Half An Hour In Thaxted

 Thaxted - in Essex - half an hour to fill with photos - lets see what we can find

Thaxted One - diamonds in the glass

The Swan - we'd been for a pub meal - too warm for many people to want to sit outside - inside all was cool and calm

Town Street - the Medieval Guildhall and Church - just about every building in the centre of Thaxted is of historic importance

The Almshouses and John Webb's Windmill - a classic view

On the corner - Watling Street, Bolford Street, Watling Lane, Newbiggen Street - see the sign? - Cutlers Green - a reference to the cutlery trade who made swords as well as knives

It's all downhill from here!

Flowers in Stoney Lane - right outside "Dick Turpin's Cottage" - I didn't realise the famous highwayman was also a gardener!

Actually there's no known connection to the old scoundrel - apart from the name, of course - the historic buildings register is less fanciful - "Circa 1410, 3 storeyed town house, jettied at each floor"  

Here's that  iconic Guildhall again - paid for by the Guild of Cutlers when cutlery was the main trade in the town - originally used as the town meeting hall - market stalls were set up underneath - later it became a school

A pretty door in Orange Street - possibly a market was held here too and this is where oranges were sold - Cadgers' Row is nearby - and "cadger" is an old name for an itinerant trader

More historic houses in Orange Street - this one showing a flint façade, which is unusual here

The village water pump, which is no longer in use - and the postbox which may also become redundant, judging by the way things are going

A fancy bay window in one of the upper storeys of The Recorder's House - the recorder was an official who acted as a judge.

But let us not judge the person who chose this unusual colour-scheme

Looking back down Watling Street

Thaxted Two - diamonds and church spire

Take care

Church Fittings

 I couldn't resist. I just had to pop into Little Easton Church while we were in the area.

Exactly what do I like about these old buildings? Well, sometimes they are attractive buildings in their own right. Most date from a time before the trade of architect was invented, but those who built them put all their taste and skill into every aspect of construction. Then others, because of their situation and atmosphere, exude a deep sense of peace - even to an old heathen like me. But most of all they stand as monuments to the passing centuries and the people who have gathered here.

I could easily tell you that this church is twelfth century, but that doesn't tell you half the story; that's just the opening sentence in a long and mysterious tale that is peopled by a huge cast of curious characters.

At some stage, very soon after the nave of the church was built, it was decided that the walls should be decorated with icons. This is reckoned to be a representation of a prophet. Peering intently at it raises more questions than it answers. I'd like to know the person who painted it and from where he received his instruction and inspiration. We do know a little about the men who were in charge here in the early days.

A record of their names has been preserved and a board has recently been made for us to peruse. It seems that a lot of them were called "John", but one was known by the name of "John At Hell"(!) Now, what sort of name is that? What kind of rector might he have been? They also seem to have got through some dozen rectors in just over 50 years. Was that when the Black Death was visiting this tranquil backwater?

Perhaps the Rev At Hell would be able to help me out with my next conundrum. In the chancel there is an old tomb and on top of it reclines a knight in armour. You'll find something like it in many churches, but this one is different. All the others are life-size or thereabouts, but this chap is only about two feet (60cm) long. Now I've heard of the Elfin Knight, but that's ridiculous. 

After the church had stood for a couple of hundred years more wall paintings were needed, and this one is huge. You'll often read that these served as a Bible for those who were unable to read, which was pretty much everybody. But church services were very different in those days. There was no sermon - and no seating. There was a good deal of walking around to various icons painted on the walls. The priest intoned prayers in Latin and the layman can have had little understanding of what was going on.

It became the clergy's job to say prayers for the dead - or at least the wealthy among them - and some time in the fifteenth century the South Chapel was built for the purpose. It's to the left of the first picture I showed you of the church. The stained glass dates from 1621 when it was made for the Maynards' private chapel and wasn't moved here till 1857.

