St. Andrew, Much Hadham.
An ecumenical peculiar.
Much Hadham stretches like an architectural text book for a mile of examples of style and of date. Here are the humblest of vernacular cottages beside grand Georgian stables where the horses were better housed than the staff of the estate. Here are Regency shop and mediaeval inn, Jacobean brick and Tudor timber, polite habitation and rude hovel, all side by side from the Lordship down to the little row of Tudoresque almshouses, and it’s only when we come to the private roads of modern estates further south that things start to jar. It isn’t the post war council housing that’s so offensive, but the recent battery farm buildings on postage stamp plots, commuter ghettos that vie with each other in how many families can fit in a field.
An ecumenical peculiar.
Much Hadham stretches like an architectural text book for a mile of examples of style and of date. Here are the humblest of vernacular cottages beside grand Georgian stables where the horses were better housed than the staff of the estate. Here are Regency shop and mediaeval inn, Jacobean brick and Tudor timber, polite habitation and rude hovel, all side by side from the Lordship down to the little row of Tudoresque almshouses, and it’s only when we come to the private roads of modern estates further south that things start to jar. It isn’t the post war council housing that’s so offensive, but the recent battery farm buildings on postage stamp plots, commuter ghettos that vie with each other in how many families can fit in a field.
Hiding behind long brick walls are the prouder properties; the oldest of all being the many gabled Palace of the Bishops of London, a fourteenth century hall at the heart of land theirs since around 950. Next door lies the church, a bishop’s peculiar built under his eye and his to control. The tower is Fifteenth century with a grand west window, but catching the eye are two details below. The heads beside the doorway show an elegant king and queen, carved in 1953 by the artist Henry Moore who lived a couple of miles away at Perry Green. There his much larger sculptures sit surrounded by sheep, set on farmland round his studio home. From the churchyard the building is much restored flint, with Early English lancets in the chancel and Decorated tracery in the aisle windows beneath later Perpendicular work. One memorial stands out over the others, to the east of the church is a tall arts and crafts cross. Designed in 1916 by Henry Wilson with all the subtlety of detail and richness of effect of which this architect was capable, the oval sectioned stem rises to a round head of bronze leaves against which a young Christ is crucified. As well as this memorial to Frederick Norman, Wilson designed the War Memorial in the village. These are not the only modern works of art here either: local artist Constance Cook sculpted the kneeling bronze figure of Mary Magdalene that went into the south aisle in 1976. That sculpture has a long history here is evident as soon as you step into the two bay porch, as the richly moulded roof is carved with angel musicians, each with its own individual character, an hors d’oevres for the work inside.
The aisles here were added in the fourteenth century to a church consecrated in 1220, the south before the north, and much carving remains throughout the nave and aisles both from the Decorated period and from around 100 years later, when the clerestory and roofs were added along with the tower and bigger windows. The arches of the north arcade have a scattering of fleurons and faces set into the mouldings and around the capitals, whilst the hood moulds of both arcades have bigger heads of some character. The moulding below the windows around the north aisle is an excuse for yet more carving, with lions and bishops, demons and kings being carved with simplicity but individuality. One window has a dragon on the hood mould, others faces. The later masons went further still with the wonderful corbels supporting the roofs: in the nave are spirited symbols of the evangelists, with a lazy soldier smiling in his sleep, an angry housewife with her spindle, a king with a foliate sceptre, a babe in arms, a griffin. They are easy to read, as there is little glass to darken the church: one early Victorian window in the south aisle has bright medallions of angels and men, and in the tower is an unusual modern work made by Patrick and John Reyntiens in 1995 to a design conceived by Henry Moore. It shows the branches of a tree, and marked ten years of the joint use of the church by both Anglicans and Catholics. With high and low Anglicans barely on speaking terms, such wider ecumenicalism is nothing short of a miracle. Hiding amongst the Victorian glass at the east end are ten small mediaeval figures in the tracery collected from throughout the church, including a row of female saints.
Many of the fittings here are still mediaeval, including the rood screen and the chancel stalls. Even the pulpit seems of the same date, but it was made up in the Elizabethan period of older panels, probably from a parclose[26] screen. Some of the pews are late mediaeval, but the oldest timber is in the chancel. Here the roof has been rebuilt at least once, but retains beams from 1220, and the vestry door is much older than its fourteenth century doorway suggests. It has been obviously cut down at the bottom, and the beautiful C-scroll iron hinges are at least as old as the 1220 consecration date; in fact, their style is that of fifty years earlier. The mensa of the main altar was found broken and buried underneath the east window: its restoration has displaced the well carved Elizabethan communion table, supposedly once a secular dining table. Two pieces of furniture are truly rare, the tall throne like seats with gothic carving on back and base. These are two of three wooden sedilia with the central one cut out, much more usually seen carved in stone beside the altar to seat priests and deacons during mass. Sedilia made of wood must once have been more common, but all but a handful have been destroyed.
The church feels very solvent, is on Church Lane at the north end of the High Street and is always open, or you can call the rector on 01279 842609.
The church feels very solvent, is on Church Lane at the north end of the High Street and is always open, or you can call the rector on 01279 842609.
[26] Screen used to divide off a chapel or an aisle from the main vessel of the church.
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All rights reserved for this entire site. Copyright reserved to stiffleaf for all text and images, which may not be reproduced without my permission.