High Country History Group

WNg of Essex 1848 - Stanford Rivers

A pleasant scattered village on the western side of the vale of the river Roding, and on the acclivity between two of its tributary streams, from 2 to 3 miles South West of Chipping Ongar, has in its parish 972 inhabitants, and 4386 acres of land. Some of its houses are on the London and Ongar road, near Ongar Union Work-house. At the Norman survey, this fertile and picturesque parish was held by Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, and it afterwards passed to the Lucy, Rivers, Petre, and other families. It now belongs chiefly to Sir C.C. Smith, Bart., and Capel Cure, Esq., and is in the Liberty of the Ducby of Lancaster. The principal manors and estates are Stanford Hall, Bellhouse, Berwicks-and-Caunes, and Littlebury and Rochenhoe. There was formerly a park here, holden of the King, as of the Honor of Boulogne, by the de Walden family, in the 14th century.

The Church (St. Margaret,) is a plain old fabric; with a wooden belfry and spire, and in the interior are several memorials of the Petre, Green, Mulcaster, and other families. The rectory, valucd in K.B. at £26.13s.4d., and in 1831 at £1025, is in the patronage of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and incumbeney of the Rev. E.C. Dowdeswell, D.D., who has 56A.2R.29P. of glebe, and a handsome residence, finely embowered in trees. The tithes were commuted in 1842, for £1020 per annum. Here is a neat Independent Chapel, belonging to a congregation formed in 1822. The poor parishioners have 5s. a year, left by Thomas Petit, of Greensted; and they had an annuity of 40s., left by William Green, in 1554, but it has been lost many years.

Inhabitants

• John Barnard, baker and victualler, White Bear
• Charles Carter, butcher
• Rev. Edward Dowdeswell D.D., Rector & Canon of Christ Chapel, Oxford
• Rev. Cosmo Spencer Gordon B.A., curate
• John Halls, corn miller
• John Mansfield, cattle salesman
• John Mott, carpenter
• William Mott, cattle salesman
• Joseph Henry Nicholas, master of Ongar Union Workhouse
• William Pavitt, wheelwright
• William Rayner, bricklayer
• Edward Rowan, victualler, Green Man
• Henry Rudd, blacksmith
• Mary Sewell, matron, Workhouse
• Isaac Taylor, gentleman
• Thomas Thompson, relieving officer and registrar

Farmers.

• Daniel Allen
• Charles Baker
• Mary Barton
• Augustus Berkeley
• William Clark
• Thomas Clements
• Robert Dix, Hall
• James Hawes
• Robert Hill, Morrells
• Mary Jennings, Caunes
• William Kynaston, Littlebury
• William Lamb
• John Mott
• Mary Mott
• James Noakes
• Thomas Oldham, Berwicks
• John Palmer, Traceys
• Henry Pavitt
• Matthew Playle
• John Sallibrass, Ongar Park
• Jonathan Stokes, Passingford Bridge
• Rev. R. Waller (home, Great Birch)
• Isaac Ward
• Mary Waterhouse

Shoemakers

• Edward Garrett
• James Sharp

Shopkeepers.

• Michael Connolly
• James Green
• George Vale.

Stanford Rivers

From: Extracts from the Information Received by His Majesty's Commissioners as to the Administration and Operation of the Poor Laws. Published B. Fellowes, Ludgate Street, MDCCCXXXIII (1833)

Expenditure Year ending March 1832

Expenditure on the poor excluding salaries = £193
Weekly wage 10s to 12s.

The parish of Stanford Rivers is purely agricultural, containing a tract of land of good quality. It is well situated within 20 miles of the London market, tenanted by persons of capital, and paying fair wages, and not over peopled: yet, with all these advantages, it was at one time pauperised to a great extent.

In the year 1821 the expenditure amounted to £1191, composed of the following items :-

In the year a Select Vestry was established, which effected some reduction; and in the year 1825, a gentleman of the name of Andrews, the occupier of a considerable farm, determined, with the concurrence of the rest of the parishioners, and the support of the very intelligent and experienced magistrate, Mr. Oldham, to make a bold effort to put down pauperism. The weekly pay was at once struck off: and in the year ending March 1826, the account stood thus: -

At the commencement of the new system, very numerous applications were made to the Select Vestry, but they were strictly examined: Where relief was necessary in cases of illness or real distress, it was liberally granted; but refused unless considered requisite; and the labourers, by degrees, learnt to depend on their own resources. The rates gradually diminished, and the money expended on the poor alone, which in 1825 amounted to £834, was in 1828 only E196. The Vestry determined that all capable of work should be employed, and that no relief should be given but in return for labour.

The labourers improved in their habits and comforts. During the four years that this system was in progress, there was not a single commitment for theft, or any other offence. Mr. Andrews once put this question to a supporter of his plan :- 'What do the poor give in return for that which they receive from the poor rates?' After a pause he thus answered his own question ;- 'They give their honesty. their veracity, their industry, and everything that tends to make a man a good member of society.

In the year 1830, after the death of Mr. Andrews, who fell a sacrifice to his great exertions, the expenditure of the parish was rising: and Mr. Capel Cure, a principal proprietor, introduced the plan of an incorporated workhouse, as is related by Mr. Becher, in his evidence before the House of Lords. Ten parishes united to erect 'the Ongar Hundred Workhouse', under Gilbert's Act, by the medium of 3% years' poor rate. The expense amounted to £3181.

