A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



organ was installed against the north wall of the tower,''^ 

 largely at the rector's own expense.'*' The vestry is now 

 an organ chamber. 



The square font bowl of Purbeck marble is of the 

 kte 1 2th century.50 Two of the sides are decorated 

 with recessed arcading and the other two have a central 

 fleur-de-lis flanked by vine leaves. 



The oak screen between the nave and the tower was 

 carved by A. J. B. Challis of Clatterford Hall in 19 14.5' 

 The pulpit is of the same date. 



There are six bells, all modern or recast. One was 

 originally of the 1 5th century, recast twice. The sixth, 

 which is inscribed 'Salus et Victoria', was added as a 

 war memorial and was dedicated in 1952.5^ Under the 

 organ on the north side of the chancel there is said to be 

 a slab bearing the indent of a foliated cross, flanked by 

 square pennons or axes.53 There is a tradition that this 

 covers the headless body of Henry, Lord Scrope, be- 

 headed in 141 5.5+ Also in the chance! are some 18th- 

 century floor slabs with shields of arms to members of 

 the Pochin family and to one of the Beverley family. 

 There are also several 18th-century slabs to the Collins 

 family of Lampetts and to the Brands of Herons. 



The plate includes a large cup of 1699 given by Dr. 

 Anthony Walker, one paten of 1638 and another of 

 1798.SS 



In 1570 Elizabeth I granted to Thomas, 2nd Lord 

 Wentworth, in fee such 'concealed' estates as he could 

 discover to a total annual value of ^^200. 5* In March 

 1572, in fulfilment of this grant, she conveyed many 

 concealed estates, including one in Fyfield, to Richard 

 Hill of Heybridge and William James of London. 5' 

 The Fyfield estate consisted of 3 messuages or cottages, 

 called the Church Houses, and an acre belonging, then 

 or lately in the tenure or occupation of the inhabitants 

 of the vill of Fyfield, appointed for the maintenance of 

 an obit, a guild, and other similar objects. s 8 Despite 

 the grant of 1 5 7 2 , Fyfield chu rch property undou btedly 

 included three houses in the early 17th century. In 

 May 1659 it was agreed at a vestry meeting that the 

 rental of the church rents, then torn and defaced, should 

 be copied out 'and be esteemed as the former rental 

 was'. 5' The 'Rental of the church houses of Fyfield' 

 was then copied into the vestry minute-book. It totalled 

 j^3 3/. 4a'. and included £1 from 'the church house at 

 Widney Green', ^^i from 'the house in Fyfield street', 

 1 5/. from 'the house by the church in which the Clarke 

 dwelleth', 3/. from 'Pyckerells', zs. jJ. from 'Long 

 Harry's', is. \od. from 'John Palmers houses', <^d. from 

 '^ a. meadow in moor-mead', and id. from 'the tene- 

 ment called Hatches'.*" In 1668 the 'church field be- 

 longing to the church house on Widney Green and 

 containing i a.' was let by the churchwardens to Henry 

 Spooner for twelve years at a rent of (jj for the whole 

 term 'which money was advanced and employed to- 

 wards the now [or new] building of the church house 

 aforesaid'.*' In 1687 Dr. Anthony Walker devised a 

 house called Bruetts, in Fyfield Street, for the church 



clerk to dwell in free.*^ By 1710 the church house 'by 

 the church' seems to have been occupied by a poor man 

 whose rent of ^^i los. was paid for him by the parish.*^ 

 The total of the church rents was then £\ \os. c,d., the 

 increase since 1659 being due partly to the higher rent 

 for the house by the church and partly to a new item of 

 16/. for 'thehoppit by the churchyard'.*'* The annuities 

 amounted to 6s. ^d., being zs. 6d. from John Bull for 

 Long Harris field, iid. from 'Thomas Palmer', and 3/. 