Sir Henry Maynard and his wife, Lady Susan Pearson both died in 1610 and had this enormous alabaster memorial erected so that we should not forget them. Their children are shown kneeling in prayer. Some are set further back from the others, representing those who pre-deceased their parents. Sir Henry's wealth could do nothing to protect them from that tragedy.

Sir Henry, despite his armour, was a politician rather than a fighting man and rose to become Deputy Lieutenant of Essex. He was born in Devon and presumably moved here when he married Lady Susan who had been born in Little Easton.

Frances Cavendish, who became another Lady Maynard on her marriage, has a memorial tucked into the corner of the chapel - and has the indignity of sharing the space with some plastic stacking chairs. She died at the age of just twenty as she gave birth to her third child. Her husband paid for this memorial.

And a huge memorial to him stands close by. And so these reminders of the great and wealthy of the parish pile up across the centuries.

1660 saw the artist of the village once more required to mount his step ladder and commit paint to plaster, much in the fashion of his medieval ancestors. This time it was King Charles I who needed his coat of arms to seen in every church in the land. The passing years have given a patina of shabby grandeur to the once brilliant hues.

The Victorian age was a great time of church restoration - sometimes saving buildings from decay and sometimes tearing down what was good and replacing it with the ugly and inappropriate. The colour of the glass, with lots of strong reds and blues, is typical of that age, as is the sentimental subject matter of Faith, Hope and Charity.

Charles Chambers of Balsham in Cambridgeshire made the wooden cover to this old font in the early years of the twentieth century and there's an unobtrusive notice recording this contribution to the fabric of the church.

As we saw in the previous post, many famous people visited the little village in the early years of the twentieth century. One such was the actress Ellen Terry who loved to visit the church. This odd little plaque was erected by her friends on her death in 1928.

And here's our friend Frances Evelyn Maynard, or Daisy Countess of Warwick, who died in 1938, just before the outbreak of the second world war and the coming of British and American forces to the peaceful scene.

And they are remembered too, through two colourful modern windows in the North chapel.

We've come a long way from the days of Rev John At Hell, but to bring our story round to an appropriate conclusion we need to go out into the churchyard and seek out a gravestone from the year 2000.

Another Rev John, this time John Michael Filby aka "The Rocking Reverend Jack Filby....Promoted to Glory 4th October 2000....Wearing his cross, his cowboy hat and boots....he played his guitar...🎸...Now sings my soul"

Take care.

A Garden Found

Some time ago, back in the mists of memory, my brother took my parents for a Sunday afternoon drive. Unusually for that time I went along too. We passed through the pretty town of Saffron Walden, then, somewhere south of Thaxted, we started seeing signs for "The Lost Gardens of Easton Lodge". We followed them and arrived just as the garden was closing. We said we'd come back another day. We never did.

A Little About Easton Lodge: 

The land here was granted by Queen Elizabeth I to Henry Maynard in 1590. A few years later he built a mansion on the site of an old hunting lodge. Maynard's descendants were still living in the house when it burnt down in 1847. 

Like many homes of the aristocracy there was a walled garden which grew fruit and vegetables to help feed the large household and their many guests. They also grew flowers with which to decorate the many rooms.

What we see in the walled garden today, beautiful though it is, is very different from when it was in full production. Glasshouses would have occupied the whole length of the sunniest wall, fruit trees were trained along the other walls and both veg and flowers would be grown in rows for ease of picking. Even so it's been shown that these gardens were highly inefficient and were really just a means of showing off ones wealth.

Nowadays you'll find patches of mixed wildflowers to attract pollinators....

...and wide expanses of lawn - easier on the eye and easier to maintain than endless rows of vegetables and ranks of fruit trees. That water-tower in the distance stands on a neighbouring property, incidentally.

But the walls and doors remain and still provide shelter for the growing plants. Because this site is largely maintained by local volunteers it has a rather battered and homely feel, somewhat different from the smarter style of the National Trust or English Heritage. I like it.

