This week’s blog is about another medieval church that we have visited whilst sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford, the church at Danbury. In my view it is probably one of the most interesting churches and sites that we have visited in our Essex travels sweeping for the Bishop of Chelmsford. The church has a wealth of historical details and is on a site of much older historical importance. So much so, I will probably spread this visit over a number of blogs, the reason being that there is too much of interest to simply cram into just one blog.

The church is actually located within Danbury Camp a large late Iron Age hill fort which encompasses the top of the hill which is one of the highest points in Essex. The earthwork is constructed with a single ditch and rampart, but it is in a poor state of preservation with much of it having been lost due to erosion over time, and a significant portion has been built over. Archaeological excavations of the site occurred in 1974 and 1977, complemented by smaller investigations spurred by local construction. The minor dig have found little to nothing but the two major ones have uncovered Iron Age artefacts as well as several Saxon items. Notably, these finds included loom weights, pottery shards, and a double-sided Saxon bone comb, suggesting domestic occupation from the 8th to the 10th century. While the re-occupation of Iron Age hill forts was common in southwestern England, it is much rarer in Essex. The reoccupation in the Anglo-Saxon period may possibly be due to people using it as a safe haven from Viking raiders or used by Danish Vikings as a defensive base hence the place name Danbury (Dane Bury).

The church itself is an amazing treasure trove of historical features, so much so I will spreading this across a number of separate blogs dealing specifically with the carved medieval bench ends and the three life-size effigies of crusader knights. The church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. In this blog I will just deal with the fabric of the church. There was probably a wooden Anglo-Saxon church at the site, but it has now disappeared completely. The oldest part of the church is its north aisle, which is thought to have been part of a chapel endowed by the St Clere family in 1290. It is unusual in that it has a barrel-vaulted roof, which is usually a feature in west country churches, not East Anglian churches. There are also fragments of medieval wall paintings above the end window in the north aisle and also in the chancel. The roof bosses in the north aisle represent kings and queens of England, mainly the Edward’s and date to the 14^th Century.

The tower is 14^th Century in date and was erected shortly after the construction of the of the nave and aisles. The tower is built of flint rubble and probably has over a million flint pebbles within its construction. There are pieces of Roman brick/tile that can be found in the lower part of the tower and the lower part of the north wall. The timber framed spire dates to the 15^th century and is roofed with wooden shingles.

One of the more intriguing features of St. John the Baptist Church is its squint, a small aperture in the wall that allowed worshippers to view the altar from a side chapel. This architectural element, also known as a “hagioscope,” was designed to enable those who were unable to be in the main body of the church, such as lepers or penitents, or those who didn’t wish to worship with the main crowd, like the gentry, to still participate in the Mass.

The church suffered bomb damage in 1941 during World war II, which was repaired in the 1950’s.

We are just back from our annual two week spring break in Dorset. As usual we spent the two weeks at West Hembury Farm in Askerswell as the guests of the lovely Charlie and Lucy. We had some fantastic warm sunny weather as well as some sea mist and we managed to do lots of our favourite walks with the dogs. Rodger, Maggie and Millie were particularly tiered by the ned of the holiday. We were also able to catch up with our friend Dom and Rachel as well as Netty Patterson who was staying at West Bay whilst we were there. The photo is of the old Villager stove in Barn Owls Cottage where we were staying.

The picture of the chimney is interesting, as this was taken at Lyscombe where Emma did a heritage project at work for the Dorset Wildlife Trust. We did a walk around around the whole site which the Dorset Wildlife Trust are turning into a nature/history reserve. The site has stunning scenery as well as being historically fascinating. There are numerous earth works including a number of large Neolithic Cross Dykes, numerous Bronze Age Barrows, a Roman period settlement and agricultural enclosures and a disappeared Medieval Village in the bottom of the combe. At the centre of the site there is a thatched Medieval pilgrims chaple and priests house, a disappeared manor house an Medieval barn and stone fish weir. The photo of the chimney is from the ruined Medieval priests house.

Following on from last week’s blog I came across this interesting piece of local chimney folk law relating to withes in the Channel Islands. Built into many old Guernsey cottages and houses you will often notice a curious granite plinth protruding from the Chimney on the inside over the roof ridge. These are said to be “Witches seats”. It was said that on Friday nights at low tide Guernsey witches congregate on Grande Greve to dance back to back across the sands. On such occasions it was wise to have your cottage protected by Witches’ Stones as a witch returning from the coven may wish to take a rest on one of these short chimney ledges. Failing to find one she could well slip down the chimney and take up permanent residence in your house.

