Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire

When I finally found St Peter my initial feeling was that this was a CCT church such was it's condition but it is in fact still operating albeit the fabric of the church being in a pretty dire state. Having said that I should say that this is one of my favourite Cambridgeshire churches to date - the setting is idyllic, the church nicely proportioned and the interior fixtures and fittings, if spartan, superior. Strangely there is no porch, perhaps a south door was lost when the aisle was built, and entrance is gained through the tower door which I think is the 'right' way to enter a church.

The piers of the north aisle have lots of old graffiti including a swordsman in hose and cut sleeves, a woman in headdress and an owl with the same headdress as the woman - all good fun.

ST PETER. E.E. chancel with lancet windows, N aisle also one E lancet. The rest is Perp. W tower with low tower arch and battlernents decorated with flushwork. Arcades of four bays with piers carrying (castellated) capitals only on the shafts towards the arch openings. The arches have one straight and one hollow chamfer. Perp chancel arch. Perp aisle windows. Four of them, two on each side, are quatrefoil - a very odd mannerism, not shown in Cole’s drawing, that is probably C19. Pretty statue niche at the E end of the S aisle on a derni-figure of an angel. Some head-corbels reset in the aisle walls. - MONUMENT. Henry, son of Lord Gorges d. 1674, attributed by Mrs Esdaile to A. Storey. He was Superintendent to the Hon. Corporation for the Draining of the Great Level or Bedford Level. He lies, a white effigy with wig and Roman costume, semi-reclining on a tomb-chest. Above, on the curved sides of an open pediment are the derni-figures of his sad parents, holding hands over two books. Again above, a black shallow niche with inscription plate. The monument is ignominiously squeezed into the E end of the N aisle.

 

STETCHWORTH. Once it was a town, able to bear a considerable share in the draining of the fens 300 years ago; and the church in the park, where a fine avenue of elms leads to Stetchworth House, has a statue of the man who for 20 years managed this important business of reclamation. He was Lord Gorges, Baron of Dundalk, and he appears in his armour and wig with his wife on the monument to their 19-year-old son Henry, who died in 1674 and is lying before them in an elaborate kilted dress, the white figures very striking against a black ground.

Many faces from the past peep out from the walls of this rather plain church, a mixture of medieval styles with a small Norman i doorway, a great arch framing the dim 13th century chancel, and in the nave a 15th century font carved round with heads and shields. More faces come between the 15th century arches of the nave arcades and others support the old tie-beams in the roof, one laughing under the strain, another pulling his mouth awry. Under windows in the aisles are four brackets from which odd little men and women look out. Here William Thorpe served as vicar for half of last century.

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Moulton, Suffolk

St Peter lords it over the village and is, surely, the product of the wool trade - it's enormous for the size of village it now serves. However the size of it now plays against it and the interior is genteelly shabby, I imagine that the annual maintenance costs far outstrip the congregation's ability to meet them and though this is plainly an affluent village secularism appears to have set in, which is a pity because the decline of this church would effect the impact of the village.

I don't denigrate the congregation here but when you ask a keyholder which door the key opens and the response is "I don't know, I've never been there" surely some questions are raised.

This was my third visit to St Nicholas but the first two were for weddings when you don't really get a chance to see the church and it's fixtures and it's a really interesting building both in and out; the main attraction being the woodwork of the roof angels and poppyheads in the chancel.

ST PETER. Norman nook-shafts at the W and E ends of the S side of the nave. (Simpler shafts on the N side too. LG) Late C13 W tower. The tower arch triple-chamfered and dying into the imposts. The rest of the church externally over-restored; Perp. Aisles and transeptal chapels, clerestory. The arcade inside has polygonal shafts with capitals (fleuron and battlement decoration) to the arches, but polygonal attachments without capitals to the nave. The chancel arch corresponds to the former type; so does the W arch of the N transept. The corresponding S arch is lower and heavier. Frieze with fleurons and demi-figures of angels at sill-level of the clerestory.* No furnishings of interest.

* (Remains of an anchorite’s cell or ankerhole N of the tower. LG).

MOULTON. It is the only village in Suffolk still using one of the old packhorse bridges, a grand veteran of 500 summers or more with four pointed arches astride the tiny River Kennet, and parapets low enough to allow the packs to swing clear. The village green is by the river, the church on a beech-crowned hill. Most of it is 15th century, but the embattled tower is a century older. It has an old mass dial. The pretty porch with quaint heads and flowers on its corners leads into the lofty nave. The arcade has capitals of flowers, and above it soars the splendid clerestory, each group of its windows divided by a graceful shaft with an angel at its base. There are some modern oak benches and four old bench-ends bearing strange animals, a dragon, a unicorn, and two dogs.

