High Country History Group

Agricultural implements increasingly were available by 1840. Thomas Wright (1836) claimed that the Essex spring plough made by Clarke of Billericay was the best and Cook's scarifying harrow "is an excellent implement". He adds, "My thrashing machine was made by Ball, of Norwich, which answers completely in thrashing all sorts of grain"¹. The threshing machine, an early example of mechanisation in farming, was invented in the late eighteenth century but was not in common usage for a century afterwards.

The separation of wheat from the chaff by beating the comn on the barn floor (otherwise called the threshing floor) was known as flaifing. The flail was referred to as a stick and a half because it was made in two parts. It was held by a piece of wood called a hand-staff, made of ash or hazel. The other half, the swingel, was made of heavier wood, either blackthorn or holly. These were loosely bound together with a leather strap. The beating was with even pressure in order to separate but not break the grain.

Winnowing, the blowing away of the chaff, was achieved by simply opening the barn doors and regulating the air flow. Later a wind dresser was used. This created a lot of dust.

Reginald Beckett, on his "pedestrian perambulations" at the turn of the twentieth century observed, "Looking one day into a barn in one of the Roding parishes, I noticed a still stranger survival - the operation of threshing with a flail. These things serve to show that this part of Essex, geographically near London though it be, is centuries behind and apart from it"².

The assignment of the lease of the Jericho Priory Farm estate, Blackmore, in 1872 referred to the vendor's obligation to leave "all hay, corn, and straw in ricks, bins or on the threshing floors"³.

The introduction of machinery threatened the existence of the agricultural labourer. In 1816 and the Swing Riots of 1830, many men resorted to machine breaking. This happened at Finchingfield, Great Bardfield, Sible Hedingham and other piaces in Essex. In 1843 Michael Challis of Hatfield Broad Oak was transported for setting alight a farm at Harlow.

Changes in technology meant changes in the landscape too Increasingly the traditional harn disappeared. Today many surviving examples have been converied into houses.

Oxen were still used in preference to the horse on some farms in 1840. These animals are recorded in the Domesday Book. Wright says that the horse is an "extravagant expense ... who eat up a very considerable produce of the farm; this has driven me back to oxen, which F used about twenty years ago". Ashley Cooper (1982) wrote that a farm "at Burlingham in Norfolk used oxen until 1905". This ilustrases that farming practice spanned a considerable period of time, even when newer 'technofogy' was available.

In another example, Reginald Beckett (1901) records a conversation with a labourer in Doddinghurst. "In a fieid hard by the church two men were sowing oats by hand, with the rhythmic swing of the body, out of shallow wooden baskets. One of them passing near the hedge stopped for a moment's chat. It was an oid-fashioned way of shattering the seed, he said, but needed a lot of learning. I remarked that it was at all events a scriptural custom. 'Yes, they didn't have machinery in them days'".

In 1902. the 'Davey Land Digger' was demonstrated with "splendid results" in Wickford, its place of manufacture. It was a steam digger attached to a six horse-power traction engine. "Only one man is employed, and the land is dug to a depth of ten inches, over a width of twelve feet, at a rate of three-quarters of an acre an hour. The action of the digger leaves the land quite ready for drilling the seed"⁷.

Earlier Mr T C Darby of Pleshey had invented the 'Darby Digger', "which during the last year of two has done excellent work as a cultivator of the soil in many parts of the county. One at least of these curious-looking implements may usually be seen at work on Mr Darby's own farm, and its inventor is always pleased to show it to visitors. Mr Darby is now the owner of 5 of these machines, which are chiefly let out to his neighbouring farmers. It is claimed for the Digger, which took the Highest Prize Medal at the Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting at Carlisle in 1880, that it performs 'spade husbandry and steam power', and at one-seventh of the cost"".

A traction engine was first used in 1888 on Link Farm, West Hanningfield. The binder - a machine which cut and bound corn - arrived on the farm in 1898 but could not be used during the wet harvest of 1902: "This meant the revival of the old-time reaping harvests, and the old hands came back into their own again"". The petrol-driven tractor made its first appearance around 1900. The combine harvester was not generally available until during the Second World War although an early one was first used in Suffolk in 1936. Even so, change was slow: horses were used well into the 1950s and not all farmers used combine harvesters until the 1970s. Threshing machines remained in use well after 1945. The job was known as "barn work".

