High Country History Group

The White Bear is a grade II listed building. In 1848 the Post Office was located at the pub.

Advertisements:

Chelmsford Chronicle 2nd December, 1859

TO BE DISPOSED OF, an old-established road-side Inn, known as the WHITE BEAR, Stanford Rivers, Essex, well adapted for a dealer, having eight acres of land. Apply on the Premises.

Chelmsford Chronicle 16th August, 1861

G.ARCHER
WHITE BEAR INN, STANFORD RIVERS
ESSEX

G.A. respectfully informs the Public that he has TAKEN the above INN, which he intends conducting in a most respectable manner.

Wines and Spirits, Draught and Bottled Ales,
and Stout of the best quality.

COLD ORDINARY EVERY DAY AT 5 O’CLOCK; SUNDAYS AT 1.
DINNERS PROVIDED

Well- aired Beds, with spacious Accommodation.

GOOD STABLING AND LOOSE BOXES FOR HUNTERS

Dealers’ Cattle taken in to Grass

Chelmsford Chronicle 6th April 1877.

TO BE LET, that pleasantly situate Road-side INN and PUBLIC HOUSE, The WHITE BEAR, Stanford Rivers, together with about seven acres of rich pasture land. The house, through its convenient distance from London, ad picturesque surroundings, does a large and profitable summer trade with excursionists and pleasure parties, &c.
incoming by valuation, and early possession may be had.
Apply at the Brewery, Chelmsford.

Licensees

1819-1826 John Pavitt

1845 John Barnard (Baker)

1851 Thomas Agg

1851 George Sweeting

1855 H. Charge

1856 Eliza Archer

1861 G.A. Archer

1862 Mrs. Eliza Archer

1863 Mr Barlow (?)

1867 Francis Robinson

1870 Francis Robinson (Farmer)

1872 Mrs Hurman

1873 John Bush

1878 - 1885 George Mason

1885 (Dec) Frederick Tanner

1892 Mrs. Jane Tanner (widow of above)

1902 John William Charter

1905 John Lewis

1906 Charles William Green

1910 William C. Lane

1925 James Greenfield

1929 Louis Tasman Grimston

1933 Archibald William Aylmer

1952-1970 Albert Ireland

1970 Marjorie Ireland

The White Bear finally closed in 2001 and was converted into a private dwelling.

A brief note of two new booklets which give information on two excavations in the county.

‘The Colchester Archaeologist Vol. 27 (2013/14)’, 50pp, £3.95, produced by the Friends of Colchester Archaeological Trust, includes a dig diary on the site of Williams and Griffin in the town’s High Street, and the discovery on Day 94 of a collection of gold and silver jewellery, hidden away in a house destroyed by the Boudicca uprising of 61AD. Known locally as ‘The Fenwick Treasure’ conservation work unravelled earrings, bracelets and five gold finger-rings worn by a woman, and silver jewellery worn by a man.

‘From Demolition to Discovery: The Lost Mansions of Marks Hall’, 28pp, £7.00, reports on the archaeological dig carried out in the Country Park near Coggeshall between 2011 and 2014. Although the mansion of 1609 with Georgian additions was demolished in the 1950s its exact position was unknown. The excavation identified the layout of the mansion and discovered an earlier Tudor structure. Aside of this booklet, oral history research currently being undertaken is rediscovering the estate’s past.

Following major conservation work, Rainham Hall re-opened to the public in October 2015. The house was built by John Harle, mariner, in 1729 but has been owned by a succession of people since then until the National Trust acquired it in 1949. The Trust intends to change the display occasionally to depict a different resident but has started with its original owner whose 1742 will turned up at a car boot sale in Norfolk recently.

Source: National Trust magazine, Autumn 2015.

John Gladwine 19 April 1563

To be buried in Greenstead [-juxta Ongar] churchyard. To Alice my wife my house in Birchanger for her life; after her decease, to be sold, the money to be equally divided among my six children, William, Bartholomew, Geoffrey, John and Nicholas GLADWINE and Joan a PAGE my wife’s daughter. To Nicholas my fairest brass pot, my wife to have the keeping until he is 20: if he dies before it, to be freely my wife’s. To her 4 kine to help to discharge my debts and funeral withal. To Bartholomew and Geoffrey each a sheep. The rest of my sheep and lambs and also my mare and the olt to my wife. Towards the mending of Greenstead church steeple 8d. The residue of my household and cattle to my wife, whom I ordain my executrix. I make Geoffrey FYNCHE of Greenstead Hall, the overseer, and for his painstaking 12d. Witnesses: Thomas FYNCH of Stanford Rivers, Robert ROWLAND parson [rector] of Greenstead. Proved 26 May 1563.

