Blackmore. Through Changing Scenes

		Blackmore Area Local History
		Blackmore: Through Changing Scenes
		A history of Blackmore church and village in words and music. Written by Andrew Smith, from a performance given in 2005 and 2008.
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Home	Blackmore		Through Changing Scenes: Stondon Massey

Through Changing Scenes A History of Blackmore (Essex) in words and music From a performance given at the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore in September 2005 and repeated in February 2008 An extended version of this script is available in a booklet entitled 'Blackmore: A Short History', available from St Laurence Church, priced £1.50 or by post. Contact Andrew Smith for further information. ONE Introduction
	Readers: Reader A, Reader B, Reader C, Reader D Microphones: four in total. Number left to right (Reader B to use mic. 2. Reader A to use mic. 3). Seating arrangements: Front row left: Reader B, Reader D. Front row right: Reader A, Reader C.
Music	Te lucis ante terminum (Compline Hymn) Plainsong
	Reader A and Reader B to front. Reader B to mic. 2 Reader A to mic. 3
Reader A:	Welcome to the Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore, a place of worship for nearly 900 years. Blackmore does not appear at all in the Domesday Book whereas Fingrith does. The entry in 1086 reads:
Reader B:	“Hundred of CHAFFORD The King has FINGRITH (Hall), which Harold held before 1066. Always 1 plough in lordship; 6 villagers and 8 smallholders have 2 ploughs In lordship 24 cattle, Woodland, 1000 pigs; meadow, 3 acres. Value then £4; now [£]14”.
Reader A:	The Survey confirms that this area of Essex was heavily wooded and pigs must have fed on huge quantities of acorns and beechnuts. Blackmore is later mentioned in relation to the Priory Church of St. Laurence as being in the parish of Fingrith:
Reader B:	“priore ecclesie sancti Laurencii de Blakemore in parochia de Fyngreth”.
	Reader A and Reader B sit
Music	Nunc Dimittis (Canticum Simeonis) Plainsong
TWO The Priory
	Reader A and Reader B to positions.
Reader A:	Our story begins in the twelfth century with the Samford family, who then held the Manor of Fingrith. Adam and Jordan de Samford donated some land around the year 1160 and Richard, Bishop of London, gave authority for the foundation of a priory. Blackmore became an Augustinian Priory consisting of a Prior and twelve Canons. They were not monks but ordained priests. Their work was pastoral as well as contemplative. The Canons lived together during the week and returned to their parishes on Sundays to minister. They had servants to run the Priory.
Reader B:	This building is thought to have originally been constructed about 1170. At the west end we see the bold Romanesque architecture with two short lengths of return wall and clerestory windows. Until the bell tower was built, the people of the parish entered the building to meet and to worship, through this doorway.
Reader A:	The arranged marriage, in 1249, of Alice, daughter of Gilbert Samford, to Robert de Vere, the future 5^th Earl of Oxford, united these influential families. The marriage meant that this powerful Essex family held the Manor of Blackmore. They were probably key benefactors of the Priory. It was the responsibility of the Priors and Canons to appoint a parish priest for the cure of souls. In 1309 the parishioners complained to Ralph de Baldock, Bishop of London, that the Priors had failed to appoint a priest. He issued Letters Mandatory that:
Reader B:	“ …they should cause Divine Offices to be performed at the altar in the body of the Church … by fit Ministers … and on behalf of the parishioners that at their own charge they should find one Missal, one Chalice, one Vestment, and several other things … requisite for the celebration of Mass, as are found by parishioners in other parishes”.
Reader A:	The practice of appointing priests continued until the Dissolution when, in 1534, a Vicar was appointed for the first time. The village would have grown as a consequence of the Priory. Its activities attracted travellers and pilgrims. Inns and alehouses were built by the Priory for the tourists. The Bull Inn, at the top of Church Street, dates from around 1385.
Reader B:	The height of the Priory’s wealth appears to have been at the end of the fourteenth century when a single roof was placed over the nave and aisles. The shields of the de Vere family and the Royal family are present, and its date must be not earlier than 1381 or later than 1397. Recent research has dated the construction of timber bell tower to the year 1400. The west entrance was sealed and a new Doorway pierced in the North wall for the use of parishioners. Although the bell tower might have taken a week to assemble on site, we know that the trees which supplied the timber were felled over a period of three winters: this was quite a project.