In many respects our ancestors would have recognised farming practice well into the third quarter of the twentieth century. But by then farming had changed significantly from the employment of a large number of labourers to a solitary occupation. A combine harvester can do the same job in thirty to forty minutes that would have otherwise taken a threshing team of ten in a day¹⁰.

On the night of Sunday 2nd April, 1911, millions of people across England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, aboard Royal Navy ships at sea, in foreign ports and in military establishments overseas, completed, in their own handwriting, their Census returns.

The 1911 census is huge - it currently occupies 2 kilometres of shelving - and is the first set of Census records for which the whole record was preserved. There are over eight million house-holder schedules (completed by the householders themselves) and a further 38,000 enumerators' summary books. It comprises some 8.5 million pages and holds the details of more than 37 million people living in England and Wales in April 1911. Once digitised, the census will take up an equally large 0.5 petabyte of computer memory or, physically, 800 data tapes. The digital scanning will create 18 million images - 14 times the number created in advance of the 1901 census being launched online in 2002.

Until recently, these remarkable records were scheduled for release in 2012. However, in 2007 the Information Commissioner decided this particular Census could not be released earlier, and beginning in 2009 there will be a staggered release of images and transcription data starting with the major conurbations.

Certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners will be retained, but from 3 January 2012 the public will have full access to the entire 1911 census, including the sensitive information not made available in 2009. Researchers anywhere in the world will be able to search across the fields of the census by name, address or The National Archives catalogue reference, and download high-resolution digital images.

Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of The National Archives said:

"The 1911 census holds more information than the 1901 census. It is also the first census where the householder's schedule has remained the master entry, rather than the enumerator's notes, so researchers are able, in most cases, to view their ancestors' actual handwriting when looking at 1911 census entries."

The 1911 Census brings to life a partly industrial, partly agrarian society with a wide range of professions and skills carried out by a the globe. As well as the information required by the Census - fascinating in its own right -some respondents took the opportunity to express their views about current affairs. The British Empire was at its height, and some returns include passionate references to the imperial ambitions of the European powers, hinting at the global conflict that loomed three years in the future. The Women's Freedom League, a suffragette organisation, had arranged a boycott of the census. One apparent sympathiser, who left the return otherwise blank, has written 'No vote - no census. In view of restrictive legislation ... I refuse to give details of my household asked for in this document.'

In determining how best to manage the release of the 1911 census, The National Archives' guiding principle was to offer the widest possible access in the shortest possible time frame. They opted for an online service with high quality digital copies in colour. Initial scanning work began in August 2007 and by the completion of the scanning phase, around 8.5 million pages will have been scanned. Researchers will be charged 10 credits per transcript and 30 credits for each original household page. Visitors to the website can buy 60 credits for £6.95. Current findmypast.com customers' credits and vouchers will be valid for use on the 1911census.co.uk site. Vouchers can be purchased from The National Archives bookshop and redeemed on findmypast.com. Credits can then be spent on both findmy-past.com and 1911census.co.uk.

Taken from an article in Local History News, No. 90 - Winter 2009. (Magazine of the British Association for Local History)

Harry Patch, the last veteran of the First World War, 'quietly slipped away" at a nursing home in Wells, aged 111, on 251h July 2009. He and others came to present the last of a generation who, thankfully, were encouraged in their later years to share their war experiences. Henry Allingham, a founder member of the Royal Air Force, died 18h July 2009, aged 113. Harry's biography, 'The Last Fighting Tommy' is a lasting oral testimony.

is nothing singularly There remarkable about Harry Patch's service in the Great War. At 18 he was called up (conscription was compulsory) to serve 'King and Country' and spent time on the Western Front in Passchendaele before being wounded in September 1917 and sent home to recuperate. The story of this Somerset man is replicated across millions of his generation. But the fact that at the age of 108, as one of the oldest surviving veterans of the First World War, he decided to write an autobiography telling of his experience is remarkable.

