 |
Writtle in 1887
The following is taken from ‘Durrant’s Handbook For Essex’ written by Miller Christy
(Durrant & Co., Chelmsford, 1887).
Writ’tle. A.. 8759; P. 2412; Vicarage, value £600; 2½m.
W. from Chelmsford.
This, said to
be the largest parish in Essex, contains a considerable village, with many curious old
houses, ranged round a large green. It
is supposed to be a very ancient place, and to have been of consequence when Chelmsford was obscure. Before a bridge was built over the Chelmer at
the latter place, in 1100, the high road came, it is said, round by
Writtle. If not the Roman Caesaromagus,
it is near it, though Roman remains are not abundant. Four miles N.E. from the church, among the
woods, are the remains of a Hermitage, formerly called Bedeman’s-Berg, founded
by Robert, a monk, in the reign of Stephen.
The small fragment which yet remains is now used for agricultural
purposes. It was partly constructed of Roman tiles. In 1211 it is said that King John built here
a palace, of which the Moat, still perfect, and enclosing an acre of ground,
still remains. It lies beside the road
from Oxney Green to Chelmsford, opposite the Lordship Farm. Highwood (2½m. S.W.) is a hamlet and a
separate ecclesiastical district, formed in 1876 from the parish of Writtle. Osterley, or Horsfrith Park, formerly extensive, has long been
disparked, but Writtle Park, though diminished, still
remains. It has some large timber, and
contains a fine old Elizabethan brick mansion.
Round the park are the extensive woods known as the High Woods. The Church (All Saints) is large and in
various architectural styles. On April
4, 1802,
the tower fell, giving rise to the doggerel: “Chelmsford Church and Writtle steeple, Both fell
down, but killed no people.” It was
rebuilt in a very tasteless style. On
the S. side is a fragment of the original tower, probably Norman. In the tower are some grotesque stone heads,
perhaps of Norman age. It contains 8
bells. The nave and both aisles, each of
five pointed arches, probably of the 13th cent., but with windows of
the 16th; N. and S. porches; clerestory windows of late 16th
cent. work, and two small oratories. The
roof is handsome, having stone angels as corbels and wooden bosses of Tudor
work. Some of the finials of the seats,
too, are well carved, representing poppy-heads, hawks, &c. The staircase up to the rood-loft still
remains. The font is of massive Norman
or, as some think, Saxon work. The
chancel was restored in 1885, a new E. window and oak roof being added. Preserved in the chancel is a very curious
piscine, probably of Norman age, as it is rudely carved. It consists of a shallow, bowl-like stoup,
with a projecting tongue for letting into the wall. The church, though large, ancient, and
complex, is not of great antiquarian interest.
Traces of Norman and E. Eng. work are not scarce, but the whole is much restored. The Register dates from 1634. There are many brasses, chiefly military and
of the 16th cent. None are of
striking interest. Among many other fine
monuments is one to Sir John Comyns (1740), Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who
built Hylands, Widford. Here, in 1593,
was born Dr. John Bastwick. He practised
as a physician at Colchester but afterwards wrote criticisms in Latin on the abuses of the church,
and thereby became much persecuted. In
his later years, however, reparation was made to him.