	Reader A and Reader B sit.
Music	The builders Angevin m.s
THREE Henry VIII
	Reader A and Reader B to positions
Reader B:	Henry VIII was a frequent visitor to the neighbouring Jericho House, so must have known the Priory well. Here the King spent much time with his mistress, Elizabeth Blount (later Taillebois), a lady in the retinue of Catherine of Aragon. In 1519, she bore his illegitimate son, taking his father’s name Henry, and the surname for illegitimate offspring, Fitzroy. Much admired and spoilt by Henry VIII, his only acknowledged male child, Henry Fitzroy was, by the age of six, created Duke of Richmond with the titles Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Somerset. This placed Henry Fitzroy in an honoured position because the title held precedence over all other Dukes except potential legitimate sons of the King. By doing so, Henry VIII had elevated his son’s position in society such that he would be a more eligible bachelor. His stepfather, Gilbert Taillebois, was knighted. By the age of eight Henry Fitzroy was Admiral of England, Ireland and Normandy but died in 1536, aged seventeen of tuberculosis. The original house is no more, and the neighbouring property, Jericho Priory, is Georgian. But there was a saying in Court that when Henry was not to be disturbed, the expression used was,
Reader B & Reader A:	“He has gone to Jericho”.
	Reader A and Reader B sit
Music	Ballad of Jericho Traditional
FOUR Dissolution
	Reader A and Reader B to positions. Reader D to mic. 1
Reader A:	English history associates the dissolution of the monasteries with King Henry VIII and the late 1530s. The suppression of Blackmore, however, began at least a decade earlier. In April 1524, Pope Clement VII gave authorisation to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey for the suppression of the first Augustinian Monastery at St Frideswide in Oxford. The purpose was to finance a College from the proceeds in Oxford, to be known as Cardinal’s College. Henry VIII consented to the “Bull” but there was insufficient money. To supplement funds, in September Royal Assent was given for the suppression of around thirty of the smaller communities with an annual income of less than £200 and less than six inmates, the smallest number who could maintain divine worship. This included Blackmore.
Reader B:	In early 1525, an inventory of the “contents of the syte of the late Monasterye of Blakemore” was prepared. At an Inquiry held in August at Chelmsford before the King’s Escheator, it was established that the Prior of Blackmore owed his creditors £35.7s.1d. This included £2.13s.6d …
Reader D:	… to John Hawes for “works”; John Reynolds, draper of Brentwood, £8 6s for three hose and cloth; John Petchey, £1.13s.4d “ready money”; John Bell, 6s for shoeing horses and other services; Thomas Symonds, £3 and Sir George Pocke, Priest at Mountnessing, 6s.
Reader B:	After legal expenses, Blackmore Priory, with its rights in Margaretting, Willingale, Broomfield, Shellow Bowells, Norton (Mandeville), Writtle, South Weald, Kelvedon (Hatch) and Stondon (Massey), was valued at £85.9s.7d.
Reader A:	The contents and land of Blackmore Priory were then granted to Wolsey. Acting, as attorneys were Cromwell and John Smyth: a name which was to be familiar with Blackmore. Henry VIII also granted to Wolsey several Rectories, including Blackmore and Margaretting. Blackmore Priory was dissolved in 1527. At that time there were only four Canons in residence.
	Reader A, Reader B and Reader D sit.
Music	Kyrie: Mass for four voices William Byrd
FIVE Changes in Ownership
	Reader A and Reader B to positions
Reader A:	Wolsey founded a Grammar School in Ipswich, but was stripped of all property when he fell out of favour with the King over the planned divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. In 1529, Blackmore Priory, with all other lands and endowments was returned to the Crown. Two years later the Priory was granted to the Abbot and Convent of Waltham Holy Cross. The Bishop of London ordained a vicarage at Blackmore, endowing the post with an annual income of £6.13s.4d (10 marks). From 1534 the responsibility for choosing a Vicar rested with the Abbot of Waltham Abbey.
Reader B:	Waltham Abbey was the last monastic establishment in England to be dissolved. From 1536 to 1540 Thomas Tallis was organist there. He was tutor and friend of William Byrd, who lived for the last thirty years of his life in nearby Stondon Massey – but that’s another story. In 1540, Blackmore Priory was passed once more to the Crown.
