High Country History Group

Curating Content

Our new website is a goldmine of resources created by the High Country History Group over 26 years. See www.highcountryhistorygroup.org.

In Journal No. 98, we curated content on Parish Registers. We have more in this edition. This time it is the turn of Census records with an overview on what we have published to date.

Old Trade Directories are a further source of information of names and addresses. We have two series of Kelly's Directory data for the four parishes extracted from 1890 and 1912.

November is a time of remembrance. In 2018 I was privileged to be asked to give a history talk in Blackmore to mark the centenary of the conclusion of the First World War. That evening 157 people came to the event held in St Laurence Church, Blackmore.

A booklet accompanied the talk. One part of ten was published at the time in our Journal. I take the liberty, please, of offering the complete booklet and some other related items.

We have more on Ongar Workhouse, this time first-hand recollections from the daughter of a one-time Master and Matron.

Also, reminiscences of Essex around 1835 compared to 1906 by an unknown author who probably lived in the Gosfield area of Essex. This adds to other 'recalling' items.¹

A few years ago, we produced an index of articles relating to the four parishes in The Essex Review. It is now the turn of The Essex Journal.

We are continuing to reproduce items previously published in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, ahead of an Index of this organisation's publications in Journal No. 100.

A miscellany of items rounds off this bumper edition.

Finally, in Journal No. 96, the Maldon Iron Works signpost at Colliers Hatch was included. On visiting in October 2026, I am sorry to report that the sign has broken and all that is left is the old post in the hedge.

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Footnotes

¹ In Retrospect (Journal No. 30), W. W. Reed (born 1885) recalled his childhood in Mountnessing in a talk written and given in 1950: Retrospect – High Country History Group. Also, Peter Cameron (Journal No. 28) remembers Stanford Rivers from the 1920s: A Personal Recollection of Stanford Rivers – High Country History Group. ↩

Edward Smyth – The Stolen Statue at Theydon Mount Church

In January 2011, Anne Padfield reported that the statue of Edward Smyth, the boy on the tomb at Theydon Mount Church, had been stolen together with the salamander at his father's feet.²

The Group did not formally report that it had subsequently been found.

In St Michael's Church, Theydon Mount: A History and Guide, released to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the rebuilding and reopening of the church, Anne Padfield wrote:

"Almost miraculously, 18 months or so later, the statue and salamander were offered to Christie's, recognised, and eventually returned."

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Footnotes

² See Journal No. 38: Burglary at St Michael's Church – Edward Smyth, the Boy on the Tomb, High Country History Group. ↩

Decennial Censuses: Making Sense of the Censuses

Introduction

This is an overview of Census information that can be found on our new website.

Population statistics have a dedicated page: High Country History Group – HCHG, covering the parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount in Essex, England.

In Previous Journals

Journal No. 18 provided an overview in Census Dates – for England & Wales, published by the High Country History Group:

"Population census records were first taken in 1801 and have since been taken every ten years. The only exception was in 1941, when we were at war. Prior to this only Parish Records recorded the number of people, together with a crude description or classification of occupations."

An article specifically relating to the 1801 to 1831 censuses was included in Journal No. 88: Dates of Essex Censuses 1801–1831, advising that these are (mainly) held at the Essex Record Office.

Currently family historians can view Census Records back to 1921. The release date of 6 January 2022 was reported in Journal No. 82: 1921 Census.

A report on the release of the 1911 census was given in Journal No. 34: The 1911 Census.

Journal No. 8 reported the online release of the 1901 census on 2 January 2002, mentioning that those who wanted to view it in person needed to visit the 'Family Records Centre': 1901 Census Online at the Family Records Centre.

The Centre has since closed and merged with The National Archives, but access is available through Family History websites. How things have changed.

Parish Census Information

For Stanford Rivers there were articles on the 1841 and 1901 Census respectively in Journals Nos. 13 and 25: 1841 Census – Stanford Rivers and 1901 Census – Stanford Rivers.

For Stapleford Tawney, information on the 1831 census was given in Journal No. 56: The 1831 Census for Stapleford Tawney.

The Group does not provide indexes of census names.

1939 Census

The outlier is the 1939 Census just after the outbreak of the Second World War. Martyn Lockwood wrote an article in Journal No. 68: The 1939 Census.

Kelly's Directory of Essex: 1933

Finally, Kelly's Directory 1933 is regarded as "a census substitute". Down the years various extracts were taken and published in the Journal. For those relating to the High Country:

• Greensted-juxta-Ongar: Journal No. 41 – Kelly's Directory of Essex 1933 – Greensted.
• Stanford Rivers: Journal No. 39 – Kelly's Directory of Essex 1933 – Stanford Rivers.
• Stapleford Tawney: Journal No. 40 – Kelly's Directory of Essex 1933 – Stapleford Tawney.
• Theydon Mount: Journal No. 42 – Kelly's Directory of Essex 1933 – Theydon Mount.

Census Research Guide

For more information, follow the external link to The National Archives: Census Records – The National Archives.

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A Brief Guide to 'Trade Directories' in Essex

Trade Directories provide an interesting source of information to local historians. Originally published to list the names, addresses and occupations of individuals in each location, they also provide topographical information.

Family legend has it that my grandfather received a complimentary copy of the 1912 Kelly's Directory for checking the information for his parish, Mountnessing.

In 1990, the Essex Journal published an article about Directories of Historic Essex. This Brief Guide gleans some key facts.³

Martyn Lockwood wrote:

"Directories started in the late 17th century, but it was not until the 19th century that they became more widespread across Britain and more comprehensive.

By 1850 the main directory publishers were the Post Office, White's, Pigot's, and Kelly's.

The publisher of the directory often relied on local agents to collect information on the locality and its local residents – invariably upper and middle class – and trade and professional persons."

⁴

Pigot's Commercial Directory

Thomas Pigot published a commercial directory covering the London and provincial area in 1839. Eleven counties are included, with Essex placed third.

White's Directory of Essex

William White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Essex was first published in 1848, and again in 1863. Extracts have been published elsewhere in the Journal.⁵

Kelly's Directories

Frederick Kelly entered into competition encompassing six counties, including Essex, in its 1841 and 1845 editions.

The 1851 edition of W. Kelly & Co.: Post Office Directory for the Six Home Counties was aggressively marketed in the year of the Great Exhibition. By then travel by railway from Essex was possible.

Sections on Essex were included in editions dated 1855, 1859, 1862 and 1866, with a corrected version published in 1867.

The expansion of London meant that the directory in 1870 had extended to 2,700 pages. There were further six-county editions in 1874 and 1878.

In 1882 and 1886 Kelly published directories for the three counties of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, with Part One dedicated to Essex.

Further editions were published in 1890, 1895, 1899, 1902, 1906 and 1908.

By then the invention of the telephone meant that a 'Post Office Telephone Directory' was available to subscribers, something which was to remain until relatively recently with the trade directory called 'Yellow Pages'.⁶

Kelly's Directory of Essex: 1910–1937

Kelly's Directory of Essex appeared in 1910, 1912, 1914 and 1917, with editions beginning in 1921 published by the 'Amalgamated Press', and further volumes in 1922 and 1929.

In 1929 the London Postal Area was excluded from the Essex volume.

The final editions were published in 1933 and 1937.

Andrew Smith

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Footnotes

³ Essex Journal. Winter 1990. Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 64–66: "Directories of Historic Essex" by Richard Matthews. ↩

⁴ See Journal No. 85, which included a list of businesses and principal people in Stanford Rivers in 1875 (source: Kelly's Directory): Trade Directory for Stanford Rivers in 1875 – High Country History Group. ↩

⁵ See the following articles:

• Journal No. 27 – Greensted: White's Directory of Essex 1848 – Greensted (Full), High Country History Group.
• Journal No. 30 – Stanford Rivers: White's Directory of Essex 1848 – Stanford Rivers, High Country History Group.
• Journal No. 30 – Stapleford Tawney: White's Directory of Essex 1848 – Stapleford Tawney, High Country History Group.
• Journal No. 26 – Theydon Mount: White's Directory of Essex 1848 – Theydon Mount, High Country History Group.

Extracts from other parishes have been published which form an online collection. ↩

⁶ I write this in the week that Ingatestone Post Office building finally closed, having in recent years been a Post Office and convenience store. The Sorting Office behind closed about three years ago. The Post Office is moving to the Library. Growing up there in the 1970s – and collecting First Day Cover stamps – I remember four customer counters and ranks of telephone directories available for public consultation. ↩

Greensted-juxta-Ongar

GREENSTED-juxta-ONGAR is an ancient parish, 1 mile west from Ongar and 21 from London, in the Western division of the county, Ongar hundred, union and petty sessional division, Brentwood county court district, rural deanery of Ongar, archdeaconry of Essex and diocese of St Albans.

The small church of St. Andrew is one of the most singular and ancient in the kingdom, and consists of a chancel, nave and a western tower of wood with shingled spire, containing 2 bells, one which is dated 1618.

The nave is composed of the trunks of large oak or chestnut trees, split or sawn asunder, roughly hewn on both sides and set upright close to each other, being let into a sill at the bottom and fastened with wooden pins to a plate at the top.

The church is 29ft. 9in. long, 14ft. wide and 5ft. 6in. high on the sides which support the roof, and is believed to be the original structure erected as a temporary shrine in which the body of St. Edmund, king of the East Angles, murdered by the Danes, November 20 A.D. 870, was deposited for the night on its translation from London to Bury St. Edmunds in A.D. 1013.

There are some modern carvings of St. Edmund’s head and various relics, including a fragment of stained glass about six inches in diameter, having on it a crowned head, supposed to represent St. Edmund and now fixed in a modern stained window at the end of the nave.

A portion on the venerable oak tree at Hoxne, against which this king was supposed to have been tied at his martyrdom, is preserved in the rectory, where also is an oil painting of him.

The tree itself, known as St. Edmund’s oak, was 20 feet in circumference, with branches extending over a radius of 84 feet; it fell September 11, 1848 (at which time, by a singular coincidence, the timber walls of Greensted church were undergoing repair), and on examination an old arrow head was found deeply imbedded in the trunk.

There are monuments to the Smyth, Cleeve and Ord families.

Parish Registers and Living

The register of baptisms dates from 1562; burials, 1561; marriages, 1576.

The living is a rectory, yearly value from tithe rent charge £200, with 29 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of London, and held since 1880 by the Rev. Frederic Rose B.A. of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and formerly curate (1873-80) of St. Botolph, Aldgate, the curates of which have first claim to the living, arising from a bequest of the Rev. Benjamin Pratt M.A. vicar of St. Botolph’s (1699-1715), who purchased the living of Greensted.

Land and Population

The land in the parish, with the exception of 40 acres, the property of Mrs. William Smith, belongs to the trustees of the late Captain Philip John Budworth.

The soil is various; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots.

The area is 681 acres; rateable value, £1,004; the population in 1881 was 88.

Parish Services

Parish Clerk: William Holt.

Wall Letter Box, Toot Hill: cleared at 5.45p.m. Letters arrive from Brentwood via Ongar, which is the nearest money order and telegraph office, at 7.30a.m.

The School here is discontinued; the children now attend that at Ongar.

Residents

• Etherton George Robert
• Hewett William, Greensted hall
• Rose Rev. Frederic B.A. Rectory
• Smith Mrs. William, Greensted house

Commercial

• Chalmers David, farmer, Lodge farm
• Custance John D. farmer
• Dodson Frederic, farmer, Newhouse
• Jones John Angus, farmer, Greensted Hall farm

Stanford Rivers

STANFORD RIVERS is supposed to have derived from its name from a stony ford through the River Roding; the addition, “Rivers,” being derived from the family of that name who resided here in 1213: it is a widely-scattered parish, situated on the London road, 19 miles from London, 3 south-west from Ongar station and 7 south-east from Epping, in the Western division of the county, Ongar hundred, petty sessional division and union, Brentwood county court district, rural deanery of Lambourne, archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of St. Albans.

St. Margaret’s Church

The church of St. Margaret id a plain building of stone, chiefly in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, and a western tower of wood, with spire, and containing 2 bells.

In the south wall of the nave is a brass, with kneeling figure of a lady and six children and an inscription to “Anne Napper, late the wife of William Napper, gent. and daughter of William Shelton esq. ob. 1584”.

In the chancel is another brass, to “Catherine Mvlcaster, wife of Charles Mvlcaster”, to whom she was married 50 years, ob. 1609.

There is also a brass with the effigy to Thomas Greville, infant, ob. 1492, another to Thomas Barrow esq. ob. 1503; and figures of a man in armour and his wife, c. 1540.

The Petres were formerly large proprietors here, and there are many flat stones in the chancel inscribed to members of this family.

Several members of the Stuart family, Earls and Marquises of Bute, were buried here, but with the exception of two they have been removed to Roath in Glamorganshire.

Parish Registers and Living

The register dates from the year 1538.

The living is a rectory, net yearly value £560, with residence, in the gift of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and held since 1868 by the Rev. Robert Rolleston B.A. of University College, Oxford.

Here is a Congregational chapel.

Ongar Union Workhouse and Charity

The workhouse for Ongar union is situated here.

There is a charity of £400 left by Mary Rayner in 1871 to be invested in India 5 per Cents. and the interest is annually distributed to the poor of the parish in clothing.

Landowners, Agriculture and Population

The principal landowners are Sir C. C. Smith bart. K.C.M.G. M.A. Government House, Singapore, who is lord, Capt. George Edward Capel Cure, of 20 Eaton square, London S.W. and Thomas Wilson esq.

The soil is clay or heavy loam; subsoil, clay, gravel or sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans &c.

The area is 4,402 acres of land and 12 of water; rateable value, £5,649; the population in 1881 was 975, including 135 officers and inmates in Ongar workhouse.

LITTLEBURY is 1 mile east from the church. TOOT HILL is 2 miles north-west.

Parish and Postal Services

Parish Clerk: James Woolmore.

Post Office: Mrs. Elizabeth Richardson, postmistress. Letters from Romford arrive at 8a.m.; delivered at 8.15a.m.; dispatched at 5.55p.m. Passingham Bridge (sic) is the nearest money order office, & Chipping Ongar the nearest telegraph office.

Post Office, Toot Hill: Frank Herbert Garrett, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Ongar at 7.15a.m.; dispatched at 5.30p.m. The nearest money & telegraph office is at Chipping Ongar.

Wall Letter Box, Toot Hill: cleared at 5.45p.m., sundays at 10 a.m.

Ongar Union Workhouse

Chipping Ongar Union Workhouse, Rev. Charles Albert Barnes, chaplain; Matthew Henry Gratton L.K.Q.C.P.trel, medical officer; Robert William Low, master; Mrs. Ellen Low, matron.

National School

National School (mixed), built in 1850, for 120 children; average attendance, 100; Henry Newmarsh, master; Mrs. Jane Newmarsh, mistress.

Residents

• Barnes Rev. Charles Albert (chaplain to the Ongar Union), Stanford house
• Barnett, Col. Charles, St. John
• Duff Thomas W., Traceys
• Palmer Mrs., Stanford house
• Rolleston Rev. Robert B.A., Rectory

Commercial

• Berry William, shopkeeper
• Brown Joseph, blacksmith
• Christy David, frmr, Stanford Rivers hall
• Duncan Margaret (Miss), farmer, Berwick farm
• Edwards Sarah (Mrs.), shopkeeper
• Freeman & Palmer, farmers, Toot Hill
• Freeman John, cattle dealer & farmer, Murrell’s farm
• Freeman John S. jun. farmer & cattle dealer, The Lawns & Traceys
• Hutchins William, hay carter
• Lane George, shopkeeper
• Lawrence Saml. farmer, Freeman’s frm
• McConnell Jas. farmer, Ongar Park hall
• Millbank Charles Alfred, farmer, Burrows & Clark’s farms, Toot Hill
• Millbank William Appleby, Widows farm, Toot Hill
• Mugleston Robt. B. farmer, Littlebury
• Mugleston William Henry, agent
• Murton Frederic, beer retailer
• Owers John, Green Man P.H. & baker, Toot Hill
• Palmer James, farmer, Bridge farm
• Piggott Mary Ann (Mrs.), beer retailer, Toot Hill
• Read William, shoe maker, Toot Hill
• Smith Peter, farmer, Steers & Does
• Staines Stephen, wheelwright, Toot Hill
• Surridge Dl. miller (wind), Toot Hill mill
• Surridge Hannah (Mrs.), farmer, Toot Hill
• Tanner Frederick, White Bear P.H
• Tucker James, Hay carter
• Waltham Richd, farmer, Mitchells farm
• Wilson William, shopkeeper

Stanford Rivers

STANFORD RIVERS is supposed to have derived from its name from a stony ford through the river Roding; the addition, “Rivers” being derived from the family of that name who resided there in 1213; it is a widely scattered parish, on the London road, 3 miles south-west from Ongar station on the branch of the Great Eastern railway, 7 south-east from Epping; 7 from Brentwood, and 19 from London, in the Western division of the county, Ongar hundred, petty sessional division and union, Brentwood county court district, and in the Ongar rural deanery, archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of St. Albans.

St. Margaret’s Church

The church of St. Margaret id a plain building of stone, chiefly in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, and a western tower of wood, with spire, and containing 2 bells.

In the south wall of the nave is a brass, with kneeling figure of a lady and six children and an inscription to “Anne Napper, late the wife of William Napper, gent. and daughter of William Shelton esq. ob. 1584”.

In the chancel is another brass, to “Catherine Mvlcaster, wife of Charles Mvlcaster”, to whom she was married 50 years, ob. 1609.

There is a brass also with the effigy to Thomas Greville, infant, ob. 1492, another to Thomas Barrow esq. ob. 1503; and figures of a man in armour and his wife, c. 1540.

The Petres were formerly large proprietors here, and there are many flat stones in the chancel inscribed to members of this family.

Several members of the Stuart family, Earls and Marquises of Bute, were buried here, but with the exception of two they have been removed to Roath in Glamorganshire: the church has 300 sittings.

Parish Registers and Living

The register dates from the year 1538.

The living is a rectory, net yearly value £500, with 52 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and held since 1901 by the Rev. John Ishmael Thomas B.A. of St. David’s College, Lampeter.

Here is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1829 with 150 sittings.

Ongar Union Workhouse and Charity

The Ongar union workhouse is in this parish.

A charity of £400 left by Mary Rayner in 1871 is invested in India 3 per Cents. and the interest is annually distributed in clothing to the poor of the parish.

Landowners, Agriculture and Population

The principal landowners are Lady Cunliffe Smith, of Suttons, Stapleford Tawney, who is lady of the manor, Major George Edward Capel Cure, of Ettington, Warw., and Thomas Wilson esq.

The soil is clay or heavy loam; subsoil, clay, gravel or sand. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans &c.

The area is 4,405 acres of land and 9 of water; rateable value, £5,216; the population in 1901 was 908, including 120 officers and inmates in Ongar workhouse.

LITTLEBURY is 1 mile east from the church. TOOT HILL is 2 miles north-west.

Parish and Postal Services

Parish Clerk: James Judd.

Post Office: Mrs. Elizabeth Richardson, sub-postmistress. Letters from Ongar arrive at 6.55 & 11.25a.m.; dispatched at 10.5a.m. & 6p.m.; Sundays, arrive 6.55a.m.; dispatched 4.40p.m. Ongar is the nearest money order & telegraph office, 2½ miles distant.

Wall Letter Box, on the Drill house: cleared at 8.30a.m. and 6p.m., Sundays at 10.5a.m.

Ongar Union Workhouse

Chipping Ongar Union Workhouse, Rev. J. I. Thomas B.A., chaplain; Geoffrey Remington Wilson M.B., B.C., medical officer; John Underwood, master; Mrs. E.E. Underwood, matron.

Public Elementary School

Public Elementary School (mixed), built in 1850, for 220 children; average attendance, 140; George A. Howgate, master.

This school is under the control of the Essex Education (Ongar District) Advisory Sub-Committee, Arnold Richardson, Ongar, clerk.

Railway and Police

Railway Station, Blake Hall: Alfred Drage, station mast.

County Police: Charles Arnold, constable.

Stanford Rivers

Marked * letters through Romford.

• *Freeman Dudley, Manor house
• Holton Francis William Parke, Stanford house
• Johnstone Misses, Cesslands
• Thomas Rev. John Ishmael B.A. (rector), Rectory

Commercial

• Bingley Ranolph D. & Percival H farmers, Stanford Rivers hall
• Freeman John S. farmer & cattle dealer, Traceys, Lawns, Wayletts & Murrells farms (letters though Stapleford Tawney, Romford)
• *Green Chas. Wm. White Bear hotel
• Hollingsworth Herbt. S. shopkeeper
• *Johnstone William I. land steward to Sir Drummond Cunliffe Smith bart. Wayletts
• Moore Fras. Chas. Holly Tree laundry
• Mugleston Jsph. frmr. Littlebury hall
• Palmer Ellen (Mrs.), farmer, Bridge & Stewart’s farms
• *Rowe W. Fdk. beer retlr. & carpntr
• Seymour Arthur Edward, shopkeeper
• *Tucker Henry, farmer
• *Tyrell Robert Watkinson, blacksmith
• *Waltham Richd. frmr., Mitchell’s frm
• *White Ellen (Miss), frmr, Berwick frm
• *Wright Daniel, head keeper to Sir Cunliffe Smith

Toot Hill

• Edgar Thomas, Stewart’s farm
• Lockyer George Henry, Doe’s farm

Commercial

• Campbell John M. farmer, Wheats fm
• Crouch James, farmer, Freeman’s frm
• Garrett Frank H. boot maker
• Kerr James, farmer, Ongar Park hall
• Millbank Charles Alfred, farmer, Burrows & Clark’s farms
• Millbank Harry, farmer, Weald’s & Coleman’s farms
• Millbank William Appleby, farmer, Widow’s farm
• Mitchell William, farmer, Manor frm
• Owers Emma (Mrs.), Green Man P.H.
• Pledge George, farmer, Blake’s farm
• Sawkins George, grocer & baker
• Welsh Frederick Joseph, beer retailer

THEYDON MOUNT is a parish, situated on the banks of the Roding and on the London road, 7 miles south-west from Ongar, 3 miles south-east of Epping station, and 17 from London, in the Western division of the county, Ongar union and hundred, Epping petty sessional division, Brentwood county court district, rural deanery of Lambourne, archdeaconry of Essex and diocese of St. Albans.

St. Michael’s Church

The church of St. Michael, which was struck by lightning and destroyed in the 17th century, was rebuilt by Sir William Bowyer-Smijth 1st bart. of that name, and is now an edifice of stone in the Norman style, consisting of a chancel and nave, and an embattled western tower containing one bell.

There are monuments of the Smijths from 1577 to 1815, including a canopied tomb, with effigy, to Sit Thomas Smijth kt. principal secretary of state to Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, ob. 1577, and Philippa, his wife, ob. 1578, and another fine tomb with effigies to Col. Sir Wiilliam Smijth, of Hill Hall, kt. D.L. ob. 1626, erected by Bridget (Fleetwood), his widow.

There are 350 sittings.

Parish Registers and Living

The register dates from the year 1564.

The living is a rectory, united with that of Stapleford Tawney, joint net yearly value, including 152 acres of glebe, about £700, with residence, in the gift of Sir William Bowyer-Smijth bart. and held since 1872 by Rev. Lewis Newcomen Prance M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, F.S.A.Lond. and rural dean of Lambourne, who resides at Stapleford Tawney rectory, Romford.

Hill Hall and Landownership

Hill Hall, the seat of the Smijths, is a quadrangular mansion built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but has now been for several years unoccupied.

Sir W. Bowyer Smijth bart. J.P. still owns the Hall, but resides at Attleborough Hall, Norfolk, is lord of the manor and principal landowner.

Agriculture and Population

The soil is mixed; subsoil, London clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, roots and beans.

The area is 1,500 acres; rateable value, £1,703; the population in 1881 was 148.

Parish and Postal Services

Parish Clerk: Thomas Merriday.

Pillar Letter Box: cleared at 7.15a.m. & 6.45 p.m. Letters from Epping, the nearest money order & telegraph office, arrive at 7.30 & 9.10a.m. & 7.30p.m.

Church School

Church School, built, with headteacher’s house, in 1846, for 50 children; average attendance, 29; Mrs. Mary Gray, mist.

Commercial

• Merriday Thomas, blacksmith
• Miller Jacob, farmer, New farm
• Miller Thomas, farmer
• Smith James, farmer, Skinners farm
• Stubbins Thomas, shoe maker

THEYDON MOUNT is a parish, on the banks of the Roding and on the London road, 3 miles south-east of Epping station on the Ongar branch of the Great Eastern railway, 7 south-west from Ongar and 17 from London, in the Western division of the county, Ongar union and hundred, Epping petty sessional division, Brentwood county court district, rural deanery of Chigwell, archdeaconry of Essex and diocese of St. Albans.

St. Michael’s Church

The church of St. Michael, which was struck by lightning and destroyed in the 17th century, was rebuilt by Sir William Bowyer-Smijth bart. and is now an edifice of brick in the Jacobean style, consisting of a chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing one bell.

There are monuments of the Smijths from 1577 to 1815, including a canopied tomb, with effigy, to Sit Thomas Smijth kt. principal secretary of state to Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, ob. 1577, and Philippa, his wife, ob. 1578, and another fine tomb with effigies to Col. Sir Wiilliam Smijth, of Hill Hall, kt. D.L. ob. 1626, erected by Bridget (Fleetwood), his widow.

There are 250 sittings.

Parish Registers and Living

The register dates from the year 1564.

The living is a rectory, united with that of Stapleford Tawney, joint net yearly value £536, including 152 acres of glebe, in the gift of Sir William Bowyer-Smijth bart. and held since 1872 by Rev. Lewis Newcomen Prance M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, F.S.A.Lond. and rural dean of Lambourne, who resides at Stapleford Tawney rectory, Romford.

Hill Hall and Landownership

Hill Hall, a quadrangular mansion of brick with stone dressings, built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, stands in a park and grounds, 239 acres in extent; it is now the property of Sir W. Bowyer-Smijth bart. and the residence of Charles Edward Hunter esq.

Sir W. Bowyer-Smijth bart. is lord of the manor and principal landowner.

Agriculture and Population

The soil is mixed; subsoil, London clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, roots and beans.

The area is 1,564 acres; rateable value, £1,520; the population in 1901 was 123.

Postal Services

Pillar Letter Box, North Farm House: cleared at 7.30a.m. & 6.55 p.m. week days only. Letters from Epping, the nearest money order & telegraph office, 3 miles distant, arrive at 7.15 a.m.

Public Elementary School

Public Elementary School, built in 1846, for 56 children; average attendance, 42; Mrs. Evelyn Darby, mistress.

This school is under the control of the Essex Education (Ongar) District Sub-Committee, Arnold Richardson, Ongar, clerk.

