You never know what you have until it’s gone! I seem to be assembling a post lockdown buck-list of heritage sites to revisit next year. Towards the top of my list is the wonderful Weald and Download museum.
In these lockdown-days, I has having a look through my blog and came across some photographs that I posted on this blog when I visited the museum back in 2012.
Storm clouds gathering over the market place.
Medieval Shop from Horsham, Sussex. This is a pair of shops which were originally built in the 15th century. Only one of the pair has stairs up to the jettied upper rooms. This is our favourite house in the entire museum – great for playing ‘shops’ in!
Upper Hall from Crawley (circa 1500). The ground floor was divided into separate rooms and the first floor was one long open room (perhaps used as a meeting room). Both ends of the building are not the original (only one end is visible in my picture – in the centre) – they are modern ends added because the original ends no longer exist.
Market Hall from Titchfield, Hampshire. A typical 17th century market hall – this one was built in 1620. The lower level was used as an open arcade used by traders whilst the rooms on the upper floor would have been used as the town’s council chambers. Under the stairs leading to the upper level there is a ‘cage’ (or village lock-up).
House from Walderton, Sussex. This is a 17th century building constructed of flint and brick. When I visited in 2012, one of the museum’s wonderful volunteer helpers spent a long time with us talking about the house. We were shown the indentations on the cobbles by the hearth (inside) caused by hob-nailed boots where the man of the house used to stand and shuffle, trying to warm himself in front of the fire. We were shown how the building was constructed and altered over hundreds of years of occupation to suit each new generation. The front door was of great fascination because of the over-sized lock! All the nooks and crannies within this incredible house were scrutinized and explained to us.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent. A timber-framed hall-house from the early 15th century.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the open fire place.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone.
Hall from Boarhunt, Hampshire. This building dates from the late 14th century and is an example of a medieval open hall.
Once these crazy strange pandemic days are over, how about adding the Weald and Downland museum to your 2021 post lockdown bucket-list?
You may be interested in the following links about the Weald and Downland Museum:
If you are very fortunate, you might live in a fabulous house like the ones on display at the Weald and Downland museum. But if, like me, you don’t, you may still be interested about the history of your house. Here’s some posts from my blog that might interested you:-
How has your VE Day commemorations been in these strange lockdown days? Did you have a socially-distanced tea party in your own home? Very different today to the vast street parties that were held in May 1945! Do you have photos of your family celebrating during the original VE Day in 1945? Maybe you’ve identified people by using the 1939 Register?
It’s a very long shot. Comparing a photograph to the text and words of the official 1939 Register. Especially as 5½ wars of a long war had been fought between the Register of September 1939 and VE Day May 1945.
If you haven’t already used it before, maybe a new resource for you? Ideal to meander over the Register in these strange lockdown times…
How was the 1939 Register’s data collected?
It was a mammoth task to collect the country’s information in those dark days of September 1939. This is how it was achieved…
‘On the evening of 29 September 1939, ‘National Registration Day’, heads of household completed the details of every individual who spent the night on their premises, ‘whether as members, visitors, boarders or servants’. Collected by one of 65,000 enumerators, each registration form was transcribed into one of the Register’s 7000 volumes.’[1]
When each registration form was transcribed into one of the 7,000 volumes, the enumerator worked from a map of each district. Thus, the entries for a particular place was compiled as if the enumerator was physically walking through that place. As if he was completing his register as he walked.
Unfortunately, these maps either have not survived or are not available. I’ve tried finding them – let me know if I’m wrong and you’ve found these maps somewhere.
After the war…
The Register became an important system for government. It was used right up until the 1990s for National Insurance purposes. Then with computerisation, the Register became redundant.
The 1939 Register was digitally released only a few years ago. It instantly became an important resource for family historians and house-historians alike.
Understanding the 1939 Register
Online, there are informative guides and videos about the 1939 Register. I can recommend the following resources for reading and watching:
As it gives a snippet of life at the start of the Second World War, the 1939 Register is an important historic document
Why were changes made to individual entries on the Register?
As the 1939 Register was used was a “working document” by the National Health Service up to the 1990s, a woman’s married name was often written above her maiden name long after 1939.
