RADWINTER RECORDER’S ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008

Parish Magazine Binding
As reported last year, the Friends of Radwinter Church now possesses a near complete run of Parish Magazines from 1881 to the present day. We have now analysed the other parishes covered in the bound copies of the Radwinter Parish Magazine.

Other parishes covered at various times include Ashdon, Wimbish, Great and Little Sampford, Hempstead. Additionally, from January 1936 to December 1938 and from April 1940 to December 1946 Radwinter events were covered in the Deanery Church Magazine, which also covered the parishes of Ashdon, Great with Little Chesterford, Chrishall, Great Chishill, Debden, Hadstock, Heydon with Little Chishill, Littlebury, Little Sampford, Strethall, Wendens Ambo, Wenden Lofts with Elmdon and Wimbish.

The Parish was back with the Deanery magazine from May 1949 until June 1951, with Saffron Walden and its churches at Little Walden and Sewards End, joining the list of parishes and again between January 1962 and December 1966, with Strethall being omitted from the previous list of parishes.

Ashdon and Wimbish Covered
From January 1881 to December 1882 the magazines cover Ashdon, Radwinter and Wimbish. Then in 1883 they cover Radwinter and Wimbish only, being solely concerned with Radwinter from January 1884 until December 1935.

Little Sampford added to Ashdon and Wimbish
Because in difficult times Radwinter did not publish a separate magazine but placed its news into the then Diocesan Magazine, we have copies of that magazine, which in addition to many other Uttlesford parishes, also has information on neighbouring Ashdon and Wimbish as well as our own Benefice parish of Little Sampford for January 1936 until December 1938, from April 1940 until December 1946, from May 1949 until June 1951, and between January 1962 and December 1966.

Hempstead Great Sampford and Little Sampford Included
Hempstead joined Radwinter in a combined Ambo magazine from December 1975 with Great Sampford and Little Sampford also joining from the autumn of 1995 to the present day.

The early issues of the parish magazines contain a serialisation of the ancient history of Radwinter and several other Uttlesford villages, written in 1769. The likely source is A New and Complete History of Essex... down to 1769,<which Fred Bullock owned. Parishes covered include:

1882, Ashdon in September, October and November.

1883, Radwinter in January, February and March and Wimbush (Wimbish) with Thunderly in April, May, June, July, September, October and November.

1884, Saffron Walden in January, April, May, June, July, September, October, November and December.

1885 Hempstead January, Depden (Debden) February, Hadstock March, Great Chesterford April, Little Chesterford May, Widington June, Sandford (Great Sampford) with the Chapelry of Hempstead July, Little Sampford August, Little Bardfield August, Great Bardfield October, Bumpstead Steeple (including, amongst others, the manor of Bendish) November, Bumpstead Helion December .

German POW Graffiti
Following her renovation of her home at Church View, a resident has presented the village with two panels from her garden sheds with drawings by German POWs. The panels were linings from Nissen huts at the Radwinter POW camp, which Cyril Richardson used in the construction of the huts. Walden Museum confirms that they are not by an artist of any merit but they are of interest to Radwinter as a record of the period. They appear to be in charcoal, which would have been readily to hand for German POWs. They have been recorded photographically and are now in store

Radwinter Memorabilia
In last year’s report we mentioned the teapot commemorating the 1888 restoration of Radwinter Church that the Radwinter Society saw during a visit to Saffron Walden Museum and a candlestick of the same transfer design and orange colour which was owned by a Radwinter resident. Now another resident has acquired a cream jug of similar design but with a green colour instead of an orange. The latter was crested china and bears the pattern number 112 but no maker.

Friends of Radwinter Church Summer Event
A summer garden party was held by the Friends of Radwinter Church at The Grange on Sunday 10th June. Visitors were able to research their family, house or other Radwinter topics on the RUTH database. Entrance was free and there was also be a sponsored swim, a treasure hunt, bouncy castle, bran tub and a raffle as well as stalls, including, a bookstall, bottle tombola, bric-a-brac, toys and children’s books.

Ghosts of Radwinter
A talk on Radwinter ghost stories was made at the Radwinter Society A.G.M. The following were described: Spirits of Cats & Dogs in the Churchyard, The Mummified Cat at the Old Forge, The Newhouse Farm Nun, the Ghost of Molly Moore at Goodloves, the Sellands Ghosts, the Honeyball Ghost at Star Green, the Homestead Farm Ghost, the Ghost of the Young Girl at The Plough, the Disappearing Car at The Plough Crossroads, the Young Girl at Purkiss’s and the Longs Lane Ghost. Three ghost stories were mentioned on which we had no information; these were the Poltergeist at 4 Thatch Cottages, Water Lane; the Ashton Road Spinney Ghost and the White Calf at Cutbush.

