High Country History Group

The following note appears in the Stapleford Tawney Vestry minutes for 1873-4:
“On Friday August 22nd [1873] there was divine service in the church of St Mary Stapleford Tawney at 3.30pm on the occasion of the opening of a new organ, presented to the church by Reginald Heber Prance Esq of Frognal, Hampstead.
The sermon was preached by the Revd F A L Foster, Rector of Little Munden, Herts.
The organ was played by Mr Henry Willis, the builder.”
Henry Willis (1821-1901) was the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era, responsible for over 1,000 examples. They can be found in the Royal Albert Hall, St Paul’s Cathedral and Alexandra Palace, as well as numerous other cathedrals, concert venues and parish churches. Willis invented several technical innovations to make the organ ‘speak’. By the time the Tawney organ was installed, 150 years ago, Willis was at the height of his fame.
‘Father’ Henry Willis (1821-1901)

For 35 years after it was installed, the organ was played by Emma Jane, wife of the parish rector Revd Lewis Newcomen Prance. The Rector’s cousin Reginald, who donated the organ, was a wealthy stockbroker and well-known church benefactor, who paid for many major items for churches in London and elsewhere.

The organ mechanism was squeezed into the existing vestry, which had only been built about ten years before and was really too small for it. So the organ had to be made narrower than the standard size to make it fit, and a lean-to was added to the vestry to provide a new entrance.
The churchwardens had already disposed of the previous musical instrument. This advertisement appeared in the Essex Herald of May 27th 1873:
BARREL ORGAN.
A BARREL ORGAN, of good tone. FOR SALE, suitable for a Church. It is by Walker, and its original cost was £4O. It will now be sold cheap in consequence of the introduction of larger instrument. It has three barrels, playing 25 Psalm and Hymn tunes and five Chants. Application to be made to the Churchwardens of Stapleford Tawney, Romford.
The Tawney Willis organ is unaltered from 1873 except for the addition of an electric pump. The original hand pump is still there and still works. The last time it was pumped by hand at a service was during a power cut in the 1990s.

To celebrate the sesquicentennial (150-year) anniversary, an organ recital was held in the church in early October. James Davy, Chelmsford Cathedral Director of Music and organist, not only entertained the audience with a repertoire incorporating every note, pedal and stop of this unique instrument, but also explained the reasons for its quirks and individualities.

After Father Henry’s death, the Willis company carried on through four generations of Henry Willises and continues in business to this day, building organs in Liverpool.

In the September 2023 issue of the High Country journal, Martyn Lockwood asked for any information on the Hilder family, pictured living in miserable conditions in a canvas hut in Greensted in 1920. With the help of Ancestry and the British Newspaper Archive, most of the story emerges.
The father pictured was Walter H T Hilder. He was born in West Sussex in 1885, the eldest of six children. In 1911 he and his father were both general labourers at a cement works, but the family had moved around a lot in Sussex and Kent, no doubt in search of work. Walter’s wife Alice was six years older than him and was born in Cuxton, a village on the River Medway in Kent. Walter and Alice married there in the summer of 1913, just in time for the birth of their second child Victor in the October. Their eldest, Audrey, had been born in 1911 before they married. Vivian came along in November 1915. These are the three children in the photographs.

