ONGAR HUNDRED beauchamp roding 



sold the next presentation to Nicholas Toke of Linton 

 (Kent), and in May of the same year Toiie conveyed 

 this in trust for his nephew the Revd. Nicholas Layton 

 of Nottingham. If Layton should be alive at the next 

 presentation he was to have the rectory or was to 

 nominate a rector. If not, the presentation was to 

 revert to Toke.' In 1776 Layton in fact became 

 rector.' He seems to have been non-resident. In 1795 

 Richard Birch sold the advowson to Samuel R. 

 Gaussens, who presented in the same year.' J. L. 

 Barrett, D.D., who was rector in 1 8 29, was also patron.'" 

 For the remainder of the 19th century the advowson 

 was apparently acquired by or for the benefit of each 

 successive rector." J. Howard, who had been curate 

 from 1882 to 1887, became rector in the latter year 

 and held the benefice until 1927. It was then united 

 with that of Abbess Roding (q.v.), the advowson of the 

 united benefice being vested in the Bishop of Chelms- 

 ford and the Revd. Capel-Cure.'^ For purposes of 

 internal organization, however, .'Abbess and Beauchamp 

 Roding remain separate parishes. 



Though the rectory of Beauchamp Roding was never 

 appropriated, Aubrey de Vere, about 1 100, gave two- 

 thirds of the tithes of his demesne lands in the parish to 

 Colne priory.'3 It is likely that this grant also included 

 a small portion of land in Beauchamp Roding, for in 

 1539, after the dissolution of the priory, the king granted 

 'the manor or lordship of Langbornes in Beauchamp 

 Roding, belonging to the late priory of Colne' to the 

 Duke of Suffolk.'^ In the same year Suffolk conveyed 

 the property to John Wiseman and Agnes his wife.'' 

 Wiseman conveyed it in 1 5 8 1 to Sir Jerome Weston.'* 

 It subsequently descended along with the manor of 

 Beauchamp Roding. At the tithe commutation in 

 1843 T. W. Bramston, lord of the manor, owned two- 

 thirds of the tithes of some 500 acres of land, which was 

 the greater part of his property in the parish. Most of 

 the manor of Beauchamp Roding and more than half 

 of Frayes were included in these 500 acres. John 

 Walden owned two-thirds of the tithes of a 3-acre field 

 called Longfield and the Trustees of the late Revd. 

 Robert Gibson of Fyfield owned two-thirds of the 

 tithes of a 5-acre field called English Bottom, which was 

 part of Gubbiss Farm. It was then agreed that the 

 tithes owned by Bramston and Walden should be 

 merged in their freehold. A tithe-rent charge was, how- 

 ever, fixed on English Bottom, payable to Gibson." In 

 1794 a map of the parish was drawn for Samuel 

 Gaussens, who was described as the impropriator.'* 

 This probably meant that he was leasing the tithes 

 belonging to the owner of Beauchamp Roding manor. 



In about 1254 the rectory of Beauchamp Roding 

 was valued at £5 and in 1 291 and 1428 at ^^5 6s. iJ.^'> 

 In 1535 it was valued at j^i6 13/. /^.J?" The rector's 

 tithe was commuted in 1843 for £284.^' Sir Peter 

 Siggiswyk, by his will proved in 1 503, left his house at 

 Beauchamp Roding to the church of Beauchamp Roding 

 for 40 years for the keeping of his obit and the payment 

 of 8</. a year to the rector." 



The glebe terriers of 16 10 and 1619 state that there 



was a parsonage house and some 40 acres of glebe.^' 

 There were 41 acres of glebe in 1843.2* In 1618 the 

 parsonage was found to be out of repair.^' Parts of the 

 back wing of the present Old Rectory may date from 

 a rebuilding soon after this report. The house is now 

 T-shaped on plan. It is timber-framed and roughcast 

 with a tiled roof. The long back wing appears to be of 

 various dates but the interior was remodelled and the 

 front wing added about 1 800. The entrance front is 

 Georgian in style. At the south end of the front a 

 grou»d-floor room was added in the 19th century. 