 'out of Pickrills'.*5 By March 1719 the rents totalled 

 ^5, there being another fresh item of 13^. for 'the 

 hoppett by Berrys Green', later known as Cannon's 

 Green.** In February 1720 a vestry meeting agreed 

 with John Pochin of Witney Green that he should de- 

 molish a cottage upon the green belonging to the church 

 on condition that he erected another cottage of equiva- 

 lent value.*' 



In 1786 it was stated that unknown donors had given 

 to the parish for purposes also unknown 'a rent-charge 

 of 6s. ^d.', tenements of the then annual value of 

 £2 4_f. yd. and land of the then annual value of j^i 9;'.** 

 The value of the land was evidently the same in 1786 

 as it had been in 1719 but the value of the houses was 

 apparently reduced.*' 



In 1835 rents totalling ^^12 9/. from the church 

 houses and lands as well as annuities totalling 6s. ^d. 

 went into the churchwardens' general account.'" The 

 hoppets by the church and on Cannon's Green were 

 both let to the rector for i6s. and 13/. a year respec- 

 tively, the sums at which they had been let early in the 

 1 8th century." The church houses which the overseers 

 rented from the churchwardens at ^i I a year for the 

 use of the poor were described in 1835 as 'Street 

 House', a 'house by the church', and 'a house on Can- 

 nons Green' which was said to have been 'built by the 

 parish upon the site of an old house, of which the rent 

 used to go to the churchwarden's account'.'^ The 

 church cottage on Witney Green, whose demolition 

 had been ordered in 1720, had apparently been re- 

 placed by a house on Cannon's Green which, it would 

 seem, was rebuilt before 1835. By 1842, however, the 

 church owned only two cottages.'^ One of them was 

 on the east side of the church, fronting upon Church 

 Lane, and was undoubtedly the house which had ap- 

 peared as 'by the church' in the rentals drawn up before 

 and after 1659.''* The other cottage, situated imme- 

 diately north of the Black Bull Inn'5 on what is now 

 known as Dunmow Road, is probably to be identified 

 with 'Street House'. The church still owned some land 

 at Cannon's Green in 1842, but by that time it had 

 apparently disposed of its house there.'* The hoppet 

 south of the churchyard still belonged to the church." 



In 1903 part (c. 29 p.) of the meadow called Church 

 Hoppet, situated south of the churchyard, was sold 

 for £1 4 to the parish council for use as a burial ground.'* 

 When the sale was made it was established in the 

 face of some doubt that the trustees of the church 

 estate were the churchwardens: in fact then and in 1922 



<' E.R. ix, 174. 



■•9 Inf. from Mrs. T. W. Gamage. 



50 There are similar bowls at Moreton, 

 Little Laver, and Norton MandeviUe. 



5' Tablet in situ. 



5* Inf. from present rector. 



" E.A.T. N.8. viii, 257; Hist. Essex by 

 Gent, iii, 334. 



5* Hist. Essex by Gent, iii, 334; inf. from 

 present rector. 



55 Ch. Plate of Essex, 135. 



5« C66/1083 m. 7. 



5' Ibid. 



58 Ibid. m. 21. 

 5« E.R.O., D/Pi44/g/i. 

 '» Ibid. 

 '■ Ibid. 



*2 Rep. Com. Char. (Essex), H.C. 216, 

 pp. 225-7(1835), xxi(i). 

 '3 E.R.O., D/P 144/8/1. 

 <•* Ibid. 

 <'5 Ibid. 



" Ibid. " Ibid. 



" Rep. Com. Char. (Essex), pp. 227-8. 



" Cf. Morant, Essex, \, 135, where the 

 charities were said to include 'Six pounds 

 a year towards the reparation of the 

 church, the donor's name unknown'. 



"> Rep. Com. Char. (Essex), pp. 227-8. 



" Ibid. 



'2 Ibid. 



'3 E.R.O., D/CT 148. 



'♦ Ibid. 



" Ibid. 



'6 Ibid. " Ibid. 



'8 Char. Com. files. 



54 



