High Country History Group

70th Anniversary (4th April 1949) of the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO.

500th Anniversary (2nd May 1519) Leonardo da Vinci died in Clos Lucé, Amboise, France.

200th Anniversary (24th May 1819) of the birth of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India.

75th Anniversary (6th June 1944) of the D-Day landings, in Normandy.

100th Anniversary (28th June1919) of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, bringing about the end of hostilities between Germany and the Allied Powers, thereby ending World War 1.

65th Anniversary (4th July 1954) of the end of all food rationing in Britain following the end of World War II.

50th Anniversary (July 20th, 1969) - Apollo 11 lands the first two people - Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin - on the moon.

250th Anniversary (15th August 1769) of the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte French military and political leader, born in Ajaccio.

80th Anniversary (1st September 1939) of the invasion by Germany of Poland, commencing World War II.

150th Anniversary (October 2nd, 1869) of the birth Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement again British rule.
125th Anniversary (16th October 1854) of the birth of Oscar Wilde, poet originally from Ireland before moving to London

30th Anniversary (9th November 1989) of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

75th Anniversary (16th December 1944) of the Battle of the Bulge during the Second World War.

500th Anniversary of the first circumnavigation of Earth by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, which sailed from Seville, Spain in 1519 and returned in 1522, after crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

Stapleford opened as Essex Aerodrome in 1933 as a base for Hillman's Airways (See Journal 70 for further details). In 1938 No 21 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School was established at the airfield. The airfield was requisitioned shortly after the start of the Second World War as RAF Stapleford Tawney. A long perimeter track and dispersal points were built and some accommodation buildings were erected, and by the end of March 1940 the airfield was ready to become a satellite station for North Weald.
The first squadron to make regular use of Stapleford was No. 151 Squadron, making patrols from the base from August 1940. Six aircraft were lost and two pilots, including squadron leader Eric King, killed in action on 30 August. After a short stay, the squadron was moved to RAF Digby, Lincolnshire. No. 46 Squadron arrived in September, having lost all their Hurricane fighters when the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was sunk while evacuating the squadron from Norway.
Other units to use Stapleford included the secret No. 419 Flight, formed in August 1940 as the operational air-arm of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). They were intended to use Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys to drop agents and supplies behind enemy lines. Westland Lysanders would be used to pick up agents as well as other important people.
Because of heavy Luftwaffe attacks on North Weald, the flight moved to Stapleford on 4 September. The Whitley was a rather large aircraft to use Stapleford's grass runways, and the flight then moved to RAF Stradishall, Suffolk, on 9 October.
Other squadrons at Stapleford were No. 242 Squadron and the RAF's oldest, No. 3 Squadron and, in 1941, a new Air Sea Rescue squadron was formed at Stapleford - No. 277 Squadron.
In March 1943, Stapleford was taken out of Fighter Command and placed under the command of No. 34 Wing of the Army Co-operation Command.
Stapleford played an important part in the preparations for D-Day.
On 20 November 1944 a V-2 rocket landed in the middle of the airfield leaving a crater 60 feet in diameter.
Tragedy Strikes
On the 23rd January 1945 the airfield was again hit by a V2 rocket, when one fell on a hangar, sadly resulting in the deaths of 17 personnel and injuring 50. 10 of those killed were RAF personnel, including 2 women.
The names of the RAF personnel killed are;
Ft. Lt. Henry Keatch Clifford , RAF Regt, aged 40 years.
Ft. Lt. (Pilot) John Douglas Pearson, RAF, aged 27years.
L.A.C. Kenneth William Robson Sadler, RAF Regt, aged 22 years.
L.A.C. Thomas Jones, RAF Regt., aged 24 years.
L.A.C. Arthur James Turner, RAF Regt., aged 25 years.
L.A.C. Albert James McAuley, RAF Regt., aged 33 years.
A.C. 1st Class Reginald William Metherall, RAFVR, aged 19 years.
L.A.C.W. Beryl Baynes-Cope, RAF Regt., WAAF, aged 20 years.
L.A.CW. Joan Edna Turner. WAAF, aged 21 years.
Those named above who were in the RAF Regiment served in 2839 (Anti-Aircraft) Squadron RAF Regiment. They were posted to Stapleford Tawney in late 1944.
They are all buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at St Andrew’s North Weald.
L.A.C. Anthony Brodribb, RAF Regt., aged 23 years, who was also killed was buried at Ashby De La Zouch Cemetery.
Civilian Personnel
William Henry Bird, aged 40 years. He lived at Rose Cottage, Toot Hill, Stanford Rivers. He is buried in St Margaret’s churchyard.
Henry John Card, aged 38 years. He lived at Gidea Park.
These are the only 2 names on the WWII Civilian Deaths database that I have been able to find.

The Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in North Weald is situated at St. Andrew’s church and adjoins North Weald Bassett Aerodrome, a Royal Air Force Operational Station during the 1939-1945 War. The churchyard was used for war time burials by this station and also by the R.A.F. Station at Stapleford Tawney. There are now a small number of 1914-1918 and nearly 50, 1939-1945 war casualties commemorated in this site.
The Cross of Sacrifice was unveiled by the R.A.F. Station Commander, North Weald and District, and dedicated by the Assistant Chaplain-in-Chief R.A.F., on Sunday, 24th October, 1954.
Martyn Lockwood

At the outset of World War One in August 1914, the strength of the Essex County Constabulary consisted of

Chief Constable
12 Superintendent’s
14 Inspector’s
66 Sergeant’s
362 Constables

[At the end of the war the force was 180 officers below its authorised establishment.]

Those officers who had previous military service were recalled to the colours, and this led to a shortage of police.

Just after Britain entered WW1 on 4th August 1914 the government passed a number of regulations. Among them was The Special Constables Act 1914 which was passed in Parliament on the 27th August 1914, received Royal Assent on 28th August 1914 and was in the London Gazette on 9th September 1914.
Hansard records that

“The special constables are being enrolled as a volunteer force, consisting of persons who, being unable to undertake military service, are desirous of rendering useful service to their country in the maintenance of public order.” The London Gazette further stated that “A special constable shall throughout the police area for which he is appointed, and also in any adjoining police area, have all the powers, privileges, and duties which any constable duly appointed has within his constablewick by virtue of the common law or of any statute for the time being in force.”

Essex sent out an appeal for volunteers:-

It is desirable that during the War there should be a Volunteer Police Force to aid the County Police in the preservation of peace and good order. All those not within the limits of age prescribed by the Territorial Force who are willing to serve (without remuneration) are asked to enrol their names at the nearest Police Station with as little delay as possible. They will only be asked to serve in their own town of parish. The service will be voluntary but it will be under the control of the Home Office and its operations will be regulated by the terms of the Police Act. It will be composed of British citizens of good physique who will form themselves into groups or squads serving under a Sergeant of their own nomination who will be responsible for discipline and duty spells of the squad.

As a result special constables were appointed to assist their regular colleagues, and also to take on the extra responsibilities and burdens that the war produced. Each parish in Essex answered the call and provided men as special constables.

Over the period of the war some 5000 special constables served in Essex. Women were not allowed to become special constables.

The names of many are known, including those from the villages in the High Country area.

George Arthur Howgate Stanford Rivers
Henry William Millbank Stanford Rivers
William Morrell Stanford Rivers
William Lennox Johnston Stanford Rivers

All four men served for the duration of the war and received the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal in 1919.

Jacob David Miller Stapleford Tawney
George Morrell Stapleford Tawney
Stanley Sidney Margetts Stapleford Tawney
James Robertson Wither Stapleford Tawney
Daniel Wheel Stapleford Tawney

All received the Long Service Medal in 1919

Charles Herbert Haslehurst Theydon Mount
Henry Charles Miller Theydon Mount
Thomas Sledge Theydon Mount
William John Tarling Theydon Mount

All received the Long Service Medal in 1919
There are no records for Greensted. However they may have been included in the numbers for Chipping Ongar as there were 22 special constables listed for the town.

The 1903 Motor Car Act which came into force on January 1st, 1904 required all vehicles in the United Kingdom to display an allocated registration mark on a visible plate attached to the vehicle. The ability to identify a motor vehicle was deemed necessary to enable other road users to reports incidents to the police. Under the Act all road vehicles were taxed annually at a rate of 20 shillings per year.

The first registration marks consisted if one or two letters starting with ‘A’, and up to three numbers.

Originally County and Borough Councils were required to issue the number plates, and they were allocated specific letter combinations for their region. The first series of number plates ran until 1932, consisting of a one- or two-letter code followed by a sequence number from 1 to 9999. The code indicated the local authority in whose area the vehicle was registered.

The registration letter used by Essex were
EV – F – HK – NO – PU – TW – VX – VW - WC

Southend had its own licencing authority and used the letters HJ and JN

This system which was to last until 1974 - when the Department of Transport took over the task. In October of that year responsibility for issuing registration numbers was transferred to specialist LVLO's (Local Vehicle Licensing Offices) and VRO's (Vehicle Registration offices) run by the DVLA.