At the second presentation on Radwinter Ghost to the Hempstead History Society more information came to light. Dicky Bassett gave us another ghost story about a Roman soldier he had seen on the Ashdon Road during a very bad snow storm. David Haylock pointed out a solution to the mystery of the conflicting stories about the New House Farm nun. One story had it that it had been told by a Miss Gotcher and the other that it was it was by a Mrs Freeman. David pointed out that Billy Freeman’s full name was William Gotcher Freeman. Research has elucidated that Mrs Freeman was a Miss Gocher before her marriage.

Later Peter Thomas from Radwinter added another story about the ghost at Purkiss’s and Daphne Reader has identified herself as the source of the Disappearing Car story.

Hopefully a small booklet on Radwinter Ghost stories will be printed in due course.

Ghost stories, being one of the most potent forms of oral history in terms of survival, are proving to be rich sources of local history. More work is being done on the other ghost stories to see what they reveal. One story has led us to the records of the Star Chamber. The original story told how the Revd. John Mountford, M.A., Rector of Radwinter from 1593 to 1603, believed that his opponents were causing evil spirits in the shape of cats and dogs to haunt the churchyard. Mountford certainly had enemies and was removed by the authorities from Radwinter. No reason was given but the Patron of the living, Lord Cobham, had been in trouble with the Government and was executed. Later, in 1606, the incumbent who succeeded Montford, Richard Cradock, clerk, stood trial in the Star Chamber where Montford accused him of conjuring up false spirits in the Church and churchyard in an attempt to secure possession. Richard Cradock had become priest at Radwinter in 1603 but, on 22nd June 1604, his institution was revoked and Mountfort was restored.

In the 1606 Star Chamber trial Richard Cradock, clerk and others were accused by John Mountford, Vicar of Radwinter of conjuring up false spirits in the church and churchyard of Radwinter in an attempt to secure possession. Full details are given in the records of the Star Chamber under Mountford v. Cradock, Byrd, Martyn, Brett, Smith, Starling, Smith, Baker, Tailour, Sparcke, Smith and others. Efforts are being made to secure a copy of this record for the Radwinter Archives. It could be a valuable document for Radwinter because, apart from the story itself, it should be able to tell us something about Radwinter life and people from a period when the Church Registers are non-existent.

Spr. Seabrook WW I Diary
Last year we reported on the transcription which had been made of the First World War Diaries of Spr. George Henry Seabrook who was buried at Radwinter on 20th November 1964, aged 69. His wife, Edith May Seabrook, who was a member of Radwinter Women’s Institute. survived him and was buried at Radwinter on 1st December 1966.
Thanks to local residents we now know that the Seabrooks were the parents of the publican’s wife at the Red Lion and stayed there after the end of the Second World War until their deaths.

The Radwinter Airfield
The story of our very own WW II airfield at Great Brockholds is almost completed. Although called Great Sampford Airfield, it was mostly in Radwinter with the attached RAF Station in Wimbish and part of the perimeter track in Great Sampford. Several World War Fighter aces saw service there. The article will be included in our forthcoming Radwinter at War Book.

Poles Apart
An article is in preparation on the Polish airmen who settled in Radwinter and Wimbish and grew mushrooms for a living after the end of the Second World War. Information has come from Freda Piechocki, Kath Browne, Janet Swan, Joy Matthews and Zofia Everett as well as researches on the Internet. Much is known about the career of Freda’s husband, Leon and of the other airmen. There is a powerful story to be told about how the brave Poles were key players in winning the war against Germany.

Record Storage
More items are coming in all the time to the Radwinter Archives, with three large assignments from Tim Pratt, Dick Lloyd and from the Jarvis family, courtesy of Beryl Barbour and Joy Matthews. As fast as they are being catalogued by Roger Mance and Michael Southgate, the pile is renewed.
Sarah Emson’s Photograph Album

One item donated to the archives by Martin Baynes is the photograph album of his grandmother, Sarah Baynes, née Emson. This has been shown to an expert in Victorian photography, Tom Doig, who was very impressed with the collection, demonstrating as it does, some of the techniques used by Victorian photographers to keep their subject steady during the three minutes that they had to keep still. The Emson family came to Radwinter from Hellions Bumpstead. I lent the album to Gordon Ridgewell who wrote:

‘The Album you loaned me naming Sarah Emson has caused a stir. We have contacted some distant relations but we have gone full circle finishing up at Radwinter. An Edmund Emson gave the Pulpit to the church when he was at Little Brockholds and his son David has a window in the church dedicated to him. We are still working on it. In the meantime we called at the church and took some photographs. Two Emsons, father and son, were Mayor at Saffron Walden. One of them married a Mailer, a family of farmers who moved from Scotland. They hired a whole train from Scotland to Royston and brought the entire farm, horses, carts, cows, everything and settled at Heydon.’