Private Residents

• Hunter Charles Edward, Hill Hall
• James Samuel George (sec. to C. E. Hunter esq.), Norths

Commercial

• Bonner Herbert, brick & tile maker
• Miller Hy. C. farmer, Sawkins farm
• Miller Jacob David, farmer, New farm
• Raby George, farmer, Skinners farm
• Smith John, farmer, Brookhouse farm
• Tarling William John, blacksmith

Chipping Ongar, High Ongar and Greensted

Chipping Ongar

CHIPPING OSGAR, or Ongar ad Castrum, is an ancient town, the chief place of the Hundred bearing its name, and of a Union. It is on the west bank of the river Roding and Cripsey hrook, on the road from Stratford, and elose to the road from Epping to Chelmsford, 7 miles east from Epping, 11 west frum Chelmeford, and 8 north-west from Brentwood and the Eastern Counties (Colchester) Railway.

The parish contains 508 acres, and a populalion of 843.

The market is held on Ssturday, and a petty sessions on the samne day at 12 o'elock. There is a statute fair on the 12th October yearly. Much business is done in barley for malting.

The town is within the area of an old entrenchment, and consists chielly of one street on the main road, situated on the rising bank of the river, with a good view.

The church contains a monument of the Lady Jane, daughter of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.

The living is a lay rectory, valne £127, in the gift of E. A. Bennett, Esq.; the Rev. E. Fisher is the incumbent.

There is an Independent meeting-house.

The Union workhouse cost £4,416.

Over the Roding is a bridge of three arches.

Many Romsn remains have been found here, and there are relics of the old castle.

High Ongar

HIGH, OLD, GREAT or LITTLE ONGAR, as it is variously named, lies 2 miles east of Chipping Ongar, on the road to Chelmsford, und not far from the river Roding.

The pariah is in the Hundred and Union of Ongar, and has an aren of 4,510 acres, with a population, in 1851, of 1,147.

The church is fine, and the roof lofty, arched, and painted with clonds and the rising sun. The spire contains 5 bells.

The living is a rectory, value £1,282, in the gift of the Rev. Henry J. Earle, M.A., wbo is also tbe incumbent.

Among the seats in this parish are Forest or Folyott's Hall, Chevers, Ashe Hall and Ongar Park.

Astelyns

ASTELYNS, a hamlet in this parish, is remarkable for its ancient sent, now a farm, in which, sccording to tradition, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfoik, took shelter when fleeing from Queen Elizabeth.

Greensted-juxta-Ongar

GREENSTEAD-JUXTA-ONGAR is an ancient parish in Ongar Hondred and Union, 1 mile from Ongar west-by-north.

The aren is 1,498 acres; the population, in 1861, was 136.

The small timber cbureb, dediested to St. Andrew, is noted as being one of the moet ancient, if not the most ancient, in the kingdon; it has 2 bells.

The chancel has been recentiy restored, and during the operation was found a piscina in good preservation; there are msny old carvings of St. Edmund's head and other relics.

Near this place was found, some few years back, a picce of stained glass about six inches in diameter, haring on it a head and erowu, eupposed to have been that of St. Edmund.

It is fixed in the centre of a modern stained glass window at the end of the nave, which corresponds with a larger one of that deseription in the chancel or eastern end of the church.

Here are several monuments to the 8mith and Ord families.

The churchyard is handeomely decorated and planted with fir-trees and evergreene.

Here is a neat school lately built for boys and girls, the site of which was presented by the Rev. Philip W. Ray, who attends daily to the education of the children.

The nare is composed of trunks of large chesnut or oak trecs, split or sawn asunder, and set upright, clese to each other.

It is supposed to have been a temporary shrine, in whieh the body of St. Edmund, King of the East Angles, was deposited for the night on its translation from London to Bury St. Edmunds.

The living is a rectory, valoed in the K. B. at f6 13a. 4d., and in the gift of the Bishop of London; the Rev. Philip W. Ray, x.A., rector.

The Petty Sessions house was erected in 1854; the magistrates meet every Saturdsy. Attached to the Sessions house is a police station for one inspector and one constable.

Chipping Ongar

Gentry

• Bailey Mrs. Mary Ann
• Baker Willism, esq
• Bawyer Mrs. Elizabeth
• Carter Mrs
• Dalgairna Charles Anderson, esq
• Eve Mra, Mary
• Fisher Rev. Edmnand, x.s. Rectory
• Gibson Henry, csq
• Gibson William, esq
• Hart Henry, en
• Herlock Mrs
• Jennings Rev. Isase [ Independent]
• Keane Goorge, esq
• Pottor Frank Dobson, esq

Traders

• Andrews William, greengrocer
• Anger James, Ashmonger
• Baker Willium, solicitor & elerk to the hoard of geardiaus
• Barlow James, builder
• Bsrltrop Ammos, smith & farrier
• Bridge Jeremiah, boot & shoe muket
• Brown Charles, wholesale grocer & tea desler
• Catchpole Josepb, superintadt.of pollce
• Chapman Richard James, chemist & drnugist, k agent to the Norwich fire & life insurance office
• Coa William, farmet
• Cook William Jaeob, wheelwright
• Cooper Jokn, butcher
• Cooper Willlam, 'Ball, & brewer
• Cowee Thomas, tailoe
• Cowee Thomas, butcher
• Dalgairns Charlea Andersoo, surgcon
• Darby Edward, tallor k draper
• Drake James, hairdresser
• Druke Sauuel, grrengrocer
• Finch John, pork butcher
• Foster Charles, plumber & painter
• Fuller Jaseph, 'Red Lion'
• Gardiner Henry James, upholsterer
• Gitnon Henry, wolicitor
• Ginon William, Selieltor
• Gidley Miss F. dressmaker
• Gittin Gearge, bout & shoe maker
• Gritfin Bonner, watch & elock maker
• Haine: Philip, groeer
• Bird Witliaw, farmer
• Huncock Willinn, bootmaker
• Hart Elzabath [Mrs.), fruiterer
• Honehin James, greengrucer
• Hurloek Charles, ' White Horse'
• Johneton Henry Alexander, corn dealer
• Keane George, sungcon
• Martin Josesh, coach builder
• Macon Wm.Stow, Cock,'& retail brewer
• Milbank Chsrles, farmet
• Mitehell James, ' Anchor
• Mitehe Saruel Thoo,boot & shoe maker
• Mott Churies, china & giaas dealer & stamp distributor
• Mott Charles, jun. scboolmaster
• Mott Rohert, grocer
• Monnings Williem, draper
• Noble Frederick, plumber
• Noble the Missea, seminary
• Noble Richard, hailder
• Oliver Richard, farrier
• Parker Cotherine (Miss), berlin wool wa
• Parker Williat,suddiez &harness muker
• Parsons George, baker & coufectioner
• Pavitt Willisi, tuilor, draper & hatter
• Penson James, iroamonger
• Playl Esther (Mrs.), frulterer
• PlasI Jeremiah, talor & draper
• Pollard George, general draper
• Potter Frank Dobson, surgeo
• Rawlings Elixabth.(Mrs.),"King's Head
• Renoins John, enoper
• Reynolda Thomsa Wm. farniture broker
• Sammes Edward, market gardener
• Seutle George, nuruery & seedsmas
• Sersby William, etatlouer, & bird & animul preserver
• Sieock Jonathan, saddler & harness ma
• Slater George, eating house
• Slocombe Charles, printer, stationer, bookseller, & agent to the County fire otfice
• Starkey Heary, baker
• Stebbing Thes. Creien inn & posting ho
• Stilea Eekiel, grocer
• Stokes Richard, Ongnr academy
• Sackling Jobn, smith & farrier
• Tarnet Johr, wateh & cloek maker
• Treguaso Thomas, grocer, & plamber & paiater
• Wurd David, chemist
• W'aterhouse William, draper
• Waterhonse William & Charles,winemer
• Weleter Arthur, baker
• Webster James, cor merchant
• West Johe, coach proprietor
• White John, coul dealer
• Wood Willismo, sboemsker
• Wright John, ironmonger

High Ongar

Gentry

• Brunton Arehihald Jobn, esq
• Earle Rev. Heury J. M. A. Rectory
• Gitbert Jasiab, esn
• Stane Rev. Jouin Bramston, Forest hanl

Traders

• Attridge Stephen, 'White Horse'
• Baker Barnard, farmer
• Baker William, farmer
• Barltrop Absaleeo, blacksmith
• CatonAbrabaw,farmer&catticsalesman
• Dowsett Witllam, brieklayer
• Fitch John, farmer
• Harvey Thomas, farmer
• Humphrey Isase, turmer
• Johnsen Alex.Hy.malt-ter & corn desler
• Jasling Samvel, farmer
• Joy George Frost, 'Taro Breiers"
• Knight Edwund, shopkeeper
• Kaigbt Samuel, wheelwright
• Ling Ardrew, farmer, Pa-low hall form
• Mibill William, 'Wheatsheaf"
• Mullucks Heney, farmez
• Nuun Mrs. ' Lioe'
• Palmer James, farmer
• Pearson Josiah, heer retailer
• Rand William, briek & tile maker
• Remington Mes. shopkeeper
• Remingtnn Willinm, bricklayer
• Sangers Willium, furmer
• Saltmarsy Henry, grocer
• Spurge Jobn, plutber & g'azier
• Stokea Jes. farmner & collector of tazes
• Tarling John, farmer
• Webster James, miller

Greenstaad

Gentry

• Budworth Captain Philip John, 3.P. Greensterd hall
• Ray Rew. Phillp, W. s.A. Roctory
• Smith Willism, esq. Greenstead green
• Velley Hat, esq
• Wakeling Mrs

Traders

• Brown William, farmer, Newhonse ferra
• Cleve Clement Fisler, Sarmer
• Thorogood Hen. farmer, Harding'sfarm
• Webster Jumea, farmer, Greenatend idg

Postal Services and Public Establishments

Post Office

PosT OFPICE,-William Seruby, receiver. Money orders are granted & paid at this office.

Letters arrive at 8 a.to. & 1 p.m.; delivered i an hour after esch arrival; dispatched kt 8 a.m. & 6 p.m.

Box closes at t before 8 & past 5 p.m. Letters can be posted, by adding an extra stamp, till 5 min. to 8; by 2 extra etamps, till 5 min. to 6.

Bank

Bank, Cbarles Brown, esq. manager.

Insurance Agents

• Accicientel Deuth, Heury A. Johnaton, Marden Ash
• Csunty Fire & Provident Life, C. Slocombe
• Normich Union Fire & Life, R. Chapman
• Royal Ezehange, Henry Alexander Jounston, Marden As
• Sun, Charles Mott

Independent Chapel

Independent Chapel

Public Establishments

• Inland Revenue Ofice, the Lion inn
• Police Station, Joseph Catchpole, superintendent
• Toin Hall, Board of Gagrdiane every tuesday
• Gas Works, William Rand, proprietor
• Union Workhouse, Joeeph llenry Nicholas, master; Mrs. Mary Sewell, metron, Stanferd Rivers

Carriers

To Chelmsford

CHELMSYORD-Henry Wood, from his hoase, monday, wednesday & friday, at } past 7 morn.; returns from the King's Head inn, Chelmsford, the same afternoon.

To London

LONDON-Stephen Clements, from his house, tuesday & friday, at 4 aft.; returns from the 'Sarscen's Head,' Aldgate, & Clemmitt's inn, Oid Bailey, wednesday & saturday, at II mom.

Coach Services

COACH TO LONDON.- From Fyfield, calling at the ' Lion,' every morning at 8; returns from the Bull in, Aldgate, every day (sunday excepted), at 3.

Railway coach leaves Ongar for Brentwood every morning at 8, & afternoon at } to 4.

Railway

RAILWAY. The nearest railway station is Brentwood, being 8 mlles.

Stanford Rivers

STANFORD RIVERS, supposed to have derived its name from a stone ford over the river Roding, is a parish in the HIundred and Union of Ongar, 2 miles south-west of tbat town, 19 from London, 6 south-east of Epping, and 9 north of Romford.

Its population, in 1851, was 1,082, and its area 4,386 acres.

St. Margaret’s Church

The living is a rectory, valued at C1,007 per annum, in the gift of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; the Rev. Henry Tattam, D.D., rector.

The church, dedicated to St. Margaret, consists of a nave and chancel, 2 bells, square wood tower, and neat spire; there are some very ancient monuments, of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the Shelton, Mulcaster, and Gibhs families; a neat stained glass window has heen lutely ereeted in the chancel.

School, Chapel and Workhouse

There is a Nationul rebool for boys and girls.

There is a meeting-house for Independents.

Here is the Union workhouse for Ongar Union.

LITTLERURY is 14 miles east of the church.

Residents

• Jennings Rev. Mr. [Diasenting]
• Kynaston Wm. esq. Stanford Rivere ball
• Tattam Rev. Henry, D.D. Rectory
• Taylor Isaac, erq

Traders

• Allen John & Edmuud, farmers
• Baker Charles, farmer
• Baker Jobn, farmer
• BarnardJohn, haker, beer refailer & frmr
• Barton Mary (Mra.), farmer
• Berkeley Augustus, farmer
• Charge Henry, 'White Bear'
• Cheer -. , farmer
• Clark William, shopkeeper
• Clements Tomas, farmer
• Dix Robert, farmer
• Fitch James, farmer
• Freeman Jahn, cattle dealer & farmer
• Garrett Edward, shoemnaker
• Hawes Jesse, farmer
• Horide Willium, farmer
• Jonninga Mary (Mr :. ), farmer
• Mapsfield John, farmer & stvyr. of roads
• Moore -, miller
• Mott George, carpenter
• Mott John, farmer
• Nicholess Joseph Henry, master of Oogar union workhause
• Noakes James, farmer
• Pavit William, wheelwright
• Rayner William, bricklayer
• Rowan Edward, 'Green Man'
• Rudd Henry, blucksmith
• Sewell Mary (Mrs.), matron of workho
• Stallibrass John, farmer
• ThompsonThos.relleving otlieer& registr
• Wakeling Jesse, shopkeeper & farmer
• Watera Catherine (Mrs.), farmer
• Wilson William, shopkeeper

Post Office

POST OFFICE.- John Barnard, postmaster. Letters from London, by way of Romford, arrive at past 7 a.m.; delivered at 8 a.m.; dispatched at } past 6 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Chipping Ongar.

Stapleford Abbots and Stapleford Tawney

Stapleford Abbots

STAPLEFORD ABBOTS lies jast off the Ongar road, on the south side of the Roding, and is in the Oagar Union, G miles soutb-east from Epping, G north of Romford station, 16 from London, and 6 south-west of Ongar; its population, in 1851, was 492, aud its arca 2,331 acres.

In this parish the river Romn rises. In the year 1010 this village was given to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's.

The charch is old, and the llving is a rectory, value £513, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; the reetor is the Rev. Charles Whitworth Pitt, M.A.

There is an Endowed sehool for 40 boys.

ALBYNS, in this parish, was built by Inigo Jones.

Gentry

• Abdy Sir Thomus Neville, bart. Albyns
• Pitt Rev. Charies, M.A. Rectory

Traders

• Aylett Henry, 'Plough'
• Brewster Mary (Mrs.), furmer
• Clarke Henry, farmer
• Cooper -- , farmer
• Dawkins Francis, wheelwright
• Dawkina Henry, farmer
• Dison James, shopkeepcr
• Thteh Jobn, farmer
• Harrington Mrs. beer retailer
• Mollett Edwin, farmer
• Mollett Mrs. furmer
• Murry John, farmer
• Parish Samuel, schoolmaster
• Spurge WiD. shopkeeper & beer retailer
• Staines James, farmer
• Stevens Charles, miller & farmer
• Surridge James, farmer
• Taylor Philip, farmer
• Viney Henry, farmer
• Wood Charics, farmer
• Young Richard, farmer

Stapleford Tawney

STAPLEFORD TAWNEY, on the other side of the Roding, opposite to Abridge, is a parish in the Hundred and Union of Ongar, 5 miles from Epping, 17 from London, with an area, in 1841, of 1,633 seres, and a popwlation of 333.

The church has a nave and south aisle; and the living ls a reetory, with the rectory of Mouut Theydon annexed, value £740; the Rev. Heury Soames, M.A., is rector.

The 'Talbot' is the principal inn, where coaches change from Chipping Ongar to the Bull inn, Aldgate, London.

Gentry

• Smith Sir Chas, Cunliffe, hart. Sultons
• Soames Rev. Henry, M.A. [rector]

Traders

• Charlton Foster, farmer
• Chariton Ralpb, farmer
• Clark Charles, farmer
• Cooper Benjamin 'Talbot,' & brewer
• Dawkins William, blacksmith
• Miles Cornell, farmer
• Rumbali Joho, farmer
• Sworden William, farmer

Post Office

POST OPPICE.- William Pittam, receiver. Letters, by way of Romford, arrive 7 a.m.; disputchod 3 past 6 p.m. The nearest money order otfice is at Chipping Ongar.

Theydon Bois, Theydon Garnon and Theydon Mount

Theydon Bois

THEYDON OF THOYDON BoIs is in Epping Union and Ongar Hundred, stands on the banks of the Roding, uear the highway from London to Ongar, 2 miles south of Epping, 8 south-west of Ongar, and 9 north of Romford station; it contains 2,176 ucres, and a population which was, in 1851, 591.

The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a pleasing edifice of brick and etonc, removed to its present site froin the cast part of the parish for the convenienee af the parishioners, with a nave, chaneel, spire, and 3 bells.

The living is a vicarage; the Rev. George Mambletos, vicar.

There is a charity of £1,000, the interest of which is distributed, sixth part to poor widows and remainder among the poor; also a National school for boys and girls, and four almshouses.

Gentry

• Baxter George, esq
• Hambleton Rev. George [vicar]
• Hines Mrs

Traders

• Cavill James, wheelwright
• Cousins Alexander, 'Bull'
• Dosson Thomas, farmer, Black acre
• Felstead James, beer retailer
• Francis Charles, brick'ayer
• Gil-on Daniel, beer retailer
• Hooper George, farmer, Theydon hall
• Larter Williain, farmer
• Maynard Henry, beer retailer
• Maynard Jonathan, bootmaker
• Milla Jobn, butcher
• Wederell Daniel, blacksmith
• Wederell Wm. farmer, Theydon hall
• Wederell William, jun, farmer

Theydon Garnon

THEYDON GARNON, or COOPERSALE, Is in the same jurisdiction, 2 wiles south of Epping, 6 west of Ongar, and 8 south of Harlew and Roydon stations; its superficies is 3,161 acres, and its population was, in 1851, 1,237.

The church is dedicated to All Saiats, and consists of a nave, chancel, and steeple, containing 5 bells.

The latter was built by Sir John Crosby, of Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate-street, in 1470.

The living is a rectory; Rev. Cavendish Foster, B.A., rector.

Here is an aims-honse for 4 poor widaws; and s new Sunday school bas been erected adjoining the church, and a Union warkhouse, with nearly 300 inmates.

A district church (St. Albans) has been recently erceted in this parish, at the expense of Miss Archer Houblon; also a parish school for boys and girls. Rev. Cadwallader Coker, incumbent.

COOPERSALE is 2 miles nortb.

Gentry

• Foster Rev. Cavendish, B.A. [rector], Rectory
• Houblon Mrs. Coopersale house
• Mareh W. E. esq. Park ball

Traders

• Flower John, farmer
• Gombridge William, farmer
• Humpton Richard, farmer, Brook ho
• Hampton Susaonah (Mrs.), 'Merry Fiddlers'
• Mills Thomas, fisrmer, Garnish hall
• Walsh Henry, brickmaker

Theydon Mount

THBYDON MOUNT is in the Ongar Union and Hundred, 7 miles south-west cf Oagar, 3 south-west of Epping, 17 from London, 6 north-east of Chigwell, 8 north of Romford station, and 8 cast of Waltham Abbey; it is on the banks of the Roding, near Abridge, ou the London road, and has 1,500 acres: the population was 194 in 1851.

The church, St. Michael, was burned in the 17th eentury, but rebuilt by Sir William Smyth; it contains some monuments of the Smyths, and has a brick tower.

The living is a rectory.

Hill Hall, the sent of the Smyths, Baronets, was bailt in the reigu of Queen Elizabeth.

Rev. Henry Soames, X.A., rector.

Traders

• Hyde John, butcher
• Lucking Joseph, farmer
• Meriday Simon, blacksmith
• Miller James, farmer
• Miller Samnel, farmer
• Shepherd Mary (Mrs.), farmer
• Smith Jehn, farmer
• Smith Mary ( Mrs.), farmer
• Smith Spencer, farmer

Post Office

POST OPPICE. James Hampion, rereiver. Letters arrive at f pust 8 a.m. from Epping, & dispatched at 5 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Epping.

For King and Country: Blackmore During the First World War

Being asked by the congregation to give a talk on the First World War to mark the centenary of its ending has been a privilege.

The topic is immense and distilling the large amount of material that I had obtained over the years was quite challenging. My approach has been to use contemporary diaries, letters, photographs and memories to gain a sense of what life was like in Blackmore and the surrounding neighbourhood a hundred years ago.

One of my key sources was the notes kept by the Rector of Stondon Massey during that period. In it he tells of concerns about enemy invasion, of air raids, rationing, and how women took on new roles while men were away fighting.

Also preserved at the Essex Record Office are letters giving an insight to what was a very different time and place in our nation’s history compared to today.

For King and Country

The title for the talk came quite late. ‘For King and Country. Blackmore during the First World War’ remembers not only those who died, but all who served both at home and abroad.

This is a thought-provoking narrative which explores the reason why this country waged war. It is tempting to regard the First World War as utterly futile. That seems disrespectful to their generation: but we cannot disregard, as Revd. Reeve wrote:

“The harrowing accompaniments of war”.

Remembering and Reassessing the First World War

When I studied ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level history a number of years ago the syllabus ended abruptly in 1914 leaving a generation untaught about the significance of the years that followed.

In recent times this appears to have changed causing us to reassess, reconsider and reflect.

About the Book

The talk as first drafted was too long. This book is the pre-edited version of the talk and in presenting it I thank the many who have been helpful to me in its preparation.

For King and Country: Remembering Blackmore in the First World War

In the early 1960s, my wife’s grandfather, Alexander Bartram lived in Spring Pond Meadow in Hook End.

He had a house built on his land and dug the footings himself. The Planning Inspector from Epping and Ongar Rural District Council commended him for the quality of his work.

There was a reason for this he told the official. He had dug trenches during the First World War.

This anecdote is illustrative of the family connections many of us have with the First World War, whose centenary of its ending we commemorate this weekend.

On Sunday at 11am many will stand before the Parish War Memorial to observe two minutes’ silence on which are carved the names of 21 men who died and a further 81 men from Blackmore who served and returned.

This will be the one hundredth year that two minutes’ silence is observed at that hour.

The Parish War Memorial

The inclusion of survivors on a War Memorial is unusual. In early 1920 the Bishop of Chelmsford, John Edwin Watts-Ditchfield, made it known that he had strong views that only those who had died should be included on Church Memorials.

“To remember those who made the supreme sacrifice is natural, and corresponds to our inmost feeling. If once we go beyond these, it seems impossible to define any limit when so many, including women, girls and nurses, laboured equally with our gallant lads”.

Blackmore During the First World War

This evening’s talk is about the life and times of the people of Blackmore and the surrounding villages a hundred years ago.

On coming into church this evening, you will have seen a huge number of poppies draped over the building and extending across the churchyard.

It is inspired by the display in the Moat of the Tower of London in 2014. ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, consisting of 888,246 ceramic red poppies each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War.

The installation grew over the course of nearly four months with the final poppy placed on 11th November 2014.

For King and Country

A Roll of those who died ‘For King and Country’ is given in the centre of this book.

“Lest We Forget”

Life in Mediaeval Times

Records, Parish Records, Councils, Population

A Short Picture of Everyday Life and Domestic Occupations in Mediaeval Times

The peasants' dwellings were simply constructed of rough timbers and wattle and daub for the walls. A number of sticks were stuck upright and twigs woven in and out and daub thrown thereon until they were of the correct thickness. These structures were naturally fragile and easily combustible.

Most roofs were thatched - ventilation was either non-existent or rudimentary. Smoke from any fires used merely escaped through the door, windows or crevices. The fire was either set on the bare floor of hard earth or on an iron plate. Except in the larger mansions, chimneys were virtually unknown until the end of the 15th century. Glass was expensive and therefore most peasants covered their window openings with a wooden shutter or a framed canvas, or cloth, blind.

Each Village had a Woodwright (Carpenter) and a Wheelwright - apart from these, skilled workers were scarce and the farmhouses and smaller villages were served by travelling Smiths and Tinkers. The village women occupied themselves by plaiting straw or reed for neck-collars, stitched and stuffed sheepskin bags for saddles, peeled rushes for wicks and made candles. Spinning wheels were much used, home-made cloth and linen supplied all needs. As late as 1557 we find straw pallets used as beds. A few stools and a trestle table and a chest to hold the best clothes normally completed the furnishings. A feather bed was considered a very precious belonging. Prior to harvest time, the poor peasant lived mainly on green (new) cheese, curds and cream, and oat cakes. This, with bread of pease or beans comprised their normal diet. The lord of the manor's serfs fared better - they were given bread, a mess of pottage, a dish of flesh, or fish, and perhaps cheese. These rations must not be considered normal, but were certainly superior to those which most men could afford themselves. The poor peasants were constantly taken to the Manorial Courts on charges of poaching.

There was a frightful wastage of mediaeval life, apart from the toll taken by war. Normal safeguards against infection were unknown. The dangers of childbirth were immense, and during the years of infancy, a constant losing battle went on against plague and fevers which were endemic. The population only slowly increased from the time of the Conquest in 1066 to the time of the plague in 1349. The loss by death was so severe that it took over two years to add one individual to an average village community of say 300 souls.

Immorality gave much cause for concern to the lord of the Manor. A serf's daughter was naturally an asset to the lord and when she married the children of the marriage were of additional value to the Manor.

A Brief Description of the Meaning of “The Manor” and the Title of “Lord of the Manor”

After the Romans left England in 410 A.D., chaos prevailed but leaders arose who offered the people a certain amount of security. These were Lords of the land (their Manors); purchased, or received from the King for services rendered. They owed military and other services to the Crown. Each was a responsible Lieutenant of the King and administered Law, Order and Justice in his area. Their status could also be granted them by the powerful Barons a process known as "sub-infeudation".

"Manor" is not an easy word to explain, as it is often loosely used. In its origin, the word is another name for a house. In spite of a certain uniformity in the way manors were run, they differed in size, agricultural activities and their customs. The lands were cultivated by unfree tenants. Under the Normans, the Manor was given its Baronial Court (See "Courts"). The lord's relation to his tenantry was that of a constitutional ruler to his subjects and the Manor was similar to a petty state.

The lord possessed important rights and privileges over his tenantry, he had definite duties to discharge towards them. Some dealt fairly but others earned an evil reputation with the peasantry.

A manor may be defined as an Estate combined with an administrative unit with the Manor House (or Hall) as its centre.