The sale of the old workhouse at Stanford Rivers defrayed their medium with £100 left over. The expense for diet, which was before 3s 9d per head is now below 2/- No "allowance" is given on account of large families: but the children of those parents who are unable to maintain them are taken into the house, where they attend in the school, are taught to read, to sew and knit stockings, which are given out for distribution in the united parishes.

There is no assistant overseer in this parish, but the accounts are kept accurately by a schoolmaster, at Ongar, who acts as vestry clerk

The salary of the surgeon is £25.

Twenty seven allotments of 20 rods each have been let this year to labourers at 6s. per allotment, free of rate and tithe; it is proposed they should hold the land by lease, from the 1" of December. The crops are great and the land is considered a great benefit by the labourers, who are enabled to raise potatoes, instead of buying them at great disadvantage at the retail price.

The opinion of the rector of the parish is, that morals and general conduct of his flock are improved since the new plan has been adopted. Under his auspices, with the assistance of the deputy-visitor of the workhouse, several charitable institutions have been formed: which by making additions to the deposits of the poor, tend to encourage in them habits of providence. Mr. Capel Cure, to whom the district is indebted for the introduction of the improved workhouse, continues his services as visitor. While many parishes in the neighbourhood remain in a pauperized state, this parish is entirely cured to the mutual advantage of the payers and receivers of rates. It is to be observed, however that the circumstances are favourable, there is no surplus population, - a considerable portion of the land being pasture, the pressure on the capital of the occupiers has not been so great as in arable districts, and that fair wages are paid.

A talk given by W.W.Reed, Esq, M.Sc., F.R.I.C.

the year after his retirement in 1950.

In accepting the very kind invitation of your Society to address them I am conscious of few qualifications to do so. The idea that 1 should have a fund of interesting experiences to draw on is unfortunately incorrect and the blame for that, in part, rests on those of you who studied at, what is now, the City College', for you were generally such well behaved people that life flowed very calmly, and I have had few highlights. However, on looking back over my life I came to the conclusion that, though I am not an old man yet, the sixty-five years of my life have seen some wonderful changes, and I will try to put them before you as the youngest ones of you may be interested in them and the older ones, of my generation, be drawn to speak of the past from your angle.

As 1 was born in 1885, two years before Queen Victoria's first Jubilee, I am a Victorian - a term of reproach in the eyes of very modern folk. At the time I was born, outside the chartered boroughs, local government was practically non existent; there were, it is true, Boards of Guardians to look after the poor; the annual vestry which elected Church Wardens, and in London, outside the city, authorities dealing with sewers and drains. In Education, School Boards, created in 1870, existed when people demanded them, and probably more than half the countryside had none. The schools were in general denominational schools supported by voluntary rates. 1 cannot remember the inception of County Councils and R.D.C.s but I can remember the first P.C. (Parish Council) as my father was a member of that of our Parish. If you ask me how we were governed locally in the county at the time that 1 was born, I will venture to suggest the answer that it was by the Justices in Quarter Sessions.

I was born in a large parish - Mountnessing; one of the largest in Essex, about five miles by two-and-a-half, traversed by the Roman Road, as it is called on some maps, with one part abutting Billericay and reached by meandering lanes. The village lay for three-quarters of a mile along the main road. The Parish Church was one-and-a-half miles away on the road to Billericay, but there was an Iron Church in a lane close to the village, and two chapels - Congregational and Wesleyan - in the village street, but the latter closed in the early nineties. There were no large residential land owners, but the parsonage house of the parish, in my young day, was let to a military gentleman, a Major in the Regular Army, who was shortly made a Lt. Col. of Militia. He was reputed to have little money but his wife, a member of an old Banking family, was believed to be comfortably off; but he was very public minded and it was due to his energy that £2.000 was raised to restore the Parish Church which re-opened in 1891. I can remember going to the re-opening service. Owing, possibly, to the absence of a Squire there was a very independent spirit politically among the men I knew and possibly most of those not working directly for a farmer were Radicals, as we called them then

I was born in a Manor House2. Not long before three or four gentlemen arrived and explained to my mother that they wanted to hold a Court and with permission used our drawing-room. After ushering them in, my mother withdrew, but was told not to do so as it was a public court. I believe these Courts functioned until the coming into force of Lord Birkenhead's Land Act in (?) 1924. Copyhold tenure of course dated back to Norman times and had unexpected repercussions. Soon after my birth my parents moved to another house which had, for the size, a large number of sheds including one which had been a cowshed. It was originally roofed with tiles which had been largely blown off. The wooden slats were broken in a big storm one night. As my father had very little use for it he suggested that the shed should be demolished but the landlord reluctantly could not agree as he said the property was copyhold - so he roofed it for us in corrugated iron.

Our drinking water at that house was drawn by permission from a shallow well on property across the road. It was later "condemned" - we never drank it unboiled. For washing and other domestic purposes we used rain water collected in butts, and when they dried, which was not often, we brought water from a pond 150 yards away. On one occasion 1 can remember our going a mile away one very dry summer to get water from a brook so that we could have some sort of sponge bath. Incidentally, later on, we had to get our drinking water from the school well six hundred yards away. (My father was the village schoolmaster). It is heavy work carrying two 2-gallon pails of water that distance - we never used a yoke as was done on some farms locally, but we did find that a large hoop, one of our play things, kept the pails conveniently from our legs, and often used it. There is now a very deep well sunk into the green and which supplies piped water to the village.