In my own mother’s case (she was 5 in 1939), her married name was written above her entry on the 1939 Register. This would have happened sometime after her 1956 marriage to my father. So at least 23 years after the original Register was compiled, a governmental admin person had to locate her on the original 1939 Register. Then he had to update the Register with by crossing out her maiden name and writing her married name.
This was even though she lived at the house only for a few weeks in September 1939. She was one of the original early evacuees and went from London to her aunt in Twickenham, Surrey for a few weeks during the phoney war.
Why are some records still closed?
Many records are still closed because it is assumed that person is still alive. This is the black redacted line through entries stating, “This record is officially closed”.
However, the redaction can be hit and miss. Some entries (for people sadly long dead) have been redacted. But others still alive today have their 1939 entry wrongly open to public view.
The register is a great resource for genealogists and family historians. It is also an amazing resource for tracing the history of your house. Or the history of a house a twentieth century ancestor once lived in.
I use the 1939 Register for researching the 20th century history of my clients’ houses.
Have you used the 1939 Register for house-histories? There are so many skills that cross-over from family history to house-histories.
Every house has a story
My free online mini-course “Every house has a story“ shows how familiar genealogical resources – such as the 1939 Register – can be used to research the history of your house. Or the history of a 20th century ancestor’s house.
Come join my free mini-course Every house has a story by clicking the picture. It’s totally free and you may discover some new family history resources to try out!
Put your genealogical skills to further use!
You may also be interested in these posts from my blog
I’m often asked why did I call my business “Essex Voices Past”.
Well, here’s the answer!
In 2011, at 3am one night, I was researching my Cambridge University masters’ dissertation on Great Dunmow. I attempted to decipher a chunk of handwriting written in the 1520s.
There was one line of Tudor text that was particularly perplexing and mysterious. It had puzzled me for days. So, I resorted to saying the text out loud. Phonetically.
The old Essex accent
As the words came out of my mouth, I found myself talking with the true old Essex country accent.
Loud and clear, I heard the voice of a long-dead Tudor parish-clerk emerging through the night-air. My baffling text was finally solved.
Essex Voices Past
It occurred to me in that moment, that the ancient documents I had been avidly studying contained not only the stories from Essex’s rich past, but also their voices. And thus, Essex Voices Past was born. Originally as a blog to record stories of Essex’s heritage. Now I, as Essex Voices Past, research stories of our past.
And now, finally, after nearly 10 years, my research that inspired me to start Essex Voices Past has now been published!
Nothing like lock-down to focus the mind and get stuff done!
Now available through Amazon. It’s on Kindle and paperback.
Click the book below to “Look Inside” my book on Amazon
The story of a north Essex town
This is book is a must read for anyone interested in Reformation history at a local level. Or anyone interested in the local history of an Essex town. It is also of interest for anyone with Tudor ancestors who hailed from Great Dunmow. Numerous local family names are detailed within the book.
During this period, society and religion were firmly interlinked. This study provides a narrative of one Essex town during the turbulent 16th century.
If you are, you might be interested in my new book about Great Dunmow and the English Reformation.
It’s taken me nearly 10 years and a global pandemic to finally stop making excuses and just do it…
10 years ago I spent countless sleepless nights studying and writing. This was coupled with many trips to Cambridge University and Essex Record Office before I emerged triumphant.
I had finally studied, researched and written up my dissertation for my Masters degree in local history.
My topic?
The impact of Henry VIII and his three children’s religious policy on Tudor town of Great Dunmow in Essex.
The hard work was worth it – it’s the “MSt” you will see after my name – “Master of Studies”.
I was awarded my masters degree at the end of 2011.
And, as I enjoyed my research so much, I immediately created my blog – Essex Voices Past so I could continue to write about Tudor Great Dunmow.
I have also given many talks across Essex about the happenings in Tudor Great Dunmow.
And there was some terrific “happenings”… Anyone for the burning of an effigy of a Scottish Catholic Cardinal in the middle of not so sleepy Great Dunmow in 1546!
The effigy even had its very own mock-castle built so that local youths could practice their archery by shooting at it and the Cardinal!