In early days, large Manors were portioned off ("Sub-Manors") and given to friends and dependants of the lord, but after 1289 new Manors could only be created by the Crown. We will read later of the former sub-manors in Stanford Rivers (Littlebury, Berwick, etc.) which have, over the years, reverted to the main manor. A Statute of 1293 stopped Sub-infeudation and the creation of new Manors. The early Parish churches mostly depended on the local lord and his responsibilities included the provision and maintenance of the Archery Butts, Pillory, Stocks, Cucking Stool, Whipping Post, Pound and the Standard Weights and Measures.

Life for the personal servants of the lord was, generally, comparatively good. They were sheltered in the manor house, provided with food and drink and given money to spend in the village Ale-house and had little anxiety for their day-to-day existence. Mediaeval life could offer little more to men of villein stock who were born in the yoke of servitude.

In 1085, William the Conqueror had ordered a survey of England to be made and in the following year officials were sent out to record the owner, extent, population and taxable value of every estate and how it was farmed. The smaller volume-the little Domesday-contains the details of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. In that year the Crown held 1,422 Manors in demesne and the Monasteries also held a considerable number. Every manor had its lord, either resident or represented by a Steward or Reeve. William turned out most of the Saxon landholders, but kept some of the lands for himself-the remainder he gave in return for military and other services to many adventurers who came over to England with him. Odo (Bishop of Bayeux), his half-brother received large estates in Essex -the greatest Baron in Essex was, however, Eustace of Boulogne. For the next 100 years there is little written evidence of the ways in which the land was held, organised and farmed; but later mediaeval records show that Essex had become completely manorialised during the interval. Some aspects of this manorialisation endured long and died slowly-well within living memory many Essex people held their homes and lands as Copyhold tenants.

When a peasant approached death, he naturally thought of the bestowal of his personal goods. The right of an unfree man to make a Will was long disputed and many lords opposed it. The law forbade him to leave his land to other than his heirs-of course, for the serf, there could be no question of this, for he only held his land from his lord-but his personal property was his to dispose of as he would. The lord could, however, step in and take the chattels before probate of his Will had been obtained. In the 13th century, the Church came out boldly on the side of the serf and the making of Wills was encouraged by the Church and allowed by the more liberal lords. Widows-as well as the old and feeble, were cared for under the Manorial regime. The lord had a special interest to watch that a widow remained chaste and he objected to any action on her part which tended to cheapen her in the eyes of possible suitors.

The hard working villagers looked forward to the holidays such as May Day, Midsummer Day, Christmas Day and the occasions of Births, Marriages and Deaths gave welcome relaxation. In the 13th century we find the Church making pronouncements against the lax behaviour at Marriage ceremonies and issued injunctions to keep "Bride-Ales" within reasonable limits.

In spite of his own power, the lord could be penalised by his own Court for trespass or for not fencing in his tenant's lands. He had the right to approve the marriage of his Villein's daughter and her dowry (so as not to lose control of her father's cattle, etc.). He levied a fine (see "Merchet")usually left to the discretion of his Steward or Bailiff-on marriages and naturally dis. couraged any member of his tenant's family from leaving the confines of the Manor. The lord had both Tenants' and Serfs, from whom his Bailiff collected food and maintenance tributes. His income came from a multitude of sources (See for example- "Leyrite"). Apart from the Fines imposed by his Court, he usually possessed Fishing rights and his "rights of Warren" gave him strict control over the trapping of Game If his own land required manure, he could insist that all the village cattle be grazed thereon. He could compel his tenants to grind their corn at the Manorial Mill and could punish any who disobeyed. Bread could only be baked in a special oven, owned or controlled by the lord, who also had the right to regulate the sale of beer. The right to hold the "Court Baron" (see "Glossary") was a great privilege-see also "Court Leet". The control of the Manor was recorded in "Court Rolls", "Rent Rolls", "Feet of Fines", etc. Manorial records covering Essex dated prior to 1271 have not survived and the last Court book of Stanford Rivers is dated 1923 when courts ceased to be held.

The Manorial organisation was at the height of its powers between 1200 and 1350. This period saw it declining towards its fall

The following picture of an ideal lord of a manor is drawn by a writer of the 13th century:

The lord ought to love God and Justice, and be faithful and true in his sayings and doings and he ought to hate sin and injustice and evil doing. The lord ought not to take counsel with men full of young blood and ready courage, who know little or nothing of business-nor of any juggler, flatterer or idle talker, nor of such as bear witness by present, but he ought to take counsel with worthy and faithful men, ripe in years, who have seen much and know much, and who are known to be of good fame, and who were never caught or convicted for treachery or any wrongdoing; nor for love, nor for hate, nor for fear, nor for menace, nor for gain, nor for loss, will turn aside from truth, and knowingly counsel their lord to do him harm. He ought to command and ordain that the accounts be heard every year, not in one place but in all the Manors, for so can one quickly know everything, and understand the profit and loss. And he ought to command and ordain that no bailiff have his food in the Manors except at a fixed price in money, so that he can take nothing from the Manors but hay, firewood and straw; and that no friend, stranger nor anyone from the lord's hostel or elsewhere be received at the Manors at the lord's expense, nor shall anything be given or delivered to them without a writ, unless the bailiff or provost wish to acquit it from their own purses for the great expense one is unnecessarily put to. He ought to enquire by his own men and others on his own manors as many as there are, about his Steward and his doings and the improvements he has made since his coming; in the same way he ought to enquire about his profits and losses from the bailiff and reeve and how much he will have to seek from both. He ought to ask for his auditors and rolls of accounts, then he ought to see who has done well and who not and who has made improvement and who not, and who has made profit but loss, and those he has then found good and faithful and profitable let him keep on this account. And if anyone be found who has done harm and is by no means profitable, let him answer for his doing and take farewell. And if the lord observe these said forms then will each lord live a good man, and honestly, and be as he will rich and powerful without sin, and will do injustice to no one. He ought to command the auditors on the Manors to hear the plaints and wrongs of everybody who complains of the steward or reeve, or hayward, or any other who is of the Manor, and that full justice be done to franks and villeins, customary tenants and other plaintiffs such as by inquest can be had".

At the beginning of the 14th century the lords of the manor were still strong and feudal conditions prevailed-the peasants were still bound to the soil of the lords. The serf - or villein was, however, sometimes permitted to hold a minute crop-land with a share in the village grazing rights and access to the common woodland. The lord charged him a fixed proportion of his produce and stock, or if none available, the lord would force him to work on his private demesne. After the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) in 1347–50, the survivors among the peasantry were in a much better position -there was a shortage of men to till the land, the value of farming land fell and the price of labour went up. The lords found that they could not farm their lands with the reduced number of serfs and many strip-holdings were left without the necessary labour. Many strips were joined together and these larger units became the property of middle-class yeomen, who in turn hired labour, and free labourers without land were able to command higher wages. If a bailiff pressed a villein to work, he fled to better himself elsewhere and in view of the shortage of workers no questions were asked as to whence he came. The lords were forced to commute field services for wages in cash, otherwise they were unable to cultivate their demesne lands. With this cash, the serfs could save to buy their freedom and pay rent for their farms.

The gap between the lord of the manor and the villein was closing. The villein rapidly disappeared-he either became a labourer without land, or a yeoman farmer. Even on Manors where full service had been commuted, the lords often continued to enforce certain servile dues, such as merchet, the heriot, etc. The battle for complete freedom led to sporadic attacks of violence and ultimately to the Rising of 1381. The South-East of England was the chief area of the revolt-The Prior of Bury St. Edmunds was one of those murdered by his serfs. The Rising originated from the Poll-Taxits administration caused risings in Essex and Kent which became the signal for widespread rebellion. The Manor houses were invaded-Charters and Manor Rolls were destroyed. Even London was captured by the outlaws, the Tower of London was surrendered. Richard II met the rebels at Mile End and granted commutation of all servile dues for a rent of 4d per acre and a free pardon to all. This satisfied most of the rebels, but Wat Tyler was killed at Smithfield leading his section of the mob. After this strong action by the Mayor (Walworth) the rising was put down, the serfs won their freedom but many were thereafter separated from the soil. The villagers under the Squire became a mixture of wealthy farmers, village craftsmen and free landless labourers who were constantly drifting off to the towns. The change from one form of society to the other was long drawn out, from the 12th to the 19th centuries.

The Manorial Court lived on and actually its power increased in the 16th century and continued to deal with petty misdeeds, etc. In the 17th century, the Parish became the important unit of local government and the influence of the Manor Court steadily declined.

In the 18th century the Manorial jurisdiction was merged into a single Court called indifferently - The View of Frankpledge, The Court Leet, The Court Baron, The Great Court, etc. The chief part o. the business of these Courts was the management of the Common fields and pastures and the appointment of the Village Officers. The Courts also decided what crops should be sown. During the 19th century the term "Manor" was usually applied to a specific estate, generally having a principal residence, the owner or lord of which still retained certain ancient manorial rights over the land. The Law of Property Act 1922–25 removed the legal rights of lords of the Manor to hold lands. Today (in the 1970s) the title "Lord-or Lady-of the Manor" is only a nominal one, although it confers on the bearer a certain social status. It is, of course, one of the oldest titles in English usage, and is hereditary. In recent years a small number of these incorporeal titles have changed hands for financial reasons, but the Manorial documents must be registered, and by law, kept within the Nation. The Lordship of a Manor is a last gesture of gracious luxury in an age of restlessness and cynical impermanence.

The Manorial Records

These documents show the old English way of life - where those who lived and worked in the Manor were not merely Freemen or Serfs but members of a community over which the lord of the Manor was head, the seed of which has grown into the great tree of the Welfare State. These valuable old records are considered to be of such importance that by Act of Parliament, The Master of the Rolls of the Royal Courts of Justice has been empowered to make special rules as to their safe and proper preservation and they may not be exported from the country without special licence. The Manor Court Rolls, mainly in Latin until 1733 were usually written by the lord's steward.

In spite of the existence of many records, the research into the Manorial history is complicated. Extant documents only give a partially complete picture of the descent of the Manor. Elsewhere will be found a list of lords of Stanford Rivers and Traceys and Bellhouse but it must be admitted that due to imperfect and mixed records it cannot be said to be 100 per cent reliable. As far as the conveyancing of land in mediaeval times is concerned there exists records of "The Feet of Fines". These curious records were kept from the year 1195 and continued until about the year 1837. It is not possible to give here more than a few examples or even to explain fully their purpose. Roughly it meant that to secure the transfer of property, a "fictitious" suit was brought to the King's Court - or to his Justices, in which the entering tenant demanded the property as "plaintiff" from the existing holder as "defendant". The result, the "final concord" was drawn up in the form of a triple indenture - one copy being given to each party and the third, forming the lowest part or "foot" of the sheet of parchment was preserved with the Court records. Many thousands of these Feet of Fines covering the whole country have been preserved and arranged under their several counties and are, of course, invaluable to a serious student of village history. I have decided to include just a few examples hereunder in order to show the form usually taken.

Feet of Fines

1485 — Philip Malpas - citizen and merchant of London, Wm. Venous Esq., John Say Esq., and Thomas Cook, Citizen and Draper of London, Plaintiffs. - Thomas Jerveys, Citizen and Skinner of London and Joan, his wife, Defendants - 6 messuages, 370 acres of land, 20 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, 20 acres of wood and 40/- rent - in Chikwell (Chigwell), Stanford Rivers and Havering-at-Bourne. Defendants quitclaimed to Plaintiffs and heirs of Philip Malpas. Consideration 200 1.

1458 — Wm. Catesby (Knt.), Henry Grene Esq., etc. Plaintiffs - and Humphrey Duke of Buckingham and Anne, his wife - Defendants. The Manors of Stanford Rivers, Suttons, Pyggesland, Botels and Brigges - 4 Messuages, 4 Tofts, 1000 acres of land, 40 acres of meadow and 200 acres of wood in Stanford Rivers etc. Defendants quitclaimed to Plaintiffs and heirs of Wm. Catesby.

1467 — Thomas Bull, Richard Bull, Wm. Pecock and Wm. Smyth - Plaintiffs - Francis Bury and Agnes, his wife - Defendants - 1 Messuage, 80 acres of land, 6 acres of meadow, 7 acres of pasture in Stanford Rivers, Tany, and Navestock. Defendants quitclaimed to plaintiffs and heirs of T. Bull - Consideration 100 1.

1502 — Robert Sheffield (Knt.) Robert Lytton (Knt.), John Kyngesmyll (Sergeant-at-law), and John Scott - Plaintiffs - Edward, Duke of Buckingham and Eleanor, his wife. Defendants - The Manors of Stanford Rivers, Traceys, and Suttons and 500 acres of land, 40 acres of meads, 100 acres of pasture, 200 acres of wood and 4 1 6s 8d rent in Stanford Rivers, Traceys and Suttons. The Manor of Pyggesland etc. The Defendants quitclaimed to Plaintiffs and heirs of John Scott.

1520 — Thomas Stepneph and Thomas Brynning - Plaintiffs - Robert Turbervyle Esq., and Joan his wife - Defendants - The Manor of Bellhouse. Defendant quitclaimed to Plaintiff and the heirs of Thomas Brynning - Consideration 200 1.

1528 — Thomas Grene, Wm. Sulyard, Thomas Turpyn, Richard Ryche, Wm. Bernes, Richard Lynsell and Edward Campyon - Plaintiff - Richard Turbervyle Esq., and Joan, his wife, Defendants - The Manor of Bellhouse, 1 Messuage, 200 acres of land, 24 acres of meadow, 40 acres of pasture, 30 acres of wood and 40/- rent in Stanford Rivers. Defendant quitclaimed to Thomas Grene. Consideration 200 l.

Blackmore and the First World War: 1914 and the Threat of Invasion

There was a rapid escalation of events which culminated in Britain, in defence of Belgium’s neutrality, declaring war on Germany at 11pm on 4th August 1914.

The regular Army was quickly mobilised and sent to Mons in Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force, the BEF, was quickly pushed back to within 25 miles of the centre of Paris. This was the western limit of what became known as the Western Front.

Frederick Garnham

Frederick Garnham was born on 25th September 1887 in Chadwell Heath and baptised 22nd July 1894 in the Parish Church of Stondon Massey, the village where both his parents were living at that time.

His father was foreman at the Soap House Farm. Frederick married local girl Rosa Watts in December 1908 describing his profession on the marriage certificate as “Private in 2nd Bn. of Essex Regt.”. Their home was Lightfoots in Radley Green, which the 1914 Electoral Roll refers to “Radley Green via Blackmore”.

Called quickly to arms on outbreak of War, he was in Norwich Market Square where pictures of the troops were taken on 10th August. He sent at least two postcards home to his wife.

Postcard to Rose Garnham

Addressed Mrs F Garnham, Radley Green, Blackmore, Ingatestone.
Postmark: Norwich. 14th August 1914. 12.15pm

Dear Rose, This is a photo of our chaps on the Market Square. I received your parcel will write soon as we shift tonight with love from your affectionate husband Fred.

Second Postcard

Addressed Mrs F Garnham, Radley Green, Blackmore, Ingatestone.
Postmark indistinct.

Dear Rose, I could not get one of myself on so I have sent you one of some sort just to give you a little idea how we look. Well my dear you never said whether you received my bike safe from Chelmsford. ... We are in an out of the way place in Norfolk now when we get to a decent [place] again will send you [news?] ... goodbye dear wife from your loving husband Fred.

Frederick Garnham was killed in the Battle of the River Marne on 8th September and is buried in Montreuil-Aux-Lions, British Cemetery, about 45 miles east of the centre of Paris, and about 100 miles from Mons where the BEF had retreated.

His name appears on the memorial inside and outside of the church in Highwood, also inside Roxwell Church. His son, Frederick Wilfred Garnham was born on 4th September 1914.

Archibald Browne

Archibald Browne also served in the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment and was with the BEF in France.

His mother lived just over the parish border in Green Street, Ingatestone. We will return to his story later.

Bertie Millbank

Bertie Millbank was born in Blackmore on 13th January 1887. As a seven-year-old his name appears in the Sunday School Admission Register, but by 1911 he was serving in the Military, his home being in Romford.

He had by then no next of kin, though his elder brother Ernest still lived in the village. Sent with the BEF, Bertie Millbank died of wounds on 23rd September. He was 27 years old and was buried with French allies in a cemetery in what is now the business district of Paris.

Hospitals for the Wounded

Back in Essex plans were being put in place to receive wounded men either for convalescence or treatment.

The Budworth Hall in Ongar became a hospital with thirty beds, receiving its first patients in the autumn. The number of beds available was increased to 62 in 1917.

In March 1917 Mr Gladstone gave over his mansion, Blake Hall, for the use of 35 or more wounded officers.

The Threat of Invasion

With an invasion of England anticipated Reeve wrote in October that:

“Artillery and Engineer Officers have been busily surveying the district during the past three weeks with the purpose, I believe, of deciding on the best method of obstructing a possible raid on London.

An outer line of defence appears to run through Ongar, Stondon and Doddinghurst: and my little field has received attention.

Field guns I think would, on necessity, be brought here, and would range eastward in the direction of Chelmsford”.

In November Reeve observed that:

“It would hardly be too much to say that Stondon is becoming honeycombed with trenches, and the Church, owing to its being set upon a hill, is a prominent centre.

The slopes declining from the Hall to the brook contain a network of passages, giving shelter to riflemen who will give, if necessary, a stern reception to the enemy coming down the opposite hill from Paslow Common.

Flanking trenches face toward the Rectory, while others are taken southward along the course of the brook to the village. In adjacent parishes the same work is observable.

On the slopes of High Ongar, and on the confines of Blackmore and Doddinghurst towards Swallows Cross bodies of men are busily engaged”.

The Navvies

Huge numbers of men were billeted in Stondon and the neighbourhood.

“Some 600 navvies arrived on the morning of November 2nd, some by railway to Ongar, and some by road in motor omnibuses.

The plan being somewhat unexpectedly adopted, little or no preparation had been made in the locality for the reception of the men. Some 400 were to commence work at once in Stondon.

In the event, at the cost of considerable discomfort, the first few days were successfully surmounted and then tents were erected here and there for the accommodation of the men, or they contrived to find themselves temporary billets.

A canteen was put up at Brook’s and Cannons Farm, which to some degree supplied the place of shops. This was afterward moved to a centre at Hooks End, Blackmore.

The appearance of a canteen was hailed with delight by the villagers, publican, and all: for it was becoming a real difficulty to know how to meet the wants of the invaders”.

The Navvies were replaced by soldiers who were quartered at Ongar, Blackmore, Stondon Massey and the neighbouring villages. Accommodation, some in tents, was arranged for 250 men in Blackmore alone.

Evacuation Plans

We, of course, know that the Germans did not invade England either in the First or Second World War so we have to imagine what life would have been like not knowing what exactly might happen.

A friend reliably informed Reeve that in the event of invasion trees and hedges would be levelled across the fields, six guns and two howitzers would be placed in field Nos. 69 and 70, and the Stondon’s church spire would be hurriedly demolished.

In December 1914 Reeve was asked to submit to the authorities the number of elderly or infirm residents, and children, who might have difficulty evacuating their homes at short notice.

Contingency plans were being put in place for the population to leave for Oxfordshire by by-roads while the Regiments present fought the invaders, being reinforced by troops travelling towards Essex and London on the main highways.

As each day passed though the likelihood of hostile invasion on the ground became less.

Billeting Soldiers

Billeting was common. Revd. Walter Layton Petrie, the Vicar of Blackmore, noted in the Church Council minutes of 28th July 1915:

“It was thought desirable to enter upon the minute book some account of the Billeting of Soldiers in the Parish and the concern of the parish in and during the War”.

Nothing else pertaining to the War is recorded in Minute Book until Memorials were discussed in 1918.

Ingatestone and the Military Presence

Before leaving the topic of the military presence locally Reeve noted on 1st May 1916 that:

“Ingatestone has, throughout the period of the War, been a considerable military centre owing to its proximity to the railway, and its position between the metropolis and the important camps at Chelmsford and Colchester”.

He notes in some detail a battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (Welsh) who had arrived in Stondon on a route march from Ingatestone.

The guns they brought were left at the top of the hill near Soap House Farm, some 220 horses were watered at the village pond while the soldiers slated their thirst at the Bricklayers Arms.

Route marches were probably a common site in Blackmore and elsewhere.

The Christmas Truce

The Christmas truce of 1914 has become a legendary halt in hostilities. Revd. Reeve records a conversation he had with a soldier in early 1915.

“When travelling by train to London from Ongar on Jan 25th I had for a fellow passenger for part of the way a Lancashire man who had returned wounded and frost-bitten from the front, and was now sufficiently convalescent to be going for a short spell to his native county before returning to France.

His first-hand report of the conditions of things abroad was very interesting. He had often been for days together standing in water in the trenches, and the plight of the soldiers in the cold, wet, and filth was, he said indescribable. The Germans were in as bad or worse plight.

During an interval on Christmas-day some of the enemy had approached our trenches and joined in conversation with our men. One German soldier had given his cigarettes and offered him brandy.

In reply to the German invitation to drink with him the British soldier declined, until by way of assuring him took a pull himself at the flask he was offering! Lancashire shyness was then overcome, and the soldier accepted a draught of the “Cognac” for such it proved to be.

The time was soon over for these pleasantries, and the two dropped back again into their several positions, having apparently no special desire to kill one another, save at the call of duty!

I wished my fellow passenger a safe return to England at the close of war.”

Blackmore Servicemen and Families During the First World War

Gerald Pigott

The Pigott family lived at Blackmore House in Hook End. Gerald was the only child of Lieutenant-Colonel Wellesley and his wife Helen.

At the beginning of the First World War Gerald was promoted to a Second Lieutenant, the lowest rank of officer class in the Army. Gerald, aged 18, would have no doubt had the commission paid for him by his father.

Gerald would have had to buy his own uniform, unlike the non-commissioned ranks. In the early years of the First World War the pips denoting rank were on the sleeve of the uniform much like a wristwatch, which actually was compulsory equipment for a leader of men.

For Second Lieutenants this made them easily recognisable not only to their men but also the enemy. Many were killed as they led an assault from the front.

Gerald was injured in the second battle of Ypres on 13th May 1915 and died the following day.

Arrangements were soon made for a memorial service to be held at All Saints Church Doddinghurst, where his mother was organist and choir mistress.

Letter from Wellesley G. Pigott, 18th May 1915

Blackmore House by Brentwood Essex
May 18th 1915

My dear Reeve

I expect that you have heard that Gerald has died of his wounds in Flanders. We had hoped to have been allowed to bring his body home and lay it to rest in Doddinghurst Churchyard but we hear from the War Office that as he died in the zone that this is not allowed so we must let him rest where he is at present.

We are having a memorial service on Friday at 3.30pm in Doddinghurst Church and we both much hope that you will take part in the service. I have mentioned this to Mr Adams and he fully concurs and asks me to write to you.

Yrs sincerely
Wellesley G Pigott

Mr Adams was the Vicar of Doddinghurst. A further letter, black edged, was sent to the Rector of Stondon Massey the day after the Service.

Letter from Wellesley G. Pigott, 22nd May 1915

Blackmore House. Brentwood Essex.
May 22nd 1915

My dear Reeve

Thank you so much for your very kind letter which we both appreciate very much. We also wish to thank you for taking part in the service yesterday and for helping to make it such a beautiful service as it was.

I have attended many services that have been beautifully rendered but I don’t think I ever was present at one that was so much what one would have wished from every point of view and one felt that every one in the Church was there from a sense of real affection for him.

We have had full details of his last hours, he was struck in the head by a shell bursting just above him and was rendered unconscious at once and remained so until his death 21 hours after so we have the great consolation of knowing that he never suffered and never even knew that he had been hit.

The doctors say that had his life been spared he would probably have been blind for life and very likely his brain permanently injured as well so it is much best as it is.

With renewed thanks from us both.

Yrs very sincerely
Wellesley G Pigott

Bordering their Hook End property a shrine was later erected to his memory.

Blackmore in 1911

Blackmore’s population in 1911 was 613. Most people lived in the village although there were a few houses in Hook End, sometimes referred to as Kelvedon Common, Wyatts Green, and on the parish boundary with Mountnessing at Swallows Cross.

Private James Roast

Pte J Roast. Private James Roast of the 13th Essex Regiment was the eldest son of James who was gardener for the Pigott family at Blackmore House.

They lived at Blackmore House Cottages, although in 1911 our James was living and working as a groom for Stephen H King at Forest Hall, Ongar.

James was killed on 28th April 1917, age 26. He has no known grave and is remembered with others on the Arras Memorial.

Ernest Albert Maynard

In Blackmore village itself the following men were neighbours living in homes yards from one another.

L Corp E A Maynard. Ernest Albert Maynard’s mother, Emma, a widow, lived in Fingrith Hall Road.

Ernest, her youngest son, worked for Revd. Reeve at the Rectory at Stondon Massey for a few years before being called up in March 1916. Ernest worked with Albert, James Roast’s brother, who we will meet later.

Ernest was killed at the French Front on 27th June 1917, age 27. His brother, Joseph, wrote two letters to the Rector.

Letter from J. H. Maynard, 13th July 1917

“Fingrith Hall Road, Blackmore. July 13 [1917]

The Rev Reeve

Dr Sir. so sorry to write to tell you the sad news of the death of our dear brother Ernest Maynard who was killed in action June 27. Mother has received a very nice letter referring to his noble death also that he was buried in a cemetery.

Yours truly
J H Maynard”

Letter from J. Maynard, 8th August 1917

“Fingrith Hall Road, Blackmore. 8th August [1917]

The Revd Reeve

Dr Sir. Thankyou very much for letter received so sorry but we were unable to answear before as Mother was waiting the captains letter so I have enclosed same My brother was in the Essex drafted to the Bedfords and he was also a Lewis gunner untill he met his death again thanking you for your kind letter.

Yours truly
J Maynard”.

Reeve noted on the letter:

“He was hit by a shell and died instantly. Buried at the British Cemetery at Philosophe. G W Brewster. Captain”.

Following the war his mother always laid a wreath at the War Memorial every Armistice Day to his memory.

Ernest Puddephatt

Pte E Puddephatt. Ernest survived the war. He was the son of Thomas Puddephatt who for about 50 years ran a grocer’s shop next to the Leather Bottle pub. It is now Blackmore Tea Rooms.

William Scudder

Air Mechanic William Scudder Royal Naval Air Service. His home would have been the Leather Bottle public house where his father and mother were landlord and landlady.

William lost his life after the Armistice, on 2nd July 1919 in the Baltic Sea, trying with one officer and three other men to stop a mine drifting down on a hospital barge. He was 20 years old.

Frederick Wilson

Opposite, at Crosse House, there were celebrations on 15th March 1917 when Walter Wilson’s son, Frederick married Lily Wardingham of South Croydon.

Perhaps Walter made the wedding cake because he describes his profession as master baker. One of his specialities was making Nelson cake, a kind of bread pudding made, no doubt, from unsold bread.

Pte F Wilson served in the Essex Regiment and returned home from war.

Albert Edward Barker

Pte A Barker. Albert Edward Barker, known probably as Edward in the village, was the landlord of The Bull Public House in Church Street.

He served in the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment and was killed in action, aged 38, on 10th October 1917.