|
|
Writtle in 1861
The following is taken from ‘The People’s History of Essex’ written
by D. W. Coller (Meggy & Chalk, Chelmsford, 1861)
WRITTLE – There is a part of the [Chelmsford] hundred yet unexplored –
the district lying to the north-west of Chelmsford. Striking into it from the New London Road,
the parish of Writtle is seem lying calm and quiet in the valley below, with
its clustering houses, and its church tower in its midst. Passing the farm of Mr. Robert Baker on the
right, and crossing the Wid, we find the village green and the ware-pond,
surrounded with neat dwelling houses and cottages; and with the more distant
scenery, including tracts of hundreds of acres of woodland, it is a pleasant
and picturesque spot. The parish is the
largest in the county, including four hamlets, Oxney Green, Edney Common,
Highwood and Cook’s Mill Green; it is divided into four quarters – Town
Quarter, Roman’s Fee, Highwood and Bedell’s End – and it is 52 miles in
circumference. It has been said that its
size is its only present distinction; but its church alone will rescue it from
reproach, and the parish itself is rich, if not in relics, at least in olden
recollections. It appears to have been a
place of some importance from the earliest period of our history; and probably
it was a considerable town at the time when Chelmsford was an obscure village. The Roman is reputed to have fixed a station
upon the fair spot. It has a strong
claim – in our opinion the strongest – to be regarded as the Ceasaromagus of
that people. It is true the proofs have
been demanded in the shape of relics, and they have not been forthcoming. Strong evidence may, however, be found in the
ruins of an old hermitage, which lie at the northern extremity of the parish,
almost surrounded by woodlands, in the picturesque quarter of the
Highwoods. The hermitage was founded,
after the manner of the solitary religious recluses, by Robert, a monk, in the
reign of King Stephen, and he appears to have been a man of some repute and
sanctity, as he received royal assistance in the shape of a grant of the
ground, wood for the building, and pasture for the cattle. From his grounds and his herds he was thus
able to furnish a goodly table in his retirement – for the belief that these
hermits were vegetarians and teetotallers is a popular and poetical fiction;
they acted as pioneers of agriculture, and lived as became good farmers of that
day. The cell, which was called
Beadman’s Berg – “the prayer-man on the hill” – was enriched with further
benefactions, and afterwards came into the possession of the Abbot of St John’s
at Colchester; but after the dissolution the
building fell into decay. The ruins of
it which remain furnish the evidence to which we refer, as it will be found on
examination that they are composed of red Roman tiles or bricks, - thus clearly
showing that the materials were obtained from some erection of the imperial
rulers in the neighbourhood. In later
times too, as already shown, royalty fixed its residence here. The site of the palace of King John is
believed to be the spot opposite the Lordship farm, within the boundaries
described by the moat; and indeed part of the foundations were excavated in the
course of the last [18th] century.
“The disappearance of all these vestiges of ancient importance,” says
Suckling, “shows in a very striking light the instability of human grandeur, where
neither the stupendous labours of Roman ambition, nor the luxuries of royalty,
have left a wreck behind.” At the early
periods we have referred to most of the lands around were forest. There was a bailiff to the forests of Writtle
and half hundred of Chelmsford, who resided in the parish, and
held a house and 180 acres of arable, pasture, and woodland, with 17s. rent, on
condition that he watched over these open woodlands, and duly protected the
king’s rights.
The principal stream of traffic in this part
of the county once flowed through Writtle.
We find it recorded that
“Before a bridge was built over the river at Chelmsford, the public road
to Braintree and several places in the north and north-east parte of the county
to London led through Writtle, turning the corner where is at present the sign
of the Red Cow, going on to Bayford Tye, and so quite over to Margretting. (By
a custom called ‘luppe and lusse’, every person passing over the Green at certain
periods of the year was obliged to pay a penny.) A large and much frequented Inn, called the Swan, formerly stood
near the road at Shakestones. Generally,
for the greater part of the winter, all carriages, and even horsemen,
travelling to Ipswich or Harwich, were obliged to go that way, the ford at
Chelmsford not being at those times passable without great danger. In the vicinity of this spot several ancient
coins have occasionally been found.”
This extensive lordship
belonged to Harold, whose brief reign followed that of Edward the
Confessor. After his death it fell to
the Conqueror; and passing through the hands of various nobles – amongst others
of the family of the celebrated Bruce, from which it was wrested when he
assumed the sovereignty of Scotland – it fell to the crown by the attainder and
execution of the Earl of Stafford, through the enmity of Cardinal Wolsey, in
May, 1521. Queen Mary granted it to Sir
William Petre, and the head of that noble house sits in the House of Peers as Baron
of Writtle. Nine manors have at
different periods been parcelled out of the lordship; and some of the old
manor-houses which remain afford fine specimens of domestic architecture of
other ages – Bedells Hall, near which formerly stood a cross, taking its names
from the celebrated Bishop Bedell, who was born there; and the good farms of
the parish are now owned by Lord Petre, A. Pryor, Esq., the Rev. C. G. G.
