To be honest, we have probably swept the stove chimney in the vicarage at Thaxted more times than any other vicarage across the whole of Essex. Like at Saffron Walden Thaxted Vicarage is some distance from the church, located as it is down Watling Lane, but following the recent trend, it is quite a modern house, specifically built for the purpose. But it is the church of Saint John the Baptist with Our Lady and Saint Laurence which is a jewel of medieval gothic church building.

There has been a Christian church in Thaxted since Saxon times. The first documented reference to a church in the settlement is in the Liber Eliensis, regarding a gift of land in “Thacstede” to the abbey at Ely by a woman named Æthelgifu sometime between 981 and 1016. It states that the will, written in English, was kept in the church there as evidence. An early church was said to have been dedicated to Saint Catherine and its foundations were reportedly found in the eighteenth century at Rails Farm, not far from the present church site. There is also evidence that the current building stands on the site of an earlier church, and that traces of this church were found under the chancel.

Why a modest settlement such as Thaxted in the fourteenth century should have embarked upon building such a grandiose structure has long been a matter of debate and conjecture. A number of factors may have played a part: a dispute between the vicar and the monks of Tilty Abbey over tithes allowed the considerable sums previously donated to the abbey by the town to be diverted to the parish church, at a time when the town was beginning to prosper as a centre of the cutlery industry. The inhabitants were therefore able to organise and contribute towards the financing of a major church building project, even if the support of rich benefactors was still necessary. During the period when construction began, many small donations of land were made to the borough, which were immediately sold, presumably for the purpose of funding the new structure. The appointment of four churchwardens is taken as an indication that the town was managing funds for construction.

The construction was sponsored by a number of noble patrons descended from the Clare family who had held the manor of Thaxted since the Norman Conquest: Elizabeth, Lady Clare (1295–1360); Lionel, Duke of Clarence (1338–68); Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352–81); his grandson, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391–1425); and King Edward IV (1442–83).

The current church was built over an extended period from the mid-fourteenth century to the first quarter of the sixteenth century, probably on the site of an earlier church. The earliest parts of the present building date from c. 1340 and substantial building works were completed by c.1510. Foundations of the earlier structure were apparently discovered under the entrance to the Chancel. Some have theorized that these remains, and the late construction of the Chancel, show that the older building remained in place until most of the new structure had been completed.

This weeks blog is a total one off and a real rarity, I can say with all honesty I have not seen an example of this weeks appliance before, except perhaps on the internet. This is an example of an antique French Thermocet Wood-Burning Fireplace. I’m guessing that it was manufactured at some stage in the early part of the last century, or perhaps even earlier and although I swept it in a Victorian/Edwardian age house on Saffron Walden I should think that it is not an original feature, but a reclaimed fireplace from elsewhere. An internet search certainly reveals numerous examples of similar French Stoves and Fireplaces for sale, there are even companies that deal specifically with antique French appliances. Clearly this example is highly unusual and very ornante, but I can’t quite make up my mind whether it is ugly or beautiful, it is certainly a talking point, a real conversation starter!

Anyone who is interested, take a look at:

https://www.antiquefrenchstove.com/

Or

https://delos.co.za/products/antique-cast-iron-wood-burning-stove-with-painted-tiles

Or

https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/antique_french_stove

Barbas are not the most common of stoves in the area, but I do see a number of them around, this is an example of a Barbas Bellfires Box 20 52 Wood-Burning Stove that I recently swept in Water End Ashdon. To be perfectly honest and from the chimney sweeps perspective I don’t like Barbas Stoves, in that they are mostly very difficult to dismantle, making the sweeps job rather time consuming and difficult. In my view they are over engineered and rather like a World War Two German Panza Tank works perfectly and is very efficient but is over engineered and difficult to repair and maintain. This is born out by the comments made by the customers, who love their Barbas Stoves, and who say that they do operate very efficiently.