In 1920 The Roads Act was passed that made a few minor changes to the number plate system. Up until this time, there was nothing to stop authorities having two registers, one for cars and one for motorcycles. This meant that it was possible for a car and a motorcycle in the same area to have the same number plate. The 1920 act put a stop to this and ensured that all authorities had one single register for all vehicles. Also, up until 1920, if a vehicle moved from one area to another, it would lose the plate and receive a new one in the new area, the old plate being reassigned to another vehicle. It was decided that this was simply too confusing and inconvenient, so this practice was stopped by the 1920 Roads Act.

By 1963, a number of local councils had run out of registrations, even by adding extra digits and reversing them. As a result of this, the Suffix system was introduced, a letter indicating the year of registration being added at the end of the plate, which until then had comprised only 3 letters followed by 3 numbers. Thus, 1963 plates had the format AAA 111A, 1964 plates AAA 111B and so on. This was the first change to a system that had been set up in 1903 when there were far fewer cars on the roads.

The Prefix system started in August 1983. This saw the letter indicating the year moved to the beginning of the registration mark, thus doubling the lifespan of the number plate system.

On August 13th, 1917 in one of the most ferocious front line battles, Passchendaele, Royal Fusilier Fred Cearns was killed. Within weeks his brother Percy had written the story of Fred's life. Percy himself was an army dispatch rider and on his days off would meet up with his brother.

This story was published in 2011by High Country member Martin Cearns, in a book entitled
‘The Love of a Brother. From Plaistow to Passchendaele’

In 1922, Percy along with two friends went back to France and Belgium from the 3rd to the 22nd June to revisit the areas which had played such a huge impact on their lives for four years between 1914-1918.

Percy wrote down their adventures and experiences. It makes fascinating reading. I have chosen a small part which describes their experiences at Ypres and the Menin Road.

Our first and lasting impression of the latter was – “what a change”. We left it shattered, battered and war-scarred, a city of crumbling ruins peopled by khaki-clad figures worn and wearied by seemingly purposeless sacrifices and suffering – figures living beneath the ruins and grown callous of bursting shells and bleeding flesh. We found it a new city with the comparatively few heaps of debris being rapidly cleared with new buildings springing phoenix like from the ruins, peopled by thousands of industrious and apparently prosperous Belgians on whom the ravages of the war seemed to have had little personal effect. Outside the station – a new and quite pretentious building - were conveyances of all descriptions, with English speaking proprietors willing to whirl any of the very many visitors round the battlefields in an hour or so. Slowly we walked through the streets. Time was, when even in the dark we all knew our way from place to place among those ruins. Now, we found difficulty in discovering the square, so altered was the aspect of the place.

Our “billet” served its original purpose as cellar of a large house. Where our old friend Doctor Donce had once lived, quite a mansion had been erected. Some of the houses were as yet unoccupied. Many were still being erected with an output of work per man, per diem, which judging from our short observation, would have served as a useful object lesson to the originators of housing schemes in England.

We were somewhat surprised, and a little disappointed, to find both the Cloth Hall and Cathedral being rebuilt. We booked a room in a picturesque wooden shanty opposite the former and then set out for our battlefield ramble. Making our way towards “Dead End” we found restoration much less advanced. It was quite a feat to clamber along where the duck-boards once ran by the side of the Canal, to the Divisional Signal Office. Old dugouts had collapsed across the path, which was also crossed by many little streams tumbling into the green, slimy, smelly, tin-laden, shallow canal. Everywhere grew brambles and rank vegetation. Nevertheless, we managed to pick out the old familiar places – the spot where we used to leave our machines before undertaking that “enjoyable” little duck-board stroll in wet gum boots and heavy overalls laden with ‘beaucoup’ packets of nonsensical D.R.L.S – the place where the Div. D.R’s kept their machines – the site of that precarious plank bridge – and finally the remains of the signal Dug-out: though the Dug-out now had a very crumpled appearance. I believe a S.9. paid it unkind attention just after the 41st DIV. Sigs cleared out. Climbing over the heap of crumbling earth we recalled how often we had waited below for the ‘return dockets’ and packets and cursed the delay because a “solo school” awaited our return, back there in “cushy” Lovie Chateau. The walk to the Menin Gate took us through dumps of old shells, wire and tins and past miserable wooden hovels, each of which however, had a well cultivated patch of land.

