Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: A Day Trip to Flanders

Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: A Day Trip to Flanders: A visit made on Friday 6 November 2009. Left: Essex Farm Cemetery ‘In Flanders Fields’ is one of the most famous poems penned during the F...

Stanford Rivers: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

The War Memorial tablet for Stanford Rivers is in St Margaret’s Church and was dedicated in December 1922.

It includes the following names:

-         George Aldridge

-         William Aldridge

-         William Attridge

-         James Brown

-         John Cable

-         Mark Cable

-         Richard J Crow(e)

-         Ernest S Doe

-         William Downham

-         Frank J Gardiner

-         George Green

-         William King M.M.

-         Arthur Knight

-         William E Millbank

-         Arthur Newman

-         Cecil A Oakley

-         Ernest Staines

-         Frank Staines

-         Thomas Staines

-         Francis A Thorogood

In addition the following are the names of men born in Stanford Rivers who were killed in WWI and who are not mentioned on the war memorial.

-         Comyns Owers

-         William Ernest East

-         Percy Fincham

-         Robert George Turner

-         Charles Saville

-         Charles John Penson

-         John Reed

-         Frederick Charles Talbot

-         Frederick Butcher

-         Alfred Douglas Clements

-         Edwin Staines

-         Wilfred John Tarling

Theydon Mount: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

The memorial to those who died in both wars is situated on the south wall of the nave of St Michael’s church.  In addition there are two Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard (2^nd World War). 

There is also a wooden board in the nave giving the names of old boys of Theydon Mount school who fought in 1914-1918.

Those named on the War Memorial are:

-         John Coller

-         Walter George Freshwater

-         Hugh Meikle Miller

-         Henry Joseph Perry

-         Frederick Town

-         Thomas William Ward

-         Stanley Thomas West

-         James Bushnell

The Roll of Honour reads:

Roll of Honour / To Commemorate / the names of the men / of this parish / and Old Boys of this School / who fought for / England and Liberty / in the Great War 1914 – 1918.

Bonner L G

Bushnell J  

Coller J   

Coller W 

Freshwater E E   

Freshwater W G 

Groves G   

Hammond W 

Hartgrove H  

Latchford W 

Miller H M  

Parker W 

Perry C 

Perry G 

Perry H J  

Perry G  

Prior A 

Prior A 

Raby D  

Raby H 

Starling A 

Starling A W  

Starling J  

Stubbings F G  

Stubbings W 

Summers S W  

Tarling J 

Tarling A S 

Town F 

Tricker B A  

Tricker W 

Turner H  

Tyler C W  

Ward T W 

West J W  

West S T 

Stapleford Tawney: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

The memorial is on the south wall of the nave of St Mary’s church.  It was unveiled on Sunday 7^th November, 1920, by Sir Drummond Cunliffe Smith.

In addition there is a board giving the names of the former pupils of Stapleford Tawney school who served between 1914-1918. 

Those named on the War Memorial are:

-         Arthur Godsafe

-         Henry Hartgrove

-         Robert Mepsted

-         Albert Starling

-         Arthur William Starling

-         Walter Stubbings

-         Malcolm Sworder

-         Norman Sworder

There is also an entry for George Herbert Fish who died in the Second World War.

In the tower at St Mary’s, is a board showing the names of those men from Stapleford Tawney who fought in the Great War.  Interestingly there are no names beginning A – F.  It shows the names of those who survived the conflict as well as those who were killed. 

However the names of the two Sworder brothers are missing.

The Roll of Honour contains the following names:

Stapleford Tawney

Roll of Honour

TO COMMEMORATE

THE NAMES OF THE MEN OF

THIS PARISH WHO FOUGHT FOR

ENGLAND AND LIBERTY

IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

GODSAFE A.	STAINES R.
GOULD S.	STARLING A.
GREEN W.	STARLING A.W.
HAMMOND W.	STARLING J.
HARTGROVE H.	STUBBINGS J.
HILLS F.	STUBBINGS T.
MEPSTED R.	STUBBINGS W.
MEPSTED H.	SURRIDGE F.J.
MOORE H. (M.C.)	SURRIDGE T.F.
PERRY J.	SURRIDGE T.
PURNELL A.	TUCKER J.
PURNELL W.	TUCKER W.
SARLING H.	TURNER H.
SARLING J.	WEST T.W.
SNOW F.H.	WHITBREAD W.

Greensted: First World War Fallen

The High Country History Group is preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.

Martyn Lockwood, its author, would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive, of those listed below.

Curiously there is no memorial in the church to those parishioners of Greensted who died in either war.  The reason is unknown. 

