ORIGIN AND GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES
The origin
of the name Lambourne is Saxon, written Lamborn or Lamburn. It is supposed
in part to be derived from the river which, in its course from Ongar
passing here, was anciently named Angriciburne, or the Ongar stream,
Probably 'lam, burna,' meant 'loamstream'; though 'lamb stream is also
possible.
The parish is one of the largest,
geographically, in the Ongar Hundred. Its area is 2,471 acres. The
boundary on the north is the River Roding, terminated on the east by
Arnold's Farm and on the west by The Chase. The southern boundary lies
through Hainault Forest; Blue House in the south east and Angel Cottage in
the south west are the boundary points.
The Parish Church of St. Mary and All
Saints stands in the middle of the parish. One hundred and fifty yards to
the north west stands Lambourne Hall, one of the original seven manors in
the parish. The others were Abridge or St. John's, the property of the
Knights Hospitalers until the Dissolution of the Monasteries; Arnolds or
Arneways; Bishops Hall. which was a seat of the Bishops of Norwich in the
14th century - the house belonged to the Lockwoods from 1830 until 1983,
the main house being demolished in 1936; Dews Hall, on the south side of
the Church, which was in possession of the Lockwoods from 1735 to 1830,
demolished 1854; Hunts or Patch Park and Priors which belonged to the
Priory of Dunmow in the Middle Ages.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In 1050 A.D., during the reign of
Edward the Confessor, the lands of this parish belonged to Leffi, a Saxon;
and at the time of the Domesday survey, had become the property of
Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, whose under tenant was named David.
The next succeeding possessor on record
was Pharin, or Pharam de, Boulogne, great grandson of Eustace succeeded by
his daughter and heiress, who was married to Ingrebam de Fiennes, slain at
the siege of Acre, in the time of Richard 1: from this ancestry are
descended the viscounts Saye and Sele. Galfred, son of Eustace, Earl of
Boulogne, succeeding to this estate, left it to his son William. from whom
it passed to his younger son, Pharamus de Boulogne.
Eustace, the elder, having had a daughter
named Matilda, King Henry 1, married her with an immense fortune to
Stephen, Earl of Blois, afterwards his successor to the throne of
England;
Sibylla de Tyngrie, daughter and sole heiress to Pharamus, was
married to Ingrebarn de Fiennes, of a family who, from the Conquest to the
time of King John, were the hereditary constables of Dover Castle, and
their son, William de Fiennes, exchanged this manor and that office in the
year 1218, with King John, for the manor of Wendover, in the county of
Buckingham. His successor here was Robert de Lamburn.
In 1218 Robert de Lamburn gave the Church of
St. Mary and All Saints, Lambourne, to the canons of Waltham Holy Cross.
This was confirmed to them by William de St. Maria, Bishop of London, in
1218, and seems to have been appropriated to them, and a vicarage
ordained; but so ordered, that the perpetual vicar, who should supply the
cure, should pay forty shillings yearly pension to the said canons, for
the use of the poor of their hospital, built within the courts of their
monastery, and then the vicars to have all the remaining profits, and to
sustain all the burthens of this church.
How far this ordination and endowment took
effect, it is impossible to say. However, this church again became a
rectory, and continued so in the gift of Waltham Abbey until the
dissolution of the monasteries. Then it came successively into the hands
of Sir Anthony Cook, Nicholas Bacon, and Katherine Barefoot, who had the
gift of one turn from the convent and the abbey; Thomas Taverner, Robert
Draper, Robert Bromfield, Nicholas Staphurst of Billericay, of whom Dr.
Thomas Tooke purchased the advowson in 1712, and, by his will, bequeathed
it to Bennet or Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge, of which he had been
a fellow. The Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College have been the
Patrons ever since.
THE CHURCH
The church was built about the middle of the 12th
century, but in the 13th century the chancel was almost entirely rebuilt.
Early in the 16th century the bell turret was added. In the middle of the
18th century both the chancel and the nave were largely remodelled, most
of the windows being renewed and the north and south doorways of the nave
reset.