At some point in WWI, Walter joined the Royal Engineers, probably as a volunteer. He was transferred for a while to the Royal Scots regiment, then returned to the Royal Engineers. Military records show that he was awarded the Victory and British medals, given to all those who served in the military in the war. Anyone who actually saw action was also awarded the Star medal1, but there’s no record of Walter receiving that. However, he seems to be wearing three medals in the photograph, so perhaps he did go to France. The medals were popularly known as ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’, after characters in a well-known comic strip in the Daily Mirror.
Most servicemen were demobilised in 1919. In May 1920, Walter and Alice’s youngest child Alister was born. The photograph in the journal was taken in January 1920, when Alice would have been six months pregnant with Alister.
The situation is clarified by a report in the Essex Chronicle on Friday 30th January 1920:
Ex-Soldiers Plight
Ongar Council's Criticism
At Ongar Rural Council on Tuesday [ie 27th January], Mr T Atkins JP CC presiding, the Clerk read a letter from Dr G R Wilson calling attention to the cause of a man, his wife, and three children, aged 8, 6, and 4, living in a small canvas-covered hut in a grass meadow at Lodge Farm, Greensted. He (Dr. Wilson) had been called in to attend to one of the children. The man was in receipt of out-of-work pay because, although he could obtain work, he could not obtain accommodation for his family where the work was. He was a discharged soldier. The premises were quite inadequate, and he asked that immediate attention be given to the matter. He had suggested to the Surveyor that he should make investigations as to one of the huts at the Searchlight station. Mr F C Phillips, the surveyor, said he was doing everything he could to assist this man to get one of the huts, and if some resolution came from the Council it might help. The mother was expecting another baby. Mr R C Garner said there were four cottages within a stone's throw occupied by two people. He understood that one man had two cottages, and went from one to the other. He thought this was not right, and they should see whether they could do anything in the matter.
The Chairman: We can't stop it.
Mr. Garner: We might approach the owners.
Chairman: The Searchlight huts are near by, and there is nobody in them, while the Government are leaving their own men by the side of the road. It is only on a par with other things they do. I do not think we can do too much to get this thing altered.
On the proposition of the Rev G F White, it was resolved to support the Surveyor in trying to get the huts.
Briefer reports appeared in other newspapers, but none of them I’ve found so far included the photographs, or the names of the children. However, as Martyn suggested, they were probably taken to illustrate a journalist’s article, at a time when most daily newspapers contained few if any photos.
By the time Alice’s fourth baby was born in May 1920, just a few months later, the family were back living in Alice’s home village of Cuxton in Kent, where they had been in 1915 and where they were still living at the time of the census in 1921. So the ex-army ‘Armstrong’ hut in Greensted seems to have been a temporary home after Walter was demobbed.
Did the publicity help the family to return to a proper house and employment?

Records indicate that Hilder enlisted on the 26 January 1915 and was discharged from the Army on the 22 June 1916, presumably having been injured and unfit for further duty. He was awarded the silver War Badge.
Silver War Badge
This small silver badge is a pin designed to be worn on civilian clothes after early discharge from the army. It was first issued in 1916, when it was also retrospectively awarded to those already discharged since August 1914. The Silver War Badge was initially called simply the ‘War Badge’; it has also been popularly known as the ’Silver Wound Badge’, ‘Services Rendered Badge’, ‘Discharged Soldiers Badge’, or ‘King’s Silver Badge’.
The most common reason for award of the badge was King’s Regulations Paragraph 392 (xvi), meaning they had been released on account of being permanently physically unfit. This was as often a result of sickness, disease or uncovered physical weakness and war wounds.

Houses of Correction were established after the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law 1601, to house those who were ‘unwilling to work’, including vagrants and beggars, where they were put to work. They were used to reform the poor convicted of petty offences through hard labour. In Essex they were established at Barking, Chelmsford, Colchester, Halstead and Newport.
Barking House of Correction:
In 1790 a committee of Justices recommended to Midsummer Sessions that as the existing house was too small, a site should be purchased and a new house erected. The House would take prisoners from Chigwell, Lambourne, Loughton, Navestock, Stapleford and the Theydons. The site chosen was in North Street. The House was erected between 1791 and 1793. By 1828 it was decided to build a new house on the north side of London Road at Ilford. Prisoners were moved in by August 1831. The old house was sold for demolition in 1834.
Chelmsford House of Correction:
A House of Correction was established in 1611 in High Street, Chelmsford.2 The first master was one Walter Kellaway. The first prisoners were admitted in the August of that year, and during the early years the majority of prisoners were punished for their lewd, idle, vagrant or disorderly life, for drunkenness, absconding from their masters, abandoning their wives and children, profaning on the Sabbath, or begging. Women who bore a bastard child served a 12 month sentence. As many as 30 prisoners were held at any one time, and Kellaway had only two assistants to help him.
The prisoners were made to work.
Three brick prison buildings were erected in 1753, 1754 and 1766, but by 1790 it was described as ‘so incomplete and generally in so ruinous a state that nothing short of rebuilding upon an enlarged plan will answer the public purposes of this County.’
Work on a new House of Correction began in 1802, and the first prisoners were moved in in October 1806.