Only in recent years, since the age of 100, has Harry decided to tell his story. Like almost all who served the vivid remembrance of the battles is something which was not talked about. Harry Patch was born in 1898. In his training for military service, this plumber by trade, learned to use a Lewis Gun and be a second team member of six. He describes the closeness of this small group, the sharing of the cigarettes, pipe tobacco and cake sent from home, the mutual support in times of trouble, and the sadness afterwards learning that three of his mates were blown up by a shell which injured Harry in the stomach with a two inch piece of shrapnel which was removed without anaesthetic because there was none available.

Life in the trenches is talked about and the fear that the men had of not surviving perhaps the next day. He mentions going 'over the top'. those wounded and those shell shocked by the experience. This is not a book lurid in detail but oral history at its best.

'The Last Fighting Tommy' by Harry Patch with Richard Van Emden (Bloomsbury, 2008) is available in paperback. £7.99

They took a little gravel,
And they took a little tar,
With various ingredients,
Imported from afar.
They hammered it and rolled it,
And then they went away,
They said they had a high-street,
That would last for many a day.

But they came with picks and smote it,
To lay a water main,
And then they called the workmen,
To put it back again.
To lay a big new gas-pipe,
They took it up once more,
And then they put it back again,
Just where it was before.

Oh, the high street's full of furrows,
There are patches everywhere,
You would like to ride upon it,
But it's seldom that you dare.
It's wonderful! Our High Street,
A credit to the town,
They're always taking it up,
Or putting of it down.

And now the road to Fyfield,
Where Horsnail rides each day,
They're digging up the gravel,
Along the permanent way.
They'll make a grand new roadway,
With gravel and with tar,
But soon they'll take it up again,
It's lovely surface mar.

And very soon will Horsnail,
Experience many a jar,
And wish to Ongar Station,
The way was not so far.
Then our wonderful surveyors,
Will make the roadway up again,
With gravel and with tar.

R. DUNN

Continuing our series looking at the parishes surrounding the High Country area we arrive at Stapleford Abbotts

A pleasant and fertile parish of 2300 acres of land, rising boldly from the vale of the River Roding has many scattered farm houses and neat cottages near Passingford Bridge, How Green, Knowle's Hill, Newport Hatch, etc. The population is 498. Before the Conquest, it belonged to the Abbey of St. Edmond's Bury, and in 1010 it was one of the places where the monks rested with the body of that saint, when being carried back from London to Bury St. Edmund's.

The parish is now in three manors. Albyns, the seat and property of T.N. Abdy, Esq., M.P., gives name to a manor and estate, which extends into Navestock parish, and anciently belonged to a chantry at Wivenhoe, and afterwards to the Luter, Cely, Ffitch, and other families. The mansion is a fine old building, supposed to have been erected from a design of Inigo Jones. It was completely repaired in the last century by Sir John Abdy, Bart., and stands in a large park, overlooking the river Roding. The present owner is M.P. for Lynn Regis, and a member of the Abdy family, formerly seated at Felix Hall. John Barnes, Esq., is now lord of the manor of Stapleford Abbots Hall, which belonged to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's, and afterwards to the Maynard, Granville and Ffitch families. The manor of Batayles, or Batail's Hall, belongs to Lady Mildmay, and was held in the 11th and 12th centuries by the Balaile family, under the Montfichets. The Crown, the Rev. J.B. Stane, Robert Tull, Esq., and William Joseph Lockwood, Esq., have estates in the parish. The latter owns Knowle's, or Knoll's Hill estate, which adjoins his seat of Bishop's Hall, in Lambourne parish, and had formerly a stately mansion occupied by the Fortesques, but now reduced to a farm house, which commands charming prospects. In a wood are the remains of Bishop's Moat, which tradition says was paved with marble, and was one of the defences of the fortified mansion which was occupied by the warlike Bishop Spencer.