The village was almost self-supporting. There was the old windmill reached by a two hundred yards chase perched on an artificial mound and the cottagers used to have their gleaning corn ground there'. We had our general shop where one could buy groceries, boots and shoes, ironmongery, drapery, etc. There was a bakery and a blacksmith's shop (which may have been seven hundreds years old) - associated with a wheelwright's shop with its sawpit, and a shoemaker. A new vicar offended the old gentleman shoemaker by genially saying, "Are you the village cobbler?" This caused the old man to draw himself up. and say, "No, sir. I am the village shoemaker."

By the way, in the speech of the village, the term boot was restricted to top boots, or those that reached the calf - all else were shoes or 'shoon'. We had a village tailor, hay binder and chimney sweep. The hay binder was also a thatcher but his main job was getting the hay out of the stacks for the London market. Several wagons went weekly to the hay market just outside Aldgate. The wagons went overnight and came back next day. The hay binder's wife was the local nurse in confinements. A butcher from Ingatestone - two miles away - brought in meat, but very few cottagers could afford that. except for Sunday. Some of them kept their own pigs and killed them as required. Grocers from Ingatestone and Brentwood (three miles away) used to deliver groceries and a postman walked in from Brentwood. Later, a younger postman was supplied with a bicycle and we had two deliveries and two collections daily from the village post office. There was one inn (referred to in Miss Bredon's "Lady Audley's Secret" as Castle Inn, Mount Stanning), three beer houses and one off licence. I wonder if anyone has seen a man wearing a smock; there was an old man in the parish who 1 remember did so.

From one farmhouse in the village we could get fresh milk at 3d. a quart but we generally went one-and-a-half miles with our cans to get skimmed milk for which we paid 1d a quart. The dairy supplied the big house with milk and butter. The dairywoman (wife of the farm bailiff) wore pattens. Behind the big house (Thoby Priory) was Thoby Wood and during the winter village boys used to drive rabbits, pheasants and partridges, etc for big shoots. At the end of the day they were given 1/- (a shilling) and a rabbit - a useful supplement to the family's funds when ordinary farm labourers were paid 12/- a week and horsemen and cowmen 13/- with Sunday labour.

The village school had an Infants Department of thirty-odd and an Upper School of ninety-odd. The latter was in a big room with a. sort of bay, where Standard I sat. The Headmaster looked after Standard IV and upwards. A partially qualified woman teacher took Standards II and III and an unqualified girl or woman (a monitor) taught Standard I. The Infant School had a. qualified mistress. There was a partition between the two schools which could be taken down for concerts, etc. The Sunday School met there, too and both Day and Sunday Schools had really useful little libraries. My father used to train the children to give a cantata once in the winter and the profits were spent on the Day School library. These continued until a new vicar came along who had conscientious objections to Friday evening concerts, etc. This was the only time when the platform could be assembled without affecting the school - it was dismantled on Saturday morning. Occasional concerts were however arranged by other folk.

Now for the roads. We were lucky in having a main road running through the village. It was macadamized with granite, water bound. and rolled in with a steam roller. In winter it was an inch or so deep in mud. The roadmen scraped this off to the side and made it up into heaps which were afterwards collected to form a larger heap on the grass verge. These were sifted by local builders to get grit for mortar. In some places the gutter between road and path was not very plain and. if one cycled home in the dusk, when there was a sprinkling of snow, one did not see the heaps and bumped over them. The lanes were made up of gravel and this in my young time was left to be rolled in by the carts. A quarter mile or so of this unrolled gravel was a nuisance to cyclists. These lanes frequently had cart ruts and often the carts etc kept in the middle of the road, which again was awkward for cyclists, for the carts never made way for them.

Penny-farthing bicycles were ridden - my father had one - but "safeties" were beginning to be popular, though at first they generally had narrow tyres (of the same kind as many perambulators today). Speaking of perambulators, I had the first in the village, and the girl who took me out for an airing was very proud of the privilege.

To the conservative farmer who used carts and traps, bicycles were anathema and it was difficult to pass them in a country lane for they would keep in the middle of the road. Rude boys shouted after cyclists, "Hi, governor! Your wheel's going round!" or, worse still, "Monkey on a gridiron!" There is a hill south of Brentwood on the main road to London and the local weekly paper recorded regularly prosecutions and fines on cyclists for the dangerous way they went downhill. Freewheels began to come in about nineteen hundred but my cycle engineer advised me against them as unreliable; we had, as a rule, footrests on the front fork and used them in coasting down the hills. There was a step at the axis of the back wheel from which we mounted. The Dunlop patent still held in my schooldays, and the cheapest cycle tyre cover cost a guinea (three guineas in our money) and tubes I think were about 8/ -. Cycles were frequently made by the shopkeeper- he was an engineer. B.S.A. made cycle components - not complete cycles - and the shopkeeper assembled them. Complete cycles were only available from a certain few firms.

As farmers' sons and daughters took to cycling the prejudice against cyclists abated and the byroads improved and hedge cuttings were not so frequently left in the lanes to puncture tyres. It is hard to realise what a revolution in country life was brought about by the cycle. It was cheap enough to be bought by working men could now get to work away from home - the knowledge of the district in which they lived was extended, but it killed the practice of long walks.