From the early 17th century, a large portion of the current site of Marks and Spencer was occupied by the county’s House of Correction. By the early 19th century, deteriorating conditions forced the closure of the House. The site was eventually demolished to make way for several new buildings. The site housed various retail establishments until the 1970s when sites 62-66 were absorbed by Marks and Spencer.
Houses of Correction were established in the early 17th century, as a place to send vagrants, beggars, and those ‘unwilling to work’. Petty criminals and prostitutes could also find themselves committed to these institutions. The inmates were put to work, but were often not there for very long. A spell in a house of correction may well also have included whipping, especially for those charged with offences such as theft or prostitution.
From 1587 the county House of Correction was situated in Coggeshall, but by 1593 the property had deteriorated considerably. The house was sold in 1611 and the county purchased the site of 63-64 Chelmsford High Street. Shortly after, the House of Correction admitted its first prisoners under the watchful guard of Keeper Walter Kellaway.
In order to provide suitable work for the prisoners, Kellaway was in charge of a range of equipment including mills to grind wheat and malt, wheels to spin flax and cotton, and billets for pounding hemp. Perhaps anticipating being charged with unruly or troublesome individuals, Kellaway also had chains and manacles. This account list highlights the interesting contrast, inherent in all houses of correction, between punishment and reform.
Prisoners from across Essex were admitted to the house on a range of charges, as punishment for perceived lewd, idle, vagrant or disorderly behaviours. Peter Lake was admitted in 1616 for vagrancy and ‘keeping the company with the wife of John Mayfield as if she were his ownwife’, while Susan Larkin was admitted in 1617 for ‘living lewdly and out of all order to the disquiet of her neighbours’.
Women accused of being pregnant out of wedlock were often admitted to the House for a whole year. A Bastardy Order made by Sir Henry Mildemay and Sir John Tirell condemned Elizabeth Clarke to the House of Correction to receive ‘due punishment’. The Justices, apparently on the complaint of the town, ordered the reputed father to pay 12d weekly until the child was able to provide for itself. (There is no mention as to whether he was also sent to the House of Correction, but we can probably safely assume he was not.)
Prisoner escapes were not a common occurrence, although it was a cause of concern given the location of the House of Correction in the High Street. In April 1776 the Chelmsford Chronicle reported that prisoners had escaped from their ground floor dormitory at the House of Correction in the early hours of one morning. In scenes reminiscent of the Shawshank Redemption, prisoners reportedly pulled up the floorboards with a gimlet and tunnelled under the foundations into the yard. Despite the best efforts of the local constabulary, several of the prisoners remained at large three days later.

