Blackmore Area Local History

Willingale Doe & Willingale Spain
"From Saxon words, denoting goodness of wool. Doe and Spain, from ancient owners"

Willingale in 1861

The following is taken from ‘The People’s History of Essex’ written by D. W. Coller (Meggy & Chalk, Chelmsford, 1861)   

THE WILLINGALES – Yonder to the southward [of the Roding villages] is the little parish of Shellow Bowels, the property of T. W. Bramston, Esq., and at the extremity of the [Dunmow] Hundred towards Ongar, the Willingales crown the high ground which rises above the vale of the Roding, affording a fine prospect over the whole of the district.  Willingale Doe, the larger of the two, is chiefly vested in the Bramston family, Warder’s Hall, the principal manor, forming part of the estate of Skreens, and the Rev. J. Bramston is lord of Torrel’s Hall, which gave name to the little hamlet.  The chief manor in Willingale Spain, with most of the soil in the parish, is the property of S. Brocket, Esq., a descendent of Sir John Brocket, of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire; and he resides at Spains Hall, about a mile from the village, - one of the fine manor-houses of another age, upon which have been engrafted the taste and elegance of the present.  The peculiar feature of interest that will strike the visitor to these twin parishes is the circumstance of the both churches standing in the same yard, within a few rods of each other, so that the wanderer amongst the tombs in time of divine service may hear the voices of the two congregations of worshippers mingling with each other in holy rivalry.  It is a singular circumstance – the only instance of the kind in the county; but parallels to it are to be found in Cambridgeshire and in Norfolk.  Forty years ago [1821], as we stood leaning over the church-yard gate, speculating on the cause of this curious arrangement, we enquired of a grey-haired parishioner who was passing, what account village tradition gave of the matter, “Why you see,” said he, “that a long while ago there were two ladies, sisters, who owned most of the property hereabouts, and they quarrelled about which should have a particular seat in the best pew in the church.  The oldest would not give way, so the youngest built a church of her own, in which she could enjoy the seat of choice and dignity.”  Whether the foundations of the second sacred edifice was laid in this fit of pride and passion we do not pretend to decide; but an air of probability is given to legend that the fact that the two parishes formed only one at the time of the Conqueror.  The subject, however, has fairly baffled historians, who content themselves with simply telling us that the two churches stand in the same church-yard, “the reason of which nothing remaining shows.”  Willingale Spain is the smaller and evidently by far the older of the two.  The marks of its antiquity are to be found in its small round headed loop-holes, its lancet windows, and its Norman doorways, the doors themselves being covered with iron work in various devices, spreading over the entire surface.  The church belonged to the Priory of Blackmore, having been given to it by William de Hispania “for the health of the souls of his father and mother, himself and his wife.”  It has a very elegant modern altar-piece given by William Brocket, Esq., but he only noticeable monument to be found in the edifice is one of curious construction, about a foot in length, and eight or ten inches wide. It is made of wood in the shape of a book, one side being fastened to the south side of the church, and the other moving on metal hinges.  On the outside are the arms and quarterings of the Bewsies; and on opening it a sheet of parchments is seen emblazoned with shields affixed to the pillars of a Grecian arch, in the centre of which are the following lines – the eagles alluded to being part of the family arms –    

“Those eagles brought Bewsies’ antient bloode    
From France to Springfield and from thence to Spaine,  
Attend his offspringe here, whose hopeful budd     
Death’s frost has nipt, whom earthly fate have slaine,     
Six blossoms here lie shaken from the tree,    
Where eagles frequent are dead bodies bee.”     

A whimsical account of the coat of arms follows in wretched verse; and on escutcheons are inscribed records of different members of the family who are buried between 1626 and 1638.  Several brasses, which were of about the same period have been sacrilegiously torn from their stones and carried away.  The church of Willingale Doe is a much larger and nobler structure, and a few years ago it was considerably enlarged and restored.  It contains many interesting memorials of the Torrells and the Wisemans, but all of them have suffered greatly from heedless usage and the hand of the pilferer.  On the floor of the nave is the figure of a warrior in a devotional attitude, clothed in armour, and the feet resting on a dog.  The inscription is gone, but the armorial ensigns near the head show that it represented one of the family of the Torrells, who are frequently found in the Domesday Book, and the costume of the figure is that of 1400.  A mutilated figure of the same family, in the rich dress of the age in which she lived, lies within the altar rails. On the south side if the chancel is a monument which has been described as huge and clumsy, stiff, and in execrable taste, raised to the memory of Sir Robert Wiseman, who died the 11^th of May, 1641.  It consists of the recumbent figure of a knight in armour, with two ladies kneeling in recesses on the upper part of the tomb; behind is an inscription in Latin, loaded not with a description of public services, but of his private virtues, on which Suckling observes – “Could we believe Sir Robert Wiseman to have been possessed with all of the virtues and accomplishments therein ascribed to him, we might unfeignedly blush for our own degeneracy.” The offensive fulsomeness of the language justifies the sneer.  He is represented as “pious, sincere, just, peaceable, steady to himself and his friends, a lover of his brethren and of the muses, an excellent patron of learning and learned men, friendly, sociable, and hospitable to his neighbours, beneficient to the poor, just to all;” and the fact that being a tetchy old bachelor is conveyed in the delicate intimation that he showed his, “chasteness of body by a celibacy of 65 years.”  The church also contains monuments to Sir John Salter, knight, a lord mayor of London, and some members of the Jocelyn family.       

There is one acre of church land in Willingale Doe; and a yearly rent-charge of £4. out of Warden’s Hall, left by Robert Cole in 1732, is applied to the school, which is open to children from Willingale Spain and Shellow Bowells.