He has no known grave and is remembered on the vast wall of Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium.

William Edward Rudling

Longbeam Cottage in Church Street was a shop where William Edward Rudling worked as a grocer’s assistant in 1901.

Pte W Rudling was killed in action in the Battle of the Somme. He has no known grave: his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial.

The Whitmore Family

At Manor House, until 1917, lived the Whitmore family. William and Margaret, husband and wife, were teachers at the School around the corner.

Their sons Bertram and Reginald both served and returned from war.

Charles and Major Jubilee Pagram

Pte. C Pagram. RASC. Charles Pagram returned from the war to his home at Little Jericho.

He was described by his niece, born 1921, later named Mary Coller, as:

“a jovial sort of chap and was chauffeur / handyman at the Priory. He used to impress on us that he spoke French because he had served in France ... but all I can ever remember him saying, and he was always saying it, was ‘Ooh lah lah!’”.

His brother, Corporal J Pagram, RASC:

“Uncle ‘Jimmy’ ... was chauffeur to sisters, Misses Barrett, as well as gamekeeper. Jimmy and his wife Lil lived just past the Barrett sisters on the Ingatestone Road.

Although he was always called ‘Jimmy’ he had two much grander names. His full name was Major Jubilee Pagram, not that he was ever commissioned while driving a lorry ... in the [Royal] Army Service Corps”.

He was born in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.

Herbert Ovel

Pte. H Ovel, Essex Regiment. In the 1920s:

“Herbert Ovel became gardener for the Hull family at the Priory. The kitchen garden next to the Vicarage had rows and rows of strawberries and asparagus”.

Captain James Henry Hull

Captain J H Hull, Essex Regiment. James Henry Hull, who we have met already in connection with the unveiling of the War Memorial, succeeded his father as owner of Jericho Priory.

Air War Over Essex During the First World War

When Frenchman Louis Bleriot made the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel in 1909 the science fiction novel ‘War From The Air’ written by H G Wells and published during the previous two years became a vague possibility.

In Britain to fly a contraption no more than a quarter of a mile at low altitude seemed absolutely spiffing for young gentlemen in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Early Aviation

Illustrative of aviation before the First World War was the attention given by the national and international press to the society wedding in June 1912 at Widford of Claude Grahame-White to Miss Dorothy Taylor, a New York heiress.

The reception was held at Hylands House. It was reported that the groom arrived by air and that one of his aviator friends flew over Widford Church dropping confetti following the ceremony. After the reception guests were treated to an impromptu flying display.

The Royal Flying Corp was formed in 1912 principally for the purpose of reconnaissance. Edward Petre became a test pilot. The Royal Naval Air Service was formed in 1914. Both were merged into the Royal Air Force in 1918, which celebrated its centenary this year with a flypast over Blackmore.

Edward Petre

Mrs E. E. Wilde added a paragraph about Edward Petre in her history of Ingatestone and Fryerning, published in 1913.

“In the new Cemetery lies Mr Edward Petre, whose tragic death on Christmas Eve, 1912, filled the neighbourhood with sorrow. Second son of Mr Sebastian Petre, he trained as an architect, but gave up his profession to devote himself to the new and enthralling pursuit of flying.

A daring yet careful pilot, he was recently engaged as an instructor at Brooklands, and had been testing new machines for the War Office. On Christmas Eve he was attempting a non-stop flight from Brooklands to Edinburgh, and left at 9.10am in SSE, wind of fifteen miles an hour.

The moderate breeze in which he started became a strong gale of sixty miles an hour in Yorkshire. In attempting to land, he passed over a field in which there were some children; at the peril of his own life he removed one hand from the control-wheel to signal to the children the danger they were in, and a fresh attempt to land in the next field was caught by a furious gust, which, lifting one wing, dashed the machine and its intrepid pilot to the ground, death being instantaneous.

He was greatly liked by all he came in contact with, and was beloved by his family and priest. R.I.P.”

Zeppelin Raids

During the First World War, for the first time, civilians were subjected to indiscriminate bombing from the air. The Zeppelins, the first aircraft used by the enemy, were referred to as ‘baby killers’ in the British press.

In all there were 53 separate raids on England, twenty in Essex, with London particularly targeted.

John Fleetwood, who retired to Blackmore in the late 1970s, was a six-year-old living in Walthamstow and remembered vividly the Zeppelins:

“A Zeppelin, sailing smoothly along up there in the sky, even though it was threatening death and destruction to those below, could be a beautiful sight.

One of the early ones came over Leyton and Walthamstow; we caught a glimpse of it before rushing indoors for cover; the searchlights caught it, and it looked just like a long slim silver cigar.

But the noise of its throbbing engines, as it drew nearer and nearer, was far from beautiful; to us, sitting under the stairs, or in our semi-basement kitchen, it sounded menacing and frightening”.

North Weald and the Development of the Air Service

Britain, on the back foot, had to respond quickly and across the county airfields were created.

Reeve wrote on 22nd July 1916:

“A large shed for aeroplanes is being constructed at North Weald. It is the intention of the authorities to establish a permanent Flying School there. We may expect frequent visits of the aeroplanes circling around Stondon on their trial-trips.

They cover 120 miles in the hour and can go to Hounslow from North Weald and return in about 15 minutes.

Nothing has been more marvellous during this unprecedented war than the rapid development of the air-service, and it is clear that Britain is to challenge the world in the new element.”

James Woollard

Woollard Way in Blackmore is named after Jim Woollard who died aged 67 in 1962 having served as a Rural District Councillor.

Tonight we remember him as an airman during the War and in the fledgling Royal Air Force where he was still serving in 1922 when his second daughter, Joy Kathleen, was baptised. His profession was flight sergeant.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in May 1918.

Mary Coller recalled:

“I never knew much of him when I was small because he was in the Royal Air Force serving much of his time in India as far as I know. When he came out of the RAF, he and his wife had a bungalow built not far from the pump. Next to it he opened a shop and a garage”.

James Woollard formed part of the ground crew repairing and servicing the aeroplanes’ internal combustion engines. It is small wonder therefore that in 1937 we find his profession as a newsagent, petrol filling manager and motor engineer.

His brothers George and William are also remembered on Blackmore’s War Memorial as survivors of the War.

The Air Raid of 31st March 1916

Friday 31st March 1916 was to be one of the worst nights in terms of civilian casualties. In Lincolnshire, East Suffolk, Ipswich and Essex, 223 bombs were dropped killing 48 and injuring 64 people.

Zeppelins L14 and L15 flew over Essex dropping bombs.

Reeve wrote:

“With the moonless nights and the still weather which has succeeded the wintry storms a succession of air-craft raids began. On March 31 five ‘Zeppelin’ airships visited the Eastern Counties.

One of them was heard over Stondon in the direction of Woolwich at 10.20pm, but we were destined to have a closer acquaintance with another of the group at a later hour.”

Having dropped bombs on Braintree at 11pm killing four people Bocker in his Zeppelin L14 travelled south with the intent on attacking London. But when he and his crew got to Kelvedon Hatch they were met with heavy gunfire from the ground so decided to chart a course northwards over Blackmore.

Revd. Reeve continues the story:

“At 11.45 a Zeppelin dropped a series of bombs at the point where is the junction of Stondon with the parishes of Blackmore and Kelvedon Hatch: within easy distance of Soap House Farm.

A machine-gun had been lately established at Kelvedon Hatch to watch for the raiders, and Capt. Hulton in charge claims to have hit the air-ship, causing it to drop the bombs hurriedly.”

Fear of the Air Raids

The air-raids were deliberately designed by the enemy to strike fear among the people and to destroy morale.

Reeve noted:

“15th April 1916: Considerable alarm was naturally caused by these visitations: and many nervous persons were for some nights afterwards afraid to go to bed.”

John Fleetwood recalled that as a child:

“For a time I used to have a recurring nightmare, in which a Zeppelin would be sailing along the landing towards my bedroom; these nightmares soon ceased, but while they lasted, they were quite horrifying.”

The Bomb Craters at Blackmore

No one was killed or injured by the many bombs which were dropped in Blackmore, but the course of the explosions aroused great interest.

Reeve added:

“Large numbers of persons from Brentwood and the surrounding district visited the spot next day, and the large craters caused by the bombs, some 15 feet in diameter and varying from 3 to 9 feet in depth, were the astonishment of all.

The whole saucer-like cavities were left entirely clean by the explosion, and one local builder Mr Gann remarked there was no trace anywhere of the large body of earth which had been scooped out by the force of the bomb.

Clods torn from the craters were sprinkled to a distance of 60 yards. Nine of the thirteen holes were quickly found: and fortunately no life was lost or building injured. All had fallen in open fields.

Our windows at Stondon Rectory were violently shaken and considerable alarm was naturally caused. We in the close neighbourhood have much for which to be deeply grateful to an over-ruling Providence.”

This had indeed been a close call for the villagers of Blackmore. The bombs had dropped not half a mile from their homes.

In perhaps a unique record Reeve gave more detail in his notes on 6th April:

“Further enquiry shows that the bombs dropped on March 31st fell between the Soap House and the corner of Blackmore between the Church and Miss Barrett’s house.

Two were dropped in the lane near the site of the old Blackmore Mill. The remaining holes were to be found in a straight-line across the fields to Miss Barrett’s at very short intervals. Many panes of glass were broken in the house by the concussion.”

The Blackmore Memorial Window

In the church at Blackmore, in what was at the time the Vestry, is a memorial window commemorating what happened that night.

It is inscribed:

“This window is erected as a thank-offering to Almighty God for the protection in the Great Air Raid of March 31st 1916”

Zeppelin L15

The other Zeppelin to make a local visit on the night of 31st March 1916 was the L15 captained by Oberlautnant Briethaupt.

His craft arrived over Dunwich in Suffolk about 7.45pm that evening heading over Ipswich and Colchester towards Chelmsford two hours later.

As the Zeppelin approached London it was met by heavy fire from the defensive ring of guns.

Captain Morris wrote:

“Attempting to elude the bombardment, Breithaupt turned northwards, hurriedly jettisoning his bombs on Rainham, but to no avail, as shrapnel from the Purfleet guns ... made a large rent in her side. ...

When L15 was east of Brentwood shortly before ten o’clock, Second Lieutenant Brandon in a B.E.2c, who had risen from Hainault Farm, overtook the airship and climbing above her dropped explosive darts without apparent result.

The airship could no longer rise owing to loss of gas.”

The attack happened over Ingatestone about 10.05pm. The Zeppelin made due east aiming for the Belgian coast.

In a desperate attempt to stay airborne, the crew jettisoned everything heavy and moveable. Two machine guns and other objects were later found in fields in Stock, South Hanningfield and Woodham Ferrers.

It encircled Foulness Island twice before the crew decided not to land. The airship lost height over the following half hour and ditched near Knock Deep Light Vessel at 11pm.

All but one of the crew were rescued and taken prisoners. One drowned.

The Essex Weekly News reported that:

“It dropped into the sea and sunk while being towed to land. Seventeen members of the crew were rescued and are prisoners of war at Chatham Barracks”.

A Turning Point in the Air War

The downing of a Zeppelin on 31st March 1916 was a breakthrough and turning point in the war on the Home Front.

Britain was ill-prepared for air attack. The Germans has been planning air supremacy for some time before the war. It took 35 minutes for a British plane to achieve the same altitude as a Zeppelin – 10,000 feet.

Throughout 1915 and the early part of 1916 Britain was on the back foot. London suffered attack in its first blitz.

The Lord Mayor of London, Sir Charles Wakefield, had put up a reward of £500 for the first airship brought down. This was converted to commemorative medals cast for the members of the Anti-Aircraft gunners of the 3rd Company, Essex and Suffolk Royal Garrison Artillery at Purfleet.

Zeppelins Brought Down

Bad weather and high winds prevented many Zeppelin attacks during the spring of 1916. They would resume again in September.

Later that year pilots flying upwards to great altitudes managed to fire incendiary bullets into the gas bags of three Zeppelins and cripple a fourth.

One Zeppelin came down in flames at Cuffley on 2nd September 1916, another at Snails Hall Farm, Billericay on the night of 23rd /24th September, and the third at Potters Bar on 1st October.

Also on 24th September the skin of Zeppelin L33 was pierced causing it to lose gas. The crew landed it with the intention of setting it on fire. It had so little fuel that it failed to burn for a long period of time.

The crew was led by none other than Bocker, who had captained the L14 that Friday night in March over Blackmore.

There are a number of eyewitness accounts of the Zeppelins coming down in flames.

Reeve wrote of the Billericay zeppelin:

“It appeared from our windows a red ball at first, about the apparent size of the sun; and then, as it quickly fell, it stretched itself out, some portions getting away from the main wreck, and looking like drops of fire in the distance.

The distance to fall must have been so great, as there was time for the eye to observe these portions quite clearly during a period perhaps of half a minute.”

The Gotha Raid of 13th June 1917

Reeve also witnessed the mid-morning air raid of 13th June 1917 by German Gotha planes over the east end of London in which 145 people were killed, the highest death toll from a single air raid during the whole war.

Eighteen infants were killed at a school in Poplar when the building suffered a direct hit.

“They came over Stondon from the North East at a great height, so as to be practically out of view.

Some, however, saw three, and some as many as ten, like little glittering silver fish against the blue sky.

They filled the air with a rumbling as a huge traction engine. About ten minutes after their passing over our heads we heard the bombs dropping in the direction of London, and the visitors shaped a more southerly course, and the droning died away in the direction of Rochford and Southend.

It was possible, however, as they swerved round on their return journey, to hear the quick firing of machine guns, indicating that a struggle was proceeding at great height between the invaders and our gallant airmen.

The accounts tell us that many lives were lost through the raid, and many terrible injuries inflicted.

A Stondon woman (Mrs Skinner) and her child were travelling to London that day, and, with other passengers, brought back word of sad scenes in the Great Eastern Company’s terminus at Liverpool Street.

One or two trains narrowly escaped wreckage, and in one at least several persons were killed.

It is felt that every effort must be made to give timely warning of such visits in the future, and to prevent the concourse of persons in the streets”.

The Air Raid of 7th July 1917

On 7th July 1917 a further air raid claimed another 57 lives whereupon the Government made plans to create a Royal Air Force.

“We saw 22 [aeroplanes] over the Rectory compactly together, followed by two more which appeared to be stragglers. These two are believed to be British, and some claim to have heard machine-gun intercourse between them and the Germans”.

Reeve added:

“The German aeroplanes appeared to extend from ourselves towards Kelvedon Hatch and Stanford Rivers.

They flew unopposed till apparently over North Weald and Epping when firing commenced, and seemed to scatter the formation. They rallied however, and then appeared to make rapidly westward, over the Loughton and Chigwell district for N London.

The firing and bomb-throwing circled more and more to the south until at last the fleet was again visible over the Romford quarter, and the sound of machine guns was plainly audible.

The aeroplanes were now at a much greater distance. They were lost in the haze, in little over ¾ hour from their first appearance, as they vanished in the direction of the mouth of the river Thames and Southend”.

Conscription, Arthur Roast and the Battle of the Somme

The Military Service Act

On 7th February 1916 Revd. Reeve records:

“Feb. 10th has been appointed as the day on which the new Military Service Act will come into operation and on March 1st all but those specially exempted between the ages of 18 and 41 years will be held to have been enrolled.”

On 25th March 1916 Reeve records:

“Probably the cream of the youth of the county has now been enlisted, and those who are now being swept in under the Military Service Act will be largely men who have no taste whatsoever for military enterprise”.

Arthur Roast

Our story is incomplete without considering Arthur Roast, of Hook End, the younger brother of James who was killed in April 1917.

“A lad who has done some useful work in the Rectory garden has now left as a recruit in the 3rd Essex Regt. for drill at Chatham. He is stated to have said he felt he owed a greater duty to his mother at home than to King George: for his mother had done much for him, whereas the King so far as he knew, had not rendered him any service!

One must pardon the somewhat narrow minded view of King and Country under somewhat trying circumstances. There is little more to that a few months experience of military life and companionship will add breadth to his shoulders and his outlook also!”

Arthur Roast was born on 7th January 1900 and baptised at Blackmore on 11th February 1900. As a recruit he was only 16 years and 2 months old so must have lied convincingly about his age on enrolment. Reeve makes no comment on the lad’s youthfulness.

War Poetry

War poetry helps us to connect with the events of the First World War. Many speak of the futility of war, but there is one less popular today written by Jessie Pope entitled ‘The Call’. It begins:

“Who's for the trench -
Are you, my laddie?
Who'll follow French -
Will you, my laddie?
Who's fretting to begin
Who's going out to win?
And who wants to save his skin -
Do you, my laddie?”

Letter from Arthur Roast, 13th May 1916

The Essex Record Office holds three letters Arthur Roast sent to his previous employer.

“May 13th 1916.

Pte A Roast
No 27623 E Coy
3rd Battalion Essex Rgt
Beachcote, Felixtowe

Dear Sir. I now take the pleasure of sending you a few lines which I ought to have done before but I hope you will excuse ‘Sir’ as we have been so busy down here hardly time to do anything.

I hope the Misses Reeves are all quite well and that you have some one to do some of the garden. I hear that there is not many young men left in stondon now but I should not care if I was back again. I am rather to old for soldiering life now but I expect we shall have to go through it. But I should be glad to hear the War was at an end.

I hear that the zepps came over hooks end a few weeks ago hope they did no damage or injury they give us a look in down here now and again.

Now Sir I never hear anything about Maynard don’t know whether he is still at Dovercourt it is not very far from here. I should like to know how he is getting on.

Now Sir I hope the rabbits and birds are not damaging the garden much. I should not mind if I had one or two down here now. It would be something new.

Dear Sir I would like to be Remembered to Cook Mr & Mrs A Pension Likewise all Stondon friends.

I am now just going through My course of firing about another week then I might be able to get over to Stondon for a few days leave. I believe I am booked for the Front. But I did not quite expect that I thought Home Service more for me.

Now Dear Sir I don’t think I have much more now to say hope the Farmers are getting on pretty well with their work. We are having some rather cold weather down here but I suppose the sea air is some of it.

Now Dear Sir I think I must bring this to a Close. With my best wishes to yourself and the Misses Reeves.

I remain your Obedient Servant.
A Roast.”

Reeve diarised:

“An excellent letter had been received from Private A Roast of the 3rd Batt. Essex Regiment. It is dated from Felixtowe (May 13th) where he is training. Looked upon at home as ‘none too strong in the upper storey’, Roast has shown himself a true Briton in adaptability to his new surroundings”.

In common with other civilians Arthur received six months’ training before being sent to the Front.

The Battle of the Somme

Then the Battle of the Somme began. Revd. Reeve records in his diary.

“1st July 1916

As I write, the reverberation of the great guns and explosion of mines are shaking the windows of the Rectory and of all the other houses, I suppose, in the southern and south-eastern counties of England.

There is evidently a very heavy bombardment in progress. The munition-making of many months is beginning, we may hope, to have its effect upon the position.”

On 1st July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance.

Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure.

In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to make some progress. However, the German army resisted tenaciously, and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained.

Three months later, at the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The original objective had been to take the village on the first day.

Arthur Roast in France

On 1st August 1916 Reeve notes:

“Arthur Roast, lately employed at the Rectory, is now in France, and writes home cheerful letters to his mother, as all the men do, bidding her not to worry about him.

Roast was always a ‘good shot’, few birds escaping him even as a boy when out with stones and catapult!

The neighbours believe that as a bomb thrower into the enemy’s trenches his fame will be sure to establish himself.”

Blackmore Men Lost on the Somme

William Edward Rudling has already been mentioned as a victim of the Battle of the Somme. Another three men from Blackmore died in this Battle. All four have no known grave and are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Herbert C. Game

Pte. Herbert C Game was the son of Charles Game and Martha, born, like his parents, in Cockfield, Suffolk.

In 1911 the family had been living in Blackmore for around eight years. Charles’ job was labourer, and Herbert’s is shown as “Cow Boy”.

He volunteered in the East Surrey Regiment 9th Battalion, and first saw service in France in August 1915. He was killed in action on the same day as William Rudling, 16th August 1916, aged 25.

Ernest Martin

Ernest Martin was born in Blackmore in 1880, the son of Charles Martin of Great Baddow, the proprietor of steam thrashing machines, and his wife Emma.

In 1901 they lived on the Green, near the pond. He enlisted as a Private in the Essex Regiment 11th Battalion and was wounded in June 1915.

He returned to duty, but died on 27th September 1916, age 36.

Arthur John Nash

Arthur John Nash was baptised 6th August 1882 at High Ongar. He was the son of John Henry and Eliza Nash.

The father’s occupation is blank, which suggests his death, and this is confirmed by the marriage in 1884 of Eliza to William Chumbley of Blackmore.

Arthur enlisted as Private in the Essex Regiment 2nd Battalion, and was killed in action, a little after the capture of Thiepval, on 23rd October 1916, age 34.

He is a fourth man from Blackmore among 73,000 on Lutyen’s Memorial.

More Men Called Up

On 20th September 1916 Reeve wrote:

“The War Office is calling men up. Lads who are now eighteen are finding themselves called for, and among them Leonard Hasler, Ernest Baines, Alfred Baines, of Stondon, and Thomas Roast, formerly of Stondon School, now living in Blackmore.

Thomas Roast, who was not a sibling of James and Arthur, lived in Hook End, served in the Tank Corps and returned home from War. His name appears among those who served on the Blackmore War Memorial.

Of the other three named, Leonard Hasler died from injuries in October 1918; Ernest Baines of Stondon was injured in November 1918 and had to have his leg amputated; and, Alfred Baines returned to Stondon Massey after the war.

The Battle of the Somme on Film

The entry for the same day closes:

“I went yesterday to see the reproduction of the Somme activities on the Cinematograph in London.”

This one-hour documentary film was shown again in many places in 2016 with soundtrack added.

At the Essex Record Office theatre you could hear a pin drop as the audience watched. One of most poignant moments is when you see the delivery of post to the trenches.

It serves as a reminder of the logistical work needed to wage war, not only in supplying arms, food and medical supplies but also letters, cigarettes and chocolate which boosted morale.

Letter from Arthur Roast, 1st November 1916

On 1st November 1916 Arthur Roast is somewhere in France writing to the Rector on letter paper headed ‘With the British Expeditionary Force’.

“Dear Sir. I now have the pleasure of writing you a few lines hoping they will find you quite Well. Also the Misses Reeves & the cook wishing them all well as it leaves me quite at present.

I think I ought to have written before but I hope you will excuse Sir. I hope you had a good Attendance at the Harvest Festival.

Just Fancy me being out in France I did not think I should have been there before Ernest M. But I tell you Sir that there is some very good natured people in France as well as England.

But the villages Which I have been in yet Seem very old Fashioned & the Farm Houses the Farmers seem to Have some very good horses & other Cattle. Look after them and use them well. They never seem to hurry them nor use many whips.

But there carts and Waggons are a very long way behind England I might tell you Sir that there are very few birds about this part the farmers plant there corn quite different to English Farmers you hardly ever see a field of some kind mixed with different kinds.

Dear Sir will you kindly Remember me to Mrs Lewis hoping all are quite well. And that the Gardens are alright.

Will you Likewise give my Best Respects to Mr & Mrs Pension wishing them all well. I might get leave before long then I will come and See you all Sir.

I never went out Far when I was at Home before. Hope Mr & Mrs Parkins are quite well.

Now I think this is all this time Sir. With that I must conclude.

From your
Obedient Servant
A Roast

This is my Adress Sir
Pte A Roast
No 27623 Essex Rgt
c/o O O OY Train BEF”

Food Shortages and Rationing During the First World War

In times of shortages government announcements were made in church advising people to be sparing in the use of flour; police officers made door-to-door enquiries about the number of domestic and farm animals kept in order to “prevent unnecessary consumption by animals of grain and stores in any way suitable for human food”.

Rising Prices and Shortages

Reeve noted that the price of ‘The Times’ had increased to twopence in April 1917, and other newspapers previously sold at halfpenny now cost one penny each. “Mr Punch” from his long familiar threepence per week, had been raised to sixpence. This was due to the scarcity of paper.

In April 1917 the sugar ration was reduced from ¾lb to ½lb per person per week. In times before domestic refrigeration sugar was an important preservative.

Reeve informs his reader that (in September 1917):

“The scarcity of sugar is much felt by housekeepers, and large quantities of fruit must, it is feared, be lost through lack of sugar for preserving purposes.

The Government has now taken control, and by appointing agents in each district offices the public who make application within a given time a limited supply up to 28lbs for preserving fruit guaranteed to have been grown on their own premises.

Each application must be countersigned by a Minister of Religion, a Justice of Peace or a householder of standing”.

24th September 1917

“Fruit of all kinds has been abundant this summer owing to the genial and uninterrupted Spring. In other years the blossom would have been withered by successive frosts and perhaps only a tithe of the crop promised would be gathered. We have has more pears, and peaches than we could eat.

Numerous presents have been made to friends and we have today sent down a heavy consignment to Ongar, for use of the convalescent soldiers at the Budworth Hall Hospital.

Our apples are stored, and we have in the house as much jam from currants etc as the limited supply of sugar has rendered possible.

20th October 1917

“There is a marked shortage of certain necessary articles for the present. Tea and sugar, bacon and butter and lucifer matches are quite at a premium, but a system of tickets is in the process of arrangement.

19th December 1917

“Supplies of Horse-Chestnuts have been collected this autumn and sent to London, it being discovered that certain chemicals may be extracted from them for the manufacture of munitions which have hitherto been obtained from flour. The food-supply may be saved.

A ton of Chestnuts is found to equal half a ton of grain. We have lately sent some 5 bushels to the “Director of Propellant Supplies” at Westminster.

25th February 1918

Today ushers in the “Rationing” System for London and the Home Counties in respect of Meat and of Butter and a compound known as “Margarine” a substitute for butter.

These articles are only to be obtained from today on production of a coupon. The total allowed per week is 1lb of meat for adults and half the amount for children under ten years. Four ounces of butter is the limited allowance for such.

A little allowance of dilution of honey was served to me yesterday at Chelmsford in lieu of sugar with a cup of Coffee.

25th April 1918

More Potatoes than ever are to be grown this year and the Government are perfecting plant for the production of Potato-flour.

Coals are shortly to be “rationed” on account of the difficulty of raising and circulating coal. The public will have to “register” with a merchant, as in the case of meat or grocery.”

The Search for Marmalade

In June 1918 he tells of his quest to find a pot of marmalade.

“At Chelmsford this week I was unable to procure a single pot of Orange Marmalade at any of the Grocers, and there was an absence of jam, cheese and salad oil.

But the shopkeepers look quite as disappointed as their customers as they re-iterate time after time their entire lack of these coveted commodities”.

Women, Work and the First World War in Blackmore

Mrs E. E. Wilde, who wrote a history of Ingatestone and Fryerning, published in 1913, remarks of organists at Fryerning Church:

“Mr Greenfield ... was succeeded for a while by Miss M Rock, but after a while she too retired (occupied too much perhaps by her efforts to promote the cause of Woman’s Suffrage), and the post is now filled by Mr Edgar Stone”.