However the names are inscribed on a Roll of Honour once in the foyer of now demolished Ongar War Memorial Hospital. (The original is now in the Essex Record Office). 

Roll of Honour previously in
Ongar War Memorial Hospital

The Roll records four names of men from Greensted who died in World War One:

- J. Argent

- E. Crisp

- C.H. East

- E.G. East

These are: James Argent, Ernest Crisp, Edward George East and possibly Charles Herbert East.

LIGHTS OUT - The Royal British Legion.

LIGHTS OUT - The Royal British Legion.

Lest Willingale Forget: Sunday 3 August & Monday 4 August 2014

Friends of St. Andrews

& All Saints Church

Lest Willingale Forget.

It is important not to forget the debt we owe those who gave their lives for us in the World Wars. As an act of commemoration and remembrance of the outbreak of the Great War the Friends of St Andrews and Willingale Community Archive ask you to come along to St Andrews and spend some time in reflection.

Sunday 3^rd August between 2 and 5 pm

or Monday 4^th August between 10 and 3 pm

Please come to St Andrews,

 light a candle

and lay a flower as a mark of respect.

Rosemary represents remembrance, whilst white lilies represent purity and sweetness  or you could choose a flower from your garden.

There will also be an interesting display on those Willingale men who lost their lives. Over the last year Brian Rew has been researching the names and history of these gallant men and if you know of any relatives or have any other information please contact us.

Great War Centenary Commemoration

To mark the centenary of the commencement of the First World War, Martyn Lockwood is working on a special edition of the Journal to record those who fell in the four High Country parishes.  The Group will also have a display at the 400^th anniversary celebrations at Theydon Mount church on 27 & 28 September and will be represented. 

That Precious Legacy: Vaughan Williams and Essex Folk Song. Our talk on 24 July 2014

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 -1958) and his folk song collecting in Essex during the Edwardian era will be the subject of Sue Cubbin’s talk to the High Country History Group on Thursday 24 July at Toot Hill Village Hall commencing at 8pm.  Sue is a retired sound archivist from the Essex Record Office, and folk song singer forming one part of ‘Potiphar’s Apprentices’. In 2003 she organised an exhibition at the ERO entitled ‘That Precious Legacy’ to commemorate the hundred years since RVW began collecting rural songs which were in danger of extinction.  The first song – ‘Bushes and Briars’ – was collected from Charles Potiphar of Ingrave.  This promises to be a great evening of local history and song – with perhaps audience participation!

Members: £1.  Visitors and potential new members welcome: £3.

Tour de France in Essex Today

Edward Henry Lisle Reeve
(future Rector of Stondon Massey)
with Penny Farthing bicycle c.1880

ESAH160: Council for British Archaeology, Copped Hall Trust...

ESAH160: Council for British Archaeology, Copped Hall Trust...: Interested in archaeology? Want to dig? Come to a TASTER WEEKEND course for beginners in July 2014. These courses are being held a...

ESAH160: Copped Hall Trust & West Essex Archaeological Grou...

ESAH160: Copped Hall Trust & West Essex Archaeological Grou...: Interested in archaeology? Do you want to take part in the continuing investigation into the development of a Tudor grand-house from m...

Journal No. 52 (June 2014)

Members of the High Country History Group received their copies of the latest Journal at the meeting last week.  Items in this edition include:

- Anniversaries

- Unhealthy Occupation: The Derby Mercury commenting in 1749 on the high number of clergy who had died in the Ongar district

- Centenary of Chelmsford Diocese (1914 - 2014)

- Dedication of Church at Theydon Mount, taken from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society 'New Series' Volume 12 Part 3 (1911)

- William Sworder of Stapleford Tawney

- Christmas Eve: taken from Leaves of a Hunting Diary

- Inquest of the body of William Reed, 1788

- Hue and Cry: Stanford Rivers Imprisonment for Fowl Stealing, 1897

- The Queen's Jubilee and the Woes of Stanford Rivers

- Opening of a Jubilee Fountain at Stanford Rivers, 1898

- The Pilgrims Way: a reference to St Edmund

- Place Names Quiz (answers)

- St Michael's Church Theydon Mount 400th Anniversary Weekend, advertisement

- Parliamentary and Parochial Electors for Stapleford Tawney, 1914

- Dr. Livingstone I Presume!

- That's My Seat. Anne Archer of Theydon Garnon

'Taking the Waters': Georgina Green is our speaker on 26 June

The next meeting of the High Country History Group will be on Thursday 26 June when our speaker will be Georgina Green on the topic of ‘Taking the Waters’

Georgina Green will give a talk on the history of ‘taking the waters’, a custom that began in England before the Roman invasion. Bath was known for its hot spring that gave off steam but it was the Romans who enclosed the stream and built the baths that were known as Aquae Sulis. 