Despite all the stories I discovered, my complete dissertation got put to one side. To rub salt in the wound – Cambridge University even sent me back their copies of my dissertation. They didn’t have the storage room to keep masters dissertations so back mine came.
For nearly 10 years, only I had my dissertation. No archive or library had a copy. Only various bits of it I’d had the time to post online on this blog, Essex Voices Past.
Until covid-19 and lockdown…
Nothing like a pandemic to focus to mind and return to the past.
Both my past and Great Dunmow’s Tudor past.
I’ve spent lockdown days productively and have turned my dissertation into a Kindle book. That was a feat in itself! But thanks to covid-19, I finally had enough time to devote turning my dissertation into a book:
Numerous other Essex towns and villages – along with their association to Great Dunmow – are also mentioned in my book. These include Great Bardfield, Barnston, Bocking, Broxted, Great and Little Canfield, Great and Little Dunmow, Great and Little Easton, Good Easter, Hatfield Broad Oak, High Easter, The Rodings, Lindsell, Northend, Panfield, Rayne, Little Sailing, Shalford, Stebbing, and Thaxted.
My book also includes Tudor history from the 1520s for Maldon and Heybridge. Both towns had a strong connection and association to Great Dunmow by way of Tudor vicar, William Walton.
If you purchase it and enjoy, please could you leave me a review on Amazon? It would help me tremendously to get more exposure if my book has reviews.
We live in strange unparalleled times. Governments all over the world have declared our homes to be the safest place for us to stay – while we ride this out.
In these #StayAtHome days, it certainly is the best time to turn (or return?) to your hobby of family and local history.
Or, in my case, a total addiction!
🕵️ An addiction to researching the past!
🔎 Maybe you’ve spent some of your time staying at home investigating your family tree, your ancestors and their past?
🏡 But, while you are at home, have you thought about your home’s past life?
Maybe you’re in a Victorian cottage – like the ones shown below, in Lavenham. Today beautiful red-brick homes, but originally built to house Georgian industrialist Thomas Turner’s 18th and 19th century workers.
Or the terrace of Victorian cottages (shown above) in Great Dunmow, Essex. Named by its local Victorian builder after the famous 1850s Crimean War battle.
Have you considered the stories your home might be hiding?
📰 Tales of scandals hastily forgotten?
🧙♀️ Of carefully buried witches-bottles protecting your home?
🥾Or forgotten hob-nailed boots, left to warm in ancient boarded-up fireplaces…
🔥 And strange marks on chimney-breasts protecting long dead people…
👻 Imagine the tales you can tell as you uncover your home’s secrets!☠️
During these strange times, take up a new hobby of researching the history of your house.
My unique online course is the perfect way to while away your time at home.
Click any photos or links in this post to learn more about my unique house-history course.
Enrolment is now open!
My course will take you through all the sources that can be used for house-histories. And how to get the most out of those sources.
The course is very practical and hands on. Learning and researching simultaneously.
One word of caution, though. You will need to visit national and local record office/archives to learn the most about your home. However all are currently shut – with no information about when they’re likely to reopen.
Because of the current situation – with archives shut and not all resources available – the course is at a special price of £149 (or 3 monthly payments of £60).
My course normally has the same set start date for all course participants. But because of the current lockdown, the course has a rolling start date and you can enrol whenever is best for you. The fee includes one year’s access to the course. Hopefully within that timeframe archives will start to reopen again.
Here’s the link again – begin your journey of discovery… Please, do join me and discover the history of your house!
Do you know who lived in your house 80 years ago today?…
Exactly 80 years ago today, a remarkable event took place in Britain…
The compulsory National Registration of every single person living in Britain.
And, as a direct consequence, every single home was registered with full details of each home’s occupants.
80 years ago this month Britain declared war on Germany after the invasion of Poland.
It was the inevitable. But preparations for evacuating children out of dangerous areas – such as London – had been taking place for weeks.