The Changing Role of Women

The First World War changed the role of women.

In August 1915 Reeve writes that the Government was compiling a complete Register of all people aged between the ages of 15 and 65 should men need to be called up to fight the war and to ascertain those who may have expert knowledge in making ammunition or army clothing.

“As far as possible, women would be employed to take the place of men who had enlisted or who might enlist if a substitute could be found.”

When conscription was announced in February 1916, Reeve wrote:

“There will be few left but those who are engaged on the land or in the milking trade, or those indispensable to the keeping of stock.

Women are being advertised for to undertake employment in the field: domestic servants, both men and women, are to be regarded as unnecessary: pleasure gardens ad hot-houses are to be looked upon as luxuries only open in war-time to a few.

So many male teachers have enlisted, to have their places taken by women: and women also are being largely employed as clerks in banks and houses of business.

The whole country, and one may say the world, is being reorganised and changed.”

Women at Work in Chelmsford

Miss Baker’s personal reminiscences of the First World War in Margaretting were published in 1983.

On leaving school she trained for six months in shorthand, typing and book-keeping and got herself a job at Christy and Norris, an engineering firm, being a six-mile bicycle ride to work in Broomfield Road, Chelmsford.

She quickly found herself doing the jobs of despatch clerk and office boy. She commented:

“In Chelmsford I saw girls driving the big railway horses and vans. It was really wonderful to see women performing a great variety of tasks, bearing in mind that hitherto nearly all of them had worked in their homes or in service for people with large houses”.

One history book suggests that on 11th November 1918 Winston Churchill wondered about the 3 million redundant munitions workers, many of whom were women.

Revd. Andrew Clark of Great Leighs noted in his diary on 13th November that:

“Some of the girls at Hoffmann’s works, Chelmsford, were told on Tuesday 12th November that their wages would be reduced from £2.5s (£2.25) a week to 25s (£1.25) a week”.

Hoffmann made ball bearings which were in great demand by the armed forces. Crompton, another large firm in Chelmsford, made munitions.

Women on the Railways

On 8th January 1917 Reeve wrote:

“With the New Year considerable changes were introduced on the railways, fewer trains being provided for passengers – the men being presumably at the Front – and an increase of 50 per cent being made on the fares charged.

For some time the railway traffic has been conducted under difficulties, many signalmen, engine drivers, stokers and porters having been called up for service. At some London termini women porters have been in evidence, and passengers have been left to deal with their own luggage in many cases.

The New Year regulations forbid any passenger travelling with more than 100lbs weight of luggage”.

The Blackmore Women’s Institute

In support of the war effort a new women’s organisation was formed nationally.

The decision to form a Women’s Institute in Blackmore was taken at a meeting held at Blackmore House in March 1917 and application was made to the National Federation on 27th March.

The first officers were given as:

• Mrs Wellesley Pigott: President
• Miss Barrett: Vice-President
• Miss Ivy Lewis: Secretary
• Mrs Gamble: Treasurer

However, when the inauguration certificate was granted on 2nd June 1917, Mrs Letitia Allen had replaced Mrs Pigott as President, Miss Marriage replaced Miss Barrett, Mrs Millicent Dyer replaced Miss Lewis and Miss H Marriage replaced Mrs Gamble.

A complete change had taken place.

These were troubled times with the First World War in its third year and where groups of women were still regarded with suspicion and mistrust in many quarters.

This fact is evident in Blackmore at this time because the local grocer, Mr Thomas Puddephatt, showed a strong reluctance to supply the newly formed WI with additional supplies of sugar as directed by the Ministry of Agriculture so that WI members could make jam and preserves to help the war effort.

Mrs Allen sought help from the highest authority to try to resolve this problem.

In October 1917 both the Secretary, Mrs Dyer, and the Treasurer, Miss H Marriage resigned to compound the President’s problems. By December Miss Ivy Lewis had been reinstalled as Secretary.

In the beginning it would appear that there was no Committee, and the Group was simply run by its officers.

A representative of the National Federation attended a meeting on 23rd June 1917 and wrote an official report which makes interesting reading:

“This meeting was held in the school room, unprepared, and unattractive, 25 members were present, the President is away, and the Vice President is somewhat opposed to the Institute and did not appear till the end of the meeting, this makes it very difficult for the Secretary and Treasurer.

The members seem keen and interested but have taken little part in the meeting ...”.

The ladies of the WI remarked:

“This is a fair sized village with several shops. The membership will be largely comprised of women from the farms”.

Jam and Jerusalem came to Blackmore in 1917.

Arthur Roast Writes from France

Meanwhile soldiers continued to send letters home, including Arthur Roast.

Letter from Arthur Roast, 3rd June 1918

June 3rd 1918

Dear Sir. I now take the honour of sending these few lines to you trusting that yourself and the Misses Reeves are all in the Best of Health and thank god it leaves me.

But the noise has made my nerves a bit shakey. I must tell you Sir that I have a new set of teeth in now but they Want a bit of getting used to.

I would have Written Before Sir But we have been So busy moving about. Will you Kindly Remember me to the Cook & also to Mrs Pension and I trust also that Mr Pension is Safe and Well.

I hope all the garden is doing well. I am at Present in a Barn but it is nice Weather now so I do not mind only We want Plenty of Bathing Parades.

Will you kindly Remember me to all Stondon Friends and likewise Mrs Lewis if still their.

I was sorry to Hear of Poor Mr Hawkins & will you kindly except my deepest sympathy & I also trust that young Mr Hawkins is fully Recoverd From his wound.

I expect the Farmers will soon be busy now haymaking. I hope they will be able to gather it in safely.

Now dear Sir I think this is all for the Present. With it I will Close. With my best wishes.

From Your Obedient Servant.
A Roast.

Sir. Will you kindly get my adres of Mother as I quite Forgot to Put it in here.

Women in Agriculture

With reference to haymaking which Arthur observed only too well at home Reeve wrote on 29th June 1918:

“The hay-tying is going on in the neighbourhood and compressed trusses are being prepared for shipment. We notice more women employed than was the case last year.

The women now not only act as clerks, but, dressed in suitable clothing, largely control and direct the machinery.

Eight women with a superintendent attached to the gang have been billeted a fortnight in the village, while the men engaged have been in the minority.”

Votes for Women

The call for ‘Votes For Women’ prior to the War was now unquestionable and a free vote given to Members of Parliament met with little opposition becoming law in June 1918.

The ‘Representation of the People Act’ created almost universal suffrage for males over 21 years old (previously only three-fifths of the population could vote) and women over 30.

Harry Patch, the last surviving veteran who served in the trenches, wrote in his autobiography in 2007:

“They could hardly withhold the right to vote from soldiers who had fought for their country”.

It increased the franchise from 7 million to 20 million. Until then, only those who owned property could vote.

A J P Taylor wrote:

“War smoothed the way to democracy – one of the few things to be said in its favour”.

Voting in Blackmore

Emma Bass, foster mother to Edwin Alexander in 1901 one of the victims of the War, was able to vote for the first time in 1918.

Her name appears on the Blackmore Electoral Roll. She lived in one of the cottages alongside the Post Office.

Reeve wrote on 14th December:

“The General Election of Members of Parliament is taking place today. Stondon people go to Blackmore to vote.

This is the first occasion of the admission of women to the franchise, and the first occasion when women Candidates for Parliament have been admissible.

Motor-cars and carriages are being utilized where possible for the conveyance of electors, and I have seen several amused and smiling faces of village women being taken to the poll, pleased alike with their unwonted excitement of their importance.

The Poll will be declared on the 28th, the delay being caused by the inclusion of soldiers’ proxies who are permitted to vote by post”.

The Armistice and the End of the First World War

Saturday 9th November 1918

Saturday 9th November 1918. After a week when the enemy was in hasty retreat on the Western Front, on this day the Kaiser abdicated. There were rumours spreading around that the war was over.

Chelmsford, on market day the previous day, was full of gossip that the Germans had laid down their arms.

David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, would have dearly liked to have made such an announcement at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, it being the second Saturday in November when the new Lord Mayor of London was paraded through the streets of the capital.

Lloyd George’s speech could have run:

“Today this could be the greatest day of our lives, before it all ends, before we run out of time. Tonight this could be the greatest night of our lives. Let’s make a new start, the future is ours to find”.

But that would have been fake news. All he could do was to allude that it would all be over soon. Hopefully.

The war, which the parties engaged was to be long and drawn out: bogged down, quite literally in the trenches of the Western Front, did end quickly when the Germans sought an armistice, having suffered heavy losses of men, desertion, Spanish ‘flu and food shortages at home.

Herbert Asquith, the former Prime Minister, had been a victim of fake news, talking about the British victory with his wife and daughter since the very early hours. He had been told by the War Office, only to be told about 6 o’clock that the news was not true.

But a few minutes later his wife learned over the telephone from an American friend that it was, truly, over.

The Armistice

Miss Baker wrote in 1983:

“The First World War came to an end at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of November 1918. It was a tremendous relief to all of us to have the fearful struggle brought to a successful conclusion although the price that was paid in human lives and suffering cannot be measured”.

The armistice was signed in a railway carriage at just after 5 o’clock on Monday 11th November. The talks were short. It was agreed that the ceasefire would begin at 11 o’clock.

News reached Paris about 9.30am, but by then the day’s business of waging war was well under way.

King George V had been told by the French that the War was over before Lloyd George had received official tidings.

Even when news of the ceasefire was announced there were some British and American units who were happy to go on fighting, some to avenge the Germans and some with the ambition to push the enemy back through Belgium to their own border.

It was something of an anti-climax as the clock struck eleven.

On 11th November 1918 the Western Front saw something like 10,944 casualties, including 2,738 dead. Nicholas Best says that was nearly as many who were killed in the D-Day landings of 1944.

London Hears the News

People in London had gathered in crowds since first light awaiting official news.

At 10.55am the Prime Minister opened the door of No. 10 Downing Street and Lloyd George announced repeatedly:

“At 11 o’clock this morning the war will be over”.

Crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace, the King making a balcony appearance. Bells rang, which had not been rung since the air raids.

There was no radio, television, or twitter of course to convey the news. There was no BBC.

Chelmsford and the Essex Villages

Chelmsford heard of the armistice soon after 11am.

Revd. Andrew Clark records that:

“The works there immediately went on holiday. The news was passed on to Great Leighs Post Office from Chelmsford, spread rapidly and the cottagers were very excited. In Felsted village, by 1pm, nearly every house had hung out a flag. Little Waltham was gay with flags”.

Revd Reeve wrote:

“Some in Stondon heard the distant bells at Brentwood. But it was not till the afternoon that definite tidings reached the villages and then it filtered through chiefly the form of private messages.

News came to Stondon that flags were being hoisted on the Military Hospital at Ongar, and that the veteran Field-Marshall Sir Evelyn Wood VC had visited the place and communicated the splendid message to the wounded men.

As soon as I had this official intelligence the Stondon Church bells were chimed with all the old vigour by Ernest Baines, our sometime sexton.”

But for some celebration did not seem appropriate, sad at the loss of friends and family.

Plans for Blackmore’s War Memorials

Blackmore’s Church Council met as planned on Monday 11th November 1918.

The minutes record that:

“Discussion took place with respect to erecting some memorials of the Great War.

Mr D Wilson moved ‘That the Church Council desires to express its thankfulness to Almighty God for the establishment of peace and to record its appreciation of the sacrifice to those who served in the forces of the Crown in the war by the erection of a Cross in the Churchyard, a painted Window and a roll of Honour to be placed in the Church’.

This was seconded by Mr Reed and adopted”.

With only three men in attendance, including the Vicar, it was decided to hold a public meeting to endorse support. This was held on the following Tuesday, 19th November.

The Influenza Pandemic

During the winter of 1918/19, 150,000 people died in Britain as a result of the virulent Spanish Influenza Pandemic. Worldwide it killed more people than had perished during the whole of the War.

The illness reached Blackmore and Stondon Massey in November 1918.

Revd. Reeve wrote:

“Stondon is passing through a Visitation of the prevailing ‘Influenza’ epidemic. In England Schools have been closed in many districts, and mortality has been very serious.

Our neighbours at Blackmore and Kelvedon Common were attacked before us, but we were to be no exception. The School has been closed as from the 15th November and the sickness has found victims in almost every house.

When the fever is followed by pneumonia and complications it becomes of course a dangerous visitor. The doctors are barely able to attend their numerous patients, and are at a loss to account for the origin of the scourge.

It suffices to keep in check the superabundant rejoicings of Peace”.

Arthur Roast Returns Home

Reeve wrote at the end of January 1919:

“Private Arthur Roast ... returned safely from France.

Like the rest, he is to take a 28 day furlough, and then will consider himself ‘demobilised’, sending off his military great-coat from the nearest railway station into ‘store’, while he retains his khaki suit of uniform.

He had the choice of a new civilian suit or a gratuity of 50 shillings when he left active service and chose the former, which in view of high prices was probably the sensible line of action”.

For King and Country: Remembrance and Reflection

The First World War is removed from our experience, and it is true that those who remember service in the Second World War are becoming fewer. I would suggest that we remember these events through the eyewitnesses: accepting readily that our ancestors lived in a different age to our own. However, they were individual human beings with the same mental faculties as us. These people were part of families, local communities, and serve in society as we do.

Blackmore’s War Memorial unveiled in 1920 states that those who served did so for “Their Majesty” and those who fell did so in the service of “Their Country”. Those who lived through the First World War supported the war effort ‘For King and Country’.

This presentation began with an anecdote from my wife’s family of the First World War, and there will be stories in your families too.

Walter Reed and Remembrance

For me, Walter Reed, my great uncle, a late Victorian, born in Mountnessing, became school teacher and later Church of England lay reader in Norwich.

His sermon for Remembrance Sunday 1948, just three and a half years after the close of the Second World War, includes these words:

“We come ... with mingled feelings and if one could see the thousands of men and women in church this morning we should realise how varied are the reactions it evokes. ... To most of us it speaks of loss for there is hardly a family in this land which has not lost someone in the war.

The obvious reason of Remembrance is to remember the fallen. But this is not a Remembrance Day for one war only for then it would be observed in May or August but it recalls the First Great War of 1914-18 which took an even bigger toll of our young men. And there are some women today to whom it recalls poignantly the death of husband in 1916 and of her son in 1944. ...

But it is Remembrance Day in another sense as it recalls to our minds two great deliverances. Both in 1917 and in 1940 we were nearly crushed; humanly speaking it seemed impossible that we could survive; in 1917 we were within a few weeks of starvation through the sinking of our ships by submarines; in 1940 we were threatened with invasion by a vast army with only one fully trained and equipped division to resist it. ...

The younger ones here cannot appreciate the spirit of our land in 1914 and 1915; we were all crusaders ready to offer our lives to save this world. All our forces were volunteers for compulsory service did not come in until 1916.

In the Battle of the Somme in 1916 they literally offered their lives and gave their lives for this ideal. These are the Valiant Hearts apostrophised in our hymn which is literally true and not just poetic imagination.

They died in their thousands to save all that was best and noblest in the world. Most of the names are recorded on the crosses of France and Flanders but thousands have no recorded grave or memorial.

In London after the First War was erected the Cenotaph to remind us all of the complete sacrifice of all who died in their country’s cause.”

The Cenotaph in London was dedicated on the same day as the burial of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey on 11th November 1920, four days after the dedication of the War Memorial in Blackmore.

We are “the younger ones” Walter Reed speaks of when he says “We were all crusaders”. This was a generation that fought for King and Country.

O Valiant Hearts

The opening verse of the hymn would today make us feel uneasy.

“O valiant hearts who to your glory came
Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;
Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.”

Britain in 1918 was a different country to that of today. To refer to going to war as being a crusade would be really controversial if preached now. But that was then.

Private Archibald Browne

The sad story of Private Archibald Browne of the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment, whose mother lived in Green Street, is that he was court martialled and shot for desertion in December 1914.

He was named on the memorial in Belgium but the shame of his disloyalty meant that his name was not included on Ingatestone’s Roll of Honour immediately after the end of the First World War.

Reverend Reeve served on the Ongar Board of Guardians which considered, on 6th November 1917, a case in Keithley was reported where the government deprived the family of national assistance owing to “the soldier’s serious negligence or misconduct ... obliged to resort to the Poor Law for help.

The Chairman said he could not see why if a soldier misbehaved himself and got shot, his wife and family should suffer.

The Revd. E H L Reeve:

“It is an example to others, and there is a question of a deterrent.”

By four votes to three it was decided to support the Keithley proposal.

When a new Ingatestone War Memorial was unveiled in 2006 Archibald Browne was given his place of honour alongside his villagers. Later that year the Government, under Tony Blair, granted a posthumous pardon to all shot for desertion.

Remembering All Who Served

In his address at the RAF Centenary Service in July 2018, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recalled his family members who had served, one of whom had been killed on active service.

“How fit and proper that we should remember all who have served”.

Some of the 81 named on Blackmore’s War Memorial were among the one and a half million men who were permanently weakened by wounds or the effects of gas, or unseen psychological scars as a consequence of the First World War.

Mental Health and the Legacy of War

Our understanding of mental health being as important as physical health is beginning to change one hundred years on from the First World War.

Natasha Devon, a leading mental health campaigner wrote this in 2018:

“In Britain, in particular we pride ourselves on having a ‘keep calm and carry on’, stiff upper lip-type mentality and seem to be labouring under the illusion that maintaining this through the horrors of the First and Second World Wars meant ‘no one ever used to have mental-health problems’.

I don’t have enough words available to me in this book to convey the extent to which people irrefutably DID have mental-health problems during the wars”.

We Will Remember Them

Laurence Binyon, war poet, has a local connection in that he grew up in Chelmsford before the War. He was the son of Frederick Binyon, curate of St Mary’s Church Chelmsford.

We end this talk with words first published at the beginning not end of the War:

“They went with songs to the battle, they were young
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we are left to grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Bibliography

The main source used in this talk, ‘Notes for a Parish History’ written by the Revd. E.H.L. Reeve of Stondon Massey can be found at the Essex Record Office, ref. T/P 188/3.

• Baker, Miss G.M. Margaretting. The Village with a Beautiful Name (G M Baker, 1983)
• Best, Nicholas. The Greatest Day in History (Phoenix, 2008)
• Clark, Revd. A. (ed. James Munson). Echoes Of The Great War. The Diary of the Reverend Andrew Clark 1914-1919 (Oxford University Press, 1985)
• Coller, Mary. Blackmore. My 1920s Wonderland (1999)
• Devon, Natasha. A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental. An A-Z (Bluebird, 2018)
• Fleetwood, John. Reflected Glory (1979)
• Morris, Captain Joseph. The German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914 – 1918 (Nonsuch, 2007) First published in 1925
• Norris, Stephen. From A Borough to A City. A History of Chelmsford 1888-2012 (Bright Pen, 2014)
• Overy, Richard. The Birth of the RAF, 1918 (Allen Lane, 2018)
• Patch, Harry, with Emden, Richard. The Last Fighting Tommy (Bloombury, 2008)
• Smith, Graham. Essex and Its Race For The Skies (Countryide, 2007)
• Storey, Neil R. Zeppelin Blitz. The German Air Raids on Great Britain During The First World War (The History Press, 2015)
• Taylor, A.J.P. English History 1914-1945 (Oxford, 1965)
• Wilde, Mrs E.E. Ingatestone and the Essex Great Road with Fryerning (Oxford University Press, 1913)

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Stow Maries Aerodrome

Twenty-four ex farm buildings and a flying field achieved Grade II* listing status in May 2012.

Stow Maries Aerodrome is the only intact First World War built site in the country. Its present owners took on the farm in 2007 and with a band of some fifty volunteers are in the process of restoring the buildings: the ninth is in progress.

The Turner family occupied the land between 1914 and 2007, except during the gap when used for military activity.

During the First World War the aerodrome was used by 37 (Home Defence) Squadron, which also operated from Goldhanger and Rochford (now London Southend airport).

Their courage and bravery are remembered in the presence of a new War Memorial on the site commemorating those who died in the cause of defending their country using very basic aeroplanes and navigational aids.

The remote site is a haven for wildlife, and the owners are keen to develop conservation projects alongside the restoration of the buildings.

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1914 and All That

(Written in 2014)

Ian Hook, the Keeper of the Essex Regiment Museum gave the 35th annual Chelmsford Museum Lecture to a packed audience at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford in February. His theme, reflecting the centenary of the beginning of the Great War was ‘1914 and All That’.

Mr Hook has worked at the Museum since 1988 so was able to draw on a wide range of resources and knowledge to present a stimulating lecture which charted the events locally and nationally leading up to and during the First World War.

Preparing for War

In the early twentieth century Germany was rearming itself and Britain’s supremacy as an Imperial Power was being threatened.

Reflecting this Chelmsford opened a Drill Hall in 1903 and the Army held manoeuvres at Clacton the following year, amid concerns that a possible enemy invasion could occur along the flat Essex coastline.

An Essex (Fortress) Royal Engineers company was formed from the technicians who worked for the electronic firms in Chelmsford.

Nationally the Boy Scouts, Church Lads Brigade and Boys’ Brigade grew to develop men capable of defending our island.

The Outbreak of War

It is small wonder then that the 37 days between events at Sarajevo led to the declaration of War on 4 August 1914.

The Essex Regiment was quickly called up. The 5th Battalion was sent to the Harwich Redoubt to relieve the naval patrol.

It is said that the first shots on the War were fired off of the Essex coast on the day after declaration.

The 8th Battalion was deployed to the Napoleonic Martello Tower at Jaywick.

Chelmsford became a major centre for billeting soldiers from elsewhere in the country, mainly from Berkshire and Oxfordshire. In 1914 there was one soldier for every one inhabitant.

Around the district soldiers dug trenches across Essex in preparation for enemy invasion and were trained for their eventual service on the Western Front and elsewhere. They left Essex in March 1915.

Sophisticated plans were put in place to evacuate civilians from Essex in the event of invasion.

The Essex Regiment at War

The call to serve led to many civilians enlisting. A 10th Essex Battalion was created in 1914, being one of three new Battalions raised.

In 1915 the soldiers left Essex. The 1st Battalion went to Gallipoli. Other Battalions went to the Western Front where the stalemate of war held soldiers in trenches – mercifully for short periods of time before they were relieved by their comrades.

Perhaps up to waist deep in mud, their diet was bully beef, biscuit and water drank out of a petrol can.

The infamous first day of the Somme on 1st July 1916, in which the heavy bombardment could be heard at Stondon Massey rectory and elsewhere in Essex, produced a heavy toll of casualties.

Contemporary Sources

There are many contemporary sources both at home and abroad, one of the most notable being the diary of Revd Andrew Clark of Great Leighs.

But there are no photographs of Essex Battalions on the Western Front – Ian Hook would gladly receive an album if one existed.

The War at Home

In Chelmsford during the war civilians had to contend with the enemy Zeppelin, one of which dropped a bomb just off of Broomfield Road.

There was great rejoicing when these were brought down by British aeroplanes.

There were many sightseers at Great Wigborough in September 1916 when one came down, the L32, across fields. Many obtained portions of the aluminium frame as souvenirs or to sell on.

Industry and the Home Front

With the need to arm Britain, many women worked in munitions factories while men were conscripted to serve.

Ironically, it was a time of full employment and increasing incomes.

People were encouraged to invest in War Bonds and support specific campaigns: Chelmsford held an Aeroplane Week in 1917.

It was the eventual air supremacy which led to the armistice the following year.

Harlow Street Names Commemorating Local Servicemen

(Written in 2015)

Commemorating local people in street names is a very appropriate way to mark the local history of a community.

Foster Court

In Harlow, 18 new council homes are nearing completion. It has been announced that the development on Momples Road will be named "Foster Court" in memory of Private Robert Foster.

Private Robert Foster, who served under the 1st Battalion, was remembered at the Royal Anglian Regiment parade, when it exercised the freedom of the town on 22 October 2015.

Private Foster, otherwise known as Robert "Fozzy Frog" Foster, was tragically killed in Afghanistan in August 2007.

Riley Mews

The Council also announced that the development in the Hill in Old Harlow will be named “Riley Mews" in memory of the Riley brothers, Thomas, Cyril and Francis, who were all from Harlow and lost their lives serving in the First World War.

Private Thomas William Riley served for the 1st and 4th Battalions of the Essex Regiment and died in September 1915.

Private Cyril Riley served for the 5th battalion of the East Kent Regiment and died in May 1916.

Corporal Francis Arthur Riley died in February 1917 serving with the 8th Battalion of The Bedfordshire Regiment. He formerly served with The Essex Regiment.

A booklet sold ‘Price Sixpence’ published ‘Chelmsford. Printed by the ‘Essex County Chronicle’ Office. 1906’.

The last seventy years have been very eventful, and fruitful of change. Essex has perhaps changed as little as most places; but many things, even in Essex, are very different from what they were seventy years ago; and perhaps these few reminiscences of an Essex man, whose memory carries him well back to the middle thirties of the last century [c.1835], may not be altogether without interest to the Essex men and women of today.

The Essex Landscape

In its physical aspect – or perhaps I should say its natural features – the Essex country looked very much the same then as it does now. There were then, as now, vast stretches of arable land, intermixed with a few meadows, especially along the course of the streams, and there was a good proportion of wood.

The face of the county has not been changed, as it has in some other counties, by bringing into cultivation heaths, commons and marshes. Strips of waste may have been taken in, here and there, from the wayside, and a good deal of timber may have disappeared, particularly from the hedgerows, but still, in the main, the general look of the country, now, would be perfectly familiar to the dwellers in it seventy years ago.

The old roads lead where they did, and a few new ones have been made; and the old towns, where people shopped and marketed, in whatever way they may have been enlarged and improved, still retain enough of the old familiar features to be easily recognisable. Of course I am here speaking of the real Essex, and not of the London overflow in the South-western corner of the county.

Coaching and Travel

Seventy years ago there were no railroads, and private travelling had to be done in carriages or coaches.

I remember the coaches very well. Several of them passed through the village in which I lived, on their way to, and from, London. There were, I think, two Norwich coaches, one Bury, and one Sudbury coach.

There was also a Braintree coach started at 7 o’clock in the morning and got to London about 12; started again from London at 3, and got back to Braintree about 8; so that if people had urgent business to transact in London which could be transacted in a couple of hours, they could thus manage the whole thing in one day; but the ten hours’ journey must have been, one would think, a very wearisome affair.

On a fine day, and for a journey that was not too long, the outside of a well-appointed coach was pleasant enough; but the inside especially when occupied (as it often was) by old ladies and children, was a stuffy and dreary prison-house, compared with which the least “well-appointed” railway carriage of the present day is palatial.

There were no compartments, and the fat people bulged over, and encroached upon the thin. The floor of the coach was furnished with straw, and the windows were small, and (in those days when fresh air was not in such demand as it is now) very constantly and needlessly drawn up. Whatever might have been the “glories” of the old coaching days, I can say, from my own experience, that travelling children had little share in them.