Personally I interpreted these as 2 hares, a stag and a unicorn.

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Little Braxted, Essex

By rights, and my normal stylistic taste, I should hate St Nicholas but I rather surprised myself by loving it. First it was an accidental find on my way from Great Braxted to Witham directed by satnav, second it appears to be, or is strongly reminiscent of, a Templar church with characteristic apse, third it is tiny and fourth, and most surprisingly, virtually every inch inside has been decorated by a Victorian incumbent and rather well at that. I imagine this looks something like the church would have done pre-reformation.

BEFORE the alterations to the church in the late nineteenth century, this must have been one of the smallest churches in the county. It was built about the year 1120 probably by Richard de Beaumes, Bishop of London. The orientation of the building is such that there is a perceptible inclination to the south-east, towards the point on the horizon where the sun rises on St. Nicholas Day (6th December). The walls are 2 ft. 8 ins. in thickness and are composed of flint·rubble with pudding stone. The only original Norman window left is the one on the north side of the apse, and similar windows may be found in other churches in this district. All the other windows have been enlarged and are of later periods, but it is possible that the single light window in the south wall although completely restored externally has a rear arch and splays of the twelfth century.

The porch was built in 1535 on the strength of a bequest (£4) by Thomas Roberts for that and other purposes. His parents are commemorated in a fine brass, let into the chancel floor, displaying the effigies of William Roberts, his two wives, and five daughters and with the following Latin inscription in Gothic characters:-

"Pray for the soul of William Roberts, formerly one of the Auditors of our Lord the King Henry VII and Joyce his wife, who was the daughter of Edward Peryent, Esquire, and of Margaret afterwards the wife of the said William who was the daughter of William Pyton, Knight. Which William Roberts died 8th October 1508. May God be merciful to their souls. Amen.”

The family, who lived in Little Braxted Hall, held the estate for several generations from 1480, the last resident member being the Thomas Roberts, died 1680, whose plain ledger slab is in the nave close to the chancel gate.

The roof of the chancel is modern, but incorporates a few old timbers. The fifteenth century roof of the nave has collar beams, purlins and wind braces. From 1730 to 1856 there appears to have been no resident rector and the church was allowed to fall into a very poor state of repair. Apparently some repairs were done in 1815 but the main restoration took place in 1856 when nearly £500 was spent on making the church sound and clean. Then in 1884 the church was enlarged by the removal of the north wall, the construction of an arcade of two arches and the erection of the north aisle. The old north door and the three old windows out of the old wall were re-used. The wall painting, which is largely allegorical, and the stained glass windows are the work of the Rev Ernest Geldart, rector 1881-1900.

ST NICHOLAS. Norman nave and apsed chancel. Of the windows original only one - in the apse. It is tiny. Two C13 lancet windows in the W wall. Another re-used in the N aisle which was added in 1884. C19 also the pretty half-timbered W gable and the renewal of the belfry. C15 roof starting very low above one’s head. - PLATE. Cup and Paten of 1567; Almsdish of 1683. - BRASS to William Roberts d. 1518, and two wives, with small kneeling children below; as usual.

 

LITTLE BRAXTED. Here the Blackwater river runs beneath the willows. A timbered house and a huge thatched barn have stood by the tiny church for nearly 400 years. Only 45 feet long, the church walls remain as the Norman builders left them, having completed one of those perfect apses which gave such charm to their early buildings. In the 13th century lancet windows were inserted and in the 15th century the roof was made new. Great beams support the wooden belfry. William Roberts is in brass on the chancel floor, with his two wives in pedimental headdresses and groups of their children. He was one of the precious auditors who served Henry the Seventh in restoring the finances of the nation after the Wars of the Roses. A last-century vicar has left his mark on the walls, which he decorated with his brushes and paints.

It should be noted that he also did the tiling, as in designed and installed. I think the reason I love his work is that he is so obviously sympathetic to the church and the quality of his work is outstanding.

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Great Leighs, Essex

In and of itself St Mary is pretty run of the mill albeit the chancel is considerably larger than the nave and both are rather beautiful, however it is the round tower that raises it above the norm. Sadly now capped by a Chelmsford spire which spoils, to me, the clean lines of the tower.