Originally built to prevent rain water seeping through the join between the chimney and the thatched roof, these ledges provide a convenient perch for night time flyers, as do the fireplace corbels, supporting stones protruding through the gable wall. Although modern buildings no longer use thatch many of their chimneys still carry Witches’ Seats, just to be on the safe side.

We had some work down in deepest, Darkest Hertfordshire, we were driving between a job in Sawbridgeworth and a job in Little Halingbury when we saw this thatched witch on a roof in the village of Gaston Green. Although we see plenty of animals on thatched roofs, I must admit that I have never seen anything like this before. We just had to stop the van and take a photo.  There is a lot of folk law and mythology attached to thatched rooves and witches. A noticeable feature frequently found on many thatched rooves is a raised sloping end to the ridge of the roof. Myth and folk law has it that these sloping ends are a defence to prevent witches landing on the roof. Other witch defences found on thatched roves around East Anglia include sharp pointed sticks on top of the ridge, in particular at the raised sloping ends of the ridge. Other thatch folk law indicates that it was quite common for people to hide items like coins, clothing, shoes, dead animals or pieces of bread in the thatching in order to ward off witches, evil spirits, and or poverty. These items are thought to act as a talisman to ward off whatever malevolent force was intended be it witches, evil spirits, or poverty. Shoes, for example, were often hidden within the thatch or rafters. This practice, dating back to at least the 18th and 19th centuries, was rooted in the belief that a shoe, being closely connected to the foot, retained a part of the person’s soul. On occasions, mummified cats are found lodged in old chimneys, apparently, the cats were put in chimneys to ward off witches and the evil eye.

 We saw this mobile sauna in the coast car park at Dunwich whilst we were on our February break. I must admit that my initial thought was who is going to be sweeping that chimney. As you can see, the sauna is in an old horse box and has a sauna stove at one end. Whilst we were there, on what was a very cold day with a strong North Easterly wind, we watched people come out of the sauna and run straight in the sea. Absolute madness!

The sauna stove is a Narvi, a Finish based in a place called Turku. The company specialize in making sauna stoves. The company was founded in 1937 by Lake Narvi, the company bears the Finnish Key Flag Symbol, which means that all Narvi sauna heaters are designed and manufactured in Finland with at least 95% of production taking place within the country.

Narvi

Linnankatu 26 44B
20100 Turku, Finland

+358 20 7416 740  export@narvi.fi

This past week, we have had a little break staying away at a cottage close to the Suffolk coast. We stayed in a lovely cozy cottage called Easter Cottage in the Village of Westleton near Dunwich. It was great as both our girls Emma and Katie were able to stay for the weekend as well as our three cockers, Millie, Maggie and Roger. After the weekend they all went home leaving us with the problem child Maggie, who then enjoyed a long beach walk every day! On a couple of occasions only we saw some beautiful Suffolk sunsets. Although it did rain a lot, we did manage to do a lot of walking and also had the time to visit three medieval churches.

We walked to St Peter’s church in Westleton from the holiday cottage. It is grade II* listed, thatched and has exceptionally long nave and chancel. The present church dates from 1340 when the original Anglo-Saxon building was completely rebuilt. The original foundation of the church is linked to the monks of Sibton Priory. The porch is roofed with characteristic East Anglian pantiles. Originally, the church had a tower, but this collapsed during a storm in 1770. The replacement tower was demolished during World War II after it was struck by a bomb and became structurally unsound. Notably the south chancel wall has an early 14^th century triple sedilia and piscina with cinquefoil cusped arches under continuous moulding and circular pillars with broad capitals and bases.

We visited the Grade I listed Frostenden church of All Saints on our return journey from Covehithe. The church with its distinctive tall round tower can be seen for miles. The tower is believed to be one of the oldest in Suffolk potentially dating back to Saxon times. The body of the church dates mainly from the 13^th century. Notably the porch has some old graffiti carved into it, one reading ‘1606’. The floor of the church is a rather uneven pavement, but which is charming by its very nature. The interior is very simple with mostly 20^th century glass.