This from the “Log book of Wilson Marriage Senior School – Colchester”
24 August 1939 – Headmaster returned to school to complete arrangements for reception of evacuees from London
25-30 August 1939 – ground floor room ‘prepared for darkening’, emergency rations for evacuees received and stored in Handicraft Room
31 August 1939 – all staff recalled
1 September – 809 evacuees passed through school
2 September – 1159 evacuees passed through school
3 September – 1362 evacuees passed through school
4 September – 115 evacuees passed through school
School reopened, girls to attend in morning, boys in afternoon, four air raid shelters ready, children allocated to air raid shelters with two teachers in charge of each, air raid drill, arrangements made to protect boiler room, instructions to caretaker for turning off gas and electricity
On the 29 September 1939, the government undertook a massive exercise to register every single person in Britain and where they were living on that precise day.
Everyone was issued with an identity card.
Now known as the “1939 National Register”, the register is a remarkable glimpse into the world of people and places at the outbreak of war.
You can learn who lived in your house in 1939 by looking at this register. The number of people in your home, their dates of birth, and occupations. If any children with different surnames were living in your home on 29 September 1939, then possibly they were evacuated children.
The 1939 Register is a precise point in history where you can discover who lived in your home on that day.
There are several other points in history where you can find accurate details about your home and its occupants. Even down to its exact layout on your village’s/town’s map and the number of rooms in your house.
Specific reference points that can give you stories of your home. Both the building and its occupants.
Want to learn more and uncover your home’s secret history?
PS Did you know… that the 1939 National Register was used as a living breathing “working document” by the NHS right up to their computerisation in the 1990s?
What mysteries does your home hold?
What ghoulish secrets does your house conceal?
Did high drama play out between your four walls?
You don’t have to live in a medieval mansion for your home to be interesting.
Maybe you’re in a Victorian cottage – like the ones in Lavenham. Today beautiful red-brick homes, but originally built to house Lavenham’s 18th and 19th century workers.
Such as the tiny cottages built by master woolstapler, Thomas Turner (1784-1864).
Or you live in a converted Victorian school – as I once did. My first flat in those heady days of the 80s when converted flat cost £41,500. My “must-have” first home!
Whether you live in a fine Tudor hall-house or a humble one-up, one down, all homes have their own story to tell.
If walls really could talk, then you would easily find out your home’s riddles.
But, sadly, your four walls probably remain enigmatically quiet and mysterious.
The next best thing to talking wall is to join me on my unique online course
All over the landscape in England and Wales there are still signs (literally) of our medieval past.
Carmelite Way, Maldon
The past that we once had before Henry VIII destroyed one of the biggest “systems” in English/Welsh history.
Look around the towns and villages where you live. Can you see signs that a monastic building was once in your midst?
Where I live in Essex, the county was once full of monasteries – we’ve looked at several this week.
But there were others in Essex, now long gone with not even fragments of ruins left. But they can still be found in the names of houses, roads and communities.
⛪️ Stansgate Abbey Farm: although this name is slightly misleading as it implies a great abbey once stood here. This was shut in an earlier round of Henry VIII’s closures – shut in 1525 long before the king broke with Rome. Shut because the “Abbey” only had a prior and 2 monks! So, this was not a great and powerful Abbey like the one Bury St Edmunds. But its name still lives on in the area’s landscape.
⛪️ Priors Green in Little Canfield: a modern naming invention, but various town planners’ and developers’ reflection back to Thremhall Priory (closed in 1536).
⛪️ Priory Lane in Tiptree: a name reflecting Tiptree Priory – closed in 1525 (another early closure by Henry VIII). Purchased in 1547 by the powerful D’Arcy family. The current house built by England’s first witchfinder, Brian D’Arcy. He lived here in 1570s until he moved to St Osyth’s former abbey (where he proceeded to create havoc and unhappiness in 1582 by accusing numerous locals of being witches).
⛪️ Friary Field/Friary Lane/Carmelite Way in Maldon: names reflecting the site’s former use as Maldon’s Carmelite Friary.
Next time you park your car in Maldon, think on – this area was once part of the lands of the Friary and five hundred years ago walked monks tending their gardens…
And where in 1540 in the ruins of the priory was performed a very anti-Catholic play, Saint John the Baptist, written by the granddaddy of all English dramatists, Dr John Bale.
Dr John Bale, Maldon’s last Prior, and probably England’s first Protestant playwright.