Actually I withdraw that last statement, the chancel is wonderful as well.

Here is a fascinating church with really interesting exterior details and, frustratingly, locked but for no apparent reason. It's surrounded by houses and is on a busy road (but having said that Witham will throw up a slap in my face) and is a prime candidate either to be open or to have keyholders listed - the compromise here is to post reams of A4 sheets detailing the history within, which is rather like finding yourself outside a Hamburg whorehouse with the goods on display but the front door locked.

Moving on, the tower and south door are fine Norman examples and the site is glorious.

ST MARY. Norman round tower with small windows and spire of 1882. W doorway with zigzag ornament in the arch. Nave also Norman (two N windows, one S window). Chancel with renewed two-light windows of the early C14. The E window is of four lights and has very elongated reticulated tracery. The interior of the chancel is generously decorated. A large recess in the N wall with an arch on short shafts flanked by thin buttresses. The arch is cusped and sub-cusped and gabled. In the spandrel of the gable an extremely good spray of leaves in deeply undercut carving. The leaves are already bossy or nobbly, but much of the naturalism of c. 1300 is still preserved. No ogee forms occur yet. But the Sedilia and Piscina arches opposite have ogee heads. Yet the style is otherwise very similar. The seats are separated from each other by buttresses, not by shafts. Recess and Sedilia are much restored. - FONT. Perp, octagonal. Stem with tracery, bowl with quatrefoils carrying fleurons and one shield. - BENCHES. Eight in the nave with straight-topped, traceried ends. - STAINED GLASS. A little of the C14 in situ in the chancel N windows. - PLATE. Cup and Paten of 1560. - BRASS to Ralph Strelley d. 1414, rector of Great Leighs. Demi-figure in prayer. The head replaced from a late C14 brass. 

GREAT LEIGHS. Here, in a lovely churchyard with a valley curving round, is one of the six round towers of Essex, built by the Normans on a foundation possibly Saxon. One of its five pilasters comes down to a doorway decorated with zigzags, and higher up the wall is pierced with 13th century windows. The Normans built the nave too, and it has kept three of their windows and a doorway in which the 14th century builders made a new entrance. The opposite doorway is 15th century, and so are eight pews with traceried ends. The font is 600 years old; its panelled stem a century younger.

But it is in the 14th century chancel, with its beautifully traceried east window, that the traveller will want to linger, for here are two splendid pieces of carving by the old artists in stone. One is a canopied recess where perhaps the man who built the chancel lies, its pediment a mass of lovely vine leaves. The other is the group of three sedilia and a piscina finely and delicately wrought, with dainty pinnacles, rich buttresses and gables, and leaves in great variety.

A very unusual brass here shows the body of a 15th century priest with the head of a 14th century man joined on to it. The head of the priest was broken off and lost, and the other one comes from a stone close by. It has vivid eyes and a turned-down mouth. Another curiosity is an old barrel organ of ten pipes, with a carved frame and a neat label to tell us it is the patent of Mr William Phillips.

Near the church is Lyon’s Hall, much altered since it was built 500 years ago; and at Moulsham Hall is a living thing probably older, the Court Oak measuring 25 feet round.

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Great Braxted, Essex

All Saints is possibly the quintessential manor house church and was almost impossible to find. The church gates (at the end of a long tree lined avenue) were padlocked and I had to pluck up my courage to brazenly gain access by driving into Great Braxted Hall and finding it in the grounds - even though a sign said No Entry Function in progress.

A strange thing is happening - I'm beginning to appreciate the Chelmsford style, if the location also appeals which in this case it did. Sadly, but understandably, the church is locked although I would have thought that with a commercial wedding venue only a few hundred yards away somehow a keyholder could be inveigled.

No matter, I suspect the interior would have disappointed. Incidentally if you're a fisher or twitcher this area of Essex abounds with possibilities.