I am old enough to remember the repeal of the Act which entailed the walking of a man with a red flag before any mechanically propelled vehicle, and the famous London to Brighton run to celebrate that. I believe half the cars broke down, to the malicious joy of the general public. It is hard to realise that at first motor cars were such a rarity that when we heard the chug of a car we used to go to the windows of our dining room to see it pass just as in World War I we used to go out and look up at an aeroplane. The coming of the motor car destroyed the surface of the water bound macadamized roads and the county surveyors were driven to using tar as the binding agent. Our excellent main roads are due to motor car traffic. Motor lorries have influenced marketing to a remarkable extent. Up to the General Strike in 1926 a train ran every morning from Colchester to Liverpool Street, stopping at every station solely to convey milk in churns; it brought back the empties in the afternoon. That strike stopped the railway milk traffic and forced dairy companies to send out lorries to get the milk from the farmers. The new way was so convenient for both farmers and dairymen that in a short period of time after the strike finished the milk train ceased to run. The lorries allowed of farmers etc sending vegetables straight to the London market without using railways.

The development of science since I got interested in it is probably known to you all. I can remember, in a magazine for schools, reading of the discovery of argon - that was followed up by the discovery of the other inert gases of the atmosphere. Neon lighting uses a gas unknown fifty-five years ago. Radium, of course, made quite a stir when I was at school. The liquification of air in the later 1890's was utilised by Ramsay in isolating the inert gases in the atmosphere and the "Daily Mail" had a wonderful article, in its carly days, explaining how a pint of liquid air would suffice to drive the biggest ships across the Atlantic. That same paper, as I can well remember, had a vivid description of the capture and sack of the European Legations at Pekin in (?)1900, whereas they were in fact easily relieved by the mixed force of English, American, Russian, French and Germans.

1 can remember vaguely the campaign to reconquer the Sudan and very vividly the Boer War 1899-1901. Later, as a 'Volunteer' I met. in camp. a Somerset Light Infantryman who claimed to have sent Buller's message to Geo. White in Ladysmith advising him to destroy his guns ete and to surrender. There was a terrible moment when Sir Geo. White believed that the Boers were pressing him hard and at a critical moment in the despatch the line failed and we did not know till next morning the true story - and feared the worst. Spion Kop just a geographical expression with the Tugelia River - they were as vivid to our eyes as El Alamein to folk in the last Great War. I cannot remember how I learned of the Relief of Ladysmith but I can remember a man selling a London Evening Paper (V2d.) and 1 bought one at Id. to take home to show my father - it was in the stop press. The relief of Mafeking was known during the night, and my schoolmates nearly blew down the playground wall with fireworks, while the Head sat indoors over his newspaper - The Times - and waited for the excitement to calm down before having the bell rung for school.

I think fifty years ago people were happier than now despite the great improvements and inventions.

Submitted by Andrew Smith
Walter Reed was Andrew's great uncle

As it appeared that all records from the Piggott Brothers long history had been lost or destroyed, it was a surprise to come across a sales catalogue of the company among other items. The catalogue is hardbound in a red cover. It is undated, although the dates of the complimentary letters and news of exhibition medals, which are included, would seem to indicate a date of about 1888. The volume runs to 263 pages. It is divided into the various business interests of the company; marquees and tents; camping equipment; harness and saddlery; flags and banners; gymnastics and sports.

Before Piggotts' moved to Stanford Rivers, they occupied the address 57, 58, & 59, Bishopsgate Street, Without, London. The company also owned store facilities in Plough Yard, Shoreditch, and a factory in Spitalfields. The proximity of the showroom to Liverpool Street Station allowed the company to sell a wide range of goods matched to a prosperous clientele drawn from London and the commuters and railway travellers of the period. The list of prestigious customers conveys a snapshot of European royalty in the late nineteenth century with Her Majesty the Queen of England and Empress of India, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Germany, His Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey, and His Serene Highness the Khedive of Egypt mentioned among others.

In printed testimonials, customers expressed their satisfaction, but the tributes also give some idea of the range of the business at that time. From testimonials, we read from the Blackbum Corporation; "I have much pleasure in stating that the large Marquee and Grand Stand, to seat 5,000 persons, erected by you .... on the occasion of the visit of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales .... was carried out to the entire satisfaction of the Committee. I may also add that the Princess commented favourably upon its splendid appearance." A William Boyce comments; "Did people but know the saving in houschold labour that is gained by using your Tents, there is no one, I feel certain, but would use them for dancing &c., in preference to their drawing rooms." Robert Overman, referring to the "civil and respectable conduct of your [Piggotts'] servants" adds "1 regret that I cannot call them by their names, and all that they did for us on your behalf might be equalled, but not surpassed."

From the above it may be deduced that the main business of the company was the sale and hire of tents. Indeed, the catalogue illustrates and provides prices for tents in a large number of designs in a range of sizes. The 'Mildmay Tent', supplied to and used by the Emperor William II of Germany, was for both "Camping and Sporting purposes" and at a price of £21 was of superior quality. No doubt more aptly named. was the 'Boating or Canoeing Tent' the Gipsy or Emigrant's Tent', the 'Prospecting or Engineer's Tent', and the decorative 'Bathing Tent', of course. "The Czarina Tent' must have appeared a little racy in red and white stripes, but there might have been little call for the seemingly elaborate 'Crusader Tent', "supported on lances of the early period"!