The story of your house…
Are there any houses or road names or areas near you that reflect the fact that there was once a monastic building where you live?
If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course
🏡 If Walls Could Talk…
Uncover the secret history of your home🏡
Enrolment is now open…
Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019
I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.
As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.
Tracing the history of your house isn’t just about the physical bricks and mortar building. Or, in many cases, flint, or stone, or wattle and daub or timber framed structure.
It’s also about the land your house is on…Including former monastic land
The other day, we looked at several monasteries that were forcibly closed by Henry VIII in the 1530s. We also looked at how the Reformation was one of the largest visible attacks on the English landscape. Scars that are still visible today. Some scars more subtle then others…
All over England and Wales are remnants of great monastic buildings. Essex is no exception, with immense religious houses that were dissolved by the king’s men in the 1530s, still present today.
Beeleigh Abbey, Maldon, Essex
Here is another former medieval monastery, today a private residential house – Beeleigh Abbey in Maldon.
Beeleigh Abbey, Maldon
In 1536, the abbey was valued as having a yearly value of £196 6s. 5d – a substantial sum for the time. This was a reasonably wealthy Abbey – maybe not as rich and powerful as great abbeys elsewhere – such as the majestic (and far too powerful) abbey at Bury St Edmunds.
But valuable, nonetheless.
When Beeleigh Abbey was closed in the 1530s, the Abbot was pensioned off at the yearly rate of £18 (approximately £8,000 in today’s money).
Remember, Henry didn’t have to pay pensions – he forcefully seized the monasteries and personally decided if its heads received a pension. Not all did. The Abbot at Beeleigh Abbey was lucky…
After the abbey was closed, on 6 June 1536, an inventory was taken of the contents of Beeleigh Abbey. There were
📜tapestries and other articles of furniture in the different chambers (the great chamber, the children’s chamber, the dining chamber). [The question here is – what’s a children’s bedroom doing in an abbey supposedly solely inhabited by male monks!!!]
📜beds and bedding;
📜malt and implements in the brewhouse;
📜a table of alabaster at the high altar (valued at 13s. 4d.), with altar-cloths, mass-books, etc.,
📜ornaments of the Lady chapel (including a pair of organs at 100s.), the Jesus chapel, the rood chapel, the chapel of St. Katharine and the vestry;
📜articles in the kitchen, buttery and infirmary;
📜cattle;
📜with some plate remaining in the hands of the commissioners. [ie the king’s men nicked some of the abbey’s gold and silver before it was properly recorded!!!!]
📜The goods were valued at £74 18s. 10d., cattle worth £31 15s. and corn worth £14 3s. 8d.
📜The debts due to the house amounted to £32 11s. 2d., and those due by it £121 18s. 4d.,
📜There were 129¾ ounces of plate [ie gold and silver], valued at £23 16s. 6d.
(Inventory above from “House of Premonstratensian Canons: Abbey of Beeleigh by Maldon”, Victoria County Histories, 1907)
After it was shut in 1536 and its Abbot pensioned off at £18 per year, Beeleigh Abbey was granted to Henry’s friend, Sir John Gates, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir John was a very active supporter of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Henry VIII. Being granted Beeleigh Abbey was his reward.
However, the Tudor period were troubled times – back the wrong person and it was literally “off with your head”.
In 1553, after the death of Henry’s son and successor, Edward VI, Sir John backed the wrong side. He was part of the attempt to place the ill-fated Tudor pawn, Lady Jane Grey, onto the English throne instead of Henry’s Catholic daughter, Mary.
His reward for this doomed and disastrous conspiracy was to misplace his head on Tower Hill in August 1553.
Being granted Beeleigh Abbey by Henry VIII certainly didn’t bring Sir John good fortune!
After the Tudors, the former abbey passed through the hands of many owners. Most famously, the ownership by the Foyle family – the renowned booksellers. The story of its role as the home of the Foyles is well-documented.
However, it is its past as an religious abbey that has always interested me and the role that this, and other monasteries, played in medieval and Tudor England.
