A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



The medieval manor house of Slades is thought to 

 have stood at the head of a small valley about 600 yds. 

 west of Beacon Hill Farm. The site is marked by a 

 group of earthworks, now much overgrown. On the 

 west is a circular moat enclosing a mound about 65 ft. 

 in diameter at the base. This may be of greater age 

 than the site of the house itself, which is indicated by 

 two arms of a large rectangular moat. Tudor bricks 

 have been found in this enclosure. Outside the north- 

 west arm and separated from it by a steep bank in 

 which there was formerly a sluice are two rectangular 

 fishponds.34 In the 19th century part of the site was 

 occupied by cottages but these have now disappeared. 

 Slades Farm, formerly known as 'Little Slades', stood 

 about J mile to the west. The buildings were damaged 

 by bombs during the Second World War and have now 

 been demolished.^s 



The church, which dates from the nth or 12th 

 century, had been appropriated by 1181 

 CHURCH to St. Paul's Cathedral, which owned the 

 manor of Navestock.^* A vicar is men- 

 tioned in a document of about 1222-9.3' The rectory 

 and the advowson of the vicarage descended together 

 along with the manor until 1555, when Sir Edward 

 Waldegrave sold the rectory and advowson to Sir 

 Thomas Pope to form part of the endowment of 

 Trinity College, Oxford.^s They have remained in 

 the college ever since. In addition to their ownership 

 of the rectory and advowson during the Middle Ages 

 St. Paul's exercised peculiar jurisdiction over the parish 

 of Navestock. The cathedral retained this after part- 

 ing with the manor, rectory, and advowson in 1 544 

 and continued to exercise the powers of ordinary until 

 the reforming legislation of the 19th century.^' 



It was stated in 1 181 that the church of Navestock 

 paid 60/. to St. Paul's per manum firmar'ti and that 

 there were 46 acres of arable glebe and 40 acres wood. 

 The church had the tithes tocius ville and the third 

 sheaf from the demesne.^" In 1535 the vicarage was 

 valued at ^13 y. Si/.^' The grant of the rectory to 

 Trinity College ostensibly included lands but in spite 

 of its wording the college does not appear to have 

 acquired any glebe. Probably, as Stubbs suggested, 

 the 86 acres mentioned in 1 1 8 1 had become lost 

 among the lands of the manor as a result of the practice 

 of farming out the manor and rectory together.'*^ In 

 the 1 8th century the vicarage 'was amply endowed by 

 the college on these conditions: the vicar for the time 

 being is lessee for the great tithes, paying to the college 

 a small quit rent, and a fine certain oi £60 per annum\*'^ 

 At the tithe commutation in 1840 the college (as 

 rector) and the vicar were each allotted a tithe rent 

 charge of ^^574. There were then 21 acres of vicarial 

 glebe.+« Part of this glebe was probably derived from 

 a gift about 1365 by John Barnet, Bishop of Bath and 

 Wells (formerly a canon of St. Paul's) of 9 acres of 

 arable, 2 acres i rood of meadow, and 1 2J. in Nave- 

 stock.*' 



The former vicarage stands at the north-east corner of 

 Navestock Heath. A 19th-century pen-and-ink sketch 



shows the house which previously occupied the site.** 

 It was evidently a timber-framed structure dating from 

 before the middle of the 17th century. A central block 

 was flanked by two gabled wings and there were two 

 old brick chimneys. The sash windows and pedimented 

 doorcase were 18th-century insertions. The present 

 house, which stands back from the road in a large 

 garden, was built about 1 867." It is a red-brick build- 

 ing with decorative stripes of yellow and black. At 

 the front is a tall gable and a porch of carved stone. It 

 has been empty for some years and has recently been 

 sold. 



The church of ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE 

 consists of nave, chancel, south aisle, and western 

 belfry with spire. The belfry is one of the notable 

 timber towers of Essex. The rest of the church is of flint 

 rubble and pebbles plastered externally, with dressings 

 of limestone and clunch. The roofs are tiled and the 

 spire shingled. The church dates from the i ith or 1 2th 

 century but was largely rebuilt in the 13th and 14th 

 centuries. In 1 940 it was badly damaged by a German 

 land mine and by 1954 repairs had not been com- 

 pleted. 



The north wall of the nave is part of the 1 1 th-century 

 church. The north doorway has a plain tympanum 

 under a semicircular arch. Below this a segmental 

 arch is ornamented with rounded billets. The door 

 itself may also be of i ith- or 12th-century date. 



The church was considerably enlarged in the 13th 

 century. A pointed arch in the north wall of the nave, 

 now blocked, may have led to a chapel of this period. 

 One of the jambs has an attached shaft with 'stiff-leaf 

 foliage to the capital. The south aisle and the chapel at 

 its east end are also of the mid-l3th century. The 

 arcade has four bays but the easternmost arch is of wood 

 and is probably of much later date. The original arches 

 are of two chamfered orders and are supported on cir- 

 cular columns with moulded capitals. There is one 

 lancet window in the south aisle and there are traces of 

 two more. The mid- 1 3 th-century doorway has been 

 much restored and the door itself, which may have been 

 equally ancient, has been replaced. The east window in 

 the south chapel was probably of the 1 3th century but it 

 has suffered later alterations and damage. Beside it is a 

 13th-century piscina with a trefoiled head. It is 

 possible that this was already in existence by 125 1 

 and served one of the two altars mentioned in a visita- 

 tion of that year.** A new chapel, to which there is a 

 reference in 1297, may have been this chapel or one 

 which has now disappeared on the north side of the 

 nave.*' 



In the same visitation of 1297 it was ordered that 

 the chancel 'should be better united' to the nave. so It 

 was no doubt as a result of this order that the chancel 

 was rebuilt during the first half of the 14th century. 

 The three-light east window has net tracery and there 

 are other early-i4th-century windows in the chancel. 

 There is also one of this date in the north wall of the 

 nave. 



In the 15th century the south porch and the belfry 



'* Details from Hist. Men. Com. Etsex, 

 ii, 192-3. 



" Inf. from Mr. T. E. Bere. 



»* Dom. of St. PauVi (Camd. Soc. 1858), 

 150. 



" Early Charts, of St. Paul's (Camd. 

 Soc. 1939), p. 190. 



'» Cal. Pat. 1555-7, 210; Morant, 

 Essex, i, 184. 



39 Morant, Essex, i, 184; Fal Eccl. 

 (Rec. Com.), i, 460. 



«» Dom. of St. Paul's (Camd. Soc. 1858), 

 150. 



*• fal. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 437. 



<» W. Stubbs, Hist. Introd. to Rolls Ser. 



7'- 

 *' Morant, Essex, i, 1 84. 

 •M E.R.O., D/CT 248. 



45 ^oTa^ni, Essex, \, 184. 



*' E.R.O. Prints, Navestock. 



4' E.R. xxvi, 221. 



*8 CamJen Misc. ix (Camd. Soc. 1895), 

 22. 



*9 f^isits. of Si. Paul's Cks. 1297, Ice. 

 (Camd. Soc. 1895), 1-2. 



50 Ibid. 



146 