The Menin Road – for years the way taken by tens of thousands to days of torment in waterlogged shell swept trenches. What horrors that old road has witnessed, what hellish visions its very name even now can conjure up in the minds of thousands throughout the British Empire.

Passing through the Menin Gate we found the road had been resurfaced thus eradicating those hundreds of roughly filled shell holes – once the bugbear of transport drivers. The road railway at the side was again being used by fussy little engines dragging their loads of curious carriages filled with all sorts and conditions of Belgians, baggage and tourists.

Particularly in the vicinity of Ypres, growing crops marked the progress of cultivation. Further afield the struggle to rest the ground to a condition suitable for agriculture had been more strenuous. Patches of recently furrowed land were interspersed midst acres of war blighted wilderness. Here we saw heaps of war debris and gruesome objects disturbed by the plough and carefully deposited in adjacent ditches – striking evidence of the thoroughness with which the country in front of Ypres had been sprinkled with shells.

We were in no hurry. There was too much to see, every few steps bringing to view fresh places of personal and national interest. White Chateau where D.R. Corporals of the 8th Corps willingly submitted to the indignity of digging a cable dugout - hard work being a welcome change – had been rebuilt on a different site close to the old ruins. Just beyond this, a railway of first class construction crossed the road at the place of portentous name – “Hellfire Corner”.

Then onto Birr Cross Road whence duckboard tracks used to branch in all directions across the marsh of shell-holed bog. Resurrected civilization was now being left behind, new brick houses not yet replacing the roadside wooden shacks thrown together by the peasants immediately after Armistice.

Irradicable signs of war were more plentiful as we walked along the straight rising ground towards Hooge. We visited the cemetery bearing that name, in which thousands of rough wooden crosses testify to the tenacity and bravery of the “Contemptibles”. The shelled-holed and much mined slopes of what had been Sanctuary Wood looked down on that congregation of eternally mute witnesses fallen in its defence. Even now human remains are being found among those wire strewn, weed-grown, splintered tree-stumps.

A mile further along the Menin Road we rested at the foot of a memorial to the “Fallen” of the Gloucester Regiment erected at the place which our map named “Clapham Junction”.

Then, leaving the main road, we made our way along a rough track, northwards to Westhoek. Our purpose was to locate the grave of a brother – one of the “Unknown Warriors”. We passed but one habitation and that a precarious sieve-like shanty, outside of which several healthy- looking youngsters illustrated practically that a battered tank, be it ever so rusty and shattered, forms an admiral playground. What subject matter for sermon or sketch that little scene provided.

At Westhoek cross roads we found a comparatively large farm had been built and smaller houses were in course of erection. Here we had a drink, paying less than for any others we had had during the holiday, except those known as “Freemans” – and listened to a very interesting, if somewhat startling narrative of life in that area since 1918. The first few months for those re-patriated peasants must have been just slavery with a whole lot of horrors thrown in as a noisome tonic. With naïve and almost callous indifference bespeaking long suffering, a girl-woman no more than 20 years of age, related appalling details of discoveries made when digging foundations and levelling ground. We in comfortable “Blighty” have not the slightest conception of the hardships and unspeakable horrors which were the everyday portion of the re-habited inhabitants of these war areas.

Making our way across several fields cultivated by that isolated farm family, we came to what had been a series of German pill-box defences. Recent attempts to remove these by blasting had met with but very scant success. Here lumps of concrete had been displaced, there, huge blocks had been blown off, but the bodies of the boxes – solid feet of concrete with the iron girders and steel rods merely buckled by explosives – had so far defied all attempts at complete destruction. By the sheer obstinacy of their resistance they seemed to have forced the “clearers-up” to turn their attention to less hardy obstacles. Defying destruction when undefended, what hope did our artillery have of blowing up those “hell-boxes” and what chance did the infantry have of taking them by direct assault while unending sheets of bullets, expertly directed, streamed through those low, almost indestructible, concrete walls. Yet they were captured and only those to whom the horror and honour fell can tell how it was accomplished. The cost we all know. We examined a number of shattered pill-boxes and were about to explore the interior of one, but were deterred by stagnant black water and foul stench.

It was of interest to note that invariably these defences were built in positions which enables them to command all slopes in front while each appeared to be covered by at least two others in its rear. The labour entailed in transporting hundreds of tons of concrete and iron through miles of shell-swept marsh-land and the erection of those pill-boxes in exposed positions on veritable bog-land was really a wonderful feat of perseverance and engineering and one which ultimately cost us thousands of lives.

