Pictorial History

Below are some local pictures. They were taken in a village just near to us which was known as the "Witch Capital" of the South East.

The first two pictures were taken outside the local pub and Mike just could not resist that glorious creeper in all its Autumn glory.  Believe it or not, under that creeper is an aviary full of Budgerigars!  They are well protected from the weather there and it is pleasant in summer to sit outside and hear them chirping.

On the bottom left you will see the church.  As mentioned in a previous entry, if you run around the tower a number of times on New Year's Eve, you will come face to face with the devil, others say that if you run around it, you go back in time. The tower is 85 feet high and the walls are seven feet thick. During the first world war, the tower was used as a signalling and observation post by the Royal Flying Corps which later became the Royal Air Force. It was used again for observation by the Royal Artillery in World War 2.

The churchyard is haunted.  A female spirit walks from the churchyard down to the river.  She is dressed in a crinoline dress and a bonnet.  However, if she turns to look at you, there is no face inside the bonnet.  It is believed that she was one of the nine witches that are always supposedly going to be there. White mice are associated with these witches.  We have just had Halloween.  The police are always on duty around the road to the village on this night due to the many people who go there ghosthunting. The last "Cunning Man" or "Wizard" of this place died as recently as 1909.  He was George P. and the locals were terrified of him.  It is said that nobody ever saw him tend his fields - he would lie drunk under a hedge but by the end of the day, the crops would have been planted or gathered in.  He said his " imps " did it.  One day a man was walking past his cottage and glimpsed in through the open door.  There stood George P. waving a stick as if conducting a band and all the ornaments on the mantleshelf were dancing up and down as were the chairs and the table.  On the other hand, George was ahealer, using his own concoction of herbs and other things.   He cured people of various complaints, he could talk to animals with whom he had a great affinity and healed them also.  Alas, his cottage is long gone.  The chest where he kept his magic books is in a local museum, the books apparently just disappeared.  The bottom right hand picture is of a row of what once used to be cottages. They have now been turned into just one private residence.

I have been unable to find out the exact date the church was built although much of it dates from the 14th century.  Undoubtedly there was a church on the site long before that.  The top left hand picture shows the interior. The top right hand picture shows the organ, the most unusual one I have ever seen in a church.  It is very small and is really painted this bright blue.  It is an English Chamber organ, one-manual with pedals and six stops. It is said to have come from a chapel of St. Paul's Cathedral. You can see the paintings of angels upon it.  Unfortunately it was not possible to get a closer shot because it is directly next to the pews.

The bottom left picture shows the font which is one of the finest in Essex and built sometime between 1300-1350.

The final picture is the village Gaol!  Well, it was called a lock-up and was built in 16**?  One one side there is a small window with iron bars, no glass of course.  It was possible to hold two people in there but they would have to take it in turns to sleep because there is room only for one person lying down, it really is that tiny.  We are very lucky that it has survived.