Article from the Chelmsford Chronicle reporting the escape of 15 prisoners from the House of Correction, 5 April 1776
In the mid-18th century the House of Correction expanded to include three brick prison buildings where the more unruly prisoners were detained. The original timber-building, fronting the High Street, continued to be used by the Keeper and his family. Renowned prison reformer John Howard described his visit to the House of Correction in his 1777 book entitled The State of the Prisons in England and Wales. The men and women had separate quarters, with the men’s accommodation located on the ground floor and the women’s, to the same design, located on the floor above. The Keeper, Thomas Ford, informed Howard that prisoners had an allowance of three-pence a day, for which they had a pound and a half of bread, and a quart of small beer. Howard described the courtyard as ‘small and not secure’ resulting in the prisoners always being kept indoors. Furthermore, he described the rooms as ‘offensive’ and generally inadequate.
Several years later, reformer James Neild visited the House of Correction and met with the Keeper Thomas Ford who he found to behave ‘…not only very humanely, but also very religiously to his prisoners’. While Neild found the house to be under satisfactory leadership, the same could be not for the state of the property, which Neild concluded had:
…many and great inconveniences, and is by no means calculated for the purposes to which it is applied.
By 1803 the premises had deteriorated further and on a subsequent visit, Neild was compelled to report this damning verdict:
On my visit the 31st July 1803, I found the good old keeper dead; the whole prison [was] filthy and out of repair; in the two upper rooms five women and two children sick on the floor; the straw worn to dust; and in one of the rooms a cartload of rubbish heaped up in a corner. In one of the sick rooms below were four women; in the other room six women and two children, one of the women quite naked, another without a shift, the other four had neither shoe nor stocking…The whole prisoners were coniferous, and almost desperate for water…The prisoners complained of the want of medical attendance, and, if I may judge from the filthiness of the fores and bandages, not without reason.
Not surprisingly, Neild was relieved to discover that a new site had recently been purchased adjacent to the new county gaol. The site was completed in 1806, with the prisoners moving in that same year.
Suggestions as to what to do with the vacant site continued for some time. At one point it was hoped that the site should be redeveloped to accommodate the judges visiting the town for the Assizes although this plan never came to fruition. The property was ultimately sold in 1811 and demolished a year later, making way for two new brick houses.
Various retail properties occupied the site over the course of the 19th and 20th century, including a branch of Singer’s Sewing Company (at no. 64). In the 1970s, the individual sites of 62-66 were consolidated by Marks and Spencer, forming one of the largest stores on the high street.
Colchester House of Correction:
The House of Correction was located on the ground floor of the castle. A new house was built on the Ipswich Road and completed in 1835.
Halstead House of Correction:
The original house of correction was completely destroyed by fire in 1781 (29 March). A decision was taken to build another premises on a new site in Bridge Street. The new building was completed by 1783 (15 July) and ready for occupation on the 4th August. The total cost of the building (and site?) was £2400.

It had 35 cells, two tread wheel yards, an infirmary, magistrates room, 5 day rooms, women's yard, kitchen and brew house. It was closed in 1841, The building was sold in 1850, after being used partly as a police station. Finally demolished in 1973.
To be continued……