During the removal of defective plaster in 1951
on the north wall of the nave there was disclosed the stone jamb, part of
the head, and deep splay of one of the original Norman Lights. This has
been preserved. The walls are of flint rubble, covered with cement; the
dressings are of limestone and brick; the roofs are tiled, the bell turret
and west gable are weather boarded and the spire is covered with lead,
The Chancel (29ft. by 19ft.) has a small 13th
century lancet window in the south wall, now blocked. The thicker walls at
the west end probably represent part of a 12th century chancel.
The Nave (50ft. by 22ft.) has in the north wall
two 18th century windows; further west is the reset north doorway of mid
12th century date and now blocked; the jambs are of two orders, the inner
square and the outer formerly with free shafts of which only the scalloped
capitals remain; the outer order of the arch has chevron ornament; the
inner order forms a tympanum with a modern wooden lintel with a patchwork
of stones above, some of which are set diagonally and enriched with axe
work; west of the doorway is an original round-headed, single light
window, now blocked, and only visible externally. In the south wall are
two 18th century windows.
Further west is the 12th century south doorway,
apparently rebuilt but with original voussoirs in the arch over the
tympanum, west of the doorway is an original window now covered with
cement and blocked similar to that in the north wall. In the west wall is
a doorway dated 1776 and a window of the same date.
The bell turret stands at the west end of the
nave on chamfered oak posts with tie beams and curved brace, probably of
early 16th century date.
In 1704-5 the west gallery was built at the
expense of William Walker of Bishops Hall. It is supported on moulded
columns and is ornamented with foliage carving incorporating Walker's
monogram. The panels are inscribed with a list of benefactions to the
parish. The panels which now form a dado at the back of the choir stalls,
have similar foliage carving and the monogram T.T. (possibly Thomas Tooke,
rector 1707-21). The church was restored and altered between 1723 and
1727. In 1726-7 about £220 was spent on this work. The vestry book for
this period, in the Essex Record Office, contains details of the
renovation.
The renovations were inspired by Catlyn
Thorogood of Dews Hall, a churchwarden. After his death in 1732 there was
a dispute between the parish and his executors concerning his accounts for
the period of renovation.
The work included the removal of the
timber porches to north and south and probabaly the blocking and resetting
of the 12th century doorways. A new west door was inserted, having a
moulded hood on foliated brackets (dated 1726) and an oval window above
it. New or altered windows were provided in the chancel and the nave. At
the same time the interior was decorated. The chancel arch is now
three-centred, resting on voluted brackets and enriched with 18th century
plasterwork. The tie-beams across the nave and chancel are covered with
moulded and enriched plaster, the mouldings being carried round the walls
to form a cornice. The Kingpost of the nave roof has been clothed in
ornamental plaster and acanthus leaves. It was probably at this time,
also, that the oak reredos with its fluted Corinthian pilasters was
installed (removed in 1955 because of infection through dry-rot), and also
a three-decker pulpit and box pews.
The renovation was so thorough that the interior gives the impression
of a Georgian church, an effect heightened by the large number of painted
hatchments and of the 18th and early 19th century monuments. A print dated
1824 gives a good general view of the interior at this time, including the
three decker pulpit with an enriched sounding board and the box pews. It
also shows a late 18th century monument above the altar, blocking the east
window. An upper tier was added to the gallery in 1820.
Part of the old three-decker pulpit is now used
as the pulpit and the 18th century monument has been removed from the east
wall to a position at the west end of the south wall.
THE MONUMENTS
On the north wall of the sanctuary is a black
marble tablet to the memory of Dr. Thomas Wynniffe, Rector of Lambourne
1608-1642. He was successively Dean of Gloucester, Dean of St. Paul's and
Bishop of Lincoln. His enjoyment of his episcopal dignity, to which he was
elected in 1641, was short, living to see the demolition of his palace at
Lincoln, and his country residence at Buckden, with all the revenues of
his see taken from him, and its temporalities put in sequestration by the
prevailing powers; after which he retired to this parish, where he had
purchased an estate and the advowson of the rectory, and at his death was
buried within the rails of the communion table." On the tablet are his
arms impaled with those of his see.