	Reader A and Reader B sit
Music	Glory to thee, my God, this night Tune: Tallis’ Canon Ken/Tallis
SIX Thomas Smyth
	Reader A and Reader B to positions. Reader D to Mic. 1. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader A:	Henry VIII sold Blackmore Priory, in 1540, to John Smyth, one of his auditors. John was the second son of Thomas Smyth, of Rivenhall, a family who descended from Sir Michael Carrington, standard bearer to King Richard I during the Crusades.
Reader B:	When his son, Thomas, inherited the manor of Blackmore in 1543, and “house called Jerico”, he completed Smyth Hall, using the materials from the former Priory. Smyth Hall was situated half a mile from the church, on the Brentwood road, near to the junction of what is now Blackmore Road and Wenlocks Lane. The house was demolished in 1844. Thomas Smyth did not appear to be a great supporter of the local church. The Visitation Return for 1572 records …
Reader C:	…“that the parishe is pore and the tabell not as it ought to be, and the parish not able to buy a newe”.
Reader B:	Thomas’ relationship with the parishioners was not a harmonious one. In 1577, he appeared before the Archdeaconry of Essex Court accused, …
Reader C:	… “with others openly in service time in the church made a brawl to the disquieting of the parson and the people gathered together”.
Reader B:	He confessed that there were …
Reader C:	…“high words”.
Reader B:	Four years later he caused a rift when he removed the right of the parishioners to use the chancel. The parishioners claimed that both the Church and Chancel was theirs as an ancient right of use. The Essex Record Office has the original document of the case: “Parishioners de Blackmore v. Smith”, made before the Archdeacon of Essex, in 1583. Four parishioners gave evidence, one of whom was John Symond.
Reader D:	John Symond, of Blackmore, husbandman, [there about lxxv annos] a native of Brentwood, aged 80, deposed to living in this parish the best part of his life and well remembered the religious house which sometime stode adjoining the church … pulled down by Sir Thomas Tuke… and left the part standing which lately was used for the chancell that Mr. Smith in controversies between him and the parishns did shut it up … which was no pte of Blackmore Church, but pcel of the Priory.
Reader B:	The Courts upheld the parishioners’ claim but there is evidence to suggest that Thomas Smyth did not willingly relent.
	All sit
Music	Alas, dear Smyth TA/Traditional
SEVEN Crime in 16^th Century
	Reader A and Reader B to positions. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader A:	From 1583 to 1615, with the exception of 1588, Blackmore had as its curate, Edward Binder. By all accounts he appears to have been quite a character. Ecclesiastical Court records are littered with appearances. In 1589:
Reader C:	Edmund Bynder. Curate. That he being Curate of Blackmore sundry times there was no service said as viz – the first and second of November last.
Reader A:	Also, that year:
Reader C:	Edmund Binder. That he doth not only intrude himself into our Vicarage his function but also taketh it upon him to expound the scriptures and addeth thereunto of his own head unlicensed to preach. And doth not always give warning in the Church of Fish Daies and Holy Daies and that he is thought to serve by way of intrusion – Hereafter he does not use the expositions of the scriptures unlicenced.
Reader A:	Then, in 1608, including the margin note “notorious”:
Reader C:	Edward Bynder. Curate. He giveth no warning of marriages Christenings or burials. No Quarter sermons and doth hinder others that are willing to come, who are good preachers, to the greefe of the countrie thereabout.
Reader A:	Edward Bynder’s misdemeanours led to his suspension from duties.
Reader B:	Returning to the Smyth family, there is an incident where William Mott, the curate in 1588, was prevented from carrying out his duties. Allegations made at Brentwood refer to:
Reader C:	Thomas Smyth, junior. For resisting and withstanding Mr Mott, not suffering him to come into the parish church of Blackmore so that by those means he cannot execute and discharge that duty or function that belongeth unto him Frances Knockstubb. … that he did Charles Smyth, his man, did haule try and drawe Mr Mott up and down the churchyard and in the church porch upon the 30 of march in the time of ye Divine Service, and did rent and teere his cloak and also ye he wish one Edward another of Mr Smyth’s men upon the 29 of march did rend and draire the said Mr Mott out of the churchyard.