On Saturday afternoon an influential public meeting was held at the Town Hall, Chipping Ongar,
“for the purpose of taking the preliminary steps necessary for the formation of a Rifle Corps for Ongar and its neighbourhood.”
W.C. Gellibrand, Esq., presided; and amongst those present were Sir W.H. Smith, Bart; Sir C. Cunliffe Smith, Bart; T.C. Chisenhale Marsh, E. Reeve, and E.J. Meyer, Esqrs.; Revds. E.J. Reeve, Beauchamp Tower, F.A. S. Fane, E. Fisher, J. Smith and P.W. Ray; Messrs Josling, Sworder, Waterhouse, Barlow, Sleeve, Foster, Church, Baker, Darby, &c. The following resolution was passed.
Proposed by Mr. T.C.C. Marratt, and seconded by Sir. W.B. Smith, Bart:-
“That the urgent call upon all to place their beloved country in a state of safety has to a certain extent been nobly responded to by the patriotism of her sons, in the formation of a rifle corps: but much remains to be done in order that the members may be so increased as to render any attempt to invade as hopeless even to the most powerful of the nations of the world.”
Proposed by Mr. E.J. Meyer, seconded by Sir C.C. Smith:-
“That it is the duty of every true Briton to aid in this good work, and that therefore the formation of a volunteer force, to be called the Ongar Rifles, be commenced forthwith.”
Proposed by the Revd. E.J. Reeve; and seconded by Mr. Sworder:-
“That a Committee of eight members (three to form a quorum) be appointed to carry out the second resolution, and that the said Committee consist of the following members:- Sir Chas. C. Smith, Capt. Budworth, W.C. Gallibrand, F.A.S. Fane, and Messrs Wright and Foster.”
The Revd. B. Tower proposed the appointment of Mr. Waterhouse as Treasurer, and Mr. Wright as Secretary, to he corps, which was seconded by Mr. Reeve, and agreed to.
A conversation then took place as to he probable expense and the most suitable colour for the uniform to be selected for the proposed corps. Mr. Meyer and Sir Bowyer Smijth strongly recommended a grey uniform, in preference to a green. Eventually, on the suggestion of Mr. Marsh, the question of the uniform was referred to the committee, to be reported upon at an adjourned meeting.
A subscription list was opened and nearly £200 raised in the room, including the following contributions:- W.C. Gellibrand, Esq., £50, and an annual subscription of £10; Sir C.C. Smith, Bart., £50; T.C.C. Marsh, Esq., £10; Revd. E. Fisher, £10; Rev. B. Beauchamp Tower (who is a subscriber to the Brentwood Corps), £1.1 annually; Revd. E. J. Reeve, £10; E.J. Meyer., £25, and £10 annually; E. Reeve, Esq., £20 and £10 annually; Rev. F.A.S. Fane, £10, Sir. W. B. Smith, Bart., £10 and the Revd. P.W. Ray £10.
A vote of thanks to he chairman closed the proceedings.
Source: Essex Standard, August 1, 1860
Ongar. — An adjourned meeting was held at Ongar Town Hall, on Saturday last, W. C. Gillibrand, Esq., in the chair. — The report of the committee stated that the donations amounted to £401, and that annual subscribers for upwards of £60 had enrolled their names. The number of honorary members, 35; effective ditto, 40. The latter number will most likely be increased to 60. — Upon an intimation that J. F. Wright, Esq., had offered to the committee a donation of £20 and £5 annually, or to equip five men at his own expense, it was unanimously resolved that the Rev, F. Fane be deputed to thank Mr. Wright, on behalf of the committee, and accept his offer of the donation and annual subscription ; also that the secretary write to the Court of Quarter Session for leave to use the police-station as a depot for the rifles; and that the services of the Ongar Rifle Corps be offered to the Lord-Lieutenant.
Mr. T. C. Marsh wished to impress upon the minds of all present that they now only wanted annual subscriptions to keep up the corps, and he trusted that on their return home they would try and persuade their neighbours and friends to come forward with their aid. Let those who could not afford £1, give 10s. or even less; for his part he would just as soon have one hundred shillings as £5. It was evident that should England ever be invaded, those who possessed the most would be the greatest sufferers, and if they could not afford help in any other way, they could assist with their purse.
It should also be distinctly understood by all who joined this corps that they must not look at it as a mere plaything, but join it with spirit, for, in case of invasion, most likely all would have to take a part in resisting the enemy, and they would be in a more efficient state to offer such resistance when they had learned the use of the rifle than if they entered the field inexperienced. He had no doubt that Ongar would turn out as efficient a corps as any in the county.
On the motion of the Rev. F. Fane, seconded by P.H. Meyer, Esq., a vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman, and the meeting then separated.
Source: Essex Standard 15 August, 1860.
The 18th Essex Volunteer Rifles (Chipping Ongar) were gazetted.
Officers:
Captain Philip Budworth (late Captain Essex Rifles)
Lieutenant Philip Herman Meyer
Ensign Revd. Frederick Scroop Fane
Chaplain Revd. Edmund Fisher
Ass. Surgeon Frank Dobson Potter
Also Sgt. Major Wright and Corporal Derby.

Mr. Frederick Carter, J.P.
He resided at Marden Ash, the fifth son of the late George Carter, of Edgbaston, Warwickshire. He was born at Edgbaston on the 20th March 1830. He was educated privately. Indian Medical Service (retired); Justice of the Paeace for Essex; late member of the District Council, Board of Guardians, School Board, etc.; He served in the Indian Mutiny, 1857-58; Hazara Frontier Campaign, 1868, etc. Married Agnes Emmett in 1872. Clubs: East India; United Services, City of London; late fellow Royal Colonial Institute.

