ONGAR HUNDRED 



GREENSTEAD 



St. Botolph's, Aldgate about 1708-15. By his will, 

 dated 17 14, Pratt bequeathed the advowson in trust to 

 the Bishop of London, with the provision that at each 

 presentation the curate of St. Botolph's was to have 

 first refusal.*' The patronage has subsequently- 

 remained with the bishop, subject to this provision. 



The rectory was valued at 40J. in about i2 54,"> at 

 £,1 los. in izgi," and at £6 ly. \d. in 1535.'^ The 

 tithes were commuted in 1841 for ^£210; there were 

 then 30 acres of glebe. '3 The rectory house is an early- 

 igth-century building, whitewashed externally. 



In 1548 the parishes of Greenstead and Chipping 

 Ongar were united by Act of Parliament. In spite of 

 its small size the Greenstead church became the parish 

 church of the combined parish. This union, however, 

 was dissolved in 1554 and the parish of Greenstead 

 returned to its ancient size and constitution. '< 



The parish church of ST. ANDREW consists of 

 nave, chancel, west tower with spire, and south porch. 

 The nave is a unique survival of early timber con- 

 struction, probably of the early nth century. The 

 chancel is partly of flint rubble and partly of brick- 

 work. The tower is timber framed and the porch is also 

 of timber. 



The circumstances in which the church was prob- 

 ably built, in or soon after 1013, have been described 

 above. The present nave was probably the original 

 church. It is 29 ft. long by 17 ft. wide. The timber 

 walls remain on the north and south sides. They are 

 5 ft. 6 in. high and consist of oak logs, varying in width 

 from 7 to 17 in., cut in half and set vertically, the flat 

 surfaces facing inwards. At the two western angles 

 three-quarter logs are used with a right-angular rebate 

 cut internally. The south doorway still exists and nearly 

 opposite there was originally a north doorway 2 ft. 5 in. 

 wide. The nave was thoroughly restored in 1848. 

 Descriptions of it before and during this restoration are 

 of particular value. In 1 748 Smart Lethieullier sent 

 an account of it to the Society of Antiquaries,'' together 

 with elevational drawings which were later published.'* 

 A hundred years later the Revd. P. W. Ray, then rector, 

 wrote as follows:''' 



the building ... is formed of split trunks of oak trees, the 

 top part being cut to a thin edge which is let into a deep 

 groove in the plate and pinned. The bottoms of the up- 

 right timbers were morticed into the sill. Their sides were 

 grooved, with tongues of oak let in between them so as to 

 make the whole firm and weathertight'8 . . . upon the face 

 of the timbers within the church were a great number of 

 triangular cuts, having a rough bur on one side such as 

 would be produced by the angle of an adze. These cuts 

 were the key for the plaster with which the interior of the 

 church was covered. . . . The west end was carried up in 

 the middle as high as the ridge of the roof and consisted of 

 two layers of planks fastened together with tree nails. The 

 planks are not long enough to reach the whole height, they 

 are therefore so arranged as to break both the perpendicular 

 and horizontal joints. 



The external elevation of this west end, part of which 

 disappeared in 1848, is shown in Lethieullier's draw- 

 ing. The narrow opening which can be seen just south 



of the centre was probably made to give access to the 

 tower after that was added. 



The chancel was probably added to the original 

 wooden church in the 12th century. Parts of the flint 

 rubble plinth remain. The east wall of the nave was 

 presumably removed then. 



The small stoup with a pointed head to the west of 

 the former north door probably dates from the 13 th 

 or 14th century. 



In the 15th or i6th century the square tower was 

 added to the west end of the nave a little to the south 

 of the centre line. It is weather-boarded externally and 

 has louvred openings. The lower story of the tower is 

 now used as a vestry. There is a broach spire. About 

 1 500 the chancel was rebuilt in brick. On the south 

 side is an early-i6th-century doorway with moulded 

 brick jambs and an elliptical head. Next to it on the 

 west is a window of similar date also with an elliptical 

 head. The four-centred chancel arch is probably of 

 the 1 6th century. In that century also the nave was 

 probably reroofed. Views of the church before the 

 restoration show a sagging roof line, lower than that 

 of the chancel, with two dormers on the north side and 

 one on the south." 



The church was being repaired in 1683. Beams had 

 recently been set on the inside of the chancel but it was 

 feared that this would not prevent the cracks on both 

 sides of the east window from getting worse." 



Extensive repairs were carried out in 1848. The 

 oak sills of the nave walls, which originally rested on 

 the ground, were completely decayed, together with 

 the lower ends of the logs. These last were shortened 

 from the base and tenoned to new sills supported on 

 dwarf brick walls. The plaster was stripped internally 

 and oak fillets fixed over the joints. The north door- 

 way, which had already been plastered up before this 

 time, was blocked by the insertion of three new 

 timbers. The nave roof was replaced and three addi- 

 tional dormer windows constructed so that there are 

 now three on each side. A new window was inserted 

 in the west gable. In the chancel the east wall was 

 rebuilt and a new east window with stone 'perpendi- 

 cular' tracery was inserted. A new window was also 

 placed in the north wall and another in the south wall 

 to the east of the doorway. The east wall and the 

 chancel arch were strengthened by the external addition 

 of buttresses. A traceried window was placed in the 

 tower, and a new timber porch, a copy of I gth-century 

 work, replaced a small weather-boarded struc- 

 ture.^ 



In 1 891-2 the roof, which was of fir, was again 

 found to be decayed. A subscription list for a new roof 

 was started by William Hewett, tenant of Greenstead 

 Hall and churchwarden, and the work was carried out 

 in oak by Frederic Chancellor, the diocesan surveyor. 

 He followed the same design on the assumption that it 

 was a copy of the roof taken down in 1848.3 At the 

 same time a brick buttress on the north side of the nave 

 was removed, exposing sound timbers behind it.* No 

 important alterations have been carried out since 1892, 



I 



" Morant, Essex, i, 153; J. and J. A. 

 Venn, Alumni Cantab, pt. i, iii, 390, 

 G. Hennessy, Novum Repert. Eccl. Parock. 

 Lond. Ixvli, 107. 



«» Lunt, Val. of Nor-wich, 336. 



»■ Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 23*. 



«» yalor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 437. 



«3 E.R.O., D/CT 153. 



»♦ For the details of this temporary 

 union see Chipping Ongar. 



»5 B.M. Stowe MS. 752, f. 49. 



«' Vetusta Monumenta, ii, pi. 7. See plate 

 facing p. 61. 



" P. W. Ray, Hist. of Greenstead Church, 

 18-20. Ray was rector when the chjrch 

 was restored, 1848. 



98 Lethieullier's description of the joint- 

 ing, ' the edge of one tree made to slip a 

 little within its neighbour", is probably 

 less accurate. 



61 



" A. Suckling, Memorials of Essex, 4 ; 

 P. W. Ray, Hist. Greenttead Church. 

 ' E.A.T. N.s. xii, 268. 



2 For various pictures of the church 

 before and after 1848 see E.R.O., 

 Prints. 



3 E.A.T. N.s. iv, 223; E.R. i, 139} 

 Notes (sf Queries, 1891, 316. 



♦ E.A.T. li.s. iv, 223. 



