ESSEX CHURCHES

This fairly large (3,386 acres), fertile and picturesque parish, with its hamlets of Baythorne End to the east, and Harsted Green to the south-west, is most pleasantly situated on the northern boundary of the county, between the sources of the rivers Stour and Colne. Its church, dedicated to St. Augustine or Austin, "the Apostle of England," stands exactly 300 feet above sea level. It consists of a nave 54 feet long by 21 feet wide; at the western end, separated by a wall and arch, is an elongation of the nave to a further 8 feet. This is surmounted by a wooden bell-turret and spire. The chancel is 30 feet long by 19 feet wide, and there is a south porch.

The foundation of an internal wall, 6 feet to the east of the present inner western wall of the nave, was recently discovered, which seems to indicate that originally the nave was about 48 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the elongation 15 feet long. This view is supported by the fact that there are two external buttresses exactly in a line with the old foundation; and that on the north and south sides, externally, are two Early English windows, which are in the centre between the buttresses, and against which the new wall was built, thus blocking them up. At the first glance it would seem that originally it was intended to erect a tower at the west end of the nave; if this was so, it is doubtful if it was ever completed, for the design of the west end is certainly not an appropriate one for a tower; but perhaps the most reasonable solution of this arrangement is that this internal wall with arch formed a part of the original design for the construction of a larger wooden tower and spire than the present one. The position of this destroyed wall is shown by dotted lines in the plan.

The character of some of the rubble work of the nave, especially on the north side, suggests that a portion of the present walls are the remains of a still older church of the Norman period; and this view is supported by the remains of four semi-circular openings, apparently windows, discovered during recent repairs, two on the north and two on the south side of the nave, very high up. One of these on either side has been substantially walled up in order to receive the wall pieces and braces of one of the pair of principals of the fifteenth century roof; but there are no traces externally of either of these opening, and it is tolerably clear that in the thirteenth century this church was practically re-built or re-modelled, and all external evidence of original Norman work obliterated except as before stated.

The remains of the Early English period are the buttresses (the upper stages of which have but a small projection); a two-light window on either side of the nave; the north and south doors, with the remains of a stoup by the south door; the three single-light western windows --- two below and one above; the north and south windows at the western end of the nave before alluded to, and now blocked up; the triple window at the east end of the chancel; and two single lancet windows on the north side of the chancel.

The east windows are excellent in design. Externally they are simple lancet windows with double-splayed reveals, the springing of the centre light being level with the top of the side lights, separated by piers so as to form three distinct windows; but internally the three lancets are formed into one group by the deep internal splays terminating in shafts with caps, bands and bases, carrying three moulded arches on the same level.

In the fourteenth century, further alterations were made by inserting two early decorated windows in the south wall of the nave, one on either side of the door, and a similar window was inserted on the north side of the chancel.

In the fifteenth century a three-light perpendicular window was inserted at the east end of the north wall of the nave. It had evidently been altered, and the tracery removed; but during the recent repairs a large portion of this tracery was found built up in the opening, and has been replaced in its original position. The internal sill of this window is stepped down in front of the easternmost light, and on the angle of the quoins are the remains of a moulded corbelled bracket, probably intended for a small statue. The roofs of the nave and chancel are also of this date, and no doubt the alteration to the western wall of the nave was made at this period, and the present bell-turret and spire also constructed.

The nave roof consists of six pairs of principals with rafters, hammer-beams, stanchions and collar; the whole strengthened by curved braces running down some distance on to the walls. The ends of these originally were most probably terminated by angels or other figures, but these had all been sawn off --- perhaps by Dowsing or one of his deputies, as we know from his personal journal that he was busy in this immediate neighbourhood in the year 1643.

Shields, with coats of arms painted thereon, were fixed on the ends of these braces, it is supposed by the late Mr. Walford, a well-known antiquary, who resided in the parish at the end of the last century.¹

The wall plates are richly moulded and embattled, and purlins from principal to principal carry the common rafters. The chancel roof is of similar design with four pairs of principals. The walls of the church consist of large stones from neighbouring gravel-pits, mingled with many septaria and Roman tiles, the latter in places being worked in herring-bone fashion, especially on the north side. The Roman tiles and the septaria are no doubt from the Roman buildings which existed in this and the adjoining parishes. Mr. Thomas Walford gives an interesting account in Archœologia ² of Roman remains and roads discovered by him; and, as in many other places throughout the country, so here, the remains of Roman buildings formed so many quarries from which later generations drew some of their building materials.

In the north wall of the chancel, close up to the east wall, is a recess on the ground level very much like a fireplace; it measures 3 feet 10 inches in width, by 4 feet in height, and 18 inches deep, with a flat three-centred arch over; the arch and jambs are constructed in brick of the sixteenth century. There is also a recess in the east wall under the window-sill, 2 feet 8 inches from the north wall, 1 foot 5 inches wide by 1 foot 9 inches high, by 1 foot 1 inch deep, with an oak lintel over it. In the south wall of the nave, close to the present inner wall, is an Early English piscina: this is a most unusual position for one; it would be within the enclosed space at the western end of the nave before the present inner western wall was built.

In 1793 the church appears again to have undergone considerable repair, and a gallery was added at the west end. According to an entry in the Register, in 1801 the south wall of the chancel was pulled down, and a thin brick wall built up in its place; this has lately been removed, and a new wall, in character with the north wall of the chancel, erected in the old position.