The Reverend Laurence George Capel Cure, J.P.
Resides at the Rectory at Abbess Rodding, fourth son of the late Capel Cure, J.P., D.L., of Blake Hall, Bobbingworth. He was born at Blake Hall in 1833; educated at Rugby, and Balliol College, Oxford; B.A., 1855, Priest 1856, by the Bishop of Rochester. Rector of Abbess Roding since 1858; Justice of the Peace for Essex. Married in 1857, Augusta, youngest daughter of Sir Charles Joshua Smith, 2nd Baronet, of Suttons, Stapleford Tawney.

Howel John. James Price, J.P., D.L.
Resided at Greensted Hall, only son of the late James Price, of Breckonshire. He was born at Glynllech, in 1857. He was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge; B.A. Called to the Bar, Inner Temple, 18878. Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Essex. High Sheriff for Breconshire 1900. Recreations, hunting, member of the Essex Hunt since 1886; shooting and golf; member of Brancaster, Littlestone and Romford Golf Clubs. Married firstly in 18854 to Mary C. Smith, only child of the late W. Smith of Greensted House, Greensted. She died in 1902. Secondly in 1904 Dora, daughter of the late R. Golding, J.P., D.L., M.F.H., of Hassobury, Essex.

Robert Ferguson, M.A, M.D.
He resided at the Manor House, Chipping Ongar and was the son of the late Thomas Ferguson of Aberdeenshire. Born 6th February 1869 in Aberdeenshire. Educated at Aberdeen University, Berlin University, and Rotunda Hospital Dublin. M.A., M.B., C.M., M.D, Aberdeen. District Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator of the Ongar Union (no. 3 District); Medical Officer to the Post Office, the Prudential and Norwich Union Assurance Companies. Recreation golf and cricket. Married in 1900, Gertrude Mary Lohr of Alburgh, Norfolk. Two sons and 1 daughter.

The vestry was a meeting of the parish ratepayers chaired by the incumbent of the parish, originally held in the parish church or its vestry, from which it got its name.
While the vestry was a general meeting of all inhabitant rate-paying householders in a parish, in the 17th century the huge growth of population in some parishes, mostly urban, made it increasingly difficult to convene and conduct meetings. Consequently, in some of these a new body, the select vestry, was created. This was an administrative committee of selected parishioners whose members generally had a property qualification and who were recruited largely by co-option.
Vestry Meeting 20th December 1814.
At a Vestry pursuant to notice for the purpose of considering of a Grant of Land in the front of the Workhouse from the Lord of the Manor of the Parish.
Resolved that the said grant shall be accepted with our best thanks to George Petre, Esq., the Lord of the Manor for his attention to the wishes and accommodation of the Parish.
That the said land shall be inclosed by drawing a line in a curve from the corner of the Workhouse Garden to the south-west corner of Mr. Wilsons Mead, according to the stakes put down this day.
That the best application of the said land will be
1. To add to the Garden of the Workhouse
2. To provide Gardens for the two Parish Houses
3. It is proposed to erect a stable and shed thereon for the accommodation of the Parishioners on Sundays. This building not to be erected at the expence of the Parish, but of individuals subscribing; on condition that they and their successors in their farms have a preference in the use of the said stable and shed.
Present at the Vestry
E. Dowdswell, Rector
Henry Mott
Thomas Mansfield
William Noakes
Robert Thorburn
John Pavitt
George Hummerstone
Edward Rayner
John Rickby
William Drew
Edward Luck
John Osborne, Vestry Clerk.
Vestry Meeting 27th March 1817
At a Public Vestry held in the Parish it was resolved
That the church music consisting of a Bassoon and which was paid for by subscription is the property of the Parish and not the Choir.
Vestry Meeting 23rd April, 1831
At a Public Vestry meeting it was resolved
That the old Workhouse belonging to his parish near the Church yard and adjoining Stanford Hall be disposed of.
That the property in question consisting of the Workhouse, two Cottages and the Hoppett adjoining, containing about three acres, having been valued by Mr. Jonathan Lewis of Bobbingworth and Mr. Jonathan Stokes of Stanford Rivers, at the sum of Four Hundred Guineas.
That the same be offered to Thomas Wilson, Esq., of Highbury Place, at the said sum of Four Hundred Guineas; and on his refusal
become the purchaser that it be sold by Auction.
That Mr. Jonathan Lewis and Mr. Jonathan Stokes be requested to manage the sale of this property.