John CLAYE the younger of Harlow, 6 Nov. 1564

To the poor people of Harlow 6s 8d. To John my son £6 13s. 4d. to be paid to him by John KYNGE of Latton Priory at 22 or marriage; 1 red bullock with a star in the forehead being 3 years old, 2 sheep, a pair of new cart wheels, the best cheese, and the best brass pot. To Henry my son £6 13s. 4d. at 22 or marriage, to be delivered by John FYNCHE of Great Parndon; 1 brown bullock, 2 sheep, the 2nd brass pot, nd the second chest. To Joan my wife my house and lands in Stanford Rivers and Greenstead [juxta Ongar] for 8 years after my decease; afterwards Robert my son shall have the rent for other 8 years to be let at the discretion of my overseers, and the rent to him at 22 or marriage; 1 red bullock, 2 sheep and 1 chest. To George my son my said house and lands after the said terms of years; 1 bullock of 3 years and 2 sheep at 15. To Joan my daughter £3 6s 8d at 18, a cupboard in thehall, a bed and 2 pewter dishes at 18. To Alice my daughter £3 6s. 8d., a featherbed, 2 pewter dishes and a hutch at 18. To John my servant 3s. 4d. and Joyce my maidservant 8d. The rest of my goods to Joan my wife, whom I make my executrix. I ordain John KYNGE and John FYNCH my overseers, and for the pains 5s each. Witnesses: John KINGE, Richard WELLES, Richard HARRYSON clerk [vicar of Harlow]. Proved 12 Mar 1564/5

Craven Ord was born in London in 1756, the younger son of Harry Ord, of the King's Remembrancer's office, and Anne, daughter of Francis Hutchinson of Barnard Castle, Durham. His uncle, Robert Ord was chief baron of the Scottish Exchequer. Ord's schooling seems to be undocumented and he did not matriculate from either of the English universities. Ord’s life was mainly devoted to antiquarian researches and he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on the 26 January 1775 and of the Royal Society on the 3 May 1787. He was for several years vice-president of the former society.

He collected manuscripts, printed books, drawings, and engravings, and assembled and indexed some twenty volumes of material relating to Suffolk; but he also acquired fine manuscripts for their own sake, and large numbers of medieval deeds. His Suffolk collection is now in the British Museum.

He assisted with others on the ‘Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain,’ and in September 1780 he undertook a tour in search of brasses in East-Anglia. He left few churches in southern England unexplored, and formed a unique collection of impressions of brasses. His method of obtaining the impressions was as follows:
French paper kept damp in a specially prepared case; printer's ink; and rags. He inked the brass, wiped it clean, laid on the paper, covered it with some thicknesses of cloth, and then trod on it. He finished the outlines at home, cut out the figures, and pasted them in a large portfolio.

His collection of impressions of sepulchral brasses, were bound in two volumes, with deal boards over six feet in height, was purchased by Thorpe the bookseller in 1830.
Ord married in June 1784, Mary Smith daughter of John Redman of Greenstead Hall. They had five sons, and one daughter. When Redman died in 1798, he left Greenstead Hall to Craven Ord, and it was to remain his seat until 1828. It was provided in Redman’s will that Greenstead should be held in trust for the younger children of Ord and Mary. However Craven made sufficient profits from the sale of timber from the estate during the Napoleonic Wars, that he was able to satisfy the portions of his younger children.
Ord's library was mostly dispersed of in June 1829, on the occasion of his leaving England for the sake of his health. He died at Woolwich Common on the 29 January 1832, aged 76 years, and the manor passed to his eldest son, the Revd. Craven Ord (d. 1836).

Upon the death of his son the Revd. Craven Ord, the Greenstead Hall estate was put up for auction on the 23 June 1837, and was eventually purchased in the September by the Reverend Philip Budworth, and in 1854 Captain Philip Budworth took up residence, living there until his death in 1885.
Children of Craven Ord:
The Rev. Craven Ord (1786 – 14 Dec. 1836);
Major Robert Hutchinson Ord, K.H., of the Royal Artillery. (died 1828). Later Sir Robert H. Ord.
Captain William Redman Ord of the Royal Engineers;
John Ord, M.D., of Hertford;
Captain Harry Gough Ord,
Harriot Mary, married in 1815 the Rev. George Hughes, of Stanford Rivers.

Craven Ord is buried in Greensted churchyard.