We now went forward and entered the wilderness of Nonne-boschen and Glencorse Woods – woods now in name only. Some slight attempts seem to have been made at clearing up the debris. Here and there were heaps of old equipment , shells, “tin hats”, smashed rifles, wire and tin cans – but there much greater quantities ungathered and now almost hidden by weeds and undergrowth in countless shell-holes. Here too, it would appear that the battlefield scavengers had suddenly decided to transfer their energies to less arduous tasks elsewhere – where no tree stumps hindered operations and where hard work gave quicker results – for things appeared to have altered but little since I visited the spot soon after Armistice.

While prowling among the wreck of trees we heard the first of a series of explosions and saw the resultant cloud of smoke in the distance. We afterwards learned that during a certain period of each day, collected unexploded shells are blown up in batches. Later in the day we happened upon a huge crater used for this purpose and near to which thousands of shells were dumped waiting to be dealt with. We presumed that unloading the shells had proved too dangerous and this summary method had then been adopted for rendering them harmless.

Naturally our poor old friends the “Tanks” were in evidence. Near Glencores Wood were five in an area of not more than 100 square yards. They were a network of crumpled metal – just holes tied together by strips of rusted steel. The position of one tank leaning as it were for support against a tree stump was rather laughable until one wondered what happened to the crew when it stuck and whether they got clear before that shell tore its way through the vitals and blew that ragged hole in the side. We were having a day full of lessons and there were more to come.

Picking our way over the riot of destruction we made towards Polygon Wood seen in the distance as an extensive area of torn and twisted tree stumps. Open country between the woods had been partially cleared, though the innumerable shell-holes yet remained unfilled.
On approach we found that the square mile of Polygon dwarfed in devastation all we had previously seen. Words are idle to adequately describe the desolation amidst which we now wandered. Since leaving Westhoek not a human being had been seen. It was obvious that the great majority of tourists kept to the highways. Thus they would fail to obtain a correct impression of present conditions in the war zone. For convenience repatriated peasants have generally built their new homes close to the main roads. With their patches of cultivated land these homesteads have an air of peace and convey an idea that war results are obliterated, which penetration into districts away from highways and large towns would belie.

Certainly in this travesty of a Wood there was no indication that the ravages of war had been even partially remedied. Of the once closely growing trees nothing remained but shattered, splintered trunks and twisted stumps. Not a single tree had escaped damage and all but a few were just dead wood. To some extent the rank vegetation and weeds veiled the devastation and hid the loops of barbed wire skilfully entwined among the fallen forest giants.

It was hard work scrambling through the undergrowth. Torn clothes and limbs soon made us wary of the hidden wire. Not a square yard of ground but was shell-furrowed, in fact, in this area the shell holes interlocked. Nowhere had we seen such evidence of concentrated artillery fire – from the crater of the fifteen-inch to the shallow hole of the eighteen pounder shell. Weeds and grass hid from the casual eye much of the profusion of war-wrack over which we stumbled. It was the same as elsewhere described only more so. Smashed rusty rifles, tin hats, bayonets, equipment, boots, gas-masks, tunics and trousers, mess tins, bandoleers and bullets, shell cases and shells – they were all there of British and German origin – a mixed and somewhat sad medley of rotting waste. There were human remains too – the poor scattered, shattered bones of “Unknown Warriors”.

The horror and honour of attacking and capturing Polygon Wood fell to the Anzacs. It will always be a source of wonder that men could have lived and fought, won and advanced, and lived to fight again in that awful place of silent horrors eloquent of death and destruction; where flying missiles had filled the air, concrete strongholds spat sheets of bullets, barbed wire tripped unwary feet, where shelled-hole and water-logged ground, strewn with booby-traps, impeded progress against a hidden foe only less brave and tenacious than themselves.

The Anzacs accomplished the impossible. Upon a mound covering what had been a subterranean German hospital had been erected a noble memorial to the fallen Australian soldiers. It is aptly situated and from its height looks down upon a huge cemetery in which lie 5,000 heroes who sacrificed themselves in essaying the capture of that grim, silent, wrecked, piece of blood soaked, once peacefully wooded land.

And they told us at home things were cleared up and we should see no signs of the war.

Satiated with devastation we turned not unwilling steps back towards Ypres, pausing only to obtain a few snapshots.