 This is now (1954) used for parish purposes. South 

 of the house is a large rectangular fishpond. The house 

 was occupied by the rectors of Beauchamp Roding until 

 the union with Abbess Roding in 1927. It was then 

 sold, and is now a private residence.^* 



The ancient parish church of ST. BOTOLPH 

 stands on rising ground, the churchyard being com- 

 pletely surrounded by fields. The dedication suggests 

 that there was a church at Beauchamp Roding before 

 the Norman Conquest. The building consists of nave, 

 chancel, west tower, and south porch. The walls are 

 of flint rubble mixed with freestone. The nave is built 

 on an I ith- or 12th-century plan but the present struc- 

 ture probably dates from the 14th century. In the 

 15 th century the tower was added and the chancel 

 rebuilt. The porch dates from 1870. 



A piscina in the chancel may be of the 13 th century, 

 indicating that there once existed an earlier chancel of 

 that date. 



The nave has two windows on the south side and 

 one on the north which are of the early 14th century. 

 They have pointed heads with quatrefoils in the tracery 

 and externally they have original label-moulds and 

 head-stops. The north and south doorways, the former 

 now blocked, are also of the 14th century. 



The church was evidently enlarged and much 

 altered in the 15th century. The chancel, which was 

 probably rebuilt then, has two fine three-light windows 

 with four-centred heads and vertical tracery. Farther 

 west are two smaller windows of the same period and 

 a south doorway, now restored, with a four-centred 

 head. The east window, rebuilt in the igth century, 

 is in similar style, and a three-light 15th-century 

 window has been inserted in the north wall of the nave. 

 The chancel arch is grooved on the underside, prob- 

 ably to take the tympanum of a rood loft. On the south 

 side of the nave there is a stone staircase which formerly 

 led to the rood loft. This forms a projection externally 

 and is covered with a pent roof Both upper and lower 

 doorways are in position and there is a moulded stone 

 bracket near the former. A piscina in the nave is also 

 probably of the 15th century. Both the nave and 

 chancel have 15th-century roofs. The nave, which is 

 of two bays, has moulded king-posts with two-way 

 struts. The tie-beam in the chancel has curved and 

 moulded braces resting on carved stone corbels. One 

 of these is in the form of a grotesque head, the other of 

 an angel bearing a shield. The 1 5th-century west tower" 

 is of three stages with a castellated parapet above. Over 



■> Ibid. 



» E.R.O., D/P 1+6/1/1, 146/8; 

 D/AEM 2/3. 



• CP25{2)/i3ii Mich. 36 Geo. Ill; 

 P.R.O., Inst. Bits. ser. C, vol. i, pt. i, 

 p. 204^'. 



■» CUr.Dir. 1829. 



" Ibid. i%i6; Clergy List, 184.5 f. 



'» Clergy Liu, i88of. 



'^ J. L. Fisher, Colne Cartulary, 5 ; 



E.R.O., D/DPr 150. 



>♦ L. & P. Hen. nil, xiv, p. 258. This 

 cannot have been the manor of Beauchamp 

 Roding alias Longbarns (see above). 



'5 Ibid. 262. 



■6 CP40/.391. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 294. 



18 Cat. of Maps in E.R.O., 26A. 



>» W. E. Lunt, f^al. of NorivicA, 337; 

 Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 21A; Feud. Aids, 



u, 205. 



20 Falor Eccl. (Rec.-Com.), i, 437. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 294. 



" E.A.T.ji.s. xxi, 256. 



^3 Newcourt, Repert. ii, 502. The glebe 

 figures arc not identical in the t-vo terriers. 



" E.R.O., D/CT 294. 



2' E.R. XV, 49. 



^' Inf. from the Revd. R. T. K.. Griffin. 



201 



Dd 