Beeleigh Abbey’s tunnels…
Incidentally, there has long been a rumour that there was/is a network of underground tunnels that run from Beeleigh Abbey through to All Saints Church in Maldon. And that when the Abbey was forcefully closed in the 1530s, the monks escaped through this network of tunnels to All Saints church.
I don’t doubt for one moment that this network of tunnels did once exist – and are probably still there, deep underground. However, I strongly argue that not a single monk used these tunnels to escape to All Saints…
I can assert this for several reasons.
Firstly, the Abbot was granted a pension. If his monks had rebelled and fled, then the Abbot would not have been granted this pension.
Henry did not take kindly to trouble-makers. If you were lucky, you ended up on Tower Hill – if unlucky then the fate of either being burnt at the stake or being hanged drawn and quartered awaited you – monks included.
Rebelling fleeing monks and an abbot being granted a yearly substantial pension simply does not add up.
Secondly, there’s no known uprising when Henry shut the monasteries in Essex. There was certainly trouble in the north of the country – but not in Essex.
But, for me, more conclusively that the monks didn’t flee to All Saints is that the vicar was most certainly NOT sympathetic to the Catholic cause.
The vicar of All Saints church at the time Beeleigh Abbey was closed was William Walton, a man who was also the vicar of St Mary’s in Great Dunmow (in those days, men could – and were – vicars of two or more parishes).
William Walton was a very early Protestant – in the days when it was dangerous to openly declare yourself as such. Walton associated with many other early Protestant men such as Dr John Bale – one of the last Priors of Maldon’s Carmelite Monastery.
Despite previously being a devout Catholic monk and Prior, Dr Bale became a staunch Protestant. He was so Protestant that in 1540 he performed a very inflammatory anti-Catholic play in the ruins of the Carmelite Friary in Maldon – watched (and partially financed) by the vicar of All Saints, William Walton.
News of Dr Bale’s activities and his plays quickly reached the ears of the king, and Bale fled abroad in 1540 to evade Henry’s vengeful wrath.
The vicar of All Saints in Maldon, William Walton was a loyal friend of Dr John Bale. Thus, he had firm Protestant tendencies – these tendencies can also be seen in his other parish in Great Dunmow.
There is absolutely no way that vicar Walton would have protected fleeing monks from Beeleigh Abbey.
So whilst I do believe that these secret tunnels did/do exist and were used in medieval times, they certainly weren’t used to protect fleeing monks.
Dr John Bale and his role in the Carmelite Friary in Maldon has always fascinated me. He wrote and performed many anti-Catholic plays all over the east of England – including the one performed in Maldon – and was financially supported by the likes of Thomas Cromwell and the Earl of Oxford.
Today, Dr Bale is becoming widely acknowledged and celebrated by scholars as the forerunner to Shakespeare.
The granddaddy of English playwrights was right here, in sleepy Tudor Maldon!
And he is my final proof that the Protestant vicar of All Saints church would not have accepted fleeing Catholic monks.
Thus, all the evidence points to the fact that those tunnels between Beeleigh Abbey and All Saints Church were definitely not used by fleeing monks in 1536…
I digress…again…
The monasteries…
We’ve looked at monasteries that fell into ruin and are now scars on the English countryside – reminding us of a more troubled times five hundred years ago.
Monastic buildings such as
⛪️ Greyfriars Friary in Dunwich, Suffolk; ⛪️ The great powerful abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
We’ve also looked at monasteries that were given away (or sold) by Henry VIII to his favourites and were later used as houses. For example,
⛪️ Walden Abbey in Saffron Walden – now the World Heritage Site, Audley End House; ⛪️ Beeleigh Abbey in Maldon – now a private residence.
These are just a few of those former monasteries that have merged into today’s landscape. Every single county in England and Wales will have examples of monasteries in ruins, or monasteries incorporated into today’s homes.
Former monasteries were also incorporated into today’s parish churches. Here in Essex a few instantly spring to mind
⛪️ St Andrew’s parish church in Hatfield Peverel. Originally the church was attached to Hatfield Peverel’s Priory (closed in 1536)
⛪️ St Mary the Virgin parish church in Tilty. Part of today’s church was once a ‘chapel outside the gates of Tilt[e]y’s Abbey’ (Abbey closed in 1536). Today, the once magnificent Tilty Abbey has totally vanished – apart from a couple of tiny ruins.