The Church (St. Mary,) is an ancient structure, consisting of a nave, chancel, south porch, and tower. A chapel on the north side of the chancel, is the burial place of the Abdy family. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £16.15s., and in 1831 at £513, is in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. C.W. Pitt, M.A., who has about 30 acres of glebe, and an old residence, partly brick and partly lath and plaster. Knoll's Hill Free School was erected in 1734, by Sir John Fortescue Kt., who endowed it with £25 a year out of Knoll's hill estate, for a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing to 20 poor boys of this parish, and 20 of Lambourne parish. The master has also the free use of a house and about an acre of land, and is allowed to take other scholars. The poor parishioners have a yearly rent charge of £3, left by Elizabeth Watson. in 1782, out of Mitchell's estate, at How Green, in this parish, now belonging to Emanuel College, Cambridge; and also the dividends of £166.13s.4d. three per cent. Consols, purchased with £105, left by the Rev. Dr. Gould, in 1799.

List of Inhabitants (1848)

• Thomas Nevill Abdy Esq., M.P., Albyns
• Thomas Aylett, victualler, Plough
• Elizabeth Dawkins, wheelwright
• Samuel Parrish, schoolmaster
• Rev. Charles Whitworth Pitt M.A., rector, and chaplain to the Duchess of Kent
• Charles Stevens, miller, Water Mill
• Amelia Williams, schoolmistress
• James Worter, shop and beerhouse keeper

Farmers.

• James Dixon
• James Surridge
• George Ffitch, Batail's Hall
• Charles Lenny
• Philip Taylor
• John McMurray
• Henry Vincy
• Edwin Mollett and Charles Mollett, Hall
• William Mott
• Richard Young
• Rebecca Roach
• James Staines

Post Office Directory 1874 - list of inhabitants

• Rev. Thomas Cochrane, M.A., Rectory
• William Clarke Gellibrand, Albyns
• William John Edward Baher, farmer
• Francis Dawkins, wheelwright
• William Dewing, miller
• James Dixon, shopkeeper
• Henry Gardner, beer retailer
• John Humphreys, farmer
• Richard Hurrell, Plough PH
• John Lash, farmer
• Mark Lenney, farmer
• Edwin Mollett, farmer, Battles Hall
• Miss Harriet Mollett, farmer
• John McMurrey, farmer
• Charles Parish, farmer
• John Salmon, farmer
• Benjamin Shepherd, farmer
• Mrs. Sarah Staines, farmer
• Charles Stevens, miller and farmer
• James Surridge, farmer, Boylands Oak
• Philip Taylor, farmer
• John Willey, beer retailer
• Charles Wood, farmer, Martin's Herne
• Charles Wood, jun., farmer, Bourne Bridge
• Richard Stokes Young, farmer.

The report by the Epping Urban District Council Evacuation Committee which met on the 13 January 1940 stated:

"Sometime between September and December 1939 the point was reached when the persons receiving treatment at Hill Hall were no longer bona-fide evacuees. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour have reached this conclusion; there is no reason why Epping Urban District Council and Essex County Council should not concur with this view.

If this view is correct, is there any reason: -

(a) Why Essex County Council should continue to pay the salaries of staff and the administrative expenses of Hill Hall?

(b) Why Epping Urban District Council, as an agent for the Ministry of Health, should continue to accommodate expectant mothers at Sprigg 's Oak?

These persons either are evacuees or they are not evacuees. If they are, they are entitled to shelter in the Receiving Area at the expense of the Government and are also entitled to assistance from the Ministry of Labour where appropriate.

If they are not evacuees, then they are entitled to none of the benefits of evacuation.

It appears that any pregnant woman living in the East End with no intention of being evacuated can, by giving their name at the East End Maternity Hospital, secure ante-natal treatment, conveyance from London to Epping, accommodation at Sprigg's Oak prior to confinement, the care and attention of competent staff during confinement, post-natal treatment and conveyance back to London, all entirely free of charge."

At the conclusion of the meeting, it was decided that the report should be sent to Essex County Council and the Ministry of Health for consideration. The committee agreed that if the position over who should pay for the reception and housing of persons who appear not to be evacuees under the official Government scheme was not clearly and satisfactorily defined by the end of January, the Council would close Sprigg's Oak and would refuse to accept for billeting any further expectant mothers who had been registered for treatment at Hill Hall.