Most interesting is 'The Expanding Balloon Tent" (figure I). Although we are now familiar with such tents, it is perhaps a surprise to find such tents on sale so long ago. A statement that English and Foreign patents had been granted to a Captain in the Royal Navy would suggest that this tent was a recent innovation. For a price of less than £10, a tent of diameter 10ft. could be bought. Among the advantages listed, the tent is stated to be light-tight and "perfect for Photographic Development".

As already noted, Piggotts' sold other goods apart from tents and camping equipment. Sports goods appeared fully in their catalogue. Six years after the Australian victory at the Oval, after which the tradition of the Ashes was atarted, England cricketers despite the presence of W. G. Grace were still having a hard time against the Australians. For their part, Piggotts' satisfied all cricket requirements with bats and batting gloves, cricket nets and cricket "telegraphs" (better known now as scoreboards) down to boxwood mallets. John Wisden's 'Cricketers Almanack' could be bought for one shilling (5p.) - copies in good condition from that era now sell for more than £1,000! Cricket sets for women could also be purchased.

Football, a game still in its relative infancy, had just staged the first FA Cup - won by Preston North End who in so doing completed the Cup and League double. Piggotts' offered football shirts, 'knickers', ankle guards and boots, apparently "very light, and [which] do not in the slightest degree interfere with the free action of the foot" (figure 2). A fashionable line in 'striped German Jerseys' also sold in a 'slender fitting' at 2s. 9d .. The "Challenge Football' is "the most perfect ball ever introduced" and the ball "will outlast three ordinary balls, and will not lose shape or increase in weight in wet weather". It cost just 13s. 6d .. The ball had apparently been used in three recent. important football matches played at the Oval.

The first of the modern Olympic Games were still eight years away. but twenty-four pages of the catalogue are devoted to gymnastics equipment. There was no computerised running or rowing machines, of course, but there were plenty of clubs to swing and a variety of wooden contraptions for vaulting, lifting and climbing. The range of equipment suggests an obsession by the late Victorians for physical fitness. There is the 'Reliable' horizontal bar, which is adjustable at little less than £7 (an unreliable horizontal bar would presumably have been much cheaper!) You could even buy a complete gymnasium with frames, horizontal bars, parallel bars, giant strides, ladders, trapezes, see-saws and numerous ropes and swings. Most of the gymnasts, illustrated using the equipment, are equipped with a distinctive moustache typical of the period, of course.

Any company that had traded for more than two centuries, as Piggotts' has done, must have been nimble in reacting to changing fashions and market opportunities. Piggotts' were to attempt to diversify their business in the period around 1910 by entering into the challenging and rapidly expanding acro industry. Having made tented hangars for housing the experimental aircraft that were being developed within the United Kingdom at the time, they entered aircraft manufacturing themselves. Although this seems like a dramatic step to take, their competitors were similarly short on experience. Nevertheless the move would have presented various contrasting technical challenges. The impression created from the catalogue of Piggott Brothers from this period is of a lively, adventurous company, willing to compete across a wide front over fashionable and substantial business areas.

1. Definitions (not included here)

2. The parents of every child of not less than 5, nor more than 13 years of age, shall cause such child to attend school, unless there be reasonable excuse for non attendance.

   ```

   Any of the following reasons shall be a reasonable excuse, namely

   (a) That the child is under efficient instruction in some other manner.

   (b) That the child has been prevented from attending school by sickness or any unavoidable cause.

   ```

5. (c) That there is no Public Elementary School open which the child can attend within 3 miles, measured according to the nearest road from the residence of such child.

   ```

   The time during which every child shall attend school shall be the whole time for which the school selected shall be open for the instruction of children of similar age, including the day fixed by Her Majesty's Inspector for his annual visit.

   Provided always that nothing in these Bye-Laws -

   (a) Shall prevent the withdrawal of any child from any religious observances or instruction in religious subjects.

   (b) Shall require any child to attend school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which its parent belongs.

   (c) Shall have any force or effect in so far as it may be contrary to anything contained in any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour.

   And provided always that -

   (a) A child between 10 and 13 years of age shall not be required to attend school if such child has received a certificate from one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, that it has reached the Fourth Standard prescribed by the code of 1876.5

   (b) A child between 10 and 13 years of age shown to the satisfaction of the Local Authority to be beneficially and necessarily employed shall not be required to attend school for more than 150 attendances in each year., if such child has received a certificate from on of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, that it has reached the Third Standard prescribed by the Code of 1876.

   ```

6. these Bye-Laws, or any of them, shall upon conviction, be liable to a penalty not exceeding, with costs, five shillings for each offence.

Any Bye-Laws heretofore made under section 74 of the Elementary Education Act 1870, or under that section as amended by the Elementary Education Act 1876, are herby revoked as from the day on which the present Bye-Laws shall come into operation.

These Bye-Laws were made by the School Attendance Committee of the Ongar Union, at a meeting held on the 15" day of April. 1879.