Barbas Bellfire are based in Holland and Belgium, they employ over 160 staff and produce 120 different models of stove. So, they are a large concern on the continent and have been manufacturing stoves since 1976. They manufacture wood-burning stoves as well as gas fires. Some of their wood-burning stove models include the Evolux 100-45 range, and the Box range. The box is what it says on the tin a box stove in various sizes.

Barbas Bellfire

Hallenstraat 17

5531 AB,

Bladel,

Holland

T: (0)49 733 9200

E: info@barbasbellfires.com

https://barbasbellfires.com/uk/inspiration/?inspiration-category=woodfireplaces

Here is another Rais Stove that I have swept recently, this time in Radwinter – I am seeing a lot more of these attractive, contemporary Rais stoves around the area. This example is the Rais Q-Tee 2C Wood-Burning Stove. I really do like these Rais stoves, I think that they are rather attractive happy medium between a contemporary and traditional freestanding stove. Even though the stove is only 5Kw rated, and situated in a rather large sitting room, the customer told me that it heats the room more than adequately and that she is more than pleased with its performance.

Rais are a Danish company who export 90% of their stoves to other countries in Western Europe and the United States. The Rias factory is located at Frederikshavn in Danemark and employs over 80 people in the production of stoves and each with their own personal responsibility. Their marketing stresses that if you buy a Rais stove “you get Danish design that never compromises on quality, we call it the art of the fire”. They have a large range of different stove models, including: the Caro 90, 110 and Caro SST, the Viva L 100, 120, 140 and 160, the Nexo 100, 120, 140 and 160, & 185, Max 600, the Pilar, the Juno L 120 & 160, the Q-Tee, Q-Tee 2 & Q-Tee C, The Bionic and the Q-Be & Q-Be XL.

https://www.rais.com/en/wood-burning-stoves?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-r_t0oy-gwMVTpJQBh3BlQlwEAAYASAAEgL1YfD_BwE

This is one of the things that French stove manufaturers do rather well, making colourful enamel finished stove. It is something that they have been doing way back to the late 1800. I recently came across this Antique Green Enamel Franco Belge Lorraine Multi-Fuel Stove at an address in Sturmer. The customer believes that it dates from the 1930’s, so it is reasonably old and was installed into an unlined brick chimney. As you can probably also see from the photograph, that the door catch is missing. That said it is certainly a thing of beauty, with its glorious green enamel finish and its fancy ornate molding on the casting. One thing I can say for sure is that I had not seen one of these stoves before, it’s a real rarity! I come across most of the other Franco-Belge model variants with a high degree of frequency around the area, but this is the only instance I have swept an enamel Franco-Belge Lorraine.

The Franco-Belge company have been making cast iron stoves for over 90 years, the are based in Mariembourg in Belgium: Franco Belge Europe S.A. 127ieme RIF, 15 Zoning industriel 5660, Mariembourg http://www.fbeurope.be/en/5-contact

Yes, they do say that there is a first time for everything, and this week we definitely had a first for us whilst we were out working. Regularly on our travels we come away from customers’ addresses with gifts, people are so kind; they may be in the form of a monetary tip, a bottle of wine, eggs from their hens or flowers or produce from their gardens. But this week was so different, we came away from a customers address with a dog!! Yes, I know that sounds hard to believe, but it is true.

It happened like this; we were at an address in Hadstock just finishing a job when a neighbour of the customer we were doing knocked on the door and asked us to do his chimney and we obliged. He had a year-old Charnwood Aire which was easily swept with the Viper. As we were doing the work we got into conversation with him and his wife and they told us how the wife had recently been very ill in hospital and that the fur on one of their dogs was effecting both her and her husbands breathing as well as slowing her recuperation. After much heart ache they had decided to rehome the dog by sending it to the Woodgreen Animal shelter. The poor dog had started out life as a contraband sniffer dog for the Prison Service, but the Prison Service had let her go and she had ended up with the couple’s som. Unfortunately, he could not keep her when he started to have a family so she ended up with the couple who already had a dog of their own.