ALL SAINTS. A picturesque setting of the first order, with the large serpentine lake and the generous trees of the grounds of Braxted Park as a background to the little church, which is itself also picturesque. The best view is from the W, with the C13 tower with W buttresses and a bellcote of 1883 (?), behind which appears the timber belfry stage of the tower with two-light windows. Were the recent additions designed by the Rev. E. Geldart, rector of Little Braxted? Of the C13 a S and a N lancet and the tower arch towards the nave without any break between jambs and voussoirs. The rest of the church principally Norman, see one N window of the nave and one of the chancel. The chancel was originally apsed. Its present E end is C13 and has lancet windows, at the E end a group of three single ones stepped. The S porch is C15 with a timber-roof on carved corbels. - PANELLING. In the chancel, early C17, not originally in the church. - STAINED GLASS.  Window of N transept above the Du Cane vault 1844 by Warrington. - PLATE. Cup of 1562, Paten also Elizabethan; Almsdish of 1646; Flagon of 1660; Paten of 1711. - MONUMENT. Robert Aylett d. 1654. Inscription tablet, and l. and r. of it two tablets with shields and two roundels with skulls, bones and a shovel (under the tower).

Frost damage

GREAT BRAXTED. It has the mark of a family of the Low Countries who fled to the freedom of Elizabethan England from the terrible Duke of Alva. They were the Du Canes, who acquired wealth by promoting the wool industry of their fellow refugees and bought the great house here, in a park which they made a paradise. Its 500 acres are crowded with magnificent trees, their noble branches reflected in a lake of 14 acres. The churchyard, with a lordly cedar, is ringed round by all this natural glory, and approached from the road by a long avenue of wizened yews.

On these hills lived the Romans, and the Normans used their bricks to shape the windows of the church. The lancets in the chancel and in the walls under the wooden turret were added in the 13th century; one of them has a medieval sundial scratched on it. The roof of the 15th century porch has timbering resting on stone corbels, two angels and two human folk.

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Faulkbourne, Essex

St Germanus is locked, which is understandable since it is fairly isolated, with no keyholder listed which is less so as it apparently has a good monument and brass.

Rather against my better judgement I loved the exterior - the Tudor porch and window lift it out of mundanity and its situation is exquisite, it also benefits from the view of its neighbour Faulkbourne Hall.

ST GERMANS. Nave, chancel, and belfry. Nave and chancel are Norman, as can be seen from N and S windows and also the group of W windows. The upper one of these is original, with the two circular openings to the l. and r. (cf. Copford). On the S side a good Norman doorway with one order of extremely odd columns, semi-polygonal, with capitals with roughly indicated crosses, and bases made of the same sort of capitals upside down. One early C19 brick porch and vestry. The belfry rests on two thin posts. - BENCHES, a few, c. 1500, in the chancel. - HELM, late C16 or early C17, in the chancel. - MONUMENTS. Josiah Bullock d. 1783. With Corinthian pilasters, an open segmental pediment, and cherub’s head at the foot. - Hannah Bullock d. 1759. By Peter Scheemakers. Excellent seated female figure in front of a black obelisk. - John Bullock d. 1809 and wife. In the Neo-Greek taste. Big standing female figure and portrait medallion. Unsigned.

FAULKBOURNE. A house which is the pride of all Essex is standing here in a park of 100 acres of pines, elms, and chestnuts, and a cedar 19 feet round. So perfect is the brickwork of the house, and so elaborate the battlements, that it is not easy to believe that men lived here before the Wars of the Roses, but the king’s grant for these very battlements still exists.

It was in the days of Agincourt that the timbered part of the house was built, and in the kitchen is the old six-panelled door and a serving door with its old hinge and iron knocker. Before Sir John Montgomery died in 1449 he rebuilt the front of the wing in brick, and his son Thomas is believed to have built the great tower. The corbel tables are the supreme beauty of it all, and there is an oriel window. The stair turret is remarkable, the steps and the newel being entirely of brick.

The small Norman church stands among the pines at a corner of the park; it is one of the few buildings dedicated to St Germain. The east wall of the chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, portraits of men of the time being carved as headstops to the windows indoors and out. Inserted in a wall of the nave is a delightful brick window of the 16th century, and west of it is an original Norman doorway. The original priest’s doorway opens into a vestry. In the 15th century bell-turret are two bells 700 years old, and above it is a weathervane of 1701 and a lead finial rising above a shingled spire. The roof, the font, and the door with three strap-hinges are medieval, and there are Tudor linenfold panels. The pews are modern, a credit to the craftsmen who made them from oaks grown in the park.

Far older than the oldest tree is the figure of a knight who was laid to rest here in the 13th century. He wears a flat-topped helmet and a long coat, and has in his hand a kite·shaped shield; the knights looked much like that at Runnymede. It is not known whom this battered stone represents. The more gorgeous armour of the Elizabethans is on the brass of Henry Fortescue, a member of the bodyguard of his queen; his children are below him in three groups, and his wife Mary is on a separate brass. The engraved silver cup used here was her gift, and perhaps she set in the chancel the helmet hanging there; it is of the period. A curious possession of the church is a barrel organ of 1830.