Spas were popular in many places throughout England but in the 1700s Bath became the most popular venue for all members of society.

We will also hear about the seaside as a fashionable place from the 18th & 19th centuries, and bathing machines.

Today, the supermarket shelves are full of a great variety of spa waters which are believed, by some, to be more beneficial than the water from the kitchen tap

We will also have a book stall, and refreshments of course.  Water if you like, but tea and coffee on offer as usual.

We will also resist all temptation to mention the World Cup. Come to a football free zone. That is our goal!

USAF World War II Exhibition at Willingale Village Hall: 15 June 2014

Notice received this evening .... 

Dear All

I have just been informed there is an exhibition in the Village Hall tomorrow organised by Derek Aspall, he used to run the museum at Blake Hall, Bobbingworth, on the USAF during World War II.  The exhibition is running from 2-5.00pm and entry is free with donations.  I understand Derek has lots of memorabilia from the war including much information on Willingale Airfield.  Good Fathers Day outing for those who have not organised anything yet!

Thanks

Bruce

ESAH160: Essex Through The Ages: A Conference at Essex Reco...

ESAH160: Essex Through The Ages: A Conference at Essex Reco...: The Essex Society for Archaeology and History is pleased to promote another excellent Conference organised by, and to be held at, the Es...

Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: Priory Church of St Laurence. 900th Ann...

Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: Priory Church of St Laurence. 900th Ann...: A new booklet has just been published by the Friends of St Laurence, Blackmore.  It coincides with the 900th Anniversary Celebrations of...

Traditional Buildings of Ongar: Next Meeting on 29 May 2014

The High Country History Group’s next meeting will be on Thursday 29 May (not tomorrow – it is Election Day) when Anne Padfield will be speaking on the traditional buildings of Ongar.

We will also have a bookstall and an opportunity to look at a book dated 1634 – being a translation of Pliny’s Natural History.

… and refreshments of course.

See you 29 May. Usual place: Toot Hill Village Hall, 8pm.

Essex Field Names (1): Introduction

Essex Field-Names

Collected and arranged by William Chapman Waller, M.A., F.S.A.

An extract from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, ‘new series’ Volume 5 (1895)

Part I: The Hundred of Ongar, and the Half Hundreds of Harlow aand Waltham [Extracts cover High Country Parishes only]

Short and disconnected lists of field-names appear from time to time in various publications, but, as far as I know, no attempt has hitherto [to 1895] been made to collect and arrange systematically those which are found to occur over the whole area of any particular county.  A passing reference made some years ago (by whom and where, I have forgotten,) to “the valuable lists of names contained in the Tithe Commutation Awards,” stuck, as such phrases will, in my mind, and it occurred to me that I would some day try to collect those parishes comprised in the Hundred of Ongar.  My first intention was to make a pilgrimage to each parish and there to inspect its particular Award.  But further consideration led me to abandon this plan as not only tedious but impracticable.  Later on, acting in concert with Council of the Society, I approached the Board of Agriculture, in whose custody the sealed copies of various Awards are deposited.  At first certain obstacles, which appeared almost insurmountable, stood in the way of my obtaining the facilities necessary for the execution of the work contemplated.  But at length, thanks to the cordial interest which the Right Hon. Herbert Gardner, one of our Vice-Presidents, manifested in a project approved of by our Council, and the courteous kindness of certain permanent officials of the Board over which he presides, all difficulties were got over, and the first instalment of Essex field-names now finds its place in the Society’s Transactions.

A few words explanatory of the scheme adopted are, perhaps, desirable.  The first proceeding was to go through the Draft Awards of the forty-one parishes contained in the Hundreds chosen, copying out all the field-names other than those absolutely common-place – such, for instance, as Broadfield, Longfield, Tenacres, and a few others, which occur by the score.  The names excerpted, to which the Tithe Map numerals were added, are in books which will ultimately be added to the MSS Collections of the Society.  Each name was next re-copied on to a slip, with the addition of a number corresponding to that assigned to be parish which it was found to occur.  Duplicates having been eliminated, the slips were arranged alphabetically, in which order they are now printed.  By way of pendant to this explanation I must add a word of thanks to my friend, Miss E M Allen, of Girton College, for the help she very kindly contributed towards the somewhat tedious process of re-copying and sorting.