Along the high roads were also to be seen high, tilting waggons, drawn by four horses, trotting gaily along, and these, as well as the coaches, were regarded with some apprehension by riders and drivers when apt to be restive.

But perhaps the special objects of aversion to horses were the low gipsy tents often seen on some waste patch of green by the roadside. It may, however, be doubted whether our traction engines and motor cars do not supply, at the present time, quite a sufficiency of excitement to all who have the fortune to encounter them, whether in the saddle or on wheels.

In the days of which I am speaking the system of turnpike-gates was in full swing – by a system by no means all bad, seeing that it was based upon the principle of making those who used the roads pay for them. But the turnpikes remained long after the coaches had departed, and it is only in comparatively late years that they have entirely disappeared from the high-roads of Essex.

Shopping and Colchester

Essex ladies went shopping then, as they do now; but as London was, practically, so much further off, they did much of their business with the local shops.

Colchester was a great place for shopping, for ladies in my part of the county, when anything extra choice was required, and it would be within an easy drive. A day at Colchester was a great treat for children, with an early dinner at “The Cups,” and a stroll through the streets, and into the old Castle, and the Botanic Gardens, which were located somewhere near it.

When the carriage began to rattle over the cobbles in the High Street (cobbles being unknown in our small town), we felt that we were, now, really coming to an important city.

Holidays at the Essex Seaside

In the late summer, many Essex people who lived inland were in the habit of repairing to the sea-side; but it was to the Essex sea-side that (for our part of Essex at least) most of them went.

Harwich and Walton were quite good enough for us. We had no ambition in the direction of Brighton or Hastings, or other more fashionable places further off. Of the two, Walton and Harwich, Walton was, I think, looked upon as more select, but there was far more fun at Harwich.

Besides the grand facilities for boating, with the harbour, and the two rivers, and the open sea, there was a town, a little museum, and a market-hall, where fruit and other good things were sold, and a glorious Mayor, who used to walk in procession to church every Sunday, with his mace and mace-bearer, and attendants.

There was also a Redoubt, full of soldiers, and they, too, were a fine sight as they marched to church on Sunday morning; and there was, sometimes, drilling on the Esplanade green. If I remember right, the soldiers the wore swallow-tailed red coats and white trowsers.

When I and my nursemaid ventured to speak to one in his sentry-box, he was always affable and pleasant – a fact which might, perhaps, have been due more to the nursemaid than myself.

Felixtowe, on the opposite side of the harbour, was nice in some respects, but you could not always be certain of getting enough to eat. The beach there, by the Landguard Fort, was a good one for cornelians, and, on rare occasions, a small piece of yellow amber would appear among the shingle and sea-weed.

I wonder if anybody who reads this will remember the “Three Cups,” at Harwich, as it used to be, when the landlady was the obliging and portly Mrs. Bull, and when the London porter there obtainable was famed throughout the land!

Clothing and Fashion

Men dressed not so very differently in those days from what they do now. There were more breeches and gaiters to be seen, especially among old men in country places, and the high stiff collars and voluminous neckcloths of the Regency and subsequent reign had not yet died out.

I have seen two gentlemen, standing side by side, in conversation, who, when they wanted to look at each other, were unable to turn their heads only, but had to turn their shoulders as well.

Top boots were worn, very generally, by country gentlemen and farmers; but old gentlemen often appeared in long gaiters, coming up over the knee. For men who lived in towns the Wellington boot was a very usual wear. This was a boot worn inside the trowsers, and reaching high up over the calf.

Trowsers were kept down, especially when riding, by straps under the sole of the boot, and fastened to buttons at the bottoms of the trowser-legs. Hats were of beaver – with a long nap, ruffled by every breeze that blew, and therefore constantly needing the brush.

White hats were a good deal in vogue, and I believe elderly gentlemen, with a taste for colour, were in the habit of having them “turned up” with green, but I do not think I ever saw one so treated.²

Smock frocks were very generally worn by labourers engaged in agriculture – not white, like the Sussex shepherds’, but of a dark greenish colour, and curiously worked and patterned at the front. I have not seen one for many years.

Beards and moustaches were almost unknown among Englishmen. A smooth lip and chin, and a side whisker (often of the “mutton-chop” variety) were the usual and proper thing.

The dress of the ladies varied, as it does now, from time to time, and season to season. I will not attempt to describe the fashions of a bygone age, but I may just say that my recollection of women’s dress 60 or 70 years ago is, although it was, in a way, simpler, and much less expensive, it was not nearly so becoming as it is now.

Exception must, however, be made in the case of peasant women, who were clad more appropriately as well as more picturesquely than at the present time, and whose warm red cloaks were often a cheerful feature in a country landscape.

In the matter of footgear, I must say I think our grandmothers had the advantage, inasmuch as their shoes and boots were made and worn with more regard to comfort and less to appearance.

Among the poorer classes, including domestic servants, the use of pattens was very general. The patten consisted of a wooden sole, mounted upon an iron support about an inch or couple of inches high, and furnished on each side with a bit of cloth or velvet, to which a string was attached for tying around the instep.

These iron supports often ended in a ring or circle, so that when a woman walked about in pattens, in the snow or mud, she made (as Dickens funnily described it) “rough impressions of the first proposition in Euclid wherever she trod.”³

Clogs, with a hinge in the sole, were worn by both men and women, and to them succeeded the ugly and unwholesome india-rubber golosh; but these have almost entirely disappeared, and a shoe, or boot, of good, stout leather is looked upon as the best protection for the foot, even on the wettest and muddiest roads.

One curious and unwholesome custom in bygone days was that of muffling up the throat. I remember well the heavy, flat, fur bos, with a buckle to keep the ends together, that men wore out-of-doors in cold weather.

Domestic Life

Domestic life was certainly much quieter – many people would say duller – than it is now. Women and girls stayed more at home, and found their interests and occupations in home-life.

In the middle class there were few wives or daughters either, who did not know something about cooking, and were not able to shew, practically, how things ought to be done; and the consequence of this was, that the food, simple and unpretentious though it might be, was better cooked and better served.

Schools of cookery have increased in number, but they have not in my opinion, by any means improved the quality, of our dishes. In the days of old, greater pains were taken, as it seems to me, to make things palatable.

No isinglass creams or gelatine jellies would have been tolerated; and if cook wanted some flavouring for her custards, she went into the garden for two or three bay-leaves instead of taking down a bottle of “essence” from the shelf.

Owing, perhaps, to our propinquity to Suffolk dumplings of various sorts, and suet and batter puddings, eaten with dripping, were standard dishes. Is there such a thing as dripping now-a-days?

This stay-at-home life encouraged a good deal of gossip of a personal description. We talked about our neighbours because there were few other subjects of interest open to us. But I do not know that gossip was more ill-natured than at present.

There was not, I think, quite so much Attic (?) salt in the conversation of our mothers and grandmothers as there is in that of their descendants, and many of the words and expressions now in use – some of them more emphatic than elegant, or perhaps we might say, more smart than pretty – would not have been found in the feminine vocabulary.⁴

Markets and Fairs

We had some variations, however, from even the tenor of our ways. For instance, there was Market-day.

Market-day was looked forward to, then as now, as a day of business, but there was more of a festive character about it. It was a sort of a holiday; for not only did farmers come to market with their corn or stock, but their wives and daughters often accompanied them, to do some shopping or meet their friends.

And, with wheat at a comfortable price, money could be spent freely, and shopkeepers did a profitable business. It is not only by farmers that bad times in agriculture are felt.

Then there were Fairs, which were great events in the year, for children as well as grown-up people. It was a great treat to be taken to the Fair and walk through the alleys of stalls, gay with all manner of toys, and tempting with every description of sweets and gingerbread.

Braintree Fair was the most important one in our district, and people used to date it important events, such as the birth of a foal, or a puppy. The first day was for business, the second for pleasure; but neither for business nor pleasure does the Fair now offer the attractions of former times.

Sport

Essex people were always fond of sport, and fox-hunting was then, and now, the chief sport for the well-to-do.

There were few men or boys who could afford a horse or a pony, and the needful time, who did not manage to get to some of the meets, but there were not many hunting ladies. The number of keen and straight-riding Dianas who grace our meets now, would I fancy, have considerably astonished the M.F.H. [Master of the Fox Hounds] of seventy years ago.

Ladies, when in the saddle, wore long riding-habits, and “top” hats with veils. Men’s hunting costume was much the same as at present, excepting that the scarlet coats were tail-coats and not frocks.

The field generally included a large proportion of farmers, and no men are fonder of sport than they. I have understood that the language used by the M.F.H., when vexed or irritated, was of a stronger and racier description than now would meet the ear.

Squires, and farmers too, looked forward to the partridge shooting in September, and the sport, in those days of long stubbles and dogs, is thought by some to have been more enjoyable than it is under the present system of driving, although it might not result in so large a bag of game.

And so with regard to pheasant shooting. I am by no means sure that a sportsman of the old school would care very much for the mechanical arrangements of a modern battue. He would like to do something in the way of finding the game as well as killing it.

There was not much cricket going in Essex. There were a few small local clubs, but the absence of the beautiful commons and village-greens so plentiful in some counties made cricket a difficult thing for the poorer classes, for suitable ground was either not to be had at all, or only at a price beyond their means.

Football, hockey, golf, croquet, and lawn tennis were unknown, and, so far as remembrance goes, bowls, quoits, and skittles, in addition to very moderate cricket as aforesaid, were about the only out-of-door games played in my part of the country.

Drink and Smoking

There was more drunkenness seventy years ago, or at all events, it was more in evidence. The sight of a man lying dead drunk by the side of the road was by no means a very uncommon one.

Labouring men were not discouraged from drinking by either the precepts or examples of their betters, and very little disgrace was attached to the man who got drunk. It was looked upon as a weakness, it is true, but as a natural and amiable weakness.

It was a very usual thing to say to a man who had done you some little service – held your horse, or opened a gate – “here’s sixpence to get yourself a glass of beer,” as if that were the evidently legitimate and proper way of spending the money.

I think more beer was drunk in those days than now, among all classes, and it was not restricted to a glass at luncheon or dinner, but a glass at breakfast, or even at tea, was no uncommon thing.

Every house of any pretention in the country had some out-building or other which served as a brewhouse, and the beer thus brewed at home was often good and strong, as well as pure.

Port and sherry were the usual wines, at least among people of my acquaintance, and perhaps a bottle of claret if any foreign guest happened to be present. Champagne was rarely seen, and, when it came, it was drunk in slender funnel-shaped glasses, which left you with one part wine, and three parts froth – very different from the generous goblets of our present time!

It is curious, by the way, to contrast the extreme jealousy with which children are now guarded against any inducement to taste “intoxicating drinks” with the custom that prevailed when I was a child, or having children down from the nursery at the conclusion of dinner,⁵ and giving them a little wine in father’s or mother’s glass, or sometimes in little special glasses or their own.

With regards to spirits, some people – elderly people especially – used to take a considerable quantity, and to take it regularly. Generally, it was either brandy or gin. I knew an old gentleman whose regular allowance was a bottle of gin a day.

There were the days of earlier dinners, and subsequent suppers, and, after supper the spirit decanters came in, and people mixed for themselves, and generally with hot water. Whiskies and sodas taken at odd times had not come into fashion.

Smokers were given the alternative of pipes or cigars; the cigarette had not yet appeared, at least in England.

“Churchwarden” pipes, used in all their comfortable length by those who sat in chimney corners, and in short pieces by labourers and others who had to walk about, were, I think, the only description of pipes to be met with. Meerschaums and briars came later.

Cigars were, I fancy, cheaper than at present; I believe a very decent cigar was to be got for 2d., and for 3d., better still. Snuff-taking had ceased to be a fashionable practice, although a few elderly people still retained the habit, women as well as men.

Medicine and the Home

I don’t know whether it was because we habitually ate and drank too much, but we were, certainly, dosed much more constantly and persistently than we are now, and the physic we took was both strong and nasty.

Rhubarb, castor oil, black draught, were remorselessly “exhibited”⁶ on the slightest provocation, and, if my recollection serves me, we were often dosed as a precautionary measure.

We might not want the medicine then, but we were sure to want it soon, so might as well have some at once. There were the times when people were bled at regular intervals; the days when antiseptics were unknown, and when no merciful anaesthetics soothed the agonies of the operating-table.

Domestic life was lived under great difficulties, or perhaps I show say a greater number of small difficulties, than it is now.

For instance, when the servants got up, in the dark mornings the first thing to be done was to find the tinder-box and strike a light. The tinder-box was a small metal receptable for tinder (burnt rag), and with it were the flint and steel.

You took the flint in one hand and the steel in the other, and struck them together over the box; the sparks fell on the tinder below, which kept them going, as it were; you then applied to them the end of a thin splinter of wood dipped with sulphur – and there you had your light.

Rather different from these days of lucifer matches and electric light!

And if you objected to being left in the dark at night, there were no convenient little wax night-lights to dump down beside your soap-dish; you would have to be supplied with a rush-light, which was a long strip of pith coated with tallow, and with a tall japanned tin shade.

You would then have proceeded to do as did the middle-aged lady in “Pickwick” with hers. She placed (we are told) the shade, with the rush-light inside, on the floor, “where it glimmered away, like a gigantic light-house in a particularly small piece of water.”

I am afraid the number of men and women who can remember the days of tinder-boxes and rushlights is dwindling very fast.

Then the old-fashioned open kitchen fire-places were more trouble than the modern cooking-stoves, although they did the work they had to do (chiefly simple roasting) quite as well, if not better.

I remember that in one of the houses I used to visit, when a child, there was a “smoke-jack,” which was an apparatus fixed to the kitchen chimney, for turning the spit on which the meat was roasting before the fire, by means of the smoke; but one would have, I fancy, to search for a good while before finding a smoke-jack at the present time.

Pedlars and Travellers

I don’t think we were much annoyed by tramps or beggars. The farmers had occasional trouble with gipsies encamping on the road-side near their farms, and this trouble has not, I believe, entirely disappeared now.

Pedlars used to come round occasionally with various small articles for sale, and there were the “Buy-a-broom” girls, in short petticoats, singing their little song, one verse of which I remember ran thus:

“To sweep away insects that sometimes annoy you
You’ll find it convenient to use night and day;
And what better exercise, pray, can employ you
Than to sweep all such tiresome intruders away?
Buy a broom, buy a broom,
O buy of the wandering Bavarian a broom.”

The nationality of the singers was, perhaps, doubtful. The brooms were made of small, curled wood shavings.

Church and Dissent

Church and dissent wage their battles as they do now, and questions sometimes came to the front which brought their antagonism to a point, just as the Education Bill does at the present time.

Both sides were, I think, more vigorous and outspoken in their denunciations of each other, and called each other names with great gusto. The Vicar of a parish I knew very well was credited with the remark that Essex stunk of Dissenters, and the Dissenters were not at all behind-hand in paying reciprocal compliments.

There can be no question of the vast improvement that has taken place in the Church Services, or the greater activity, and greater sense of responsibility of the clergy generally.

In the times of which I am speaking there were very few open Churches, at least in the country. There were two services on Sunday, a service on an occasional Saints’ day, and the Church was locked up during the rest of the week.

The parson wore bands, and read the prayers in a surplice, always changing into a black gown for the sermon. My impression is that the services were longer and duller than they are now; and the music, in country churches especially, was often peculiar.

A band of performers, with their various instruments, in a gallery fronting the pulpit, was a not unusual spectacle, and the music they made might be called quaint rather than beautiful.

The Church Clerk was an important personage. He led the responses in a sonorous voice, and gave out the hymns always with the preface, “Let us sing to the praise and glory of God.”

I ought not to omit the beadle from my notice of Church institutions. He was an awe-inspiring object, but the church beadle was not, if I remember right, gorgeous like other beadles, but black and melancholy.

He carried a long slender stick with which he used to operate upon the heads of little boys and girls when they were fidgety.

The description of pulpit irreverently called a “three-decker” – clerk’s desk, reading desk, and pulpit, one on the top of the other – was often to be met with. There is a good representation of the three-decker pulpit in one of the plates of Hogarth’s “Industry and Idleness.”

The pews were paradises as compared to the present seats. They were high, a fault which could easily have been remedied, and roomy, a good fault if a fault at all, but you could sit in them with comfort, and this cannot be said of the narrow benches of varnished deal, with straight backs, which are now seen in so many Churches that have undergone the process of re-seating.

Why a man should be made uncomfortable when he goes to say his prayers, it is not very easy to understand!

Church decoration, now such a favourite occupation with lady residents of the parish, had not in those early days developed into an art. Sprigs of red-berried holly stuck about the pews and pulpit is about the only “decoration” I can remember.

The custom of dressing up churches with all manner of evergreens and flowers,⁷ fruit and vegetables, is a comparatively recent one.

Sundays

When I was a child Sunday was rather a wearisome day for children. It was much more strictly “kept” than it is now. No newspapers, no “light” reading, no “secular” music.

Church, or chapel, going twice, perhaps even thrice, and a generally pervading atmosphere of melancholy dullness.

Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” was looked upon as a Godsend by children, because of its being recognised as a Sunday book. The religion in it (of rather a warm complexion) satisfied the parents, and the story, and especially the pictures, delighted the children.

The pictures, in the early editions, of Apollyon’s fight with Christian, and of the fiends, of various horrible and fantastic shapes, in the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” were especially thrilling.

Politics and Elections

In my early days we were very political, and most of us True Blue to the backbone, although the minority hoisted their Orange flag whenever opportunity offered.

Election time was a stirring time, with its bands, with its banners, and processions. As the procession passed through the streets of the town, escorting the triumphant victors, it stopped to cheer before the houses of their supporters, and to hoot before those of their opponents; and, in the pre-ballot days, it was pretty well known who were the one or the other.

In the evening, and, indeed throughout the day, there was a very free (the word may be used in a double sense) consumption of beer and other strong drink, and plenty of boisterous, but, I think, not ill-natured, horseplay.

Election squibs abounded, more remarkable, perhaps, for heavy personalities than for point or humour.

And, in talking of elections, one cannot help noticing the decadence of the Liberal, or shall I say the Whig, element among our “County” people. The Orange flag might fail in leading its followers to victory, but, in the old days, it was vigorously waved, and Westerns, Honywoods, Rebows, and others, whose names are now little more than an echo, marched in the van.

I have heard a cynic remark that if you put aside the accidents of birth, and party associations, and got down to the fundamentals, you would not have found, half a century ago, a great deal of difference between territorial Whigs and Tories, but that the former were pretty well as aristocratic and exclusive, and as great sticklers for class privileges, as the latter.

However this may be, few, I think, would deny that the Liberalism of today runs upon the lines which old County Whigs would have regarded with suspicion and dislike.

Agricultural Labour and Domestic Service

The agricultural labourers, seventy years ago, worked harder, I think, than they do now, and they were more generally skilled, because the work they had to do was of a varied description.

Ploughing, hay-making, reaping, thrashing, were all done by men, and not by machines. But the wages were wretchedly low, bread and other necessities very dear, and one wonders how the men managed to exist.

No doubt, in the many parishes especially where there was a squire, private charity did much to help, and it was therefore important that the labourer should keep on good terms with the squire, or the parson, upon whose bounty he would have to depend when sickness or any unexpected trouble came upon him.

The feeling of dependence was, I daresay, sometimes productive of a spirit of subserviency, and a fear of offending lest the much-needed assistance should be withheld; and it is quite possible that a good deal of hat-touching and curtsey-bobbing, which was so general a habit among the poorer villagers, and was looked upon as only a due mark of respect to “their betters,” had no deeper origin than a desire to flatter and propitiate.

But where those “betters” were at all kind and considerate, I am sure there was often a sincere attachment between the rich and the poor.

There were, then, no cheap newspapers, with advertisements of vacant situations, and no railways, affording easy means of travelling, and it was a much more serious business for employers and servants to part company than it is now.

Instances of servants who had lived twenty, thirty, or forty years in the same place were not uncommon, and these long years of association naturally brought with them mutual feelings of kindly personal interest.

There was not, I think, so much distance between masters and mistresses and their servants as we find today. They knew more about each other, and entered more readily and sympathetically into each other’s cares, joys, and sorrows.

Education

There was very little education about, even in the three R’s [reading, writing, and arithmetic]. Great numbers of the working class were unable to read or write.

There were schools, but they were few in number in proportion to the population, and by no means models of efficiency. As a matter of fact, education was looked upon askance by many employers of labour.

“We don’t want the men to know more than their masters” was a not uncommon sentiment, and I quite well remember an elderly friend of mine being not only astonished but indignant because the servant was able from the address on a letter, to tell the postman that he was delivering it at the wrong house.

Industry

Although agriculture was the main industry in Essex, and by far the greater number of its working population were employed on the land, yet there were some manufactures, notably at Colchester, Coggeshall, Halstead and Braintree.

The “bay and say” business (wool) had died out, but the silk business had succeeded;⁸ and in the towns I have named there were mills and factories employing a considerable number of people in spinning and weaving silk, besides a great many hand loom weavers, who wove the various fabrics in their homes.

Many of these were descendants of expelled French Huguenots, and this French origin could often be traced in their names.

The large engineering and implement-making establishments which are now so prominent a feature of our Essex industries, had either not appeared at all, or were in the very early stage of development.

I should mention that the plaiting of straw gave occupation to a good many women in the villages, and they could frequently be seen standing at their doors, twisting the straw with their nimble fingers.

I believe this industry was introduced into this part of the country some century or more ago, by the Marchioness of Buckingham who was then a resident at Gosfield Hall.

It is a great many years since any straw plaiting was done in the Essex villages. One would think it was an almost ideal occupation for women, giving them profitable employment in their own homes, but I have heard that it was not so, and that it encouraged gadding about, and much idle gossiping from house to house.

The Essex Dialect

I am glad to think that the good old Essex dialect and twang still survive – not of course in the Londonised part of the county, but in the real country districts.

It is not easy to understand an Essex labourer when he speaks to you. I am sometimes at a loss myself, although I have lived within hearing of him all my life.

I well remember the look of amused astonishment on the faces of some of our County Councillors from London way when, at our first meeting, an Agricultural Councillor from the uplands proceeded to deliver his opinion in the peculiar high-pitched tones.

For it is not only the labourers who “talk Essex.” Nearly all Essex people do so more or less, and the natives of the beloved county can very generally recognise each other by their speech.⁹

The Beloved County

I have used the expression “beloved county,” and I don’t know that it is an exaggeration. Essex folk do love their native county. I heard it remarked, the other day, that they no sooner get out of it, than they are anxious to get back.

And yet we have no grand or romantic features – no mountains or rocks, no lakes or rushing rivers, no wild moors of dense forests, nothing to impress the imagination, and remain fixed in the memory as a glorious contrast to the tamer and duller regions to which the fates may have banished us.

Perhaps it is the very gentleness of the Essex landscape, the home-like character of its fields and woods and scattered villages, that so fixes the affections of an Essex man, and makes him feel strange in lands of far more imposing natural features.

And perhaps, too, the wholesale and undeserved condemnation of the county by ignorant and prejudiced persons makes some of us love it even more.

“Don’t go and live in Essex” is, or used to be, the counsel of London doctors. “Essex, that land of marsh and swamps!” is a description I have heard given to it.

If people who talk in this way knew it a little better, they would, I think, judge a little differently. There are parts of Essex, no doubt, which are flat and unlovely, and therefore not the most desirable places to live in; and marshes and swamps are, I daresay, to be found by those who look for them in the right place.

But it does not do so to generalise widely from particular instances. Certainly it has been my experience that, almost without exception, visitors and newly come residents, who have got to know something of the real Essex, have expressed themselves surprised and delighted at the quiet beauty of its scenery.

Old Times and New

On comparing the past with the present, it may very naturally be asked, - which are the better, the old times or the new? Have we improved, or gone back? Are we better off, or worse?

So far as material advantages go, I am afraid very many of us are decidedly worse off than we were then.

A cloud of agricultural depression has been brooding over the county for many years; and, as a result, landowners have had to sell or let their estates, farmers have been hard put to it to make a living, and many of them have quite gone under, parsons have reason to complain of reduced tithes, and shopkeepers of diminished profits and increased competition.

On the other hand, the condition of the poorer classes, the wage-earners, has immensely improved. They are better paid, better fed, better housed, (though, here, there is still much to be done), and better taught.

Holidays are more frequent and means of cheap and rapid travelling by rail or bicycle give them opportunities of seeing something of places and people outside their own borders.

Sport, too, is popularised by the establishment of cricket and football clubs in most of our Essex towns.

Cheap newspapers give many more subjects of interest to read and think about, although it is to be regretted that some of the lower-priced journals give to sensationalised reports and quack advertisements much space that might be utilised with greater profit to the readers.

This is an age of unrest, in Essex, as elsewhere, and an old man who loves quiet – as old men generally do – may be excused if he looks back with some regret to the quieter times when he was young.

There is, now, no part for him in the strenuous business of life, or in its exciting pleasures. Puffs and prospectuses of golden opportunities for speculation and enterprise drop into his waste-paper basket unheeded.

There is no time left him for speculation, and his enterprises are all finished. He is unable to take part in any active exercises, and much football (in his local newspaper) is a weariness of the flesh.

He has no ambition to rush about the country at racing speed, and, placid and kindly though he be, the old Adam rises up when a silent bicycle brushes his skirts, or a hooting motor bustles him to the hedge.

He is old, and must get out of the way, for the world is for the young and active and pushing. He must just stand on one side, where he can watch (not without interest) the tide of busy life as it flows by, until policeman Time summons him, too, to “pass on.”

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Essex Journal Index

The Index covers Volumes 1-50 (1966-2015).

Greenstead-juxta-Ongar

• church of St Andrew 18(2).27; 26(1).7, 8, 10
• manor 18(2).27

Stanford Rivers

• beacon 42(1).12, 13
• church of St Margaret 41(1).9; 42(2).58, 60; 49(2).58
• clergy 3(4).201, 202
• co-operative society land 13(1).12
• footpath/bridge 8(4).124
• Stanford Rivers Hall farm 40(2).49
• workhouse 45(1).24

Stapleford Tawney

• airfield 50(2).67
• Arnolds 7(1).18
• bees 3(3).163¹⁰
• Swing Riots 39(1).21

Theydon Mount

¹¹

• church of St Michael 5(1).10, 13, 18, 20–1; 6(1).17, 18, 19, 21

Hill Hall

• building of 27(2).36; 44(1).23
• exhibition 13(1).23
• fire 4(3).172–3
• Ken Neale and 39(1).11–12, 12, 15, 17
• portrait 6(1).18
• reconstruction 33(2).62
• Smith family 1(1).39; 1(2).33–4; 5(1).4, 8, 14, 16–21; 45(1).13

• manor 5(1).6–7, 16–17
• Mounthall 5(1).17
• pollbooks 4(2).75, 85
• stile 8(4).121
• witchcraft 1(1).39¹²

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Online Access

Volumes 39-50 (and to date) may be viewed freely online via the website of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History: Essex Journal | Publications | Essex Society for Archaeology & History.

Fire at Hill Hall (1969): A Letter from Kenneth Neale

Originally published in The Essex Journal, Volume 4 (1969), pages 172–173.