At the end of the eighteenth century, a poor south porch was erected in brick, which was removed in 1884 and replaced by an oak porch of fifteenth-century character.

The old Norman font ³ was also removed in 1793, and replaced by a small octagonal one with the Walford arms carved thereon, and a small miniature by an artist of the name og Cooper, representing the baptism of our saviour.

In 1882 the repair of the nave and the bell-turret was taken in hand. The roof of the nave, which had been plastered over, was opened out, and all defective timbers renewed, and the whole covered with boarding, so that all the timbers were exposed to view. The gallery was removed, and the western arch exposed to view; the defective stones of all windows, doorways and buttresses were restored, and the old tracery of the three-light north window repaired and refixed in its original position. The decayed timbers of the bell-turret, spire and bell-frame were renewed, the body of the turret covered with oak boarding, and the spire with oak shingles. The modern brick vestry on the north side was also removed, and the chancel arch, which had been taken out and replaced by a modern brick four-centred arch, probably about 1800, was renewed in stone.

In 1891 the chancel was taken in hand for restoration; the plastering stripped from the ceiling, and the timbers restored and exposed to view, being covered with oak boarding. The south wall was rebuilt in character with the north wall. The stonework of the east windows, which was much crippled, was refixed; and defective stones, as well as those of the north windows and buttresses, renewed.

The whole of the recent work has been carried out by the untiring zeal of the present rector, the Rev. Dr. John Sedgwick, formerly Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

There are three bells, inscribed (i.) Richard Bowler me fecit, 1591; (ii.) 1612, Peter Hawkes made me (a hawk); (iii.) Domini 1570, domini anno. The diameters ar 27, 29, and 32 inches respectively. Bowler was a Colchester founder.

The oak pulpit was originally made for Long Melford Church; it is a copy of the Early Perpendicular pulpit of 1490, in Sudbury Church. ⁴

The church plate is interesting. One paten and cup bear the mark of 1682 --- small black letter in shield, but no inscription. The flagon and the other paten are engraved with "The gift of Mr. John Pyke to y^e Parish of Birdbrook, 1722," with arms at top. These have the mark of that year, a large Roman G.

Holman's MS., copied from the Symonds collection, records the arms of Peche (argent, a fesse between two chevrons gules) as existing in the east window and "in the north window of the chancell, this in very old glasse"; it is drawn argent, a manche gules with a label. The Rev. Henry L. Elliot writes: "The families of Tony or Thony and of Thirkell or Thirkeld bore argent a maunch gules. The coat or, a maunch gules is the well-known Hastings bearing, and this family was connected with the parish; not so either of the others, so I am inclined to think that the tincture of the field may have been wrongly recorded." We have the hamlet of Harsted or Hastings Green, and the reputed manor of Harsted or Hastings Hall.

The monuments in the church consist of:-

1. A coped stone, 6 feet 9 inches long, probably the top stone of a coffin, with a cross thereon, half-way up the lower stem of which is a figure resembling a double Omega . No absolute solution of this device has been given. A coped stone with cross and device similar to this one, occurs at Oakington, Cambridgeshire; and another, with a cross paté, but a similar device on the lower stem, at Great Maplestead.
This stone is of the thirteenth century, and as the family of Peccatum or Peche held the manor of Birdbrook with the advowson from soon after the Conquest to 1283, it is probable that this stone once covered the remains of the builder of the Early English Church, who may have been a member of this family. ⁵

2. A Purbeck slab, 8 ft. 4 in. long by 3 ft. 3 in. wide; as the edge of this slab has a fillet and hollow worked thereon, it is clear that it formed at one time the top of an altar tomb. On this slab is the matrix of what was once a very beautiful brass; on a slender stem was a bracket with inscription plate, and upon this was the figure of a lady or a priest, most probably the former; under a canopy there were four shields, one on either side of the top of the canopy, and one on either side of the shaft, the whole being surrounded by a legend. ⁶
When Mr. Holman wrote his notes on the churches of Hinckford Hundred, one of the shields and a portion of the legend was still in existence, and the shield satisfied him that it was a brass to the memory of a member of the Peche family. ⁷ The legend was as follows:-
      "De terre fuy faite è formé, et en terre suy retourne jadys la. Ihu de m'alme eit pite, Amen."
There is a brass of somewhat similar design in Cobham church, Kent, to Reginald Cobham, date 1420.
In 1283 Gilbert Peche gave Birdbrook to Edward I. and his queen Eleanor. That king, about 1300, gave Birdbrook to the abbot and convent of Westminster, with whom it continued until the suppression of the monastry, 16 Jan., 1539, when it reverted to the crown.
The Peche family, however, still continued to hold lands in this parish, for "William Peche held one fee in Brodebroke under Mary de Bohun, Countess Mareschall, in 1363," and it is therefore possible that this brass may have been to another member of this family.

3. Mural slab to Judith, wife of Jonathan Walton, D.D., rector of the parish. Born 26 March, 1775. Died 13 Feb., 1835.

4. Mural slab to Jonathan Walton, D.D., rector of the parish and rural dean. Born 7 Oct., 1774. Died 20 April, 1846.

5. Mural monument to Joseph Cape, M.A., rector of the parish. Died 20 July, 1866, in his 72nd year.

6. Mural slab to James Hills Manley, of the Royal Navy. Died 10 Jan., 1876, in his 85th year.