Henham and Chickney in Essex.....

Henham - where my Sarah Gurson was baptised in 1757, her parents John and Mary are buried here, also my Humphrey Perry married Elizabeth Gunn in this pretty 13th century church in 1743.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

... on the Henham website they say that a little bit of 12th century Norman shingle work is built into the south side of the tower....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman arcading discovered in 1975 ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15th century font.......

 

 

 

 

 

12th century wall paintings.....

 

 

 

15th century fragments of glass....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14th century carvings Madonna with child.....

 

 

two angels.....

 

 

 

and my old French teacher.....

 

 

 

 

 

And not far away (just down the road and along a shingle track) is the Saxon Chickney church, one of the oldest churches in Essex..... I don't have any ancestors from here as far as I know so far, but I took the opportunity to visit this lovely building which is said to have been built circa 1000 or perhaps even as early as circa 850 (according to St Mary's Church, Chickney, Essex by Roy Tricker).  The churchyard is oval in shape indicating a pre-Conquest date and maybe even very early use of pre-Christian worship.....

 

 

 

 

.... the tower's array of windows....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victorian floor tiles.....

 

 

21st century doggy.....

 

 

 

... the alter slab, a single slab of stone upon which the Mass was celebrated daily in the Middle Ages which is said to have been from the 1200's. Restorers in 1858 unearthed it from where it lay hidden since the Reformation, and they put it back in its rightful place..... (thank goodness Henry VIII didn't find it)......

 

 

 

 

circa 1400's for the font......

 

 

 

 

pre-Conquest window and 14th century doorway......

 

 

 

... and what a vista from behind the churchyard across wonderful scenery, it makes me wish I still lived in Essex......