Correspondence: News of Hill Hall

19th April 1969
17 Gordon Road,
Chingford, E.4.

Dear Mr. O'Leary,

Thank you for your letter of 17th April. I spent this morning at Hill Hall, now a sad and blackened shell, and I feel I must write to you about it as I know of your personal interest and you may wish to put a note in Essex Journal.

The fire started at about 11 p.m. on 18th April and the alarm was raised by one of the prisoners. By the time that the fire brigades arrived there was a serious conflagration in the north-west upper corner of the main building, but all the occupants were, mercifully, safely evacuated.

The fire spread around the upper parts of the great quadrangular building and then downwards leaving a gutted shell although the external facades are largely intact. Only in the south-west corner and the west wing is the interior destruction not complete.

The lovely clock and cupola lie burnt and destroyed in the rubble at the foot of the north wall behind the main entrance. But there is some hope that at least some of the murals can be retrieved.

When I was there this morning the ruins were still smoking and here and there fire was still present. The general desolation of the scene was emphasised by the green peace in the April fields and woods of the surrounding Essex countryside and farmlands.

Around the house daffodils and primroses adorn the tree-clad lawns now laced with hoses and the tyre-marks of the fire engines and police vehicles. It is an indescribably tragic scene.

For almost four hundred years this lovely building has graced Theydon Mount and much had been done by the Prison Department to put and keep it in immaculate condition.

For me the most poignant touch was the sculptured white salamanders rising from the flames which, mounted on pillars at the entrance from the south front, still symbolise the Smith tradition.

I can only hope that they are prophetic and relevant to the future as to the past glories of this lovely old Elizabethan home. For the present it joins its neighbour, Copped Hall, as an empty, fire-consumed relic of two Elizabethan figures whose careers, although they were of very different stature, were nevertheless closely entwined.

When we know more about what is to happen I will let you know – meanwhile I shall persevere with the biographical and architectural study that I have promised for the Essex Journal.

Yours sincerely,

Kenneth Neale

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Footnote

The article ‘Sir Thomas Smith and Hill Hall, Essex’ by Kenneth Neale appeared in The Essex Journal, Volume 5, pages 3–22.

Essex Journal Articles After Volume 50

There is no Index for ‘The Essex Journal’ after Volume 50 (2015).

The following articles have been published and are freely available from the website of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History (ESAH): Essex Society for Archaeology & History (www.esah1852.org.uk).

Greensted Church Revisited

‘Greensted Church Revisited’ by Michael Leach may be found in Essex Journal Spring 2023.indd, pages 16 to 25.

Chipping Ongar

There is reference to a portrait and model of Greensted Church, and Greenstead Hall, in ‘.. the enlarging of Chipping Ongar’ by James Bettley: Autumn Text 2017.

Bourchier Estates

Greensted is mentioned in connection with the Bourchier estates: Essex Journal layout.indd p15.

The de Tanys of Stapleford Tawney

Taken from ‘Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. New Series., Volume 20 (1931), p.153-172.’

THE main interest in the village of Stapleford Tawney now lies in its name. Its distinguishing appellative is what our barbarous Essex tongue has made of the name of one of the most interesting families of mediaeval Essex - the de Tanys. Though interesting, the de Tanys are in no way remarkable; their history follows very closely that of most mediaeval families. They first rise to importance through marriage with an heiress, and later increase their possessions by the same means. They give of their lands to endow a monastery; they perform many of the lesser functions concerned with the administration of government. They live, quietly on the whole, on their manors, hunting their neighbours or hunting with them. It is only when some great cataclysm like the Barons’ wars shakes the countryside to its foundations that they emerge to play a part on a wider stage, and shine with a fitful gleam - and then ingloriously - in the pageant of national history.

Like so many other mediaeval families, they die out ignominiously, early deaths and unfruitful marriages standing in eloquent testimony to the health of the time. It is this “unremarkableness” of the family, however, which lends the study of its history, its value: the Middle Ages present few such characters as Geoffrey de Mandeville or Simon de Montfort; there are,

alas! many like the younger Richard de Tany.¹³ There is very little information accessible in print concerning the family. Morant, usually so helpful, only copies Dugdale, whose pedigree, though less faulty than many to be found in his pages, has numerous gaps and inaccuracies. The de Tanys played but a small part in the history of the time, and notices of them in contemporary annals and histories are few. They seem, too, to have aroused but slight interest among the antiquaries of a later age; even the late Dr. J.H . Round devoted but little attention to them m his published writings!¹⁴ The present paper, though based on careful research, is yet to be regarded as a pioneer effort - with indulgence. The object of its writer will be achieved if it elicits some additional information from its readers. The early history of the Tany family is obscure, and this paper does but little to clear it. It is included here merely in order to add some degree of completeness to this study. The only evidence available for its compilation consists of entries in the Pipe Rolls, and the Red Book of the Exchequer, and a few charters. From these the following pedigree may be constructed : its conclusions are substantially the same as those arrived at by Dugdale.

Roger, miles Johanuis filii Waleranni.
I
Maud = Hasculf de Tany, living in 1130.
I
Graeland, living in 1166.
I
Hasculf, living in 1180.
I
Gilbert = Emma, o.s.p.m. 1221.

The Roger, whose name appears first on the above pedigree, was a benefactor of the Abbey of Bermondsey, giving them the tithes of Fyfield in 1092. The gift is thus recorded in the annals of the abbey: 1092. Et etiam hoc anno Rogerus miles Johannis filii 'Valeranni, concedente eadem Johanne, dedit monasterio de Bermundeseis decimas de Fifhide quem donationem confirmaverunt Vvillelmus secundus et Henricus primus, reges Angliae. [[REF¹⁵]]

[Translated: 1092. And also this year Roger, son of John 'Valeran', with the consent of the same John, gave the monastery of Bermondsey tithes from Fifhide, a donation that was confirmed by William II and Henry I, kings of England.] He has generally been assumed to be a de Tany. The cautious Morant

16 does not definitely state this : he says, “I suppose, de Tany”; Mr. H. R. Luard, who edited the Annals of Bermondsey in the Rolls series, annotates the entry “Roger de Tany,” and, apart from the query of Dr. Round,¹⁷ this has always passed unchallenged. But the fact that the gift was confirmed and extended, not by Hasculf de Tany, but by his

wife Maud, leads one to suppose that Roger was not a de Tany at all; that Maud was his heiress, and that she carried the estates at Aveley and Fyfield in marriage to the de Tanys. This makes Hasculf the founder of the family and its fortunes. Dugdale¹⁸ implies that he was the son of that Robert de Tani who witnessed the foundation charter of Selby Abbey: chronology makes this unlikely. Clutterbuck¹⁹ assumes he was the son of Rainald who held the manor of Eastwick in Hertfordshire at the time of the Survey: this has no proof. He was certainly living in 1131 when he was engaged in litigation with Rualo d'Avranches and William de Bovill, finally making good his right to lands in Essex which Morant identifies as the manor of Great Leighs.²⁰ Both he and his son Graeland are mentioned in Geoffrey de Mandeville's charter from the Empress Maud,²¹ when Graeland's holding is described as being seven-and-a-half knight's fees.

Six of these fees were in Aveley, or as the name appears in the Red Book, Auvilers.²² This Graeland is to be carefully distinguished from his less wealthy contemporary, of the same name, who holds only two fees, and who is always described on the Pipe Rolls by his patronymic, Graelaudus filius Gilberti de Tany.

23 Graeland confirmed his mother's gift of the church of Fyfield to Bermondsey, and his son Hasculf who succeeded him, amplified it. He obtained a release of the advowson, and in return confirmed to the monks two-thirds of the tithes from his demesne and undertook to give them an acre of land on which to build a tithe-barn, and to secure an annuity of forty shillings for them from the parson of Fyfield.²⁴ Later he purchased the soke in London belonging to Andrew Buckerel, the protracted payment by instalments to Andrew's widow, Idonea, appearing on the Pipe Rolls.²⁵ He was succeeded by his son Gilbert, who in 1195 paid a relief of 100l. for his holding of seven-and-a-half knight's fees.²⁶ He died in 1221 leaving a widow, Emma, who was given dower in Fyfield.²⁷ He left no male issue, and his wide possessions were divided between his heirs, who in the Pipe Roll of 1230 are named as Nicholas de Beauchamp and Stephen de Langeton; [[REF²⁸]] another heir, mentioned by Dugdale, Matilda, wife of Adam de Legh, had already sold her share in 1223.²⁹ Such is the meagre history of the main line of the elder branch: many others bearing the name of de Tany are to be found in the sources mentioned above, but it is impossible to fix their relation definitely with the main line.

Dr. Round linked up some of them in his edition of the Rotuli de Dominabus, 1185,³⁰ showing that Alizia de Tany was actually Alice, daughter and heiress of William Fitz Jocelin, and a de Tany only by marriage with Picot de Tany. Picot appears frequently on the Pipe Rolls of Henry II,³¹ and had a brother Peter. He gave his name to the manor of Picots in Ardleigh. There was Juliana de Tany, too, a mysterious figure even in her own day: she owed the Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire 73s. 4d. for several years; he could only write off the debt as a bad one, commenting that the lady was nowhere

to be found.³² With Gilbert, the elder branch died out; a few years later, a younger branch became prominent in Hertfordshire. They were seated at Eastwick, and were almost certainly descended from that Richard de Tany who in 1210-2 had held two fees in Eastwick and Bengeo.³³ It is with this branch of the family that this paper is mainly concerned. The first of the de Tany family found at Stapleford Tawney is Richard, who obtained the manor by his marriage with Margaret, daughter of William Fitz Richard, and heiress of the family which had held Stapleford since the days of Henry II. The marriage must have taken place sometime before 1240: their son and heir is described in 1270 as being thirty years of age.³⁴ Morant,³⁵ copying Dugdale, makes Richard the son of John de Tany who gave the manor of Theydon Bois to Waltham Abbey, and grandson of Sir Peter de Tany.

I can find no confirmation of this, and the Plea Rolls³⁶ give definite proof that he was the son, not the grandson of Sir Peter, to whose lands he succeeded in 1255. Sir Peter was possibly the son of that Richard who had held Eastwick in 1212. He had been Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1236,³⁷ and been granted in the same year the custody of the castle of Hertford and of the honour of Boulogne.³⁸ He is frequently to be found on the King's business: in 1232 as one of the collectors of a fortieth³⁹; in 1236, taking the Assize at St. Albans,⁴⁰ and as late as 1251, visiting Essex “to enquire in the presence of the Keeper of the King's Pleas . .. touching the persons who by night burned the houses of Christiana de Plumberge (sic) in Little Bemfleet.”

41 He appears to have lived principally on his manor at Eastwick, and was probably buried there. In the tower of the modern church there is the Purbeck marble effigy of a knight, cross-legged, and clad in complete chain mail. Over this he wears a long surcoat and bears a long narrow shield, unfortunately without charges. Gough has described it as “of blue stone sharply cut, in a style superior to the generality of these figures,” and adds “I am not certain if there were not some raised letters on the edge of the tomb”.⁴² It dates from the middle of the thirteenth century and is unusually well preserved (pl. i.). Very likely it commemorates Sir Peter, whose death took place shortly before 1255, rather than, as has been suggested,⁴³ his son Richard, who was probably buried at Stapleford. For the first few years of his married life, little information is forthcoming about Richard de Tany.

In 1246 he did homage to the King for the lands held by him and his wife of the honour of Raleigh and paid a relief of 40l.⁴⁴ These lands included the manors of Stapleford, Elmstead, Great Stambridge, Chignall St. James and Latton. He seems to have left Eastwick and to have made his wife's chief manor at Stapleford his residence. He steadily improved his position, having obtained by fair means or foul - and considering his son's later conduct, one is bound to admit the alternative access to the royal ear, and a long series of grants of privileges followed.

The Forest of Essex surrounded him at Stapleford and must have claimed much of his attention: in 1253 he received a licence to hunt there with his own dogs-the hare, fox, cat and badger, and to carry them away.⁴⁵ This licence was renewed later, and given more definite form: he and his heirs may have eight harriers and twenty brachets to hunt in the forest when they will, saving the fence month and saving also the King's warrens and those of others.⁴⁶ At the same time he received exemption for life from being put on assizes. He also received, in 1253, a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Elmstead and Great Stambridge, a grant subsequently extended to include all his demesne lands in Essex and Hertfordshire, provided that they were not within the King's Forest.⁴⁷ In 1264 further privileges were granted to him: after an Inquisition ad quod damnum held by Richard de Munfitchet, Steward of the Forest, he received licence to enclose with a dyke and hedge his wood of Stapleford Taney within the metes of the forest, together with five acres of his demesne land adjoining, and to make a park.⁴⁸ Three years previously, Peter de Tany, described as king's yeoman, and possibly Richard's brother, had had a similar licence to enclose a waste place on his demesne land at Theydon Bois “with a little dyke and a low hedge, so that the deer can get in and out,” and to assart it and bring it into cultivation.⁴⁹ Nor is the list yet complete.

On 15 April, 1253, Richard obtained a grant of a weekly market at Elmstead on Tuesday, and of a yearly fair there on the vigil, the feast, and the morrow of Trinity Sunday; of a weekly market at Eastwick and of a yearly fair there on the vigil, the feast, and the morrow of St. Botolph.⁵⁰ Neither of these fairs ever attained to the fame which surrounded the great fairs at Stourbridge or St. Ives, but to the villagers they gave wonderful opportunities of buying goods brought from abroad by foreign merchants which would otherwise have been wholly beyond their reach. In the wake of the merchants and packmen, too, came minstrels and tale-tellers only too ready to satisfy the demands of the village audience, sated with French story, for the heroic figures of English myth and history, for stories of Arthur and Tristan and the Holy Graal. So English language and English traditions revive: country villages like Elmstead and Eastwick played their part in the movement which gave England the Canterbury Tales.

Having so greatly enhanced his fortunes by marriage, de Tany was not unwilling to gain further benefits by the same means. Like his son later, he cast covetous eyes on the manors adjoining his own. By great good fortune, the heir to the large manor of Stanford and other wide estates was a minor – John, son of Richard de Rivers and heir of Lady Maud de Lucy⁵¹: the opportunity was too good a one to be missed. In 1255, therefore, de Tany made an agreement with the boy's guardian, Sir Philip Basset, granting him the manor and advowson of Great Stambridge for ten years at a nominal rental, in return for the right of marriage of the young heir and his sister. John is to marry de Tany's daughter, Mary; his sister, Matilda, is to marry one of de Tany's sons.⁵² Letters Patent inspecting and confirming the grant were obtained on 6 February,⁵³ and apparently the marriages took place.

John de Rivers remained throughout his life a close friend of his wife's family. All trouble, however, was not at an end: on Basset's death in 1271, de Tany's son, Ricbard, complained that the escheator hindered him from peaceful possession of the manor of Stambridge; the facts of the agreement were stated, but a full enquiry bad to be held before

de Tany secured recognition of his right of possession.⁵⁴ The fact that the elder Richard and Basset had been prominent supporters of opposite sides in the Barons' wars can hardly have rendered their relations pleasant, and Richard, no doubt, found it a matter of bad policy to quarrel with the sometime Justiciar of England. These were troublous times, too, in England, even in the heart of the Forest, and Essex was far from quiet. De Tany, as a prominent tenant-in-chief, was frequently called upon by the King to settle some dispute that bad arisen in the county: Richard de Baudreswell had been arrested at Colchester, although the King had already pardoned his outlawry for his flight for larceny; de Tany was ordered, with William de Grey, to do justice in the matter.

55 Lawlessness, however, was on the increase, and assumed such serious proportions, that in 1258, the Barons found it necessary to lake special measures. As a result, de Tany was appointed, with three other knights - Richard Filliol, Henry de Beauchamp, and Richard de Harlow - to enquire in Essex “touching excesses, trespasses and injuries committed there.”

56 The special function of the knights appointed in each county was to watch the sheriffs, these officials being everywhere regarded with much misgiving. Henry had vainly, in 1253, tried to sharpen their vigilance by holding them personally responsible for undetected robberies. At the same time, it was realised that they had great power in the counties, and their appointment, as will he shown later, when it touches de Tany more closely, was carefully watched by both parties. Sometimes the trouble met Richard at home. Two of his villagers at Stapleford, Ralf Faber and William de Hassend, brought their quarrels before the justices in 1248: Ralf was committed to "gayole."⁵⁷ Village feuds occasionally assumed serious proportions. Early in 1258, de Tany's manor-house was attacked and plundered, one man, probably one of his own servants, being killed. An enquiry was duly made, and one Peter le Juvene was arrested and imprisoned.

Later, it was alleged that he had been convicted on the evidence of people ill-disposed towards him and the case had to be investigated afresh, not by the Sheriff, but by Nicholas de Hadlo, specially appointed by the King.⁵⁸ The case aptly illustrates the contest which was constantly being fought in the thirteenth century between royal and feudal justice. Whatever the result of the investigation, it did little to redress de Tany's loss: less than a month afterwards, his park at Stapleford was entered and some of his deer stolen.⁵⁹ Robert de Brus, who will figure later in this paper, his neighbour at Theydon Mount, was appointed to enquire into the matter. In the meantime, England was rapidly drifting into civil war. Essex had the good fortune to be out of the line of march of any of the armies who fought for King or Barons, and the county as a whole remained loyal to the King.⁶⁰ Not so the de Tany family: following the example of his overlord at Eastwick, Baldwin Wake, Richard de Tany, the elder, and many of his relatives, took up arms on behalf of Simon de Montfort; the younger Richard de Tany, his son, sided with the King.

Though I have not been able to discover any indication that father and son met in battle, the difference in allegiance must have been a piquant element in family life at Stapleford. The elder Richard appears to have played a prominent part in the rebellion in Essex. As mentioned above, he was appointed as one of the four knights to watch the Sheriff there. The Oxford Parliament had also provided that special safeguards should surround the appointment of the Sheriff in future. He was to be selected by the Council from four men chosen in the county court : de Tany was so chosen

as Sheriff in 1259.

61 He continued in office until 1261, when Henry, his position strengthened, removed him and appointed Matthew de la Mare, at the same time ordering him to deliver the castles of Colchester and Hadleigh to his successor.⁶² He seems to have retained, or to have regained later, possession of Colchester: in 1264 he was ordered to deliver the castle to Nicholas le Espigornell.⁶³ The King's nominees were afterwards removed by the Council and de Tany resumed office in 1264 as custos, or guardian of the peace. Meanwhile, he had been one of the knights of the shire summoned by the provisional government in 1261 to St. Albans and later to London. In 1263, the King, also realising the importance of the position taken up by the Knights, summoned this assembly to Windsor to treat of matters touching the realm, Henry adding fearfully that he did not propose to infringe the Provisions of Oxford in any way.⁶⁴ Thither then, de Tany went, taking as directed, “the horses and arms which he had brought with him to London.” Little resulted from these parleys, however, and war broke out in 1263.

With the course of the war this paper is not concerned. Richard de Tany appears to have taken but small part in the actual fighting, but he was nonetheless an enthusiastic supporter of de Montfort's interests - and one suspects, of his own - in Essex. In order to raise the money necessary to carry on the war, special officials were appointed by the baronial party to collect contributions levied in each county. Their task, in a royalist county like Essex, was not an easy one, and de Tany found it necessary to use vigorous measures. Luke de Albiniaco, a plaintiff before the King in 1267,⁶⁵ refers to his methods in the following terms: ‘Richard de Tany came with letters of Hugh le Despenser, then Justiciar of England, and asked for an aid from the whole county for the use of Simon de Montfort; if he (Luke) refused it, Richard said he would seize all his goods. And the men of the hundred sent on their behalf seven men with the bailiff to make a fine for their hundred, and it so happened that Luke was one of them, for fear of the threats of Richard de Tany and lest he should lose his goods.

And they made a fine for the whole hundred in 10 marks, in order that they might remain in peace. They paid 5 marks of it, and Luke, like the other men of the hundred, paid his share.’ The baronial supporters did not always confine themselves to the collection of money; the manors of the royalists were everywhere plundered ruthlessly, and, in Essex, de Tany was the chief aggressor. The temptation was certainly a strong one. The wealthiest of all Henry's adherents, John Mansel, was a great Essex landowner, a man whose income was, according to the sarcastic Matthew Paris, 4,000 marks a year, ita ut temporibus nostris non est visus clericus ad tantam opulentium ascendisse [translated: It seems that in our times, no cleric has risen to such wealth.].⁶⁶ His manors were systematically plundered, although de Tany is not specifically mentioned as one of his aggressors. He was busy enough elsewhere. The following is a typical case.

Robert de Tateshale, the elder, alleged in 1267 that de Tany and Walter de Bibesworth had taken, despoiled and carried off, goods and chattels from his manor at Little Waltham, to their owner's great damage. The defendants were ordered to make good the loss from their own lands.⁶⁷

Other members of the family were equally zealous. Sir John de Grey alleged that Sir Luke de Tany and others had raided his manors at “Purle, Gibbecrake, Lefeyrs, Lathinden, Snorham, Acreflet and Fenbrigg”; in this case the defendants got off lightly.

68 The losses were not always so heavy. Isabella, countess of Albemarle, had her manor at Esyngton raided by Luke de Tany, but suffered nothing worse than the loss of "duos pullos” - and what can these be but chickens?

69 Sometimes this Luke de Tany played a deeper game: with his brother Peter, both Montfortians, he had, masquerading as a Royalist, attacked two of Henry's supporters, Stephen de Essewell and Thomas de Alba Monasterio, alleging that they were adherents of the Earl of Leicester.⁷⁰ This can scarcely be explained away as actuated by enthusiasm for their cause, and deserved to be punished: Peter de Tany lost his land in the Forest of Waltham,⁷¹ though both he and his brother Luke submitted and received the King's pardon “at the instance of Henry, son of the King of Almain," on 15 September,1266.⁷² The younger Richard de Tany had meantime thrown in his lot with the King, and early in 1266 he was empowered to receive into the King's safe conduct all who were against him in the late troubles, and who had come to make their peace; his brother-in-law, John de Rivers, being associated with him in this office.⁷³ It was indeed a bitter humiliation for the elder Richard to submit to his own son.

Perhaps this explains his delay in making his submission: no less than four promises⁷⁴ of safe conduct were issued to him between 2 April and 6 September, 1266, when, at the instance of Roger de Leyburn, the King remitted to him “his indignation and rancour of mind conceived towards him by occasion of trespasses which he was said to have done against him in time of the disturbance of the realm,” and pardoned him for those trespasses.⁷⁵ The pardon was renewed on 15 February of the following year, with the proviso that he should stand to the award of Kenilworth.⁷⁶ Submission might be unpleasant, but it was unquestionably the wisest course for de Tany to take; though his estate almost certainly suffered through his political sympathy, continued hostility could only have involved its complete loss. The Earl of Oxford, it may be noted, was another of the few prominent Montfortians who showed that their wisdom was greater than their enthusiasm by an early submission.

For the rest of his life de Tany lived in retirement, taking no further part in the now quietened political life of the time. His conscience, one may suppose, troubled him. In 1268, he and one Raynaldus de Tany, gave the monks of Bermondsey the manor of Bengeo, and confirmed the gift of the advowson which an ancestor, Raynaldus, had made in 1151.

77 It is unlikely that religious motives of a very high order were present: his imagination may have been perturbed by thoughts of the horrors of the Day of Doom, which caused him to reflect that a grant to a monastery was an excellent way of forestalling any unpleasant consequences to himself. Two years later, the old rebel died, the writ for the inquisition postmortem being dated 3 November, 1270.⁷⁸ His possessions included, besides the manor and advowson of Stapleford, the manor of

Chignall [St. James], the manor and advowson of Elmstead, the manor of Stambridge, and half-aknight's fee and a moiety of the advowson of Latton. His son, Sir Richard, thirty years of age, was his

heir. The younger Sir Richard did homage to the King on 17 December, 127079 and entered into possession of his inheritance. His political sympathy has already been mentioned: he appears to have been a valuable supporter of Henry and had been appointed in February, 1266, “to defend the parts of the counties of Essex and Hertford, as the King's enemies, especially in the former county, make congregations and conspiracies and perpetrate assaults and invasions to the destruction of those parts.” 80 Duties so arduous were of course rewarded: he was to have 20l. a year at the Exchequer until the King could provide for him in an equivalent of land,⁸¹ a great deal of which was at Henry's disposal, being the forfeited lands of the rebels. There were, however, plenty of claimants for favour and reward also, and the Chancery was in a state of unprecedented activity and consequent confusion. De Tany was forced to wait and saw the most coveted prizes disappearing.

Worst of all, the manor of Theydon Mount, adjoining his own at Stapleford, and formerly the property of the rebel, Robert de Sutton, was given not to him but to Robert de Brus. It was more than he could bear and he set to work to get it by fair means or foul. De Brus's charter was granted and dated 29 October; de Tany turned up with a charter dated 26 October,⁸² and on the strength of it turned him out. De Brus refused to acquiesce, and the case came before the Justices coram Rege. The two charters were cited and their elates examined. Which was the valid one? De Brus urged his claims; de Tany insisted on the validity of his charter. The story gradually came out. The Chancellor had no knowledge of de Tany's charter; none of his clerks had ever written it. On the other band, it was indubitably sealed and the only explanation of that he could offer was this: "at the time when the King granted out lands to a great horde of knights and he himself gave orders to his clerks to make out charters for each in accordance with Walter de Helyon's roll, Richard's charter might have got pushed in with the others to be sealed, so that he sealed it unknowingly and under deception.” So the Chancellor cleared himself: but where had the charter come from?

John le Faukener, who was responsible for sending out all charters, supplied the answer and exposed Richard's devices completely. He had, he said, questioned John le Kirkby, who had a list of the charters granted, and who at first protested his ignorance, but later revealed the whole business. Richard had come to him, said Kirkby, after de Brus was in seisin of Theydon, and had said, “Theydon is a pretty manor and lies next to mine at Stapleford; it would suit me nicely and I’ll go and ask the King to give it to me.” 83 Learning that this was impossible, as the King had already given it to de Brus, Richard had sworn that he should never have it: Certe, nunquam illud habebit [translated: Sure, you will never have it]. One is safe in guessing the rest. He had had a surreptitious charter of prior date drawn up, bribed Walter de Helyon to admit it, and had almost succeeded in carrying off the spoil.

This revelation of de Tany's unscrupulousness did not, however, damage his position with the King, who in 1268, appointed him governor of Hadleigh Castle,⁸⁴ but it must have greatly pleased his father. One is inclined to think that their reconciliation was never complete. Soon after his father's death, Richard is found consider ably in debt. To Master Elias, son of Master Moses, a Jew of London, he owes 140 marks in 1274;

85 he owes Geoffrey Mereth “le Tayiiur” 27l in 1292;⁸⁶ the Bishop of Bath and Wells 15l. in

1281, and the Abbot of St. John's at Colchester, 30 marks in 1288;

87 What is the explanation? Had his father, leaving his revenge to the last, cut him off with the proverbial shilling? Such a supposition is certainly strengthened by the fact that he also sold much of his property. The advowson of Stambridge and a house there went to Sir John de Lovetot in 1278;⁸⁸ the manor and advowson of Chignall went to Thomas de Wayland in 1284.⁸⁹ Latton also was sold. An alternative explanation is that the younger Richard found his means very straitened because of the heavy burden laid on the estates in the shape of fines and forfeitures incurred by his father. Life at Stapleford was uneventful, but presently there came through the Forest rumours of the energetic administration of the new King. On his return from the East in 1274, Edward had ordered a general enquiry into the misconduct of local government officials and the usurpation or misuse of franchises by the magnates.