Log Books from 1894 to 1932 for the former school have survived and are now found in the Essex Record Office at Chelmsford and they provide a social picture for the time. Below I have highlighted some of the entries.

Names of pupils in 1884.

Boys:
Arthur Stubbings
William West
Frederick Starling
Henry Turner
George Tarling
Sydney Summers
George Stubbings
Charles Stubbings
Walter Stubbings
Stephen Starling
George Perry
Henry Gould
Edwin Freshwater
Archibald Prior
Oscar Tarling
William Tucker
Samuel Starling
Charles Latchford
William Toomie
Thomas Stubbings
Walter Freshwater
Horace Doe
James Starling

Girls
Lily Green
Emily Pain
Margaret Freshwater
Dora Freshwater
Hetty Stubbings
Minnie Freshwater
Rose Freshwater
Frances Toomie
Celia Threader
Rachel Summers
Florence Toomie
Eva Toomie
Ellen Gould
Daisy Threader
Maud Starling

Christina Spark – teacher

Average weekly attendance in 1895 was 27 pupils.

Oct 1st 1895
The new school year commences today. Two children are absent…..Stephen Starling who has not been back to school since the Harvest Holidays. I have sent several messages to his guardian and have since sent Miss Bonner (Infants Teacher) to his home to request that he should be sent back, but his guardians say that he cannot come for want of clothing and shoes.

Nov 29th 1895
Several children are absent on account of the damp weather.

There are many entries in the log book where attendance was low due to the weather. This may indicate that many of the children did not have sufficient clothes or shoes to deal with the cold and the wet.

In 1896 The Inspector of Schools reported, “The children attending this little school are orderly and attentive, but not very bright….”

Jan 23rd 1899
School closed on account of nearly all the children being ill with measles. The school was re-opened on the 15th Feb but attendance poor as several children prevented as measles are still in their homes.

Nov 6th 1899
Marion Payne commenced duties as Mistress of the school today.

2nd Jan 1900
Flossie Augusta Burrage took charge for the first time.

2nd Feb 1900
Attendance has not been good as six of the elder boys have been away brushing.

Week ending 25th Jan 1901
Attendance this week has been very poor, owing to the absence of nearly all the boys, on account of the shooting. They were engaged in ‘brushing’ in the wood

Nov 23rd 1902
Henrietta L. Cawley commenced duties as Mistress.

There are several poignant entries during the period 1914 -1918 when news of former pupils of the school are reported in the log book as ‘killed in action.’

1st November. 1821.

James Adlam Constable of Abridge went last night about nine o'clock to the Blue Boar having heard there were two men there with a horse and cart of a suspices presents. There the name of the cart was William Hollis of Thomas St. Newington Surrey no 146174, the men got in the cart and went in the direction of Ongar, ie the churchyard. The constable went to get his mare but before he could do so the cart returned with a third man through the village along the London Road at rapid speed.

He did not have the chance to stop the cart for two miles at Chigwell. When he did there was four men in the cart, he took two men into custody but in the scuffle two men escaped. The men charged are William Crouch and James Crouch.

On searching the cart he found a female child’s body of Mrs Barker which had been buried the Sunday before, in the cart was also a shovel.

John Jones undertaker stated that on Sunday 28th October last, he conducted the funeral of Sarah, the infant of William Barker Shoemaker for Abridge and sercuid the lid of the coffin knowin she to be in it and saw it placed in the grave maked in the churchyard.

William Barker went about ten o clock to the Blue Boar too see the body of a child taken from some men at Chigwell from the cart and found it to be the body of his dauyter Sarah age 8 years old, buried in Lambourne Churchyard the Sunday before.

‘Jane Luther bequeathed a sum of 5 shillings annually, to be paid to the clerk of the parish, for weeding the gravel path from the high road to the church-porch at Stapleford Tawney.’

[Editor – there is no date for the bequest mention in the article but it is believed it was made around 1750]