William Petre born in 1602 at West Thorndon (near Brentwood), became a gentleman commoner (with his elder brother Robert) of Exeter College, Oxford in the year 1612, being then but 10 years of age, but afterwards removed to and became the first nobleman of Wadham College, after its erection. He soon after went to the Inns of Court, and at length travelling in several parts of Europe, became a gentleman of great accomplishments. He died on January 15th 1677, aged 75 years, and was buried in Stanford Rivers.

He married Lucy (1610 – 1679), daughter of Sir Richard Fermor, of Somerton, in Oxford, Knight, by whom he had Lucy, who died October 9th 1637, and is buried at Stanford Rivers, and a son and heir, William (born 1630). He married Anne (1630 – 1688), daughter of Mr. Caldwell of Cants Hall in Essex. He died November 12th 1686 and was buried with his wife at Stanford Rivers.

[Source Colins Peerage of England, volume 7, 1812]

In 1656/7 a marriage settlement was signed by William Petre, senior of Stanford Rivers. It lists in details the properties owned by him in Stanford Rivers. The names of the fields, their size and who the occupiers are given.

Map showing Bellhouse and Traces

Manor of Bellhouse, then in occupation of said William Petre senior, and lands called Great Posterne Field and the Slip (8 acres), Little Posterne Field (6 acres), Great and Little New Mead (11 acres), Parsonage Croft (14 acres), Wain Field (36 acres), Witch Field (26 acres), Hell Field with the hop garden (11a.), Hull Croft alias Bricklamp Field (15 acres), Two Coker lands (13 acres), Twelve Acre Field with the Wood Piece (20 acres), the three Well Fields, adjoining Barwickes Lane (35 acres), parcel of meadow in East Mead (7 acres) and lands called Findrells (30 acres), all in occupation of said William Petre;

Morrells Farm and lands called Tracies Field (10 acres), Peaseach (11 acres), Stack Field (14 acres), Stone Rock Field (10 acres), Long Marsh (11 acres), Sedgy Marsh (8 acres), meadow in East Mead (9 acres), all in occupation of John Mann, gentleman;

Lands called How Croft and Lovells (11 acres), meadow (3 acres), in occupation of Thomas Valentine, Sabertons Croft, then in occupation of Francis Glascocke; capital messuage called Stanford Hall with gardens (4 acres), then in occupation of Thomas Clerke, New Mead (8 acres), Mill Hide (25 acres), Lower Mill Hide (15 acres), Parsonage Field (17 acres), the three Church Fields (36 acres), Rye Fields (36 acres), Twenty Acre Field (30 acres), Lower New Mead (12 acres), Lower Downes (18 acres), Upper Downes (32 acres), Nine Acre Close, and meadow in East Mead (11 acres); little farm, part of the demesne of Stanford Hall, in occupation of John Stratford, Ocroft (5 acres), three fields called Well Fields (37 acres), Fishpond Mead (5 acres), Edwards Shott (48 acres), and meadow (10 acres) in East Mead, Hallwood (12 acres), part of Hallwood bottom (3 acres), Hallwood Mead (3 acres), Great Horse Leeze (29 acres), Bryan Lay (33 acres), Nine Acre Piece(10 acres), all in occupation of Robert Hutchin and son Thomas;

Little Horse Leeze (24 acres), then in occupation of said William Petre, land in Long Downes (13 acres), Thistley Downes (21 acres), two little slips (3 acres), in occupation of widow Carter, the Furthest Downes (10 acres), in occupation of John Beard, little slip lately stubbed (2 acres), in occupation of John Bynes.

Manor and farm of Tracyes, in occupation of Henry Todd, and lands called Great and Little Perry Field (18 acres), the Two Course Fields (16 acres), Rye Field (11 acres), pieces of meadow in Hallinford Mead (7 acres), field divided into five pieces called Old Berry (44 acres), Burndish (11 acres), meadow (8 acres) in East Mead, Pinke Field (29 acres), Bower Fields (23 acres), meadow (8 acres) in West Mead;

Barwickes Farm, in occupation of Samuel Phayle, and lands called Barne Hope (5 acres), the Tye (4 acres), Howe Fields (31 acres), Barn Field and Barn Field Lay (30 acres), St Mary Fields (36 acres), Goard Field (16 acres), Lampard Field (10 acres), Millers Croft (3 acres), meadow (10 acres) in West Mead; messuage in occupation of John Fanne, Home Field (4 acres), Chapel Field (4 acres), and Kanes Field (4 acres);