L. N. Prance, Chairman
R. Stokes, Acting Clerk

Every parent who shall not observe, or shall neglect, or violate

STAPLEFORD TAWNEY

STAPLEFORD TAWNEY is a parish of scattered houses on the northern acclivities of the vale of the Roding, from 31/2 to 5 miles South East of Epping, and 5 miles South South West of Chipping Ongar. It contains 355 inhabitants and 1552 acres of land, rising boldly from Passingford Bridge, on the Roding, near which is Suttons, the handsome and pleasant seat of Sir C.C. Smith, Bart., the lord of the manor of Suttons. Stapleford Tawney Hall, which is now a farm house, was anciently a seat of the Tawney, or Tany family, and afterwards passed to the Drokensford, Mandeville, Spice, Alleyn. and Thompson families. It gives name to the principal manor, which was sold in 1716 to an ancestor of its present owner, Sir E.B. Smijth, Bart., of Hill Hall, a large and beautiful seat in the adjoining parish of Theydon Mount. Several smaller owners have estates in the parish, which belonged to Godric before the Conquest, and to Suene at the Norman Survey

The Church (Virgin Mary,) is a small ancient structure, consisting of a nave, a chancel with a south aisle, and a wooden belfry, crowned by a short spire, The rectory, with that of Thoydon Mount annexed to it, is valued in K.B. at £15,8s.8d., and in 1831 at £738. The joint benefices are in the gift of Sir E,B. Smijth, Bart., and incumbency of the Rev. Henry Soames, M.A., who has here a large and handsome white brick residence, and 116A, of glebe. The tithes of the two parishes were commuted in 1837 for £700 per annum. The poor of Stapleford Tawney have 4A. of land left by an unknown donor, and now let for £6.10s .; and also a yearly rent charge of £5, left by Thomas Luther, in 1718, out of a farm of 18A., now belonging to Mr. Jones. The School-house is occupied by the schoolmaster rent free, and was built by Jane Luther, who, in 1745, left the following yearly rent charge out of an estate at Little Warley, viz., 5s. to the parish clerk for weeding the gravel walk leading to the church; and £2.17s.6d. each to this parish and that of Kelvedon Hatch, for distribution in bread among the poor

Inhabitants

• Mary Cooper, victualler, Talbot Inn
• William Dawkins, blacksmith
• John Pavitt , shopkeeper
• William Roach, grocer, Post Office
• Sir. C. Cunliffe Smith, Bart
• Rev. Henry Soames M.A., Rural Dean, Rector of Stapleford Tawney, with Thoydon Mount & Shelley, & Chancellor of St. Paul's, Rectory

Farmers.

• Henry Dawkins
• Charles Clark
• Foster Charlton
• William Walker
• Ralph Charlton
• John Rumbald
• William Sworder

My interest in local history and reading books on Essex means that second-hand bookshops and e-bay are a great attraction. So ...

Have you read ... Worthy Dr. Fuller by William Addison (Dent, 1950)?

I was attracted to this book by its cover - which has an ancient picture of Waltham Abbey Church.

Thomas Fuller (1608 to 1661) was born in Northamptonshire and followed his father's footsteps into the clergy. He served in London, Broadwindsor in Dorset then Waltham Abbey, from 1649 to 1658.

His fame though was his hobby: he was a historian. Fuller read the contents of many private libraries writing these records for the first time in our native tongue: English. He wrote a history of Cambridge, where he went to University, and numerous other books. His most famous work was 'The History of the Worthies of England' published after his death in 1662. Samuel Pepys mentions in his diary purchasing a copy of what is a topographical and historical county by county guide of the country. For me, that was the dim recollection of the name: not the last Prior of Waltham Abbey but the writer of 'Fuller's Worthies" as it is known.

Fuller was a popular preacher, standing on the steps of churches to talk - such were the large number of attendees - and he is said to have written and spoken in a particular manner which became known as Fullerisms. The following is an example.

"His books are full of reflections of village life used to point to a moral in this manner. Thus, 'I have observed that children, he says in one place, 'when they first put on new shoes, are very keen to keep them clean ... Yea, rather they wipe the leather clean with their coats; and yet, perchance, the next day they will trample with the same shoes in the mire up to their ankles. Alas, children's play is our earnest.' Or, having watched a servant girl make, kindle, and blow a fire, and afterwards go about her work while the mistress sat by the fire, he noticed that the servant girl was warmer than the mistress, enjoying a 'more general, kindly and continuing heat.' Thus he was able to use for a homely moral".

The book is a biography of the man, written in a lively and engaging manner. It takes the reader back to Stuart England.

Dear Rob,

I have been researching my ancestors, Robinsons, for the past 6 months and the results of my work can be seen on http://www.lyons-family.co.uk/fan-chart/index.htm Just click on a person and my notes should appear. Francis Robinson and his family, of whom 4 were born in Stanford Rivers,, must have lived at Brook Cottages from 1865 - 1872/5. And it seems to have been a fairly prosperous period of his life as he is recorded, 1871, as employing 2 people and farming 40 acres. 1 wondered if any school records exist for this period or whether you have any members interested in Robinsons .?

Would be really pleased if you can reply. Ellen Annie Robinson was my mum's beloved granny. And in my research. I have found that her dad, Francis, grew up less than a mile from where we had a hotel in Chadlington from 1987-1996! Unfortunately. I only discovered this after my mum's death

Chris Grant

The Epping Forest District Council's quest to find the fifty favourite trees in the neighbourhood has already been reported in this journal. A book has now been produced illustrating all the trees. On the front cover is the Coleman's Farm Oak in Stanford Rivers, a craggy old pollarded oak that is still being managed on traditional lines. The Cutler's Forge Horse Chestnut in Stapleford Tawney appears inside, together with a photograph of the forge taken in 1955

Tricia Moxey has expertly edited Favourite Trees using text supplied by the proposers of the trees. John Price has taken the photographs. GreenArc has jointly supported the publication with EFDC. Founded in 2004, GreenArc is a unique partnership of authorities. organisations and interest groups concerned with a wide swathe of Home County countryside. The result is a book of both high quality and local interest.

