of the war, Mr. John Welford felt that at his advanced age he should retire, and on his recommendation Mr. Trotman was appointed Joint Managing Director with Mr. F. R. Welford. The stress of the war was particularly trying to the dairy trade, and in particular in the West End and Belgravia areas, the town houses and mansions, usually taking large supplies, being left in the hands of a caretaker and a cat, but even then the volume of trade was well maintained (at the expense of revenue) by supplying the numerous war-time hospitals and homes.

Pressure from the Government for the release of men and horses, and the need for economy in material, brought about conversations between the leading members of the London Dairy Trade, as a result of which Welford & Sons. Ltd. and other companies become associated with United Dairies, Ltd.