Reader B:	“Edward, another of Mr Smyth’s men” must have been Edward Blacketh, his servant. With Francis Smyth, he was bound over to “keep the peace for one whole year”. The offence may relate to a hearing before the Quarter Sessions in July 1588:
Reader C:	We present Francis Smith of Blackmore, gentleman, “for strikinge at the Constable at the Churche gate with his sword drawen, and for fetchinge John Reve of Blackmore out of the Churche forcably with his sword drawen, which John Reve was locked up in ye Churche by the Constable”.
Reader B:	There is not time to recall in detail Alice Godsave, who would not say who was the father of her illegitimate child Those who did not attend church / communion The man found sleeping most irreverently on the altar People selling ware (and drinking or guzzling) during service time The man in the chamber alone with a Scotch woman at The Bull.
	Reader A, Reader B and Reader C sit.
Music	Where do you wander? TA/Traditional
EIGHT The Puritans
	Reader A and Reader B to positions
Reader A:	Across Essex, between 1643 and 1660, more preachers were ejected from their livings and replaced by Puritans than in any other County of England. This is not surprising because the County was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the English Civil War with supporters keen to improve the quality of preaching. One such individual was Simon Lynch who was Rector of Runwell until 1644, and, from about 1646, Curate of Blackmore. In 1636, an entry before the Essex Archdeaconry Court states:
Reader B:	Simon Linch. Rector of Runwell: speaking incesscent and vasumly speeches in the chancell near the Communion table. Admonished and dismissed.
Reader A:	Stephen Smyth’s appointment of Lynch to Blackmore was unpopular with the parishioners. This is documented in the Record of Parochial Inquisition held at The Black Boy Inn, Chelmsford in September 1650:
Reader B:	That Symon Lynch, Clerke, supplyeth the Cure by the appointment of the said Stephen Smith, Esq who payes him for his Paynes thirtye pounds per Ann. That … Symon Lynch … was putt out of Runwell for his scandalous life, and brought into this parish without the Consent of the well Affected Inhabitants.
Reader A:	Simon Lynch’s Will specified the words to be inscribed on his tombstone. It bewails his plight – that of being taunted to death by Gog, the named enemy of God, the Antichrist in the Book of Revelations, whom he considered to be the Parliamentarians of Cromwell’s day. Lynch lived just long enough to know of the Restoration of the Monarchy and the Church. He died in 1660 just as he was about return to Runwell.
	Reader A and Reader B sit
Music	Psalm 149: Cantate Domino H Lawes
NINE Georgian and Victorian Blackmore
	Reader A and Reader B to positions. Reader D to Mic. 1. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader A:	In 1756, Thomas Smith became Curate of Blackmore. He was parish priest of Stondon Massey for 56 years until his death in 1791, and was also the Rector of Aythorpe Roding. Smith describes Blackmore as having …
Reader B:	…“about fifty to sixty families; one Family that are Papist and one Family … who are dissenters – there is no meeting house in the parish”.
Reader A:	He adds …
Reader B:	“I catechize the children constantly every year and that in the Season of Lent and likewise administer the Sacrament four times in a year – Michealmas, Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas”.
Reader A:	Smith says …
Reader B:	“My residence is at Stondon Massey, which is two miles distant from the parish of Blackmore, to which perpetual Curacy I was licensed”.
Reader A:	His salary was …
Reader B:	“only twenty six pounds”.
Reader A:	In 1817, the Archdeacon of Essex inspected the church building. A catalogue of failure is recorded including:
Reader C:	Weather boarding and shingling wants painting. Underpinning of Tower wants repair. Remove the Ivy from the South wall. Grub up the Fig and other Trees on South side. Fruit Trees East End of Chancel must be taken down and the Wall repaired and well secured.
Reader A:	He concluded:
Reader C:	Owing to the general bad state and conditions of the Church the Archdeacon did not make any Order but deferred doing so until he had considered the same more fully.
Reader A:	The margin note states:
Reader C:	The Chancel pavement of this Church is green as a Pasture Field and the Church the most cold, wet and comfortless of any in the Archdeaconry.
Reader A:	In 1829 a census was ordered into the state of non-conformity. The Vicar, Bridges Harvey, replied
Reader C:	In conformity with the Desire of the Secretary of State, I acquaint you, that, in the Parish of Blackmore, there is no other place of public worship than the Parish Church.
Reader A:	In 1841, “Mr A Barrett of Jessops, Blackmore built a Chapel, School House and rooms on his estate” in the village. Two years later it was put in trust for the use of the Baptist Church. The Dissenters had arrived!
