ONGAR HUNDRED 



LITTLE LAYER 



r 



in 1604, £90 in 1650, and ^^140 in i66i.t5 In 1610 

 there were about 87 acres of glebe.-t* The tithes were 

 commuted in 1 848 for ;^26o; there were then 89 acres 

 of glebe/' 



A terrier of 16 10 described the rectory as 'a fair 

 dwelling-house, the greater part whereof was built by 

 John Oliver, rector of this parish in 1600' with 'an old 

 kitchen a little distant from the house, a great barn for 

 corn, and a barn for hay, with a stable at the east end 

 of it, two gardens, a little square green court, a great 

 old orchard, and other yards and easements for the most 

 part compassed about with a great ditch or small moat'.** 

 The separate kitchen was a medieval feature which 

 evidently survived when the house was rebuilt by 

 Oliver. The north side of the moat was still in exis- 

 tence in 1848*' but only short stretches now remain. 

 The house was rebuilt in 183 1 at a cost of j^2,ooo.5<' 

 It consists of a square two-story block with a pedimented 

 porch on the north side and a splayed bay to the south. 

 A large wing adjoins it on the west. It ceased to be 

 used as a parsonage after the living was united with that 

 of Moreton in 1933 and it is now a private house called 

 White Lodge. 



The parish church of ST. MART consists of nave, 

 apse, south porch, and combined north vestry and organ 

 chamber. The walls are of flint rubble. The porch is 

 of timber. In 1872 the church was largely rebuilt and 

 very little medieval work now remains. 



Nothing is left of the pre- 13th-century church 

 except the font (see below). The nave was probably 

 rebuilt in the 14th century. It retains two windows, 

 much restored, of this date. The south window has a 

 chamfered hood-mould externally and two much- 

 decayed head stops. The braced collar-beam roof 

 appears to be partly ancient. The only other original 

 feature is the trefoil-headed piscina, which is probably 

 of the 14th century and which has been reset in the 

 apse. 



Drawings of the church before 1872 showed that it 

 had a square-ended chancel^' with a doorway and a 

 15th-century window on its south side. 52 In about 

 1768 the church was described as 'small, of one pace, 

 and the same width, with the chancel, and the whole 

 tyled. The belfry stands in the middle of the church, 

 with a spire shingled, in which there is only I bell.'sJ 



In 1872 the church was restored and enlarged at the 

 expense of the Revd. Richard Palmer in memory of 

 his brother, the Revd. H. Palmer.54 The architects 

 were Messrs. Turner & Son of Wilton Street, Gros- 

 venor Place (Lond.).55 The west wall, the apsidal 

 chancel, the porch, and the vestry are all of this date. 

 In general the new work is a free interpretation of an 

 early-i4th-century style. The apse has three-light 

 windows with an inner arcade resting on polished 

 shafts of pink-veined marble. The west window is 

 three-light and there are single-light lancets elsewhere. 

 The south doorway of the nave is 13th-century in style 

 with a Norman zigzag moulding superimposed on the 

 arch. The opening from the vestry to the nave has a 



large trefoil-headed arch. In 1884 the floor of the 

 church was raised and relaid.'* 



There is one bell by Anthony Bartlet inscribed 'All 

 Glory Be To God' and dated 1674." It has been 

 rehung in the stone cupola above the west end of the 

 nave. 



The square font bowl is of the late 12th century 

 and is similar in character to those in some neighbour- 

 ing parishes.58 The base is an addition of 187259 and 

 the carving of the bowl was probably recut at the same 

 time. The decoration includes the fleur-de-lis, crescent, 

 disk, and whorl found on other fonts of the type. (See 

 plate facing p. 184.) 



There is a chair which has early- 17th-century 

 carving and may have been made from a pulpit and 

 sounding board of this period.*" The stone pulpit, 

 carved with niches and figures, dates from 1872.*' 

 The carved stone teredos was given by the Revd. S. C. 

 Beauchamp in 1886 in memory of Miss S. Caroline 

 Palmer.*^ 



The plate includes a silver cup with a bowl of 1 562 

 which has a gilded band of foliage ornament, a silver 

 cup with a bowl of 1563 to which a stem with a 

 scalloped collar, probably of the 17th century, has been 

 added, and an undated silver paten of which the foot 

 possibly fits the bowl of 1 562. 



Little Laver was one of the two parishes in this 



hundred from which Roman 



ROMAN Catholics were reported in 



CATHOLICISM 1676.63 No evidence has been 



found of organized Roman 



Catholicism in this parish at a later date. 



The surviving court rolls (1528-84) of the manor 

 of Little Laver consist only of 

 PARISH GOFERN- odd membranes, many illegible 

 MENT AND as a result of decay .^-t Only one 



POOR RELIEF legible membrane records pro- 



ceedings at a court leet. This 

 court, which was held in 1 564, was attended by a jury 

 of eleven. 



■ The parish records of Little Laver are brief and un- 

 informative. Only three isolated memoranda survive 

 before 1705. These are included in the parish register 

 for 1 538-1773 ;*5 they are the minutes of the vestry 

 held at Easter 1663 and two other memoranda, of 

 1668 and 1684, also in the form of vestry minutes. A 

 vestry minute-book survives for 170 5-1 944,** but until 

 the end of the 19th century the minutes were rarely 

 signed, except in the period 1709-14, and did no more 

 than record the appointment of officers and their 

 annual balances. Overseers' account books and rate 

 books survive only after 1836.*' 



Vestry meetings were held at Easter in each year and 

 from 1725, if not before, there were also regular meet- 

 ings at Christmas. Occasionally, until 1735, there 

 were meetings at other times also. 



The minutes of the vestry held at Easter 1663 were 

 signed by the rector and seven parishioners. The 

 resolution of 1668 was signed by the rector and one 



« E.A.T. N.s. xxi, 78, 83. 

 46 Newcourt, Repert. ii, 369. 

 " E.R.O., D/CT 210. Tithes of the 

 glebe were not included in the ^^260. 

 48 Newcourt, Refert. ii, 369. 

 « E.R.O., D/CT 210. 

 5» IVhite'! Dir. Essex (1848). 

 5' E.R.O., D/CT 210. 

 5^ Hist. Mon. Com. Recs. 

 " Morant, Essex, i, 144. 



54 Kelly's Dir. Essex {1874, 1886). 



55 E.R.O., D/P 147/8. 



56 Kelly's Dir. Essex (1886). 



57 Ck. Bells Essex, 317. 



58 There are similar bowls at Moreton, 

 Fyfield, and Norton Mandeville. 



59 Kelly's Dir. Essex (1874). 



<"> Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 157. 

 " Kelly's Dir. Essex (1874). 

 «» Kelly's Dir. Essex {1886). 



lOI 



«' Wm. Salt. Libr. Stafford, Bp. 

 Compton's Census, 1676. 



<'4 E.R.O., D/DK M27-29. 



«! E.R.O., D/P 147/1/1. 



" E.R.O., D/P 147/8. Unless other- 

 wise stated all the following information 

 is derived from this minute-book and from 

 the parish register quoted above. 



«' E.R.O., D/P 147/11 and 12. 