⛪️ St Mary the Virgin parish church in Little Dunmow. In medieval/Tudor times, the village was known as either Dunmow Parva or Dunmow Priory. The latter name an acknowledgement to the Augustinian Priory that stood in the village (closed in 1536).
Little Dunmow Priory
Dunmow Priory was the original home of the traditional English custom still held in Essex today – the Dunmow Flitch. Although since the 1850s, the Dunmow Flitch is normally held in Great Dunmow – not Little Dunmow.
I say “normally” because in the mid-twentieth century the trials were also held in other Essex locations such as Ilford and Maldon.
The Flitch Trials held at Dunmow Priory were so well known that Chaucer wrote about them in his fourteenth century tale about the “The Wife of Bath”
(Sometimes I really do despair about historians’ shocking lack of attention to detail of the Essex countryside. I’ve read several scholarly articles from historians and Chaucer buffs who assert that the Priory was in Great Dunmow. Often, they even include a photograph of St Mary’s church in Great Dunmow and say that it was Dunmow Priory. Hmmmm, it wasn’t! Shocking scholarly research!)
So, after the closing of the monasteries, some buildings were incorporated into parish churches. It’s interesting to note that Henry VIII couldn’t totally rid the landscape of religious buildings.
It would be a good piece of research to undertake to see which East of England former monasteries
– became ruins
– were sold to Henry’s mates and became splendid residential properties
– stayed as religious buildings and became parish churches (or part of a parish church).
I wonder if there was any rhyme or reason to which monasteries crumbled into ruins and which had better fates?
I suspect the richness of the land and buildings played some part. Although in others – such as the destruction of the extremely powerful and wealthy abbey at Bury St Edmunds must have been for political reasons (or Henry VIII setting an example).
The story of your house…
Are there any houses or road names or areas near you that reflect the fact that there was once a monastic building where you live?
If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course
🏡 If Walls Could Talk…
Uncover the secret history of your home🏡
Enrolment is now open…
Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019
I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.
As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.
Tracing the history of your house isn’t just about the physical bricks and mortar building. Or, in many cases, flint, or stone, or wattle and daub or timber framed structure.
It’s also about the land your house is on…
As an island nation, we have been relatively lucky that war has left little trace on the landscape of our country.
Of course, throughout time, there has been battles fought on our soil. Some of which were very bloody – the war between Stephen and Matilda, the War of the Roses, the Civil Wars of the 1640s….
However, we haven’t had the wide-scale destruction as seen elsewhere. For example, as a consequence of two world wars, European countries such as Belgium, France and Germany saw wide-scale annihilation.
Apart from war and battles, the next biggest visible scar on England’s landscape today is that of Henry VIII’s Reformation.
The English Reformation…
Once the Tudor king decided to rid himself of the pope’s power in England, religious houses were forcible closed all over the country.
And if Henry VIII’s destruction was not enough, then his son, the Protestant boy-king Edward VI, followed through his father’s policies in the 1540s by wiping out any remaining religious houses.
Henry VIII’s destruction, of what was arguably one of the first social care and welfare systems in England, is all too apparent at Dunwich (Suffolk) within the ruins of Greyfriars.
Greyfriars, Dunwich, Suffolk
Greyfriars, Dunwich, Suffolk
Until the Friary was seized by the Bishop of Dover in 1538, it had been a very successful Franciscan monastery from the time of its establishment in the 1250s.
Its size and grandeur can only be imagined as you wander through its ruins.
Where once monks tended the land and went about their daily business, now there are only animals grazing and munching within the Friary’s ruins.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
The destruction and looting of the monasteries took place all over the English countryside…
Today, all over the English countryside, there are remnants of former great monastic buildings. Wiped out by the actions of a greedy and too powerful king.
One extremely powerful and wealthy monastery was at Bury St Edmunds – the abbey of St Edmundsbury.
The abbey was famed in Norman and Medieval times for holding the relics of the martyred Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia, Edmund the Martyr (also known as Saint Edmund).