So we just couldn’t let her go off to the Woodgreen Animal shelter and ended up bringing her home to meet our two working cockers Millie and Roger. Her she is in the photos, a three-year-old black and white Sprocker called Maggie. She is very well trained and is beautiful. She has settled in so well with Millie and Roger, we are just so pleased. Who would think that chimney sweeping could do this!

It seems to be a very popular blog when I write about the villages and churches we have visited whilst sweeping for the Dioceses of Chelmsford. So, for this week’s blog here are some more of the beautiful medieval churches we have visited, this time in around central Essex.  So as with all the work we do for the Bishop of Chelmsford, there was lots of driving involved! But this does mean that we get to see lots of the beautiful Essex countryside and some fantastic historic monuments in the churches themselves. What’s not to like!

 St Peter’s Church Great Totham

The two questions most frequently asked about the church are: how old is it? and why is it so far from the village? The second question is easier to answer than the first. Like most English parish churches, St Peter’s would have been built by the Lord of the Manor as his private chapel, and after a few years would have been given to a monastery as a form of charitable donation. So the church is next to the Hall, with the vicarage, which perhaps stands on the site of the original priest’s house, forming a third in the group. No doubt there were a number of cottages round about, but these have left no trace. Over the years the centre of the village has shifted to busier parts of the parish, notably the crossroads where the village shop now is; but the church still stands at the geographical center of the parish, linked to all corners of it by footpaths. This would have been a gradual development; there is no reason to suppose that it was the result of a sudden single event like the Black Death.

The church’s early origins help us to understand how long it is has been here, because we know that between 1181 and 1186 it was granted to the Nunnery of St Mary Clerkenwell by Maurice de Totham; so there has been a church here since at least 1186. The earliest recorded vicar was called Thomas who, in 1285, was charged with killing Simon Godyng at Havering. He and his accomplice, the vicar of Goldhanger, were imprisoned in Newgate. The actual building, however, is less easy to date. Most churches were rebuilt at least once in the Middle Ages, or extended so much at different times that little of the original structure was left. Frederic Chancellor, writing about the church in the 19th century, thought that some of the stones at the south-east corner of the chancel were Norman, but other authorities say they are 13th century. The south wall of the nave and the base of the tower are 14th century; that is the date of the middle window in the south wall (which was originally in the chancel), and the tower window, as well as of the church’s two piscinas (one in the chancel, one in the south wall of the nave). Much of the timberwork of the nave and chancel roofs belongs to the 15th century, and the large south window to the early 16th, although its stained glass, by Powell & Son, dates from 1913.

The present appearance of the church, as with so many, is largely the result of work that was carried out in the 19th century. First, in 1878-9, the north aisle was added, to provide additional seating; this was to replace the galleries that had earlier been built in the church (probably in 1826). At the same time the architect, Joseph Clarke, rebuilt the tower and the south porch, provided new furnishings and fittings (including the seating, pulpit and font) and generally overhauled the structure. A new ring of six bells, cast by John Warner & Sons and reusing the church’s two remaining pre-Reformation bells, was hung at the same time. Further additions were made in 1881-5: the organ chamber and vestry on the north side of the chancel, and the private pew of the De Crespigny family on the south side. The architect for this work was the Revd Ernest Geldart, rector of Little Braxted, who also designed the unusual clock inside the church, as well as the east window, which was made by Cox, Sons, Buckley & Co. The private pew, which has its own outside door, contains a large number of monuments to members of the De Crespigny family, who lived at Champion Lodge (now Totham Lodge care home). The large extension on the north side of the church was added in 1990, designed by Carden & Godfrey. The stained glass window at the entrance to the extension was installed in 1995, and was made by Rowland and Surinder Warboys.

