Local History Recorders Report: May 2010

Trevor Allen has made a survey of the footpaths in Takeley which is now available at the Parish Council Offices.

We have continued our search for the Takeley Guildhouse. Anne Padfield kindly came over and looked at three possible sites in Takeley Street where we think it was situated. None of the three houses matched up to the traditional Guildhouse construction. However Anne found that the West wing of Taylors dates from about 1300 which is much earlier than previously thought.

Another discovery suggests that the Guild of St. Mary did not own or build a house of their own. but rented a house from Thremhall Priory. This makes either Taylors or The Clock House as candidates. Both fit the description of the schoolhouse and attached building that we think took over from the Guild. Very little is known about Taylors, except for the documentary evidence that the last recorded tenant was called Taylor. On the other hand the first date for The Clock House dates from just after the last date for the Guildhall. We can only hope that another piece of evidence will emerge.

The Takeley History Society has at last published a translation with notes of The Waltham Hall Survey of 1621 taken by John Maddison. This is not exactly exciting reading, but it does give a very valuable account of the descent of tenancy at Waltham Hall from about 1350. It is also valuable for the genealogical information it gives us. It costs £7 from the TLHS.

We have at last made a start on a hopefully definitive account of the architecture of Holy Trinity Church. This has been undertaken by Roy Tricker who used to work for the Redundant Churches organisation and it is very comprehensive. There have been several previous accounts but they have had no consistency. To go with his account we are putting together a history of the church, Rectory and Vicarage. The investigation into this has revealed some very interesting information. Takeley apparently had two large tithes barns situated by the Rectory that were demolished in the first half of the 19th Century. The Rectory or Parsonage stood more or less where the present Rectory is situated in Parsonage Road, and the remains of the moat still exist. The Vicarage has also been pinpointed as being where the present church car park and churchyard extension are now. The description strongly suggests a very old building of the hall house type.

We hope shortly to have a translation describing the building of an extra chamber onto the Rectory in 1437. There are a couple of mysteries connected with the church that we would very much like to solve. Who was the David Dunbar whose ledger stone was in the church in 1720, but is no longer there. We know literally nothing at all about him. He died in 1640 and is described as a “gent”. All avenues explored so far have drawn a blank except for a possible connection with Kirkubright in Scotland, but what was he doing in Takeley?

Again another mystery - why was Takeley Parsonage paying the Vicar of Great Bentley £50 in the mid 19th Century? As yet we can see no connection. Hopefully by the next AGM we will have some positive news on these two items.

The continued building of new houses has pushed the history of Takeley back into the prehistoric era and shows that the area was occupied quite extensively. The accounts are in the Essex Archaeology and History Reports.

A member of the TLHS, Mo Boggis, has made a contribution to the Uttlesford Cake book, published by the Recorders of Uttlesford History.

An account of Hatfield Forest is nearing completion, and work is continuing on putting the wills online. Other books for the TLHS are at the planning stage, so we are looking forward to a productive year in 2010/11.

Nia Watkiss, Takeley Local History Recorder