Attacking Danes murdered the king in 869 and in 903 his remains were brought to what was then a tiny religious community in the small town known as Beodericsworth.
From that time onwards, the religious community grew in wealth and prosperity, resulting in the foundation of the abbey in 1020. It became one of the richest and most powerful Benedictine abbeys within England.
A shrine was built to St Edmund during the 11th century and this developed into an extraordinarily popular holy place for pilgrims to visit. Pilgrimages to holy places within England was a common pursuit for the devout of the middle ages prior to the Reformation sweeping away such journeys.
The abbey was also influential with political events. In 1214, during the reign of King John, dissatisfied earls and barons gathered at the abbey to discuss their criticisms of the king.
The following year the barons notoriously forced the king to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
The abbey’s vast wealth and fortunes ended in 1539 when St Edmundsbury abbey surrendered to the king.
The great abbey was no more and over the centuries fell into decay.
No doubt material from this once magnificent abbey was used as building matter for surrounding houses.
Today, the abbey’s former fortunes can still be determined by the vast scale of its ruins.
Wandering around in half-light can be an unnerving experience. If only the walls could talk, what tales would they tell? No doubt stories of Norman monks and abbots, medieval pilgrims, discontented knights and barons, rioting townsfolk, and the abbey’s final days during its death-throes of this once great institution…..
There is a unique postscript to the fortunes of the abbey… Archaeologists believe that St Edmund’s remains are still buried within the abbey’s gardens.
If a medieval king can be found in a car park in Leicester, then will an Anglo-Saxon king be discovered under tennis courts in Bury St Edmunds?
Ruins of the great abbey, Bury St Edmunds
The closing of the Monasteries
All over the English & Welsh countryside, today we can see the ruins of once great and magnificent religious houses. For example, my childhood favorite haunt, Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire (shut in 1536); and Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire (closed in 1539)
Just a few of the monasteries whose ruins are haunting scars on the countryside. Every single county within England or Wales had at least one medieval monastic building. Some counties had several hundred.
All destroyed by a power-crazed king.
Incidentally, as most people know, Henry VIII was a despotic king who shut the monasteries and kicked out the pope from being the head of the English church. But did you know Henry died a Catholic king? He was never ever Protestant.
If you had lived during that troubled time and suggested to the wrong person that the king was a Protestant – you would be burnt at the stake for High Treason.
Moreover, by the late 1530s, Henry VIII (or more likely his side-kick, Thomas Cromwell) was also gunning to seize the wealth of parish churches (some were extremely wealthy). Henry didn’t succeed… Cromwell got too big for his boots and was executed in 1540 – before the wealth of parish churches could be seized. Henry didn’t carry out that task.
But where he failed, his son, Edward VI, succeeded. Edward – despite being a boy-king – was even more despotic and fanatical then his father.
I digress. You see that’s the problem with Tudor history. It’s so interesting that I always get side-tracked…
Back to the monasteries.
Walden Abbey, Essex
Not all former monastic buildings are in ruins today. After they were forcibly closed, and the monks ejected from their former homes, Henry VIII had the habit of selling the buildings to his mates.
One such former monastery was the majestic abbey in the north Essex town of Walden (now Saffron Walden).
In 1538, Henry VIII seized Walden Abbey and gave it to his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Audley (c.1488-1544).
Audley converted the abbey into his own extensive residence. When he died, the house passed down to his descendants through his daughter’s line to the Howards.
Yep that famous Tudor family – the Earls of Suffolk.
Over the next 500 years, the house changed ownership several times – from kings of England to the nobility. It was built, rebuilt, remodeled and then redone yet again. (You’ll have to read my book “Saffron Walden and Around Through Time” to see who owned it and when! And who remodeled it! )
Suffice to say, that today it is a magnificent building – the whole site is a World Heritage Site.
But it started life as Walden Abbey, a religious house for medieval monks.
Audley End House, formerly a great abbey
Check back next week for part 2!
The story of your house…
Are there any houses or road names or areas near you that reflect the fact that there was once a monastic building where you live?
If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course
🏡 If Walls Could Talk…
Uncover the secret history of your home🏡
Enrolment is now open…
Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019
I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.
As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.
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