 We visited Covehithe after a long walk with Maggie on the beach in a constant cold drizzle. The church of St Andrew is almost two churches in one. There are the ruins and tower of the original large 14^th/15^th Century church and nestling within the small, thatched parish church dating to 1672. The oldest fabric in the original large medieval church dates from the 14th century, although most of it is from the 15th century. During the Civil War much of the stained glass was destroyed by the local iconoclast William Dowsing. By the later part of that century the large church was too expensive for the parishioners to maintain, and they were given permission in 1672 to remove the roof and to build a much smaller church within it. This small church is still in use, while the tower and the ruins of the old church are maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Yesterday Claire and I travelled up north to the Fylde to attend the funeral of Veronica, our dear friend Dom’s mum. Whilst it was a sad occasion it was also a joyous celebration of Veronica’s life, with many, many people attending, a testament to the friendly, supportive loving person she was. As was said on the day, she was irreplaceable and will be sadly missed by everyone who had the privilege to know her. The whole event went off well and was particularly well organised and executed a credit to Dom, his older brother Mike and sister Loretta. Mike and Loretta and Lorretta’s husband Adrian had travelled all the way from Perth in Western Australia to be there, and it was really good to see them and many other people after such a very long time. We also got to see and chat with Dom’s lovely partner Rachel, which is always a pleasure, as well as seeing Rachel’s ever so cute Jack Russell little Radish. It is certainly a day that will live in mine and Claire’s memory.

I almost forgot to mention that the reception was at the impressive Singleton Lodge Hotel in Poulton-Le-Fylde, hence the photo of me next to a lit Cleanburn Stove, which was in the hotel lobby – Claire couldn’t resist the photo, she never stops thinking of work that girl!!

Birds nest removal is something we have to do in the autumn as legally we can not remove Jackdaw nests from chimneys between 1^st March and 1^st September. This is because nesting birds are protected by the law (Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981) and it is an offence to disturb a nest and destroy any birds. So, we as sweeps are restricted to that time of year when the birds are not nesting and raising their young. Unfortunately for us this just so happens to coincide with our busiest time of year. As we work 6 days a week in the autumn, nest removal usually means working on a Sunday to get the chimney cleared. They are usually very dirty and time-consuming jobs to do, lots of dust sheeting is usually required prior to working on removing the nest.

This nest removal job was in an upstairs bedroom, which obviously creates the additional issue of carrying all the equipment up the stairs. And in this instance covering a large amount quantity of very light carpet, bedding and furnishings. I removed the nest by initially hooking out the bottom section of the nest using a rod and a ‘pig’s tail’ attachment. This was just to give myself room to work in the chimney. I then used rotary power sweeping equipment with steel cord flails to break up the nest. Finally, I brush swept the chimney with an inglenook brush to clean out all the dust and soot. I used my large CCTV camera to check that the chimney was completely clear of nest, and I conducted a type two smoke test to check the draw – Job done! It transpired that there was seven meters of nest in the chimney which equated to nine large garden trugs of nest material.

 Here is a very historic property that we have swept for on an annual basis for many years now, Ashdon Guildhall. The Guildhall or to give it its full title the Guildhall of St Mary, is situated just behind All Saints Church at Church End at the top end of the village just off the road to Saffron Walden. The guildhall was constructed in the 15^th century and is indicative of the wealth and prosperity of Ashdon at that time. A guildhall is a historic building in Britain and Europe, originally used by medieval merchant and craft guilds for meetings, trade, and tax collection (from Old English gild meaning payment).

In terms of sweeping, the guildhall has two modern lined stoves one of which is located upstairs (Dovre and Coalbrookdale stoves). This keeps us busy in the autumn, particularly moving all the sweeping equipment upstairs – A big effort for a pair of oldies like me and Claire!!

The Guildhall of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building, first listed on 26^th November 1951, Listing Number 1112492.

 If I’m being perfectly honest, removing bees’ nests from chimneys is my least favourite chimney sweeping activity. It is not so much the job, although that can be rather dirty and sticky, it is having to clean all the equipment of sticky mess afterwards that I find quite unpleasant! This particular job was unusual in that rather than waiting for the bees to die off, pest control had been called in to kill them. The reason being that the family whose home it was had two very young children, indeed one of them had been born during the bee crisis. To get into the chimney the bees had mined an entrance through the masonry at the base of the chimney stack. So, the bees were getting into the house and everyone had been stung, so pest control had to be called to kill the bees.

This however was not the end of their tribulations; within a short time wasps got into the chimney through the same entrance at the base of the chimney stack that the bees had made. Pest control were again called and all the wasps were dispatched. Things now moved at a pace, scaffolding was quickly erected and on our recommendation John and Mark Taylor the builders came to make the chimney good. We swept what was a very extensive bees’ nest from the chimney using rotary power sweeping equipment. Fortunately for ourselves, the wasps had eaten a lot of the honey, so we only got a bit stick. There was a happy ending as the family who for a time had to move out of their home, were able to move back in.

We can highly recommend the builders we used: J. Taylor & Sons, (John & Mark) 01799 586582 (M) 07885 493034 or 07854 027082 – Email admin@jtaylorandsons.co.uk