Townsend, and Wadham and New Colleges, Oxford.
Much of the land, however, is freehold, and is possessed by J. A.
Hardcastle, Esq., M. P., and various other smaller holders, the former of whom
has a good house in the village.
Anciently there were two extensive parks in the parish. Hoastly, or Osterly, or more anciently
Horsfrith, lying beyond Cooksmill Green on the road to Ongar, was years ago
broken up, its timber felled, and its land brought under the plough; but King’s
or Writtle Park still remains in a diminished
shape, with its fine old Elizabethan mansion and pleasant gardens. Writtle Lodge, or the Great Water House,
which stood on the banks of the river at the extremity of the parish towards Chelmsford, was built by George Bramston,
Esq., in 1712, and afterwards a seat of the Fortescue family; but it fell
before the destroying spirit of Mr. Attwood, and its outward and inner parks,
though still unenclosed, have been handed over to the husbandman. Writtle was formerly a market town, the
market-house standing on Little Green.
It has also a charter for a fair on Whitsun Monday and on the 10th
of October; and it has been remarked as extraordinary that this advantage has
not been embraced, as “no town in England could better accommodate cattle of
every kind, there being so great a quantity of waste land belonging
thereto.” It forms, with Roxwell, a
special jurisdiction or liberty, and has its own coroner; formerly it was
subject to no visitation; and at one period the inhabitants refused to attend
on county juries, but this being found to rest only on custom, the claim was
set aside.
The church is, upon the whole, a fine and
massive building; but the changes which it has undergone at different periods
give it rather an incongruous character.
The principal part of it is in the early English style of the thirteenth
century; but there is proof of a church here at a much earlier period. The
shape of the old Norman font, carved in hard stone, bespeaks greater antiquity;
and there was a grant of the church in 1143 made by King Stephen to the Priory
of Bermondsey. Subsequently it was
granted by King John to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost, at Rome – in
consequence the rectory, which is a manor of itself, is called Roman’s Fee; but
being afterwards seized as the property of an alien institution, William of
Wykeham secured it, and in 1399 conferred it upon New College, Oxford, with
whom it still remains. On the north end
and south sides are two small transepts or chapels, belonging to two of the
four chantries established here in Roman Catholic times, one being valued at
£6. 2s. 4d., the second at £15. 10s. 6d., the third at £9. 12s. 6d.; and the
fourth at £13. 5s. 3d.; besides which there were endowments for twelve obits
and one lamp. The ancient tower, with
the bells, fell down on the night of Friday, April 4,
1802, and
being rebuilt in the following summer of red brick, has been pronounced by
Suckling “tasteless and inelegant.” The
interior of the sacred edifice is rich in funeral monuments; though, as the
empty matrices show, ignorance or avarice has robbed it of many fine brasses;
some, however, remain near the chancel door, representing warriors and their
wives, apparently of the period of Henry VII.
Amongst the monuments, the most curious – it has indeed been called
fantastic – stands against the wall on the north side of the chancel. It is sixteen feet high, and six broad,
composed of various kinds of marble and alabaster; and the artist has drawn all
his figures and illustrations from agriculture and its operations. Between two pillars supporting the cornice is
an angel with a sickle, upon a rock, bearing the inscription in Latin – “That
rock was Christ,” placed on wheatsheaves, on the bands of which are the words –
“If a corn of wheat fall not into the ground it cometh not up again;” and
beneath, “He who has planted, nourished and expiated for us, will assemble and
restore us.” On the pillar on each side,
above the representation of a fan used in dressing corn, is written – “The
reapers will gather us.” On each side of
the pillars are angels weeping, dressed as servants of husbandry; and on a
scroll within the fan is an inscription which tells us that “John Pinchon and
Dorothy Weston, once was flesh, now one carcass, wait for, in this tomb, the
coming of Christ.” Near to this is a
marble monument of the year 1515, with the figures of Edward Elliot, his wife,
four sons and six daughters, in postures of devotion. On the south of the chancel is the monument,
fourteen feet high and seven wide, of Sir John Comyns, who built the mansion of Hylands.