It would be out of place to attempt, here and now, to say much as to the names of which the list is composed.  They exhibit a remarkable variety, the same name in precisely the same form rarely occurring more than once over whole area under review.  And it must also be added that the variations, in some few cases, appear to be due to the idiosyncracies of the original draughtsman or copyist, or of the person who informed him, rather to essential differences in the names themselves.  The explanation of sundry inaccuracies is probably to be found in the fact that the Awards, which were for the most part drawn up about half a century ago, were done in haste, and many names seem to have been misunderstood, misspelt, and mangled, while others were insufficiently authenticated. To give an instance or two: - the field which figures as ‘Peerless’ [Loughton] should indubitably appear as ‘Spare Leaze’, while ‘Luscious Mead’ [also Loughton] is really Lusher’s or Lushen’s mead; the various ‘Readings’ [e.g. Little Hallingbury, Matching], ‘Reddings’ [Stapleford Abbots, Great Hallingbury, Epping], etc., of which ‘redene’ is the earlier form.

Of all the names not immediately explicable three stand out as occurring more commonly than the rest: they are Small Gains [e.g. Navestock, Abbess Roding, Bobbingworth, High Ongar, Moreton], Rainbow Field [e.g. High Laver, Little Laver, Stondon Massey, Harlow, Hatfield Broad Oak], and Perry Field [e.g. Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney, Fyfield, Magdalen Laver, Theydon Garnon]. Now ‘small’ is a word rarely found as part of a field-name: the comparison is usually expressed by ‘little’ and ‘great’. But in the case of ‘Gains’, the latter affixes occur once and once only, though ‘Gains’ itself never occurs without some qualifying word.  Perry Field may or may not be the equivalent of the modern Peartree Field [e.g. Theydon Mount, Bobbingworth, Magdalen Laver, Latton, Great Parndon].  But perige or peru is the Anglo-Saxon for pear-tree, and in one case I have come on a ‘Piryfield’ in a late 13^th century charter relating to a parish in which later on two Perry Fields are found. … Rainbow Field [e.g. Navestock, Norton Mandeville, Abbess Roding, Beauchamp Roding, Stondon Massey] I hand over to the conjectures of the ingenious, with the remark that Rainbow, like Perry, also occurs as a surname.

Although many ‘Hop Gardens’ [e.g. Shelley, North Weald, Moreton, High Laver, Epping] remain to bear witness to the time when each vill drank its own brew, ‘Flex’ [Norton Mandeville] has in three instances only survived to recall the Statute passed in Henry the Eighth’s time, which rendered obligatory the cultivation of a certain amount of hemp or flax in each parish.

A momentary glance at an Ordnance Survey Map will serve to shew that the Commutation Awards by no means include all the place-names of the parish; and many which are nowhere recorded in print, are yet enshrined in old documents, or, in some instances, still live on the lips of peasant-folk, preserved through the centuries by oral tradition.  … Comment and criticism will of necessity by more advantageously applied when, if ever, the lists for the whole county are completed.  [W C Waller completed and published the work over nine parts from ‘old series’ Volume 5 to 9].

Essex Field Names (2): Stapleford Tawney

Stapleford Tawney (1)

Barbers Mead

Blaze Meadow

Brick Clamp

Canal

Caves Meadow

Charity Land

Chase, The

Church Field

Clay Hills

Cock Field[1]

Collets Hoppet

Colmans Croft

Cook Field

Cornishes

Crumps Mead

Dale Field

Dove House Mead[2]

Elthorpe Spring

Epping Hoppet

Frith, Upper

Froghall Spring

Gibs Croft

Goose Acre

Hagmoor

Hagmoor Shots

Hither How Field

Hooking Field

Hose, The

How Field

Hundred Acres[3]

Hunters Moor

Lady Croft

Liquorish Field, North and South

Long Bottom

Long Shot

Lowlands[4]

Mayletts and Jacobs

Mill Mead

Night Leaze

North Lands, Great and Little

Parks, Hilly

Perry Field[5]

Pipers, Great and Little

Rains, Lower

Sedgy Marsh

Shailes Moor

Stock Frith

Swains Field

Talbot Inn (nr. Passingford Bridge)

Taney Mead

Tawney Wood

Thistley Field[6]

Thompsons Croft

Tylers Hoppet, Little

Well Field

Whitbreads

Windmill Field[7]

---

[1] Also occurs at Theydon Mount

[2] Also occurs at Theydon Mount

[3] This is the nearest approach to a joke that one comes on; it seems to have been thought witty to call a small enclosure ‘Hundred Acres’ or ‘Thousand Acres’. Instances are not confined to Essex.

[4] Also occurs at Theydon Mount

[5] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers

[6] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers

[7] Also occurs at Stanford Rivers