Reader B:	The rise of non-conformists led, in 1868, to the abolition of Church Rates by William Gladstone’s Liberal Government. This measure placed the financial responsibility for the repair of churches only upon those willing to support them. This situation prevails today. In 1877, the church was restored thanks to the generosity of Edgar Disney. A commemorative brass, recording this fact is on the north wall. The Essex Weekly News reported that …
Reader D:	“The restoration has been most carefully carried out by Mr Barlow, of Chipping Ongar, … he has done his best with the funds placed at his disposal, though a much larger sum might have been laid out”.
Reader B:	The West Gallery and Vestry underneath was removed;
Reader D:	…“thus throwing light on the fine west arch into the Church”.
Reader B:	The Church was paved throughout. Two windows were created in the south aisle, and
Reader D:	“at the east end of this aisle a small ancient window has been revealed and opened into the Church”.
Reader B:	Controversially, the walls were stripped of their old plaster and renewed, so the likelihood of finding medieval wall paintings is remote. The cost of the work was £900. The new Bishop of St Albans, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Claughton presided over the Re-opening Service. Miss Griffin played the harmonium,
Reader D:	“and the efficient Blackmore Choir of sixteen voices, strengthened on this occasion by twelve voices from Chipping Ongar, was under the direction of the Choirmaster, Mr Fewell”.
Reader A:	We also know the hymns which were sung, from the relatively recently published “Hymns. Ancient & Modern”. The opening one was “The Church’s one foundation”. So let us imagine we are at that service in June 1877 as we stand and sing.
	All to seats but remain standing for hymn
Music	The Church’s One Foundation SS Wesley
TEN Major Restoration of Church
	Reader A only to position. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader A:	Major restoration was carried out at the turn of the twentieth century under the leadership of Rev. Walter Layton Petrie, Vicar of Blackmore from 1888 to 1922. In a newspaper report of 1902
Reader C:	Blackmore Church Restored. Presentation to Vicar “One of the Bishop’s Cheery Days” Monday was a red-letter day among the Churchpeople of Blackmore, it being the occasion of thanksgiving and dedicatory services in connection with the restoration of the Parish Church and steeple. The work of restoration has been going on since 1898, and it has since been of a most complete character. The ancient fabric has been greatly improved, and, where possible, the repairs have been executed so as not to alter the appearance. The improvements … cost altogether about £2,500. Mr Petrie, who was greeted with applause said he was more than delighted at the kind expressions of his parishioners, and he could not thank them adequately. He had only honestly tried to do his duty. … In the initial stages of the work he was considered to be a man of weak intellect and pressure was brought to bear on him to build a new church and leave the old one as a ruin.
Reader A:	In 1906, a replacement organ was given by an anonymous donor. It cost £224.10s, and the old one sold to the church at Stondon Massey for £25. The new organ was dedicated on Holy Innocents Day, 28^th December, and has seen nearly 100 years of service.
	Reader A and Reader C sit
Music	Jubilate Deo in B flat Stanford
ELEVEN The Weather: Storm and Tempest
	Reader B only to position. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader B:	Much activity in rural Blackmore concentrated on farming. The church registers record that over a half of the men living in the village were agricultural labourers. Family life was tough: as the Victorian era commenced, 40% of the population died under the age of ten, and, with wages low, and work scarce, many migrated from Blackmore, demonstrated by the fact that there was twice the number of baptisms than burials recorded in the parish. On Midsummer Day, June 1897, Blackmore was near the centre of the hundred square miles of Essex which was devastated in a quarter of an hour. Hailstones fell as big as hens’ eggs. At Quince Hall, about 22 acres of crops, was ruined and eight chickens killed. At Woodhouse Farm, 60 acres was damaged, with the estimated loss, £300. The contemporary report said:
Reader C:	“A man was mowing grass at Blackmore, his horses ran away and smashed the mowing machine, one of the knives of which entered the man’s chest and arms. If the knife had caught him lower down death would have been inevitable”.
Reader B:	Ninety years later, the hurricane of October 1987 swept southern England, and more locally, in August the same year a sudden cloudburst one Saturday afternoon flooded the church to a depth of three feet. Residents in Church Street had to be rescued by boat.