Mr. J. Hawton, the Senior Regional Officer at Cambridge contacted the Ministry of Health at Whitehall for advice about the situation. A week later a conference was held in Cambridge between the Ministry of Health and Essex County Council. The whole arrangements for maternity provision in Epping was reviewed and when it was completed Mr. Hawton sent a letter dated the 30 January 1940 to Lady Ebbisham. The letter detailed the outcome of the review and stipulated 13 propositions regarding future arrangements between the Hospital and Essex County Council in respect of the Hill Hall Maternity Hospital. These propositions were: -

1. The County Council should be clearly responsible for the home and should be in general control of it and the staff. This would be as per the Councils responsibility for emergency accommodation for evacuated expectant mothers, as per the Ministry of Health's instructions,

2. The County Council would endeavour to preserve the continuity of the East End Maternity Hospital and its training school.

3. While in clear control of the staff, the County Council would undertake to make no changes in the staff without either agreement of the Hospital, or, failing agreement, approval of the Ministry.

4. The County Council would pay the staff and all outgoings and be responsible for the maintenance and equipment of the home generally. But the Hospitals equipment would be left therefor continual use.

5. The Hospital would arrange to supply patients by booking them out from the London end in numbers agreed from time to time with the County Council. The patients would be properly registered as evacuees in a manner to be agreed with London County Council - whom the Hospital should approach at once in this regard.

6. The Hospital would arrange to recover appropriate charges for these patients at the London end. paying over these charges to the County Council.

7. The County Council and the Hospital would take steps at once to settle a financial agreement - based on the principle that any funds in-coming to the Hospital would, after deducting necessary outgoings in respect of their continuing activities in London, be handed over to the County Council. The County Council would then account for these funds and claim on the evacuation account on a deficiency basis. Any such financial agreement would require the Ministry's approval.

8. The Hospital would have the right to send out pupils and to exchange them between Hill Hall and London - subject to the numbers of the pupils and staff at Hill Hall not exceeding such numbers as the Ministry may approve. The matron at Hill Hall should be permitted to continue to supervise the training arrangements at the London end, subject to this not interfering unduly with the proper conduct of the work at Hill Hall.

9. The question of the payment of salaries to pupils and its effects upon the grant to be taken separately by the Hospital with the Ministry at Whitehall.

10. It would be clearly stipulated that Hill Hall would remain liable to take other evacuees than those registered through the Hospital, but, subject to any pressing necessity of the evacuation scheme, Hill Hall would be regarded as having a primary connection with the Hospital and its patients.

11. The arrangements for the transport of patients from the Hospital to Hill Hall would be for the Hospital to take up separately with the London County Counci!

12. The proposed financial agreement between the County Council and the Hospital would be made retrospective to an agreed date from which Hill Hall could be regarded as having become primarily connected to the Hospital, e.g. from the date when the patients booked out directly by the Hospital outnumbered the evacuee patients otherwise received at Hill Hall.

13. With regards to Sprigg's Oak, it is suggested that this should be taken over under the direct control of the County Council as part of its emergency maternity arrangements. This taking over would be arranged between the County Council and the Epping Urban District Council, in agreement with the Ministry.

Mr. Hawton concluded his letter by asking that the Management Committee let him know that the propositions were acceptable, and whether they were agreeable to discussing immediately with the County Council an arrangement on these lines for the Ministry's approval. A similar letter was sent to Essex County Council.

On the 10th April 1940 the Management Committee held a meeting at 41 Upper Brook Street, London W1. They carefully considered the points raised in the letter paragraph by paragraph, and a reply was sent with some amendments. The committee agreed that if the Ministry were unable to accept these amendments the Chairman was empowered to make the best arrangements possible. The main amendments requested by the committee in their reply were as follows :-

1. Regarding point 4 - it should be stipulated that the equipment is to be handed back in the same condition as when taken over, and that the wages of the Matron, Almoner, and Secretary should be included in that paid by the County Council. Also the fees of the Lecturer, Dr. Oxley who attends from London twice a week at £75 per quarter should also be included.

2. Regarding point 7 - it is not anticipated that there will be a surplus and so it is considered that this point should be deleted.

3. Regarding point 8 - the committee considers that it should be permitted to supervise the [training arrangements of the pupil midwives.

4. Regarding point 9 - the committee cannot take over the responsibility of salaries to pupils as the Ministry of Health has already refused some grants if pupils receive payment.