Middle and Lower Lanes (19 acres), Niselands (18 acres), in occupation of Richard Ballard; cottage, Half Croft (3 acres) and meadow (1 acres) in West Mead, in occupation of George Guy;
field (4 acres) in occupation of Thomas Luther; messuage called Haverills and two fields (15 acres), Robins Lands (17 acres), meadow in East Mead called Tracyes Noke and Two Acre Piece (5 acres), Robins Lands (31 acres), Lampard Field (10 acres), meadow in West Mead (3 acres), in occupation of widow Wheeler; the two Hallingfords (26 acres), in occupation of John Robinson, meadow (9 acres) in Hallingford, in occupation of Thomas Clarke, Pigs Mead (7 acres), Hallingfords (24 acres), Shocks Croft and Shocks Croft Mead (10 acres), Little Witch Field (9 acres), Crumpes Croft (5 acres), three Fresh Shotts (27 acres), Broad Field (9 acres), Niselands and Niselands within the woods (9 acres), all in occupation of Thomas Finch, meadow (1 acre) in West Mead, in occupation of John Greene; cottage in occupation of [blank] Furley, cottages in Hare Street in occupation of widow Scrags, John Luther, Francis South and William Tibnam.

Smythfield Grove (10 acres), Barwickes Ham (12 acres), High Grove (7 acres), Garnishe Bushes (6 acres), Coker Lands (13 acres), Lux Grove (8 acres), Lampard Field Bottom (16 acres), Round Grove (5 acres), Niseland Bushes, Kanes Springs (4 acres) and Fannes Springs (3 acres),
all in Stanford Rivers;

[Source Essex Records Office SEAX Catalogue – ref D/DP T167/3]

When the last of the Petres of Stanford Rivers died in 1726, he left his estate of about £1000 per annum, not to his closest surviving kinsman, the 9th Lord Petre, who already owned an estate of £6000 per annum in Essex and at least £4500 more in Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire; but to his second son, with a proviso that if the latter were to inherit the main Petre estate, then Stanford Rivers should go to the third son.

Samuel James was born at Theydon Garnon in 1784. On the 26th of November 1797 he was accused of stealing 6d in money and a banknote, value £10, the property of Samuel Miller of Theydon Garnon.

He appeared at the Lent Assizes held at Chelmsford on the 5th March 1798. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death. He was only 14 years of age. However as often the case with young offenders, the trial judge at the end of the Assizes commuted the sentence to transportation to Australia for 7 years.

Held in the prison hulks for 4 years he was on the 12th February 1802 put on the Prison ship PERSEUS, which left Portsmouth, sailing via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape, arriving in Port Jackson, Australia on the 4th August 1802, a journey of 173 days.

In 1808 he married Anne Bean, another transportee and they had 12 children. After he had served his 7 years he was given 80 acres of land and 4 head of cattle. In the 1828 census for New South Wales, Samuel shows his employment as ‘Constable.’

Prison Hulk

An interesting note concerns Samuel’s father, also named Samuel who died at Theydon Garnon in 1829 and was buried in All Saints churchyard. The burial register gives details of the burial, but in the margin there is an entry ‘this body was disinterred, but the shroud was not taken.’

Samuel died in Australia in 1833, aged 49 years.

We are used to reading about endangered animals and plants species throughout the world. But how many of us have thought about the traditional skills that have been practised throughout the last few hundred years.

We have an incredible range of heritage craft skills in the UK and some of the best craftspeople in the world. But many of these skills are in the hands of an ageing population.

A heritage craft is defined as ‘a practice which employs manual dexterity and skill and an understanding of traditional materials, design and techniques, and which has been practised for two or more successive generations’. The research focuses on craft practices which are taking place in the UK at the present time, including those crafts which have originated elsewhere, and on those aspects of each craft with a high reliance on hand-work and which involve high levels of hand skill.

The Heritage Crafts Association carried out research to try and establish which crafts are in danger of dying out completely. In March of this year a major update was published, increasing the number of crafts examined to 212, with one new extinct crafts, 16 new critically endangered crafts and 20 new endangered crafts added.

Whilst it is not possible in this Journal to look at the complete list, a few examples may be of interest.

Extinct skills

Crafts classified as ‘extinct’ are those which are no longer practised. For the purposes of this research, this category only includes crafts which have become extinct in the past generation.

Cricket ball making
Gold beating
Lacrosse stick making
Mould and deckle making

Critically endangered skills

Crafts classified as ‘critically endangered’ are those at serious risk of no longer being practised. They may include crafts with a shrinking base of craftspeople, crafts with limited training opportunities, crafts with low financial viability, or crafts where there is no mechanism to pass on the skills and knowledge.

Some of the more quirky skills.