	Reader B and Reader C sit
Music	Glorious mud Fleetwood / Flanders & Swann
TWELVE Twentieth Century Blackmore
	Reader A and Reader B to positions. Reader D to Mic. 1. Reader C to Mic. 4
Reader A:	In the days without television or radio, it must have been quite a novelty to see a magic lantern show. Sixty people attended one entitled “The Oates Feather”, at the Church Hall in 1908. (The Church Hall stood on the site of the present Vicarage front garden). This was organised by the local branch of the Church of England Temperance Society, which was run by the Vicar and had a membership of 34 adults and a strong juvenile section. In 1885 it is noted that £2 was paid for twelve children to go to the zoo. Four youngsters, though, had their membership cancelled because they “Broke the pledge”. Children’s Services were held every Sunday. There were two occasions when these were cancelled: in January 1925,
Reader B:	“No Children’s Service at 3pm owing to ‘flu Horroring Sunday School”
Reader A:	and, in July and August 1926,
Reader B:	“Sunday School and Children’s Service closed down ‘till abatement of whooping cough epidemic”.
Reader A:	The Great War of 1914 to 1918 took a terrible toll on the lives of many men. At Blackmore, in November 1920,
Reader C:	“The unveiling of the war memorial took place on Sunday afternoon, a very large number of people being present. The ceremony began with the singing of “O God Our Help In Ages Past” followed by the lesson read by the Vicar (the Revd. W L Petrie) and prayers by Pastor Francis. At the request of Mr Edmund Marriage, Lieut. Col. Gibbons D.S.O. then unveiled the memorial congratulating Blackmore for having sent 103 men out of a population of 600. He mentioned that one in every five had paid the supreme sacrifice …. The names of the fallen are inscribed on the front face, and on the other faces the names of the men from the village who served are inscribed”.
Reader A:	In 1929,
Reader D:	“George Wilson, 24, shoemaker, no fixed address, was charged on remand, with breaking and entering St Laurence’s Church, Blackmore, forcing two offertory boxes, and stealing the contents, about 35/-”.
Reader A:	PC Austin, the village policeman, said that on the night of 22^nd September,
Reader D:	“The lead frame to the vestry window had been pulled away sufficiently for a man to enter”.
Reader A:	The defendant, having already surrendered to the Metropolitan Police,
Reader D:	“for burglary at Hatfield and breaking into two churches near Brentwood”,
Reader A:	was sent for trial at the Essex Assize where he pleaded guilty. George Wilson was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour.
Reader B:	Electricity was installed in the church, and used for the first time on Christmas Eve, 1948.
	All sit
Music	It’s time to play the music Adapted TA
THIRTEEN Modern Times
	Reader B and Reader A to positions
Reader B:	In the 1960s, the village population grew considerably. New houses were built in Meadow Rise, Woollard Way, Orchard Piece, and at Wyatts Green, These were small but substantial “housing estates” in a rural village.
Reader A:	Reverend “Monty” Knott became Blackmore’s incumbent in 1957 moving into the new Vicarage. A well-loved man, in 1986, porch and lychgate lanterns were installed, commemorating “the twenty eight years of Service given to the Community”. The Vicar was at the opening of the new Primary School in 1970, which replaced the smaller Board School, originally opened in 1877. The old building became a Youth Centre, with a library attached, but now (2009) being converted to a house.
Reader B:	Like many other villages, Blackmore once had many shops. Today it still has a Post Office, supermarket, antique shop, hairdressers and outlet for French Golf Holidays. There are three pubs within staggering distance of one another. The Bull, The Prince Albert and The Leather Bottle, which was rebuilt after fire destroyed the former building in 1954. The community also boasts a modern Village Hall and Blackmore Sports and Social Club. There is also a Village Fayre every other year, which raises many thousands of pounds for Charities and the recent introduction of the Blackmore Music Festival held on the Millennium Field.
Reader A:	What of the future? The villagers have a strong community identity, and a rich history seen through this wonderful building. “Through Changing Scenes”, week by week, the congregation continue to worship here as it has done for the last 900 years.
	Reader B and Reader A to seats remain standing for final hymn
Music:	O Praise Ye The Lord Psalm 150 / Parry
Last updated: 9 January 2010

Blackmore Area Local History

Blackmore: Through Changing Scenes

Reader C:

In conformity with the Desire of the Secretary of State, I acquaint you, that, in the Parish of Blackmore, there is no other place of public worship than the Parish Church.