The project can be viewed on www.favouritetrees.com. The book is currently available from Epping Forest District Council (www.eppingforest.gov.uk). No charge is made for the book, but an inserted note requests that a charitable donation be made in lieu to the Friends of St Margaret's Hospital.

Why didn't I refer to Harold Scott? Scott's book on Stanford Rivers was published in 1974 - just after the time of the loss of the Madonna and Child from St Margaret's, Stanford Rivers (see Journal issue no. 29). Scott's contemporary report states:

"In April 1969, a large oil painting of the Madonna and Child was stolen from the church - it was then unofficially valued at £200. The thief entered by a Vestry window and presumably left by the main door. The fine reproduction painting was hanging in the church from 1886 until 1902, when it was sold to Sir Drummond Spencer-Smith. Sir Charles D. Spencer-Smith presented it back in 1949 in memory of a former Rector - the Rev. R. Rollason."

Scott's history of Stanford Rivers does omit reference to the sources of much of the information included in the book. However, for contemporary material, such as this note, Scott is very useful.

From The Times June 6, 1848

Stanford Rivers, Essex - Compact Frechold Estate with a Substantial brick built Residence, Offices, Garden, Farm House and Buildings, and 43 acres of excellent Meadow Land.

MESSRS HOGGARTS, NORTON and OAKLEY have received instructions to offer for SALE at the Auction Mart. on THIS DAY, June 6, at 12, in one lot, by direction of the .... in Trust, BLAKES FARM, a valuable Freehold Estate, delightfully situated at Toothill, in the parish of Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, about eight miles from Brentwood, and five from Epping, in a fine part of the county of Essex. It comprises a substantial brick-built residence, containing five bed chambers, dining room, parlour, attached and detached offices, stabling and chaise house, large productive garden, and an enclosure of fine old meadow land; also several enclosures of most productive meadow land, with good farm house, farm-yard, cattle sheds, and all useful agricultural buildings, five cottages with large gardens, the whole containing 43a.1r.39p. May be viewed and particulars had of Mr Lewis, land agent, Waterend, Ongar; of G. Bower, Esq., solicitor, Tokenhouse Yard; Henry Wright, Esq, solicitor, Knutsford, Cheshire; at the White Hart, Brentwood; at the Mart; and of Messrs Hoggarts, Norton and Oakley, Darland, Chatham and 62 Old Broad Street, Royal Exchange.

The Reverend Thomas Lloyd was rector of Theydon Garnon from 1894 until 1918. However in 1908 he found himself in court on a charge of assault and imprisonment. The Times newspaper recorded all ...

The Times - April 25, 1908

At the Epping Petty Sessions, yesterday, a charge of assault and false imprisonment was brought by Mr. Henry John Miller, the people's warden at the parish church of Theydon Garnon, near Epping, against the rector, the Rev. Thomas Lloyd. Mr. H. Warburton appeared for the prosecutor. Mr. Miller, in his evidence, said that the account at the bank was in the name of the two church wardens. After the service on Sunday morning, March 22, he went into the vestry to count the collection, which amounted to 18s. 10 1/2d. and the rector demanded the money, although witness said it was for church expenses. He-put 18s. in his pocket, leaving the coppers in the plate, but the rector flew up very passionately and called out, "You don't go out of here with that money," and locked up the vestry doors leading into the church and the churchyard. He said to the rectot, "Pray be reasonable. You know quite well the Bishop told you you were to have nothing to do with the church account." That, he explained, was the outcome of previous trouble. The clergyman replied, "I don't care for Bishops and Chancellors any more than I do for you," and he snapped his fingers in witness's face. Altogether he was kept in for ten minutes. Cross examined by Mr. Murphy (for the defendant), the witness said after he left the church the rector came running down the churchyard after him, calling out, "You have not gor it all." and shook the coppers in his hand. Witness replied, "Very well, old man, you can keep them and spend them." Probably he did tell the rector to go and buy a whisky with the coppers. He declined to explain why he told the rector to buy a whisky. The rector was not in a normal state. The Rev. Thomas Lloyd said that he paid the collection for church expenses into the bank at Epping by arrangement. There had been continual friction in his parish in regard to money matters. There had never been a custom for the money to be taken away uncounted or unchecked by the rector. When in the vestry on the 22nd he saw Mr. Miller put his hand in one of the plates and take the money out. He declined to put the money on the table to be counted. Witness denied having snapped his lingers in Mr. Miller's face, pushing him, wearing a hat in church, or calling out to the sexton from the vestry to lock the church doors. There was no truth in the suggestion that he was in any way the worse for liquor on that morning. After retiring for some minutes, the Bench decided that the charge had been made out, and committed the defendant for trial.

Mr. Warburton, on a further summons for brawling in church, said the importance of the case was that the assault was committed by a clergyman in his own church. The brawling was the important case. It was very important from its ecclesiastical aspect. Mr. Murphy submitted that the vestry was not part of the church. The law as to brawling applied to the church or burial ground. The Bench decided that a case had been made out, and imposed a fine of £2 and £5 costs.

The Times June 20, 1908

At Chelmsford, the grand jury found a true bill for assault against the Rev. Thomas LLOYD, rector of Theydon Garnon. in Essex. Mr. Warburton and Mr. Moan appeared for the prosecution; Mr. Dickens, K.C., and Mr. J. Harvey Murphy for the defendant.