Radwinter Watercolours Find
Mr and Mrs David Eldridge visited Radwinter Church on the Saturday Open Day and showed Churchwarden, Wendy Rowley some watercolours of Radwinter. Wendy put us in touch with Mr Eldridge who has sent further information and copies of the paintings.
David who inherited the pictures several years ago, says, ‘One small book contains pencil sketches whilst a larger volume has a selection of watercolours. There is no indication as to the artist. She was paying visits around the country, which suggests a lady with servants and leisure time.’

The Radwinter sketches and paintings show views of the Church from Princes Well, the garden of Radwinter Hall Farm and two of the Wovor. The drawings were made in 1855 and the paintings in July 1861 and August 1862, suggesting a Radwinter resident or someone who made frequent trips here.
David says, ‘The book came from a collection belonging to the Goldhawk family for whom my maternal grandmother worked. They came from Surrey to South Norwood between the end of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth. It was then that my grandmother began working in service. However the only clues are two paintings mentioning My Garden, drawn in the village of Colkirk in Norfolk in 1858 and 1862. Looking in the 1861 census, the only person who could have had the time to paint was the Rector’s wife, Emily Jane Sweet. I have searched but, have not yet found a connection with the Goldhawks and Sweets except through The Church, there being at least one rector in each family.’

As the owners of Radwinter Hall, the Bullock family of Faulkbourne Hall would have had access and the artist may have come from that direction. However, it is more likely that the artist was a member of the Davis family. Radwinter Hall Farm was tenanted by John Davies at the time of the paintings. In 1861 the Davies family comprised John aged 65, Lydia aged 48, Mary aged 22, Helen aged 21 and Mary aged 22. Without access to the 1861 census for Radwinter at the moment I don't know if everyone mentioned was in Radwinter at the time, or who else was at the Hall.

John and Lydia’s eldest daughter Mary was a spinster aged 37 on 8th June 1874 when she married James Brown, widower aged 57 of the parish of Greenstead, Colchester. Mary is a likely candidate as she was in possession of the Baynes family crest, presumably removed from Radwinter Hall. She may have moved around with James Brown or, before that, been with another family perhaps as a lady's maid. The other candidate might be Helen Davies, Mary’s sister, who at the age of 31 married William Davies King, aged 30, of Sisted on 31st July 1872.

Dick Lloyd
Dick Lloyd, the first Radwinter Local History Recorder, passed away on 15th August 2007. David Hoppit, a long time friend and fellow Old Chigwellian, wrote, ‘Dick belonged to an era when manners and modesty were prized assets – and they remained the chief canons by which he conducted his long and fruitful life. It was a life punctuated with joy and sadness – achievement and endeavour. He found a way or made a way.’ Born in Ilford, Essex on 17th November 1917, he died just three months short of his ninetieth birthday.

He was a Churchwarden of St Mary the Virgin, Radwinter from March 1981 to April 1986 and a founder member of The Friends of Radwinter Church in 1985, continuing to play an active part in The Friends for the rest of his life, latterly by proxy. He was also an active participant in Saffron Walden Historical Society, the Saffron Walden Town Library Society and the Sampfords Society for whom in 1986 he wrote a paper on The River Pant.

His great work was A Deuce of an Uproar, published in 1988. Although he was the editor of the book, he characteristically refused to put his name to it. This award winning collection of the letters of the architect, William Eden Nesfield to the Rector of Radwinter, was widely praised in the church, historical and architectural press. In 1994 he was instrumental in persuading Dover Publications to publish a new edition of Harrison's Description of England - a major (and local) source for Tudor scholars. He also facilitated the copying of the George Stacey Gibson letters through his contacts with Barclays Bank. Dick secured the attendance of the prominent Tudor historian Jasper Ridley to lecture at the local launch of the Description of England and also arranged for the prominent architectural historian Andrew Saint to speak at the Deuce of an Uproar launch. Victor Gray, then Essex County and Honorary Diocesan Archivist, Andrew Saint, historian, Revd. Dr Geoffrey Rowell, then Chaplain of Keble College and now Bishop of Gibraltar, and Clive Aslet, Associate Editor of Country Life, all contributed articles to A Deuce of an Uproar.