Between two urns is the bust of the baron in his robes; and on the
tablet of grey marble, bordered with porphyry, the following inscription:
“Near this place lies enterred the body of that great and good man, the
Right Honourable Sir John Comyns, Knt., late Lord Chief Baron of His Majesty’s
Court of Exchequer; universally one of the brightest ornaments of the bench,
and the ablest lawyer of his time; who departed this life on the 13th
day of November, 1740, aged 73. That a
character of so much piety, learning, and merit should not be buried in
oblivion, but remain a shining example to others, this monument, out of duty
and gratitude, was humbly erected to his memory, by his nephew and heir, John
Comyns, of Hylands, Esq., 1759.”
Beneath is a quotation
in Latin from Horace, of which the following is a translation –
“Oh when shall faith, of soul sincere,
Of justice pure the sister
fair,
And modesty, unspotted maid,,
And truth, in artless guile arrayed,
Among the race of human kind
A match to this Justinian find!”
The family arms are
engraved on a tablet in black marble, gilt, and encircled with a border of
alabaster. Amongst the other stones and
inscriptions are several to members of the Petre and Bramston families; and at
the east end of the north aisle is a brass of a man and woman kneeling, with a
book open beneath them, above them a human skull, and beneath this inscription,
the date being 1606:
“Neere to this resteth the body of Edwarde
Hunt, late of Wryttle, gent. who lyvinge was much beloved; releeved the poor,
and by his last wyll gave in perpetuytie two alms-houses in Church-lane, with
an yerely allowance of twentye shyllyngs for their better maintenance. And also hath willed for ever to the poor of
this parish, to be yerely distributed on Good Fridays, x shillings, which
sommes are lymmatted to be paid out of a parcel of land called Appesfield, in
Chelmsforde parishe. As by his sayde will
at large appeareth.”
The church and the poor of the parish are
endowed with numerous charities. To the
church is assigned Bumpsteads, a farm of 29 acres; also a tenement called
Parkers, now inhabited by poor families, rent free; a cottage on the site of
which the boys’ national school has since been built; and a garden. The master and mistress of the national
schools receive £54. 13s. 4d., out of Blencowe’s charity, left by John Blencowe
in 1777, for which they teach 33 boys and 22 girls free; the girls’ school and
house were built by Mr. H. Lambirth in 1818, and given in exchange for East
Hayes, a house which belonged to the church property. Besides Hunt’s alms-houses, there are six
others, founded by Thos. Hawkyns, in 1500, occupied by poor widows, each of
whom has 3s. 6d. a week from the proceeds of Boards and Jordans, exchanged for Hook’s farm in
1850. Besides these, the poor have £5.
6s. 8d. out of houses in Bishopsgate-street, left by Wm. Horne in 1591, to be
distributed 2s. weekly in bread; £2. 13s. 4d. for 12 penny loaves to be given
to 12 impotent, blind, lame, or poor people, attending church every Sunday, out
of Boggis farm, left by Dorothy Davis in 1634; the dividends of £121. 0s. 8d.
Three per Cents. left by Lady Falkland in 1776; 20s. out of a house on the
green, to be given in bread by the owner, left by Eleanor James in 1737; and
20s. out of Chalk-end farm, originally called for the Poor Monk’s Gift. Seven acres of land were left, it is
believed, by Baron Comyns, for the benefit of the governor of the workhouse, for
reading prayers to the inmates. These
olden charities have received large additions of late years. The late P. Labouchere, Esq., of Hylands,
gave a piece of land on which a school has been erected, and £500 for the poor;
the late Rev. Dr. Penrose, vicar, £500; and the sum of £1,000, given by Mr.
Attwood for liberty to stop up certain roads, has been invested for the
interest to be distributed in clothing, &c.
|