THE FLOOR SLABS:
1. Here lyeth the bodie of John Wynniffe, of
Sherborne, in the countie of Dorsett, gent. father to Thomas Wynniffe,
dean of St. Paul's, in London, and rector of this church. He dyed on the
27th of September, A.D. 1630, of his age, ninety-two.
2. Here lyes interred ye body of Robert Blomfield, gent. who dyed on ye
31st of August, in the year of our Lord 1602. And also of his three
grandsons; of whom John was interred January ye 23rd, 1642; Thomas was
buried Apr., ye 7th, 1644: and also Mr. John Blomfield was buried Dec., ye
15th, 1687. These three last were the sonnes of Mr. John Blomfield, gent.
There is a brass in the chancel floor to Robert Barefoot and his wife
Katheryn. It has figures of a man and woman together with a group of five
sons and another of four sons and ten daughters, also the arms of the
Mercers' Company and a merchant's mark. The inscription reads:
Of your Charyte pray for the Soules of Robert Barefoot,
Cytezyn and
Mercer of London, and Katheryne hys Wyff;
whyche Robert decessyd the
XXV day of June, 1546. on
whose Soules ye Lord J`hu have mercy,
This Robert Barefoot had the manor of Lambourne
from 1495 until his death in 1546, though his descendants held it until
the commencement of the eighteenth century. Robert Barefoot held the manor
of Lambourne, with its appertances, as of the hundred of Ongar, by suit at
that hundred and the service of the wardstaff, namely: " To carry a load
of straw, with a cart and six horses, to Abridge, and two men armed with
rapiers (i.e. a short sword) to watch the said wardstaff. The straw might
be for the wardsmen to lie on: he was also to repair so much of the paling
of the park at Havering as bordered on the parish, when need shall be,
according to old custom in lieu of all services. There was then a palace
of the sovereigns of England at Havering."
Thomas, his son and heir, succeeded him; who is
supposed to have built part of the present Lambourne Hall, as there
appears in one of the rooms the letters T.B. and the date 1571.
On the south wall of the Sanctuary is a wall
tablet of white and grey marble, to the memory of Dr. Thomas Tooke,
Rector, who died on 29th May, 1721, aged 54 years.
Against the south
wall of the Chancel is a monument of white marble to the memory of the
Revd. John Tooke, A.M., ob., Nov. 6th, 1745, at. 67, and of his family: in
height it is about nine feet, and of pyramidal shape.
Near the communion rails is buried the body of
the Reverend Michael Tyson, F.R.S., B.A., 1764, M.A., 1767, B.D., 1775,
only child of the Reverend Michael Tyson, Dean of Stamford, by his first
wife, the sister of Noah Curtis, of Walsthorp, in Lincolnshire, born in
the parish of All Saints, Stamford, November 19th, 1740, a celebrated
antiquary and rector of this parish; but there is neither stone nor
inscription to record his death and burial.
Mr. Gough, in his CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA, observes,
"At the foot of the bishop's tomb was laid, May 6th, 1780, a friend to
whose pencil and taste these sheets would have been much indebted, had he
not been cut off in the early enjoyment of all his wishes."
There are a number of interesting 17th and 18th
century mural tablets and monuments to members of the Lockwood family.
Among the more important, from the artistic point of view are:
On the north side of the chancel a monument of
white marble; in the upper part of which is a representation of Hope, with
an anchor attached to her left hand, and her right reclining upon an arm,
in alto relievo. This is the work of Joseph Wilton, R.A., sculptor to
George Ill. The Revd. Michael Tyson, Rector, in a letter to Richard Gough
(see Nichol's Literary Anecdotes, vol. 8, p. 637) of November 15th, 1778,
writes: " One of the most elegant modern monuments 1 ever saw was last
week put up in my church for a Lockwood I had ten guineas for allowing it
a place."
In the window on the south wall of the nave, is
a marble tablet surmounted with a classically decorated lamp of the same
materials. The memorial is to Matilda Lockwood Maydwell and is the work of
Flaxman.
On the south wall is a memorial tablet to
George Lockwood, Captain in the 8th Hussars, who died on October 25th,
1854, in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava while acting as
A.D.C. to the Earl of Cardigan.