5. Regarding point 11 -the committee will do their utmost to arrange transport with the London County Council, but cannot be responsible for transport if the London County Council cannot arrange it. The London County Council have only promised to assist in cases where patients are sent in parties of 4 and 6, and that is not often possible.

6. Regarding point 12 - the date of the agreement should be from the time that the patients were transferred to Hill Hall, namely the 2nd September 1939, and should continue until Hill Hall is closed as far as the East End Maternity Hospital is concerned.

The letter was signed by Lady Ebbisham and immediately sent to Mr. J. Hawton.

Despite the disagreements, the situation was eventually resolved. In July the "West Essex Gazette" confirmed that Essex County Council had officially taken over the running of Sprigg's Oak. At the same time the Council also re-took control of the Hill Hall Maternity Hospital. All parties were satisfied with the new arrangements and both the hospital and the hostel were able to continue to provide the important services required for evacuated mothers and their babies.

From September 1939, when the Maternity Hospital had opened at Hill Hall, to April 1940 there had been 472 admissions to the hospital and 350 babies had been delivered. Once Essex County Council had taken control in July, expectant mothers from the Epping area could also be admitted to Hill Hall and Sprigg's Oak instead of being sent to St. Margaret's Hospital. Women could still be sent from the East End as long as they were officially classed as "evacuees".

In the early summer months of 1940 the Hill Hall Maternity Hospital had to contend with the problem of "sticky eyes" in the infants. This problem was occurring very frequently and the County Medical Officer of Health was asked to investigate. He found that the probable source of the infection was the dust between the floorboards in some bedrooms. Six of the bedrooms were affected and it was decided that the floors should be covered with linoleum at an estimated cost of £21.

As the "phoncy war" had ended in July, the Ministry of Health decided that patients in its Maternity Hospitals required some protection against air raids and instructed that shelters be built. The County Architect visited Hill Hall and suggested that a shelter could be built in the area of the house known as "The Crimson Corridor" at an estimated cost of £50. Permission from Lord and Lady Hay would be required and if this was not forthcoming, the only alternative was the building of a surface shelter in the grounds adjoining the hospital.

A potential problem for the Management Committee was the RAF's plan to house a number of its personnel in the Great Hall at Hill Hall if North Weald aerodrome was badly damaged during an air raid. The committee considered that if this did happen the premises could no longer be used as a maternity hospital and alternative accommodation would be needed.

In August Lady Edward Hay granted her consent for the air raid shelter to be built in The Crimson Corridor, but requested that valuable red silk in the corridor should be protected by suitable covering to a height of six feet. The additional expenditure for this was estimated to be £10. It was also decided that the windows of the hospital should be covered with splinter-proof netting, and that a refuge room on the ground floor of the hospital should be provided for the use of members of staff during air raids. This reflected the fact that the "phoney war" was well and truly over and that bombs had begun to fall in the Epping arca. On the 24th August North Weald aerodrome, which was only a few miles from Hill Hall, was bombed and badly damaged, but the RAF did not need to implement the plan to transfer personnel to Hill Hall.

to be continued .....

Whilst at St Margaret's, Stanford Rivers recently I came across a gravestone in the corner of the churchyard.

The inscription read:

In
loving memory
of
Margaret Elizabeth Owers
Who died April 17h 1928
In her 63'd year

Also of
Comyns Owers
Missing in Egypt Nov 25th 1917
Aged 21years

Also Comyns
Husband of the above
Who died Sep 28h 1939
Aged 78 years.

It was the part of the inscription about Comyns Owers, missing in Egypt in 1917, that caught my eye. Had he died on active service? His name does not appear on the war memorial in St Margaret's, but a search on the Commonwealth War Graves site revealed that Comyns Owers was a Private (no. 49346) in the 1618 Company of the Machine Gun Corps and died on the 25 November 1917. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.¹

His name appears however on the war memorial at St Mary's church, High Ongar.

In the 1881 Census a John Owers (born 1832) was described as a Baker and Licensee living at the Green Man Public House Toot Hill. He was also listed as a Farmer with 10 acres and employing 3 men. He had a son, Comyns Owers (born 1862) who was described in the census as a 'Bakers Son.'