He left behind a massive quantity of Radwinter records – both original documents, photocopies or manuscript copies of others he had seen or borrowed and a wealth of oral history memories in his own handwriting.

Before he died, Dick Lloyd gave the Friends of Radwinter Church a magnificent volume of William Eden Nesfield’s lithograph drawings of medieval architecture.

The Radwinter Friendly Society
One most interesting document that has emerged from recent accessions to the Radwinter Archives is an early photocopy of the ‘Articles to be Observed by a FRIENDLY SOCIETY of Tradesmen and Labourers, who agree to meet every fourth Saturday at the PLOUGH PUBLIC HOUSE, in the Parish of Radwinter, in the County of Essex’. The articles were printed by E Hart, Bookseller, Market Street, in 1837 and state that the Society was inaugurated on 27th February 1836. Members dibbed into the pot at their fortnightly meetings and, if anybody was sick, they could draw relief from the Society. Some of the rules appear quite hilarious to present day eyes but demonstrate the harsh conditions and very different times in which our ancestors lived. Mention is made in the document to the Radwinter Smallpox house. Does anybody know where that might have been?

I had recently been called in by the Saffron Walden Museum as they had found some accounts of the Society of a later period. Hopefully the documents can be reprinted and the names of those involved indexed. Edward Halls and Daniel Richardson were stewards of the Society and John Chapman was its clerk. Other ancestors of present day Radwinter people were among the members.

A Parson’s Lot
John Walter’s talk, A Parson’s Lot, in Radwinter Church on 21st April, was a roaring success and was given to a packed church. John Walter, who is Professor from the Department of History of Essex University, brought to life the assaults and insolences that drove Parson Richard Drake out of Radwinter. After a series of clashes with his parishioners such as Thomas Banes, Abraham Chapman and Henry Coote, not to mention the troublesome wives, Drake was forced to flee Radwinter in 1643. Drake's autobiography offers valuable evidence of the successful attempt of loyalists in the revolution to continue to live their lives by the rites of the Anglican Church. After the Restoration of the Monarchy, Drake came into his own. Restored to his living of Radwinter, he became a chaplain to Charles II. In September 1662, shortly after the death of his wife, he was collated Prebendary of Alton Borealis in Salisbury Cathedral. He was chancellor from 1663 until his death. Drake resigned at Radwinter in 1667, and when he died on 16 October 1681 he was also rector of Wyke Regis, Dorset. He was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. The evening was a joint venture between the Friends of Radwinter Church and the Radwinter Society.

Where did it all Go?
After the meeting John Walter asked if anybody knew what had happened to various items in Radwinter Church which would have been replaced during Fred Bullock’s restoration. A man who had once lived at a house in Mount Pleasant Road, Saffron Walden, said that his former house had been built in 1896 by a builder called Bell. It is semi-detached, one third being built for Bell’s own use and two thirds as a wedding gift for his daughter. It is built in the style of a church, particularly the window stone and the front door. The outside of the building is of brick clad in stone. The words, ‘aged 17’ can be seen engraved in the stone and the building appears to be entirely clad in broken grave stones. The story goes that Bell undertook the church restoration at Radwinter after which nobody could find the stained glass windows. The bottom half of all ground floor windows are of stained glass.

A current resident of Radwinter has also said that there used to be a small stone receptacle in the front garden of the Cottage attached to the Radwinter Village Hall. She had had her eye on it for years but she doesn’t know when it disappeared. It may be that it went during the recent refurbishment. From her description it sounds as though it might have been a font.

Mr Bell crops up again during another Radwinter Building project. Inga Adomite, who worked at New House Farm, Radwinter, recalled, ‘The Roof was in a bad state at New House Farm and was rebuilt in 1928 using oaks from the estate. In the process the monastery bell was removed from the roof and replaced by a weather vane. Bells the builders of Saffron Walden did the work and Billy Freeman asked them what happened to the Bell. They said that they still had it and Billy bought it back from them.

From the Radwinter Church Registers
On 1st August 1835 Abraham Swan (batchelor) married Mary Coote (spinster). Five years later on 23rd October 1840 Isaac Swan (batchelor) married Elizabeth Greygoose (spinster).

On 7th October 1675 William Blewett married Susan Nettell at Radwinter Church, this being her ninth husband.

Michael Southgate. Radwinter Local History Recorder
Further information on many of the subjects briefly described here can be found on the Radwinter History Website: www.radwinterhistory.org.uk