When the old house was destroyed by fire the Maynards rebuilt in the fashionable Victorian Gothic style. Thomas Hopper was the architect. Then in 1865 there were deaths in the family which meant that three-year-old Frances Evelyn Maynard, always known as "Daisy", inherited the whole estate.

Daisy lived much of her life and later died in the same village. Those bald facts might suggest a quiet and limited life, typical of many women of that time. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So now we'll close the door on the walled garden and the history of the old house and we'll meet Daisy.

A Little About Daisy:

As you can see, she grew into a beautiful young woman. She carried on developing the gardens and in 1902 she commissioned Harold Peto to design an "Italian Garden" for her. I'll show you some pictures of it and fill you in on some of the gossip about "darling Daisy".

The Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, took it into his head that she should marry Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria's youngest son. The Queen was in favour of the match, but the independent Daisy was having none of it. Instead, when she was 20, she married his equerry, Lord Brooke.

Lord Brooke succeeded to his father's earldom and Daisy became the Countess of Warwick. She had five children, only one of whom was thought to have been fathered by her husband. For nine years she was also the mistress of the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.

Easton Lodge became one of the venues for the wild parties of "The Marlborough House Set", a group of wealthy aristocrats who gathered around the Prince of Wales. The whole group was famous for its disregard of Victorian values - extra-marital affairs, heavy gambling, lavish spending and rumours of financial misdealings.

After one particularly costly fancy-dress party the Countess received harsh criticism in a socialist newspaper. She went to see the editor, but rather than convince him to cease such coverage of her private affairs, she found herself being persuaded that such wastefulness was wrong.

Gradually her gatherings began to include more intellectuals and people with socialist leanings, such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, George Bernard Shaw, H G Wells and the "Red Vicar of Thaxted", the Rev Conrad Noel.

In 1923 the Countess of Warwick completed her journey from socialite to socialist by standing as the Independent Labour Party candidate for Warwick and Leamington in the General Election. She failed to win but she made more and more donations to socialist causes. She was particularly active in providing education for agricultural workers.

After a while she found herself getting deeper and deeper into debt. She attempted to publish the letters that she had exchanged with the now King when she was his mistress. This would have caused a huge scandal, but lawyers argued (none too convincingly) that the copyright remained with the King and publication was blocked.

She eventually only escaped imprisonment by agreeing that when she published her autobiography she would use the money to settle her accounts. Unsurprisingly the book shocked upper-class society and was widely condemned (and widely read!). Ironically however, as time has passed, scholars have come to regard her memoirs as the most reliable and well-written record we have of those times.

A Little More About The Gardens:

In about 1920 the building above, known as the Shelley Pavilion, was imported from a house in Sussex and re-erected here, where it offered views down towards the lake.

The gardens had already become neglected by the time of Daisy's death in 1938. Then in 1939 the War Office took over the whole estate. The trees in the deer park were cleared in order to create an airfield for the 386th Bomber Group, "The Crusaders", of the USAAF. When they left after D-Day the RAF moved in and were billeted throughout the estate.

A memorial walk now exists to remember those who didn't return from their missions over enemy territory.

A Little About The Restoration Of The Gardens:

After the war the estate was returned to the ownership of Greville Maynard, Daisy's son, but the house was too large for his needs and most of it was pulled down. The gardens became overgrown and neglected.

Over the last few decades the gardens have been restored to something approaching their original splendour, though much remains to be done. Work appears to be taking place at present on the Japanese Garden which was once much more extensive.

If you visit on a Thursday (between 11 am and 3 pm) you will see today's volunteers hard at work in the garden. They will usually stop for a chat and answer any questions. The gardens are also open on Sundays during summer. (Check the website).

Just when you think you're making your way back to the car park you come across this dear little chap, inspired by "Kim" a baby elephant which was looked after by the Countess and used to wander freely in the grounds.

Not only that, but also a magnificent treehouse, a reconstruction of Harold Peto's original design. I'm glad we did make the effort to return to Easton Lodge Gardens. Eventually.

Take care.