In the 1891 Census, Comyns Owers is married to Margaret and is living in High Street, Chipping Ongar where he is the Licensee of the Bell Inn. He has 1 child and employs 3 servants.

In the 1901 Census Comyns and his wife are living at Stanford Rivers, and he is described as a Baker. They have three more children, including a son, Comyns, born in 1887 in Stanford Rivers and who was to die on active service in 1917. According to Scott in his history of Stanford Rivers, Comyns remained as the licensee of the Green Man until 1910 or thereabouts. By 1912 a Mrs Emma Comyns is shown as the Licensee.

Why Comyns Owers name is missing from the war memorial at St Margaret's is not known.

Martyn Lockwood

Rebuilding Holloway Prison at Epping

London's Holloway Prison is being moved to Epping it was announced this week. The jail is being closed to women and "taken over" by men.

It is planned to build a prison for 250 women near Hill Hall open prison, Theydon Mount, later this year.

The Home Office said on Wednesday that plans for the jail were still on the design board. No date can be given for when the building will commence. "But it will be soon," the spokesman added.

It is understood the new prison will work separately from Hill Hall, which at present is surrounded by agricultural land.

It is believed it will be one of the biggest women's jails in England.

Pentonville prison inmates have been visiting Epping on day-release from London for some years to work in the fields near Hill Hall.

Concern

The Home Office plans are aimost certain to create concern among local residents.

Three years ago, a public inquiry was held to hear objections to the same scheme, then planed to be built at Thornwood.

The Thornwood plan was to have the prison sited at the Army camp in the village.

The Theydon Mount proposal is a further attempt to take pressure away from existing security-built women's prisons. A West Essex Divisional Executive spokesman this week spotlighted a problem that had been raised previously when it had been suggested a prison should be built in the area.

School

He agreed that there had at one time been concern that the prison officer's children might create overcrowding problems in the new Coopersale school, programmed in 1967-68.

"But," said the spokesman, "the school is being built to accommodate 280 children - taking into account the population expansion expected in Epping over future years.

There should, therefore be no problem of the school being inadequate to accommodate an influx of children from the prison."

Taken from an article that appeared in the West Essex Gazette, January 7th, 1966.

The rest they say is history!

Written by Paul Drury and Richard Simpson. The project was funded by English Heritage, and managed and co-ordinated by Wessex Archacology, who also produced the illustrations and provided the archacological contributions.

This is the complete history of a building that began as a hunting lodge, late in the eleventh century and that grew to be the principa! house of the manor of Theydon Mount in Essex, a small country retreat within easy reach of London. In 1556, the house was acquired by Sir Thomas Smith (1512-77), a man of humble origins but precocious intellect who became Regius Professor of Civil Law at Cambridge at the age of thirty and Chancellor of the University two years later. He then forsook academic for political life, becoming Master of Requests to the Lord Protector Somerset.

From 1557, Smith rebuilt the house in French-influenced classical style and decorated it with wall paintings of Cupid and Psyche and King Hezekiah, conveying complex messages of morality and affinity as part of a coherent programme of images in paint, glass and tiles

Four centuries on, the house was first used as an open prison, then, in 1969, largely gutted by fire and finally, in 1980, taken into the care of the Department of the Environment. Archaeological excavation and detailed recording of the surviving fabric took place prior to the restoration of the house and its mural paintings, the results of which are now presented in this copiously illustrated account of one of the most important and influential houses to be built in Elizabethan England

544p, 378 illus, hardback in 2 parts. £55

FORTHCOMING EVENTS~2009/2010

Thursday, 26 November

North Weald Airfield and Its Community, 1916-1964
by Arthur Moreton

A resident of North Weald, Arthur Moreton has been closely connected with the development of the museum at North Weald as well as the staging of flying events at the airfield. The talk covers the history of the active airfield.

Thursday, 25 February

The Agricultural Depression in Essex c. 1870-1901
by Neil Wiffen (Essex Record Office)

Neil Wiffen's talk is based on research for a dissertation submitted to Essex University for a master's degree. The talk has been given at the Essex Record Office.

Thursday, 25 March

Annual General Meeting & Member's Evening

Thursday, 22 April

Speaker has yet to be arranged.

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

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.