Essex Chronicle 26th November 1824

Another most daring and impudent robbery was committed at Toothill, near Ongar, upon a farm occupied by Mrs Sarah Bailey, a widow. The stable which was locked, was broken open with considerable violence, and a strong iron bar within-side was also removed, from whence the thieves took a valuable bay mare: they also took a set of chaise harness, nearly new, two halters, and two whips, also a market cart, with the name legibly written in two places: in addition to all this property the depredators had the impudence to take about half a bushel of oats and a truss of clover hay. Thus provided, they proceeded to Tawney Common, a short distance, where they took a brown mare pony, belonging to a poor man called Threader.

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 6 Nov. 1906.

A gravestone in Theydon Garnon Churchyard, Essex, shows strange moist spots on the approach of rainy weather. The rector, the Rev. T. Lloyds, who discovered the phenomenon, states that it never fails in its prognostications, and he daily consults it.

Chelmsford Chronicle 20 June 1913
On Tuesday an historic event in the Church life of Essex was worthily commemorated at Greensted, when on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the old wooden church of the parish, clergy and choirs of the neighbouring parishes combined in a procession to the church, in front of which an open-air service was held, the Bishop of St Albans being the preacher.

At Budworth Hall, Ongar, the choirs formed in alphabetical order of parishes, these being Blackmore and Greensted leading the way. The two sons of Heron Maxwell, of Greensted Hall, walked behind the processional cross, which was brought by Blackmores. Several banners were displayed above the procession, which was led by the band of the Hackney Homes, under Bandmaster Seaborne.

Eighteen choirs attended the event.

Detailed maps that offer a fascinating glimpse into how every area of England and Wales developed from Victorian times to the 1950s are now available free online via the National Library of Scotland web-site

The series of Ordnance Survey maps shows how towns and cities have spread into the countryside and how the road and rail network developed. Individual buildings and streets can be identified clearly and smaller features can be seen including post boxes, bollards on quaysides and mile posts. The maps can be viewed over time for each place of interest.

Chris Fleet, Senior Map Curator at NLS said: “These new maps cover all of England and Wales and are immensely valuable for local and family history. People can search for the street their grandparents lived in or see how 19th century farmland has turned into today’s suburbs.”

The six-inch to a mile maps show all place names recorded by Ordnance Survey, including all street names in towns, and all smaller farms, hamlets and villages. The website allows viewers to zoom on the maps to pick out the detail they are interested in.

The maps were surveyed for the whole country twice - first between 1842-1893 and then between 1891-1914. They were subsequently updated regularly for urban or rapidly changing areas from 1914 to the 1940s. The result is that, for many towns there are three to five editions of mapping between the 1840s and the 1950s.

They can be searched in a number of different ways, by place names, street names, post codes and grid references. They are also available via county lists.

The website address is:
http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and-wales/

In medieval times many people believed that unexpected events such as a cow dying were the result of witches. Criminal action began in 1521 when the Pope Leo X issued a papal bull enabling a religious court to order the execution of people convicted of witchcraft. This began a major campaign throughout Europe which to some extent was inflamed by the church.

In England King Henry VII passed the first Witchcraft Act in 1542. This brought him some problems with some allegations being made that his wife Anne Boleyn was a witch as she had 6 fingers and a mole on her neck. These deformities were considered one of the marks of a witch. In 1547 the Witchcraft Act was repealed by King Edward VI but on the accession of Queen Elizabeth another Witchcraft Act was passed in 1562.

In 1604 James I passed a statute which contained his statement that witches were loathe to confess without torture. The notorious Matthew Hopkins 'The Witch-finder General' was born during this period and from 1644 launched his witch finding campaign in Essex and Suffolk, partly based on a book written by James I on the subject.

Between 1560 and 1675 some 750 persons were tried for witchcraft offences in Essex. Below are the names of local people who were put on trial.

1576
‘Mother’ Persorne from Navestock

1579
Tomas Longe from Lambourne

1579
Alice Nokes from Lambourne
Bewitched Elizabeth Barsett whereof she died instantly. Found guilty.
1584
‘Goodwife’ Joyce from Stanford Rivers

1586
Anne Joyce from Stanford Rivers

1599
Parnella Abbott from Greensted

1600
Petronella Abbott from Greensted

1616
John Godfrie from Lambourne
Indicted for murder by witchcraft of John White. Found not guilty.
1616
Sarah Godfrie from Lambourne
Bewitched 3 horses and a pig. Found not guilty.
1647
Jane Lavender and Francis Lavender from Navestock

1666
Anne Betts from Stapleford Tawney
Being a person of ill-fame, on 25 Jan., on the pretence of telling the fortune of Mary Prescott, fraudulently obtained from her 2 silk scarves worth 20s and 8s in money.
Result unknown.