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Cheveley, Cambridgeshire

St Mary and the Holy Host of Heaven is, as you would expect of such an evocatively named church, an extraordinary building. Approached from the north the tower is bizarre with an octagonal outer stair and a peculiarly shaped upper stage, the view from the south reveals an octagonal upper stage - the whole thing is most odd, presumably the result of stop start building.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its architectural peculiarities it is really rather beautiful but then again I'm a sucker for a cruciform church. 

Over the years the interior has been heavily 'restored' but despite this has retained some interest including a wall monument to Simon Folkes, a painted Victorian font and a very fine crossing. In the south transept are some floor brasses sadly buried under a mountain of chairs and other detritus and therefore inaccessible which is a pity.

ST MARY AND THE HOLY HOST OF HEAVEN. Impressive cruciform church of flint and pebble rubble. Dominant tower with higher NW stair-turret and tiny lantern. The tower is square below and octagonal above, and the most remarkable thing is that it stands over the crossing. That is a sign of early date, and the details of the square portion are indeed of the early C14 (cusped lancets). The octagonal stage is later, though not much later, i.e. Dec (two-light ‘reticulation’). Dec also the large windows at the ends of chancel and both transepts. The structure of these parts may indeed be older, see one lancet in the W wall of the N transept. The nave is Dec also, according to the details of the N doorway. It has no aisles. Perp re-modelling of the nave windows, Perp S porch. As for the interior, it is impressive first of all in the purity of its cruciform plan. Secondly the crossing calls for attention. This is early C14 throughout. Triple shafts with moulded capitals on all four sides, and triple-chamfered steeply pointed arches. The piers are adorned by brackets for statues or candles, and these have later C14 heads against their undersides. Three are preserved. - Two low recesses in the S transept S wall. - Piscina and broad Sedilia in the chancel, the latter nicely decorated in the Perp style, like a tomb recess. The Piscina in the N transept is contemporary with the building. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, panels with shields carrying instead of arms the Instruments of the Passion and the Signs of the Evangelists. - ROOD SCREEN. Tall and nobly slender with broad single-light divisions. The top tracery tripartite and thus ending in two cusps or pendants. The centre ogee-headed. Is it C14? - CHAIR. Italian, C16, big and heavy, with classical motifs, somewhat altered. - STAINED GLASS. Chancel E and N windows by Kempe, 1893, 1891, and 1895. - MONUMENT. Symon Folkes d. 1642. Large kneeling figure with columns and an open pediment. Achievement in the pediment, and thick garlands betraying the late date of the monument. In the surface decoration an odd liking for geometrical motifs.

CHEVELEY. The trees of the Duke of Rutland’s old park, a ducal domain no more, spread over into the roadway and gardens of this wooded outpost of the county, near the Suffolk border. By the road outside the church, in memory of the men who did not come back, stands a soldier with bowed head in a niche below a cross. The Jacobean rectory has great iron gates of the 18th century.

The fine aisle less church, in the shape of a cross, has a 600-year-old tower beginning square and ending with eight sides, a turret rising from the ground, with a winding stairway to the belfry and a summit once used for beacon fires. The line arches with clustered pillars on which the tower rests are the glory of the church indoors, recalling the days when there were four guilds here, each guild keeping a light burning on these piers. Three of the four brackets for the lights are here, one carved with a face and one a grotesque little fellow with his legs doubled under him.

The church belongs to our three great building centuries, and still has the oak screen set in its chancel arch 600 years ago. The choir-stalls are modern with fine carvings of dogs, fishes, birds, bats, dragons, and a wolf. There are two Jacobean chairs, and a richly inlaid one of cypress wood, the seat opening to form a chest; it is thought to be the throne of an Italian Doge, and to come from the 14th century. A little glass in a transept window is older still. The painted font is 19th century, most unusual in its blaze of colour, a new dress in medieval style.

Under an arch on the chancel wall is one of the Folkes family, in a red cloak, reading a book. He died in 1642. There is a memorial to James Hand who was rector for 49 years till 1830, and an old alms-box has on it these lines:

If aught thou hast to give or lend,

This beautiful old church befriend,

If poor but still in spirit willing,

Out with thy purse and give a shilling.

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