As well as the features already mentioned, there are a number of other items of interest to look out for when visiting the church. On the south side of the nave, at the east end, is a fragment of the rood screen that would have crossed the nave at this point and marked the division between the nave and chancel. There is no record of it, and it was probably taken down at the Reformation. Evidence of stairs that led up to the rood loft on top of the screen survived until the north aisle was built in 1878. Above the pulpit on the north side are three fragments of plaster that carry traces of 15th-century painting. Now very indistinct, it is said to have depicted adoring angels and archangels. In the north aisle is a rubbing of a memorial brass to Elizabeth Coke (died 1606) and her daughter, also Elizabeth; they both came to live in Great Totham in 1599. The brass itself is at the foot of the sanctuary step, but is mostly hidden by the choir stalls and carpet. By the font is a painting of the Adoration of the Magi, which hung behind the altar until the present reredos was installed in 1949. Little is known about it except that it was given by Mrs Frances Lee of Maldon and is said to have come from the chapel at Messing House. Finally, notice two depictions of St Peter, the church’s patron saint. The first is in the stained-glass window on the south side of the chancel, dated 1878, and shows him holding the keys of Heaven. The second is the statue on the outside wall of the vestry. The keys can be seen here also, on the cover of the book he has in his right hand, but in his left hand he is holding a fish – a reminder that he was a fisherman before becoming a ‘fisher of men’.

 St Nicholas Church Tolleshunt D’Arcy

The rather large village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy is found lying close to the Blackwater Estuary. The church is located on the village high street. The present church was largely built between 1380 and 1420. The two St Nicholas churches (Tolleshunt D’Arcy and Tolleshunt Major) now form the Benefice of Tolleshunt D’Arcy. This Grade I listed building is made of ragstone from Maidstone, Kent, rather than the more usual flint. The nave and tower are 14th century, the chancel, south porch and north chapel all 15th century. The floor of the bell chamber is original. Internally, there are several well preserved brasses (from the 14th, 15th and 16th century) and several marble monuments, mostly commemorating members of the D’Arcy family.

 Holy Trinity Church Pleshey

The village of Pleshey lies in the gentle hills to the west of Chelmsford and is notable for the fact that it was the site of Pleshey college. The college was a priests college and was served by a large medieval church which was largely late 14^th Century. During the reformation the college buildings and the chancel of the church were demolished. The parishioners of Pleshey bought the nave of the church to serve as their parish church. Although the church is now largely a 19^th century restoration the transepts and the arches leading into the nave are survivals from the late 14^th Century church. In the 1750’s a local worthy Samuel Tufnell was responsible for rebuilding the chancel. His large tomb sits in the church, and is one of the best executed late 18^th century memorials in Essex. His bust which Pevsner described as excellent and attributed to the sculptor Henry Cheere, sits atop a large sarcophagus with a long inscription. In the 1860’s the church underwent further restoration at the hands of Frederic Chancellor who gave the chancel a new east end and built the tower. This restoration also provided all the stained glass in the church, which is by O’connor.

 St Mary’s Church High Easter

St Mary’s is a solidly impressive church dating largely from the 14^th century, its size and imposing architecture being more reminiscent of the large wool churches of Norfolk and Suffolk. However, its clerestory and battlemented porch executed in soft red brick marks it out as an Essex church. The clerestory and porch were added to the church in the 16^th century and like much vernacular architecture ties the building to local building materials of the period. Pevsner observed that although the nave, and the chancel  are essentially those of an earlier Norman church (hence the solidity), but the later arcades and aisles with their elaborate tracery give it the appearance particularly from the exterior, as being almost entirely from the late medieval period.

Perhaps the most impressive remaining medieval features in the building are the roof boses in the low-canted roof above the clerestory. Notably they include a green man, a creature with a human head, a man in a cowl and cloak a cherub rising from a pot, a man with his tongue out and a cat that might be intended to be a lion. A restored parclose screen dating from the beginning of the 15^th century is positioned at the east end of the north aisle and might suggest a date for the completion of the church a century prior to the roof being raised and the clerestory added. The only other survival of note from the medieval period is the font, which is strangely primitive considering its size. The bowl of the font has panels depicting the symbols of the evangelists, alternating with angels holding shields. It is quite unlike the East Anglian series of fonts that are notable across the region.

