Stanway, Essex

St Albright has a marketeer in charge, to compensate for an ugly exterior choral music was playing upon entrance which was a nice touch but didn't change the fact that there's not much here of interest. It's a run of the mill Colchestian style church beside the A120 with some Norman aspects.

Having said that there's a decidedly twenties looking Rood stair and doorway (I love the hip on the entrance arch).

ST ALBRIGHT. The nave is C12, see the S doorway and one S window, two N windows and the restored W window (all with much Roman brick). The rest is of 1880, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott; chancel, S aisle, S chancel chapel, and belfry. The S arcade however is original work of c. 1500, brought to Stanway from the church of St Runwald at Colchester. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with panels with shields and with the chalice and the host surrounded by rays. - GLASS. E window and one S window by Kempe, 1892, with his characteristic faces and the pale green general tone. 

STANWAY. Its name means the stone-way by which the Romans went westward from Colchester, and its church has grown from a wayside chapel used by pilgrims. White Hart Farm close by goes back to the 15th century, and is said to have been a hospice for their shelter. Only the nave of the church is ancient, half of it being Norman, and the other half 15th century, with the porch. Roman bricks are in the angles of the walls and round the Norman windows, and a very narrow Norman doorway is made almost entirely of them. Between the chancel and the chapel is a 15th century arcade brought from a Colchester church; the font is the same age. A huge tie-beam supports the wooden bell-turret, and one of the Norman windows has modern glass of an angel blowing a trumpet, a charming memorial by four little children to their father.

A mile down the lane we come to the Tudor hall which treasures a handsome stone fireplace; and close to it stands the ruin of the original village church, deserted for centuries. Most of the tower and nave are 600 years old, and the roof is thought to have been torn down to supply the parliament men with material at the great siege of Colchester. One who may have stood by while it happened was the lawyer Robert Baldock, for he was born at Stanway. He lived on to become one of the King’s Counsel at the trial of the Seven Bishops, arguing that the plea of the bishops was libellous and a reflection upon the prudence, justice, and honour of King James. He was promoted within a week to be a Judge of the King’s Bench, but was driven from office after the flight of the king. He lies at Hockham in Norfolk.


Flickr set.