The commissioners visited de Tany at Eastwick, and were satisfied with his charter for the fair and his charter of free warren.⁹⁰ When they came to Stapleford the tale was different; here he claimed to hold the assize of bread and ale and the view of frankpledge, but was unable to produce any charter confirming those rights, pleading instead immemorial usage. This was of no avail and he was ordered to seek judgment of the King .⁹¹ He inherited his father's love of the chase, and on occasion seems to have found it too strong to be resisted, and the King's venison suffered in consequence. However, he seems to have got off lightly. The Justices in Eyre for the Pleas of the Forest in Essex fined him nine marks in 1279, but he was pardoned and the fine remitted later in the same year.⁹² In 1292, it was alleged that he had connived at the nocturnal expedition of his steward, who with Sir John de Tracy and others had entered the Forest at night on 14 September, 1285, “with bows and arrows, nets and mastiffs, and hunted through the whole night and stretched their nets and took wild animals.”

93 The King harboured no ill-will, however, and in 1296, though busy with the Scottish expedition, found time to order the Justice of the Forest to give him twelve bucks out of the Forest of Essex.⁹⁴ Edward had also employed him on minor judicial business: in 1291 he was appointed justice for gaol delivery at Colchester,⁹⁵ though his conduct of affairs aroused comment and one of his decisions was reversed in 1294. [[REF⁹⁶]]

Occasionally, too, Edward's demands took him further afield. Engaged in the conquest of Wales, the King summoned his tenants in chief to help him. In 1277, Richard de Tany was ordered to appear in person at the muster at Worcester on 1 July. A similar summons came for him in 1282 and was repealed two months later, on 2 August. He was more fortunate than his more famous kinsman, Luke de Tany, who had been summoned on 17 May. Luke, who had been Constable of Tickhill and Knaresborough, Justice of the Forest south of the Trent, Papal Chaplain and Seneschal of Gascony, the last an extremely important position previously held by Simon de Montfort, was defeated and drowned in November 1282, in an attempt to subdue Anglesey.⁹⁷ '

Richard returned home, but Edward's war with France and the threat of war from Scotland, soon involved him in further duties. The coast of the Eastern Counties was judged to be liable to attack, and measures had to be taken to secure its safety. On 14 November 1295, de Tany was therefore appointed custos of the sea shores in Essex and all men were ordered to assist him.⁹⁸ His active life, however, was drawing to a close, and like his father he wished to do what he could to ensure the repose of his soul. In 1286, he received the Royal licence to alienate in mortmain to St. John's Abbey at Colchester, an estate in Benfleet, Nevenden and Bowers Gifford, consisting of 260 acres of land, 9 acres of meadow, 14 acres of pasture, and 100 acres of marsh and 3s. 6d. rent.⁹⁹ The Abbot promised in return to find a monk chaplain to celebrate divine service in his church at the altar of the Holy Martyrs for the souls of Richard, and for his ancestors and heirs.¹⁰⁰ His death occurred in 1296.

His inquisition postmortem¹⁰¹ is undated, but the date may be calculated fairly closely. He was alive on 21 April, when the King's gift of bucks was made to him; he was dead before 1 June, when the escheat or was ordered to take his lands into the King's hand.¹⁰² His diminished estate comprised in Essex only the manors of Stapleford and Elmstead and four acres of meadow in Lambourne. His manor at Stapleford included 6o acres of foreign wood in the forest, “which is a loss to the lord because he assigned a tenant to the keeping of the wood which used to render him 4s. 6d. yearly for his land, but now renders nothing.” By his wife, Julian, he left a son, Roger, born in 1278. He succeeded to his father's estates on coming of age in 1299, after taking the usual oath of homage to the King.¹⁰³ Roger lived but a short time to enjoy his inheritance.

In 1301 he was summoned to perform military service in person against the Scots, the muster being at Berwick-on-Tweed on 24 June.¹⁰⁴ Whether he obeyed and caught there the disease which caused his death two months later, or whether he was already too ill to go, is a moot point. He

died on 24 August 1301,¹⁰⁵ leaving a son, Laurence, aged two, as his heir, and a daughter, Margaret, only a few months old. He had but a fortnight previously completed the arrangements by which he disposed of certain rights in the manor of Cockayne in Elmstead to Benedict de Cokefield.¹⁰⁶ Apart from this he left the estate as he had found it.

His widow, Joan, was given dower on 1 November of the same year,¹⁰⁷ taking the usual oath not to remarry without the King's consent, and her infant son became a ward of the King. Her life, too, was a

short one: she was dead before 24 March 1308, when the escheator was ordered to take her lands into the King's band.¹⁰⁸ She was, it would seem, a woman of considerable property: from now onwards there are careful accounts on the Fine Rolls¹⁰⁹ of the lands of her young son, and these include lands at Bromley and Boxted not previously in the possession of the family. Laurence was destined never to attain his majority: he died in October 1317.¹¹⁰ Besides the manors of Elmstead, Stapleford and Eastwick, be held also lands in Thorndon, Boxted and Bradwell, and some rights remaining in the manor of Cockayne. The place of his burial is not known with certainty, but there is a strong probability that it was at Elmstead. It has already been suggested¹¹¹ that the oak effigy lying on the east windowsill of the south chapel commemorates him.

Apart from the strong support afforded by the date of the figure, there are two additional reasons for holding this view. The figure is obviously intended to represent a young man - a fact at once apparent in the accompanying photograph, reproduced by kind permission from the Report of the Historical Monuments Commission:

112 Laurence de Tany was eighteen years old. Again, the church, rebuilt early in the fourteenth century, is dedicated to St. Laurence and St. Anne, an unusual combination. A fanciful, but not unreasonable supposition, is that the existing church was built to commemorate the young Laurence by his widow or sister, who added his patron saint to the dedication and had his effigy carved to place in it. The de Tany lands, on Laurence's death, passed to

his sister Margaret,¹¹³ then sixteen years old, who carried them in marriage to her husband, John de Drokensford. His widow Margaret, afterwards re-married to Sir Thomas Weston, was assigned dower, a detailed account of this being recorded on the Close Rolls.¹¹⁴ She was given lands in Thorndon, Boxted and Cockayne, of the total annual value of 45 shillings; the advowson of the church at Elmstead as dower of her husband's advowsons, and also a messuage in Elmstead of the yearly value of 2 shillings, 360 acres of land there worth 6l. a year, 10 acres of meadow worth 20 shillings a year, 30 acres of wood of the yearly value of 5 shillings; the pleas and perquisites of the court with the view of frankpledge worth 20 shillings; the boon-works of ten molmen in that town of the yearly value of 27 shillings; 6l. 3s. 1⁄4d. of rent there; and a third of the manor of Eastwick of the yearly value of 26l. 19s. 0d.

The last is given in considerable detail, and enables one to reconstruct a manor house of the fourteenth century. With but slight alterations it would serve for a survey of many an English farmhouse of today. There were assigned to her a third of the chief messuage at Eastwick and of the gardens there, “which third is of the yearly value of 8d., to wit, a bakehouse called the new bakehouse . . . and a house called the dairy with two doors ... and a plot of land before these two houses extending thence to the corner of the porch of the Great Hall and to the corners of the kitchen and the garden enclosure; and a new stable with two doors within the inner gate of the manor and with a porch over the doors . . . and a third of the barn ... and a third of a cowhouse ... and a small house near the gate on the east. The inner and outer gates of the manor and the plot of land extending from the outer gate to the inner gate in length, and from the gate of the enclosure of the barn to the garden behind the kitchen and stable in breadth, and the plot of land from the inner gate of the manor to the plot before the gatehouse and dairy ... shall remain in common, so that she shall have free ingress and egress.” Carefully stated portions of the gardens were also allotted to her.¹¹⁵ It need occasion no surprise that a widow so richly dowered was soon re-married.

With Laurence de Tany's death in 1317, the main male line of the de Tanys bad come to an end. There were many other branches of the family in Essex and Hertfordshire,¹¹⁶ but I have found it impossible to fix their relationship to the main stem : they are for the most part mere names, the only record of which is in some isolated deed. The family has left singularly few traces of its importance, even of its existence. A homestead moat, an addition to the name of an obscure village, perhaps a church, two effigies widely separated and of doubtful identity - these are all that the county can show to attest one of the most powerful thirteenth-century families. See illustration

[[REF¹¹⁷]]

Note: Sir Peter was possibly the son of this Richard who held Eastwick and Bengeo in 1212,¹¹⁸ and who is probably identical with that Richard de Tanei who had held a quarter of a knight's fee at Berden in 1197.¹¹⁹ This land he had quitclaimed to John de Rochford; it had previously been the subject of litigation, Richard appearing in the case, as printed by the Pipe Roll Society,

120 as Richard “de Tanet.” He had also a lengthy suit concerning land at Chelse, co. Herts.¹²¹ In 1194, he sued the Abbot of Bourne for the right of presentation to the church at Eastwick,¹²² this being the first time that the family is mentioned there. In this suit, he is described as “son of Reginald.” Bearing in mind the misspelling already mentioned, there can be little doubt but that this Reginald is identical with that Reginald “de Tanet,”' who in 1176-8 paid five marks pro foresta in Essex and Hertfordshire.¹²³ It is just possible that he is also the Raynold or Reginald who gave the church of Bengeo to the monks of Bermondsey in 1151,¹²⁴ and whom Dugdale makes the son of Hasculf the elder. This would link up the two branches of the family; but it rests too much on supposition, and too little on fact, to be stated positively.¹²⁵

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The Hon. Secretary recalled that a former parishioner of his, the late Mr. J. W. Burningham, of Saffron Walden, told him that his father watched the grave of his grandmother in South Weald churchyard for three nights to prevent body snatchers from exhuming the corpse.

Reference to the ‘Essex Chronicle’ shows “resurrectionists” were busy in the neighbourhood in 1824; they managed to disinter a body at Shelley, but were disturbed when opening a grave at Greensted churchyard.¹²⁶

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Slavery, Captivity and Stapleford Tawney

From the 17th to the early 19th centuries, blackness was invariably regarded as a badge of servility and inferiority. This does not mean that in these years Britons thought that only black people could be slaves.

Whites were also enslaved in the states in North Africa. It was common for many parishes, for example in Stapleford Tawney in 1669 and again in 1680, for a collection to be made ‘for the Ransom of Captives in Algiers and Sally’ and ‘for ye Brief for the Redemption of Slaves out of Turkey’.¹²⁷

White men and women were also shipped off to the American colonies to penal or indentured labour in the plantations, as was the lot of some of the soldiers who surrendered after the fall of Colchester in 1648.

Nevertheless, by the early 18th century Britons regarded white enslavement not only as aberrant but contrary to the rules of Britain: ‘Britons never, never shall be slaves’, ran the refrain of James Thomson’s ‘Rule Britannia’.¹²⁸

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The Essex Archdeaconry Visitations, 1683–1686

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), pp. 260–262.

Introduction

The Visitation of which the particulars are given below is the first of four such functions held in the Essex Archdeaconry during the period extending from 1683 to 1686 inclusive.

They are recorded in a volume in the Registry at Chelmsford, bound in a parchment cover, and inscribed:

LIBER VISITATIONIS PAROCHIALIS
DNI ARCHINI ARCHINATUS ESSEXIAE
ANNO DNI 1683

The book, regarded as a whole, is in good condition, but it has nevertheless suffered from the vicissitudes of time and wear, being in some places so indistinct as to be almost undecipherable, and in others – more especially at the edges and corners of the folios – occasionally defective.

It would seem therefore desirable to secure a record of the manuscript before it becomes imperilled by still further dilapidation.

The Visitations of Archdeacon Thomas Turner

The Archdeacon of Essex at this date was the Venerable Thomas Turner, and judging from the contents of this volume, his Visitations of the various parishes belonging to his Archdeaconry were systematic, and his enquiries both exhaustive and thorough.

That he did not spare himself in the performance of his task will be evident when it is noted that he made a personal visit to each of the churches specified in the record, and that the Visitations commenced each day at 8 a.m. and continued with very little interruption until 6 p.m.

The name of the scribe to whom we are indebted for the facts recorded is unfortunately omitted in the preamble, nor does it appear in any of the subsequent visitations; but his handwriting is neat and its character sufficiently clear to spare the transcriber the labour of puzzling over many words of doubtful import.

It would appear that the year 1683 marks a date when what might be reckoned as a fresh start was being made in the supervision of that portion of the Diocese of London which was covered by the Archdeaconries of Essex and Colchester; for there is a companion volume of Visitations for the Archdeaconry of Colchester commencing in the same year (1683) and extending – with intervals of omission – to 1708.

The Church Following the Commonwealth

These records reflect a period during which the Church was making a determined effort to recover the ground lost in the confusion into which it had been thrown during the Commonwealth upheaval and the earlier years of the restoration of the monarchy.

Twenty years had elapsed since Charles II had ascended the throne, but that much was still needed in the way of reform and reconstruction is evident from the state of things disclosed in these Visitation entries.

Henry Compton, Bishop of London

Essex – as part of the great Diocese of London – had for its bishop Henry Compton (1675–1714).

He was popularly, if somewhat irreverently, styled "Jack Boots", by reason of his having at one period of his career held a commission as Cornet in the Royal Horse Guards.

Even during his episcopate, he accompanied the Princess Anne in military attire and subsequently took command of a body of troops. He was actually the last of the prelates to bear arms in England.

His views were strictly Anglican, and he took a firm stand both against Rome on the one hand, and against Nonconformity on the other.

It was during the episcopate of Bishop Compton that the custom of preaching in the surplice began to be revived in the county.

The Condition of Essex Churches

That energetic measures were needed for the due observance of reverence in worship, and decency in matters pertaining to Church discipline and order, is clearly evident in nearly every parish in which these Visitations were held.

Partly owing to the scandal of the Commonwealth administration, partly to the custom of pluralities and non-residence, partly also to the unsettled and conflicting views of various clergy, and no doubt in no inconsiderable degree to the indifference of many of the laity, abuses of all kinds became rife.

Thus we read of cases in which the fabrics of the churches were in a sad state of decay both externally and within; of churchyards overrun with weeds remaining unfenced and in consequence desecrated by the incursions of cattle; of graves within the church and chancel lying exposed to view; of belfries defiled with pigeons and other birds, and even in one instance used as a lumber-room for dairy and other utensils.

Moreover, there are other entries showing that churches were devoid of either chalice or paten.

Bibles and prayer-books were imperfect or altogether wanting. Communion tables were standing in the body of the church, instead of at the east end altar-wise; and the sanctuary, being without anything in the nature of a rail, was used as a dumping-ground for benches, or maybe occasionally a church chest.

Fonts were stopped up, bells cracked and frequently ropeless, church chests without locks or keys, and terriers either lost or missing.

Reform and Restoration of Church Discipline

If, however, these records unveil much that is deplorable in the life and condition of the Church at this period, they show also another side.

They testify that the authorities were striving to meet and to cope with the difficulties and doing their utmost to carefully and thoroughly investigate matters, with a view to uplifting the ideal of worship, instilling a sense of reverence and devotion, and laying down a stricter code of discipline in all cases.

Repairs were to be undertaken and certified completed within a specified time. Abuses were to be done away.

The sanctuaries were to be reverently cared for, and the holy tables to be placed "altar wise" at the east end and enclosed within a decent rail.

Kneelers were to be provided ("pessocks", as they are sometimes termed) by the churchwardens and put into the seats in order that the worshippers might be encouraged to kneel.

Terriers of the property and belongings of the church were to be compiled and produced at the next Visitation.

Catechising was to be frequent and regular, and the people were to be admonished to send their children and servants.

The vessels for the service of the altar were to be provided where necessary, and the apostolic precept was to be observed that all things shall be done "decently and in order".

Improvements Recorded in Later Visitations

As the Visitations continue, and we come to those of later date, a marked improvement becomes observable as regards the character of the entries.

They treat for the most part of such matters as repairs to the fabrics and such other defects as would be occasioned by fair wear and tear, and we come across fewer entries which betoken lack of reverence or decency in the matter of public worship.

The Historical Value of the Visitation Records

Moreover, these records are invaluable as quarries from which to extract historical and archaeological data.

They serve to furnish us with so much that we should otherwise probably never have known, such as, for example, the date, character, and condition of many of our communion vessels, and in some cases the names of the donors, together with the circumstances under which these vessels were given or procured.

So, too, with the church chests: we find from these entries the approximate date at which some of them came into possession of the church; in other entries details are given as to their condition, with injunctions to use them as places for the safeguarding of the registers.

These old records likewise inform us as to the names of the incumbents, curates, churchwardens, patrons, and others connected with many of the churches, and also give particulars of bequests and church lands.

They therefore throw sidelights on the story of the Church in Essex both authoritative and reliable, and in consequence are treasures to be studied, valued, and safeguarded.

---

Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), pages 260–262. Extract concerning the Essex Archdeaconry Visitations of 1683–1686.

Greensted Church Visitation, 1683

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), page 268.

Greensted

2 & 4 vespertinas.

Rector: Mr Nathan Lacy
Churchwarden: Edvardus Sanders (Gard.)

The Church is now repairing. The Chancell these cracks on boath sides of ye East window 'tis to be feared wil not be prevented from goeing further by ye beams newly sett on ye innside.

Homilys, Canons, Acts, and proclamacons.

The Register book to be kept in ye Church in ye Chest wth 2 Locks to it.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), p. 268.

Stanford Rivers Church Visitation, 22 September 1683

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), page 272.

Stanford Rivers

8 & 9 matutinas.

Date: Die Saturni 22^o Septembris 1683
Rector: Mr. Stephanus Upman
Churchwardens (Gards): Johannes Heard and Carolus Hutton

Visitation Record

There wants a book of homilys: Acts and proclamacons &c.

The Register book to be kept in ye Chest.

The Comunion table to be railed in.

The Chests and foarms to be removed out of ye Chancell.

3 familys of ye parish papists vizt:¹⁴⁰

• Mr Wm Gretry
• Mr Hen Todd
• Thomas South his wife formerly presented.

The Bells want stocking.

Both ye Church pourches to be mended, and seeled, and ye Crack on ye north side of ye steeple to (be) viewed and amended.

The Churchwardens to mend ye Churchyard pales.

Tyling toward ye lower end of ye Church to be amended.

There is a table for ye degrees of marriage.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), p. 272.

Transcription note: Original spelling and abbreviations have been retained. The superscript reference 140 appears in the supplied extract, but its corresponding editorial note was not included.

Stapleford Tawney Church Visitation, 1683

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), page 266.

Stapleford Tawney

4 & 6.

Rector: Mr Edvardus Turner
Churchwarden (Gard.): Timotheus Crow

Visitation Record

S. Ann's Chappell ye Rubbish to be taken away and ye pavement mended.

A Lead to be sett between ye bourds of ye steeple and ye tyles of ye Church.

proclamacons and Acts to be provided.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), p. 266.

Transcription note: Original spelling, capitalisation and abbreviations have been retained. The notation "4 & 6" appears in the source without further explanation.

Theydon Mount Church Visitation, 19 September 1683

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), page 267.

Theydon ad Monte (Theydon Mount)

8 & 9 matutinas.

Date: Die Mercurij 19^o Septembris, 1683
Rector: Dr Samuel Hall
Churchwarden (Gard.): Johannes Morrys

Visitation Record

There is a silver Cupp and patten for ye Com'union.

A fflagon (of) pewter 2 pewter plates.

The Register book to be kept in ye Chest.

There is a book of homilys.

The pulpitt Cushion to be new cover'd.

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Footnote

¹⁴⁰ In consequence of the plea that dissenters were becoming too formidable in numbers to be suppressed, or left out of consideration in matters ecclesiastical, the primate (Archbp. Sheldon) in 1676 addressed a letter to the bishop of London, asking him to obtain through his Archdeacons from the ministers and churchwardens of each parish, information as to the following points:

1. The number of families or persons inhabiting each parish.
2. The number of popish recusants, or such as are suspected of recusancy, there are among the inhabitants.
3. The number of other dissenters resident in such parishes which either obstinately refuse or wholly absent themselves from the communion of the Church of England.

Source: Cardwell, Due. Annals (1839), Vol. II, p. 288.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 19 (1929), p. 267.

Transcription note: Original spelling, capitalisation and abbreviations have been retained. The superscript date notation has been formatted as 19^o, and the original Latin form of the parish name has been retained.

The Stained Glass of St Edmund at Greensted Church (1881)

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 2 (1881), page 394.

During the meeting Mr. Andrew Hamilton exhibited some interesting facsimile drawings from his collection of painted glass, also a drawing of a head of St. Edmund from a window that was to be seen at one time in the church of St. James, Bury St. Edmunds, but it is now in a private collection.

He had thought, he said, that this might be like the head in Greensted Church; but Captain Budworth told him it was not.

Captain Budworth said there was no similarity between the two. This was a three-quarter face, while that at Greensted was in profile.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 2 (1881), p. 394.

Restoration of Greensted Church Roof (1892)

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 4 (1892), page 222.

Mr. Gould then drew attention to the recent restoration of Greenstead Church roof under the superintendence of Mr. F. Chancellor, who writes:

"The fir roof which was put on about (I believe) 40 years ago, was in an advanced state of decay.

Whether this roof was a facsimile of the previous roof I had no means of ascertaining, but I think it only fair to assume that in its general construction it was.

I therefore advised that the old roof should be taken off and a new roof constructed entirely in oak, and in accordance with the decayed roof, but so constructing it that there was an air space between the tiling and boarding, the omission of which had brought the fir roof to grief.

There was a modern brick buttress built against the centre of the nave on the north side, and as this had settled away from the building, I persuaded the Churchwardens to let me remove it; this was done and the half oak tiers, similar to the rest of the walls, were found behind it."

In concluding his remarks Mr. Gould referred to recent publications relating to the district, notably Mr. Winstone's valuable book on the Epping and Ongar Highway Trust; The Loughton Parish Magazine, containing much antiquarian matter contributed by our member, Mr. W. C. Waller; and The Waltham Abbey Church Monthly, which includes instalments of a popular history of the Abbey Church by the Rev. J. H. Stamp.¹⁴¹

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Footnote

¹⁴¹ See also Journal No. 57: Church Restoration at Greensted – High Country History Group. ↩

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 4 (1892), p. 222.

The Historic Wall Inscriptions at Theydon Mount Church

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 23 (1945), pages 347–348. The complete article appears on pages 331–350.

The Church and Its Seventeenth-Century Inscriptions

The secluded and interesting little church of Theydon Mount, which is said to have been rebuilt in 1612–3, after being struck by lightning¹⁴² and is noteworthy for its remarkable series of Smyth monuments, retains the most extensive remains of these black letter wall-inscriptions to be found in Essex.

Although apparently executed early in the seventeenth century, they may well be a few decades later than c.1600, the date assigned to them by the R.C.H.M.

The Ten Commandments

The position of the Commandments (Pl. II), above the chancel arch, instead of at the east end of the chancel, was not unusual, especially in the seventeenth century – indeed the practice of placing the Decalogue over or on each side of the arch was never entirely abandoned, as may be seen at Brightlingsea, where small tablets of the Commandments of Victorian date flank the chancel arch.

The translation is that of the Prayer Book version, and is in the present lengthened form, which first appeared in the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI (1552), when the Preface was added; the spelling, however, is approximately that of the Jacobean Book of 1604, though a few archaisms, including "doe no murther", have been retained.

The only other set of the Commandments in the county, earlier than the eighteenth century, is at Wimbish, where with various texts from the New Testament, they are painted on a board dated 1580.

It is to be regretted that, owing to wartime restrictions, it has not been possible to obtain a photograph of this interesting example for reproduction.

The Creed and the Lord's Prayer

The Creed occurs at the east end of the south wall of the nave, and is now the centre of a monument to Sir Robert Arundell Hudson, G.B.E. (ob. 1927), which has been built around it.

The original lettering is hidden by a modern copy, painted on cardboard.

The Lord's Prayer (Pl. III) occupies the space between the two windows in the same wall, and is also surrounded by a monument, commemorating those who fell in the war of 1914–18.

The spelling is modern, except for an occasional 'e' (and in the case of 'evil' an 'I') added to the end of a word.

The version is that of the Prayer Book, and concludes with the Doxology from St. Matthew's Gospel, which was not introduced into our English Prayer Book until 1661.

The Development of Church Wall Inscriptions

Black letter was usually employed for these inscriptions until the third quarter of the seventeenth century, when it was superseded by Roman lettering.

By the eighteenth century, boards painted with the Commandments, etc., set against the east wall, had become a normal feature in our churches, and the custom of inscribing "sentences of scripture" within ornamental borders directly on the walls seems to have declined, though it by no means died out.¹⁴³

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Footnotes

¹⁴² J. J. Howard and H. F. Burke, Theydon Mount: Its Lords and Rectors (1891), p. xiii. ↩

¹⁴³ Anne Padfield writes in St Michael's Church, Theydon Mount: A History and Guide (2014) that, "partly suffering from water damage, they were regrettably painted out in 1972 by a work party of Pentonville prisoners". ↩

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 23 (1945), pp. 347–348. Complete article: pp. 331–350.

Medieval Coffin-Slabs at Stapleford Tawney (1900)

Extract from Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 7 (1900), pages 371–372 and 392–393.

The Study of Medieval Coffin-Slabs

British archaeologists have hitherto devoted little systematic study to the memorials generally spoken of as "Coffin-slabs", common though these memorials are in our churches over the greater part of Britain.

In the following article, I propose to give the result of information collected during the last year or two, whenever I have had occasion to visit an Essex church which happened to contain a Coffin-slab.

Slabs of the kind with which I am concerned are numerous in Essex.

The Stone Coffins at Stapleford Tawney

Of Coffin-slabs still accompanied by the stone coffins to which they originally belonged, we have, in Essex, examples at Great Bardfield, Stapleford Tawney, and probably other places.

I have not been able to obtain an illustration of that at the first-named place; but, of that at Stapleford Tawney, a good figure (Fig. 1) is here given, together with a representation (Fig. 2) of another stone coffin, a good deal mutilated and without its slab, which exists at the same place.

Many of our Essex Coffin-slabs are in an advanced stage of dilapidation and decay, due to wear and tear or ill-usage during the long period since they were laid down.

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Source

Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, Volume 7 (1900), pp. 371–372 and 392–393.

Illustration note: The original article refers to two illustrations: Fig. 1, a stone coffin with its slab at Stapleford Tawney, and Fig. 2, another stone coffin at the same church, damaged and without its slab. These illustrations were not included in the supplied extract.