Here is a stove that is classically recognizable as a Franco-Belge Stove, looking very similar to the smaller Franco-Belge Savoy, Franco-Belge Viceroy, Montfort and the Belfort. But it is not, it is the larger Franco-Belge Camargue, and not a model I have come across before, so there are not many of them around. I come across most of the other Franco-Belge model variants with a high degree of frequency around the area, but this is the only instance I have swept a Franco-Belge Camargue. I also sweep one example of the larger again Franco-Belge Monte Carlo at an address in Great Sampford and which I think has previously appeared in one of my blogs. The Franco-Belge Monte Carlo being the largest stove in the Franco-Belge model range. The Franco-Belge Camargue like many of the other stoves in the Franco-Belge model range, has cast metal firebricks and is relatively easy to dismantle providing you know how the bricks are removed from the appliance.

The Franco-Belge company have been making cast iron stoves for over 90 years, the are based in Mariembourg in Belgium: Franco Belge Europe S.A. 127ieme RIF, 15 Zoning industriel 5660, Mariembourg http://www.fbeurope.be/en/5-contact

Well here it is, what is possibly the oldest Chimney in Wales, in the village of Carew close to Tenby. We have just had a short week away, travelling around the country visiting family as well as sightseeing, when we came across this chimney. It is called a Flemish chimney as the people who originally constructed it were Flemish immigrants who arrived in this part of Wales in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. The chimney is believed to have been built sometime in the 14^th century and originally would have had a house adjoining it, which is clearly no longer there. The chimney is roughly circular in construction and has a bread oven at its base. Having said all this, other commentators believe that the association with the Flemmings is totally erroneous and that it was actually only constructed as late as the 19^th century. Appparently the adjoining house was demolished in 1927 after being used as a communal bake house. During World War II two local families used it as a shelter from German air-raids. As far as we know, the oldest chimneys in Wales can be found in some of the country’s medieval castles.

During our time in Carew, we stayed at the Carew Inn, which we would highly recommend, and we visited Carew Castle which is literally just over the road from the Inn. At the end of the 11th century, the Normans extended their conquest of England into Wales and Pembroke Castle became the centre of Norman rule in South Pembrokeshire.

Gerald de Windsor was constable of the Castle on behalf of Henry I when he decided to build his own fortification on the Carew River, some ten miles up the tidal waterway from Pembroke. This was not the first settlement on the site, however. Excavation has revealed an Iron Age settlement. A substantial five-ditched promontory fort has been unearthed, together with large quantities of Roman pottery. A Dark Age settlement or fort may also have existed on the site. Gerald’s fortification was probably built of earth and wooden stakes. This fortification was later replaced by a stone Castle. Much of what remains of Carew Castle today was the work of Sir Nicholas de Carew (who died in 1311), who was responsible in particular for the east and west ranges.

In the late fifteenth century the Castle was greatly improved and extended by a very colourful character, Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449-1525). He altered both the east and west ranges, and was responsible for many of the Bath stone windows and other features. Gaining the implicit trust of both Henry VII and Henry VIII, he was said ‘to rule this corner of Wales like a King’. The final development took Carew from Medieval fortress to Elizabethan manor. Sir John Perrot (1530-1592) built the great northern range, with its huge windows overlooking the Millpond. However, he was not destined to enjoy his magnificent new home, for he died in the Tower of London before the work could be completed.

As regular readers of my weekly blog will know, over the years we have had a number of unexpected visitors to the back of our van whilst we are working. On this occasion it was the customers cheeky cat Billy who came to have a play around in the back of the van, he was particularly interested in swatting the long-handled sweeps brush where it was hanging from the racking! The customer told us an interesting story about how he had acquired Billy; it transpired that some time ago now Billy just arrived in the customer’s house and decided to stay. The customer was happy with this but decided to get Billy checked out at the vets first. At the vets the customer discovered that Billy had an identity chip and actually belonged to a couple who lived in a village about 7 miles away. The customer contacted these people and returned Billy to them and learn ’t that Billy had been missing for around 8 months.  This said within a short space of time, Billy had left his owners again and made his way back to the customer’s home. This happened a few further times until the owners said that obviously Billy was much happier living with the customer than them and said that was where he should stay for good.