Before the defendant surrendered, Mr. Warburton, in addressing Mr. Justice Walton, said that the facts of the case (which related to occurrences and disputes as to the custody of certain offertory moneys between the defendant and a Mr. Miller, a churchwarden, in the vestry of the parish church of Theydon Garnon had already been inquired into at petty sessions. Petty sessions had convicted the defendant for the offence of brawling in the church and had fined him. The petty sessions moreover, committed him for trial to these assizes on this charge of assault. The defendant had lodged an appeal from the conviction by petty sessions for brawling and such appeal would come on for hearing at the quarter sessions for the county of Essex on July 1 next. Mr. Warburton said that the facts constituting the brawling and the assault were identical, and that in the circumstances he suggested that this indictment should stand over upon the understanding that it should be no further procceded with in the event of the appeal being dismissed or of it being allowed after all the merits of the case had been heard by the Court of quarter sessions.

After some discussion, Mr. Dickens consented to this procedure, and the learned Judge having approved of it, the indictment was sent over to the next assizes.

The Times - June 27, 1908

APPEAL WITHDRAWN. The Rev. Thomas Lloyd, Rector of Theydon Garnon, who was recently convicted by the Epping justices of brawling in Theydon Garnon Church and fined two guineas with £5 costs, has withdrawn his appeal to the Essex Quarter Session. At the Essex Assize, last week Mr. Lloyd was indicted for assaulting Mr. Miller, the people's warden, and imprisoning him in the vestry, but Mr. Warburton, who appeared for the prosecution, asked that the case might stand over to the next assize; the facts in both cases were identical, and in the event of Mr. Lloyd's conviction being affirmed. he should at the next Assize ask that the charge of assault and imprisoning be withdrawn.

The Times October 30, 1908

Before Mr. Justice Grantham, at the Essex Assizes, yesterday, Mr. Warburton mentioned the case of the R. v. THOMAS LLOYD, against whom the grand jury at the last Summer Assizes had found a true bill for assault and false Imprisonment. The proceedings arose out of certain occurrences in the parish church of Theydon Garnon, of which Mr. Lloyd is incumbent. A charge of brawling had also been preferred in respect of the same occurrences, and Mr. Lloyd had been convicted of that offence at petty sessions in April. He gave notice of appeal for the conviction to quarter sessions, and, at the Summer Assizes, the learned Judge ordered the present charge to stand over until these assizes pending the decision of the appeal. Mr. Lloyd afterwards withdrew his appeal, and paid the fine imposed upon his conviction for brawling. Mr. Warburton proposed now to offer no evidence. Mr. Murphy, for Mr. Lloyd, desired that a formal verdict of Not Guilty "should be returned. The learned JUDGE agreed that it was clearly right that, in the circumstances, there should be no proceeding on the present indictment, and he directed that Mr. Lloyd, who surrendered to his bail, should be formally acquitted by the jury. A verdict of Not Guilty was accordingly retumed.

The Times September 12, 1910

At Ongar on Saturday George Day, of Waterloo Terrace, Bethnal Green, was charged with grievously wounding, and Joseph Hill, of Duckett Street, Stepney, with assaulting, Constable Henry Lindsey. According to the evidence, a party of men from the East End of London had been 'rounding up " horses in the fields at Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, and when spoken to they attacked the owner and Constable Lindsey. Afterwards they ran off to an inn. When the constable entered the house Day was stated to have thrown four tumblers in succession at him, cutting his head, car, and neck. Notwithstanding his injuries Lindsey secured Hill, who had first struck him, and locked him up in the village smithy. A crowd tried to rescue Hill, but the blacksmith, named Tyrell, kept them off with an old sword. Hill was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and Day was committed for trial at the Essex Assize.

The Times November 2, 1956

Work on electrifying the six-mile section of the Central Line beyond Epping to North Weald, Blake Hall, and Ongar will begin early in 1957, London Transport announced yesterday. It will take between 12 and 18 months to complete and will cost £100,000. This section of the line is at present operated by a steam shuttle service. After electrification, the shuttle will be run with two-car trains of normal tube type, at the same frequency as the present service. London Transport say that the number of passengers at present using the line beyond Epping would not justify the running of full-length trains through from Central London. If the traffic grows as expected, the question of through trains will be reviewed.

Visit to All Saints Church, Parish Church of Theydon Garnon
6.30pm, Wednesday 17 September

The visit to the church will coincide with the ringing of the bells. It is expected that the installation of the new peal of bells will have been completed by the time of the visit. A climb to sce the bell loft is anticipated. We meet at the church.

The Essex Earthquake & The Great Essex Hailstorm
Anne Brooks & Andrew Smith
8.00pm, Thursday 23 October

On 22 April. 1884, a major earthquake struck Essex. The earthquake was centred SW of Colchester and caused considerable structural damage. It was felt on the French coast. The great hailstorm event occurred Midsummer's Day in 1897. With hailstones "the size of hen's eggs", crops were flattened and the destruction reached the High Country. An interesting double bill!

Suttons Manor Explorcd
Anne Padfield
8.00pm, Thursday 27 November

"The maner of Suttons seems to have been so named from its fituation in the fouthern part of the parifh. The manfion houfe ftands abut a mile fouth-eaft from the Church, near Piffingford-bridge." Morant's Essex

. . . and in December look out for .. . "A Magic Lantern Evening"

All meeting in Toot Hill Village Hall commencing at 8pm
Coffee and Biscuits
Members £1-Non members £2