Devon maund making

The Devon ‘maund’ is an assembled basket made of wooden splints attached to a wooden base. The base was traditionally made of elm, but following the arrival of Dutch elm disease has been made from other woods. The basket is held together by nails and ash bands, and the two end staves form the handles. This type of basket was traditionally used in the fields, to take feed to cattle and to collect potatoes and apples after harvesting. Maunds were made on a jig to five standard sizes.

Jack Rowsell was one of the last people to make Devon maunds, having learnt the craft from his father. He died in 1997. Rowsell made the baskets in his spare time (rather than as a primary profession) for over 40 years and made about 25-50 a year which he sold.

Parchment and vellum making

Parchment, which is sheep and goatskin, and vellum, calfskin, have been used for manuscripts for thousands of years. The Codex Sinaiticus is a fourth-century vellum bible now in the British Library, and its pages are flexible and can still be turned easily. As a writing medium, when it is properly prepared, it surpasses any paper, and lasts far longer. Animal skin is also used for drums, book binding and in conservation.

There used to be a parchmenter near most larger towns, using the skins which were a by-product, but now there is only one manufacturer of vellum and parchment, William Cowley or Newport Pagnell. There are two skilled masters and one apprentice.

Clay pipe making

Tobacco was first brought to England during the Tudor period, and was smoked in a clay pipe. Clay tobacco pipe making began c. 1580-1585, probably in London, and spread across the country, springing up in the main cities and towns and especially those with access to suitable clay. Over the next 250 years, almost every city and town and many villages had a clay pipe maker.
The clay pipe industry peaked c.1700, after which snuff-taking became more popular with the upper classes, but the production of clay pipes continued and peaked again in the early-nineteenth century. Until this time, only England, Holland and Germany were making clay pipes but by the 1840s, France had also become world leaders in the craft, and pipe makers also operated in America and Canada and a few other places. In the second half of the nineteenth century the larger, more prosperous firms took most of the business and so the industry became more concentrated in cities and established towns and the cottage industry died out. London, Bristol, Manchester, Broseley in Shropshire, Stockton-on-Tees, Glasgow and Portchester were centres of pipe making.

The onset of World War I brought cigarettes and with wooden pipes and cigars becoming more popular at the end of the nineteenth century only a few clay pipe makers continued into the next century. By 1960 there were only a couple of makers left in England. During the 1970s the collectors boom created an opportunity for one family firm, Pollocks of Manchester, to rekindle interest in clay pipes as collectors’ items. This family firm had operated non-stop since 1879.

Alongside Pollocks others revived old tools and some created a modern rebirth of the craft using a mixture of traditional and modern techniques, bringing the craft into the twenty-first century.
However, some of these valuable people have passed away in the last few years and there are only three clay pipe makers left in the UK, none of whom are getting any younger and there is need for the craft to be taken up by younger people.

Today, the main market for clay pipes is for film and TV, re-enactments, smokers and collectors.

Coopering (non-spirits)

Traditionally there were three types of coopering: dry coopering, white coopering, and wet coopering. The first was the least skilled, the last the most skilled. Within wet coopering, a distinction is made between coopering for beer and for spirits. Coopering for beer is more highly skilled because the casks must withstand the pressure of the fermenting beer.

Split cane rod making

Split cane rods were developed in the USA in the 1870s. Until this time rods had been made from whole cane or solid wood, and the split cane rod was a big improvement due to its lightness and flexibility (the ‘carbon fibre of the day’). Fibreglass rods were developed post-World War II and until the mid-1960s split cane and fibreglass rods were produced side by side, with split cane rods dominating the high end of the market. However, by the late 1960s fibreglass had improved and carbon fibre was introduced in the 1970s, marking the end of the split cane rod. Nevertheless, as long as it is the right type of rod, split cane can be just as good as carbon fibre, and for some specific purposes can even have an advantage.

Today, split cane rods are a luxury good, but they still need to have all the performance that split cane rods had in their heyday.

Fore edge painting

Fore edge painting is the craft of applying an image to the pages of a book. The page block is fanned and an image is applied to the stepped surface. If the page edges are gilded or marbled, the applied image disappears when the book is relaxed. When refanned, the painting reappears.

Earliest examples of fore edge painting are credited to the Royal binders Lewis Brothers in 1660, with a renaissance in the second half of the eighteenth century, circa 1760-1800 with the Edwards Bindery in Halifax and London. A recent revival saw more work in the late 1900s.

Further details of the crafts that are on the danger list please refer to the Heritage Crafts Association website.