In 1963 five figures were erected
on the east wall of the chancel. They were designed by Mr. T. B.
Huxley-Jones, F.R.B.S., A,R.C.A., a past President of The Royal Society of
Portrait Sculptors.
The aim of the design was to he both helpful to the act of worship and
to be an integral part of the architectural structure of the church. The
Five Motifs, which have to be considered as one design to enrich the wall
behind the altar are:-
FIRST
(reading from left to right). The Infant Christ held by
His Mother, to whom the church is dedicated, in a pose symbolic of the
future.
SECOND
The Sermon on the Mount to epitomise the teaching of
Christ.
THIRD.
The Central Feature - The Tree of Life. A Panel of
leaves and living creatures; the fruits of the earth and the elements of
fire and water. The altar cross forms the trunk of the tree.
FOURTH.
The Deposition - Death.
FIFTH.
The Resurrection with the grave-clothes falling away,
and Christ rising in Majesty.
THE ST CHRISTOPHER WALL-PAINTING
During repairs in the summer
of 1951 a wall painting was discovered on the south wall of the nave. The
following note was written by Mr. CLIVE ROUSE, M.B.E., F.S.A.:
The central section of this wall contains a
most interesting discovery-a large figure of St. Christopher and the Holy
Child. The head of the figure is cut off by the 18th century plaster
cornice of the nave roof, and the bottom of the figure is destroyed by a
wall tablet. The intervening portion is, however, in good order and many
of the essential details including the features of the Saint and the
entire figure of the Child, are exceptionally well preserved.
The painting has additional interest in that it
is a palimpsest, a 14th century St. Christopher whose curly beard and one
eye are traceable, having been repainted in the late 15th or early 16th
century. The Saint (14 feet high to the cornice) wears a blue cloak and
purple tunic with brown neck hem. He looks right, with the Child on his
right shoulder (spectator's right understood throughout). The staff, with
tau cross top, is in his left hand, The child has a green cloak, lined
with ermine, caught by an elaborate morse, and a purple tunic. In one hand
he holds a red orb with green and yellow cross, and blesses with the other
hand. The whole is on a deep red ground, powdered with very small sexfoils
in a darker red. The extremely elaborate colour range, and the
preservation of so much detail, make the painting, in spite of the damage
it has suffered, an extremely important discovery, and goes yet further to
prove the universal popularity of this saint in mediaeval England.
STAINED GIASS
The glass in the south windows of the chancel
was installed in 1817 and re-set in 1959. It was brought from Basle. The
subjects are as follows:
the Choice between Good and Evil, dated
1630.
the Adoration of the Magi, dated 1637.
the Incredulity of St.
Thomas (with the Annunciation in the spandrels), dated 1623.
Christ and
St. Peter on the sea (with the Apocalyptic Vision in the spandrels), dated
1631.
the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Virgin and Child and St. Anne
and the Virgin and Child (with St. Christopher and a female saint in the
spandrels), dated 1631.
Each has a German inscription and a shield of
arms.
The glass in the east window,
representing the Adoration of the Shepherds, was the County Memorial to
Lord Lambourne, Lieutenant of the County of Essex, who died in 1928.
THE HATCMENTS
A hatchment or funeral escutcheon is a painting
of the arms of the deceased on a canvas or wooden lozenge-shaped panel
enclosed in a black frame. Sometimes the family motto appears beneath the
coat of arms, but often it is replaced by the words: Mors Janua vitae
(Death the gateway to life), or Resurgam (1 shall rise again). These
hatchments were formerly hung in front of the house as a sign of mourning
and many were later placed in the parish church. The six hatchments in the
chancel at Lambourne are all of the Lockwood family.
THE ROYAL ARMS
The Royal Arms displayed over the Chancel Arch
are those of George 111. Royal arms were introduced into parish churches
after Henry V111's repudiation of papal authority. Many were destroyed in
the reign of Mary; and there was a second period of destruction, though
for a different reason, under the Commonwealth.
In 1660 their display was made compulsory, but
during the nineteenth century their renewal was generally discontinued.