St Peter & St Paul Church, Stondon Massey

The following are extracts from Revd. Edward Reeve’s history of Stondon Massey, published between 1900 and 1914, and presented in an adapted form at an event entitled ‘Through Changing Scenes’ at the church in 2008.

The name Stondon is Saxon.  It is the stony or gravely hill or “dun” in the language of our Saxon forefathers, and it is certainly well justified in the conditions of the place. To reach the summit of the Church hill (which it seems likely enough was the site of the earliest settlement) the visitor has to climb a succession of ascents from the valley of the Roding, and from then standing on a bed of good gravel he commands a pleasant view over Ongar to the Weald and borders of Epping Forest.

There was a Stondon before there was a Stondon Massey, though this second name was added soon after the Norman conquest.  The Marks family came originally from Marc, in Normandy, and appear to have been a numerous clan.  We owe to them our second name our second name of “Massey”, for this is a corruption of “Marci”, the Latin form of the English Mark. But I think we owe them more than this. I think we owe them the stout walls and strong foundations of our present venerable church.  It was built around the year 1100 and is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul.

John Carre, one of the earliest members of the Merchant Adventurers Company, died in 1570.  He was married twice, because two ladies appear with him in the handsome brass to his memory.  His nephew was Henry Giles of “Giles’ Charity” fame, still going strong in the village.

The will is a very lengthy one, covering several pages of closely written folio. The “goods, chattels, money owing to him, household stuff, plate, jewels, and ready money” are to be divided into three equal parts, of which, one part he bequeaths to his wife Agnes, the second part to his daughter, and the third part “for the performance” of certain legacies.  These include £10 for sermons to be preached in the church of the parish where he dies, viz., one each year for 20 years; £5 for a dinner to be made, at the discretion of the executers, by the parson and churchwardens of the parish of Stondon for “the inhabitants and honest householders by way of gratification;” £5 to the “poore man’s boxe” of Stondon Parish; £15 in current money to be distributed at the discretion of the executers “among the most honest of the Stondon parishioners of the poorest sort,” half the amount on the day of his burial and half within the next half year. further sum of £400 is given to the “Mystery of Ironmongers” on condition that for the next 21 years after his decease “two wardens of the said mystery or occupation, and two others of the same fellowship shall provide a preacher learned in Divinitie before the Feast of Pentecoste to ryde to Stondon in Essex, and at the same feaste in the Parish Church there shall be a sermon”. For their expenses yearly on this behalf £5 is specially given.

William Byrd, the famous Elizabethan composer, lived for the last thirty years of his life at Stondon Massey.  He was a composer of sacred music in both Latin and English, writing madrigals and sonnets, and keyboard pieces.  He was quite an all-rounder.  He once wrote: “There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voices of men, where the voices are good and the same well sorted and ordered. The better the voice is, the meeter it is to honour and serve God therewith; and the voice of man is chiefly to be employed to that end”.

Although outwardly he conformed, he appears to have remained throughout his life a papist at heart. It was probably on account of his religion that he lived all his life some way out of London where he would be less likely to attract attention.  William Byrd wrote a Mass settings for three, four and five voices for the Petre family, his Patron, of nearby Ingatestone Hall.  If he had been caught either saying or hearing the Catholic liturgy, he would have been in serious trouble.  This was a treasonable offence. 

Byrd died, probably at Stondon, on July 4^th 1623. His death is recorded in the “Chapel Royal Cheque Book” as that of a “father of musicke”. His Last Will and Testament states:  “I may live and die a true and perfect member of His holy Catholic Church without which I believe there is no salvation for me. My body to be honestly buried in that parish and place where it shall please God to take me out of this life which I humbly desire if so it shall please God may be in the parish of Stondon where my dwelling is: And then to be buried near unto the place where my wife liest buried, or else where as God and the time shall permit and suffer”.  Unfortunately, because our Parish Registers do not survive before 1708, we have no record of his burial.

Very possibly the fact of the family having been persistent papists may have militated against any memorial being raised to the great composer in the church or churchyard.

We must now pass on to our 35^th known rector.  Nathaniel Rich was at this time Lord of Stondon Manor, and he it was who in all probability presented Nathaniel Ward to the benefice. The two men were in very much the same mind in religious matters, holding Puritanical views. Unfortunately for Ward’s peace, Bishop Laud was most conscientiously determined to strengthen the traditional and Catholic position of the Church of England as a true branch of the Church of Christ. It was not long before Ward himself felt the weight of the same iron hand. In 1630, the Rector was “presented for not wearing a surplice in Church for the two last years past, and that prayers were not constantly read in Church on Wednesdaies, Fridaies and Holydaies”.

In 1632 Ward was suspended; then excommunicated for non-obedience to the Canons, and on 16^th Dec. he was deprived.

On his expulsion from his living, Ward determined to visit New England about which he had heard so much, and in the 1634 he set sail.

The pulpit in Stondon Church with the reading desk attached was erected during Ward’s incumbency, and bears the date 1630. I think we may trace Ward’s handiwork. On the panels of the desk we find the words “Christ is All in All”  the text of the famous discourse of his brother Samuel, “preacher of Ipswich”, which was published in 1627, while in the pulpit is carved “2 Tim. iv. 1-2”, the reference being to the words of St Paul, “Preach the word in season and out of season”, which no doubt was a favourite Apostolic injunction with the Puritan divine.

The Meyer family lived at Stondon manor during the mid nineteenth century.

Mr Meyer enlarged and improved the cottages belonging to Henry Giles’ Trust, putting them into substantial repair with good brick sides and fronts.  In 1861, he purchased Stondon House from Mr Richard Jordan.  The Jordan family had lived very little at Stondon since the opening decade of the century; and the house had been used as a school for girls.

The lord of the manor Mr Meyer died in 1870, and his widow was anxious to leave the church some permanent memorial of him. Her proposals were  “to build at her own expense a mortuary chapel, to remove the gallery at the west end, build an Organ-chamber opening from the chancel, erect a new Vestry in lieu of the present one which will be taken down, and supply a heating apparatus for the warming of the church”.

Mr Edward Reeve, who purchased the advowson in 1849, had for some little time been seeking a suitable parish as a sphere of work for his only son. On Stondon the selection fell. Naturally he was not satisfied with the condition of the church, and he can scarcely have unpacked his effects when he began to move for a thorough restoration. Only instituted in May 1849, we find him calling a Vestry Meeting in July “to consider the proposed repairs”.

The south door was repaired and re-hung, and the north door was closed and plastered over outside, which personally I think is to be regretted, though probably the step was taken to secure warmth for the building. A useful cupboard now stands in the thickness of the wall.

Even more useful now is a toilet extension through the re-opened north doorway.  This was built in 2005.

This brings us to William Wrenn, an agricultural labourer living on the Green near the Bricklayers Arms, who was, in 1853, appointed Parish Clerk by the Rector.  

Wrenn took his duties zealously. He led the hymns and read the Psalms, and repeated the responses with much fervour.  Frequently, when the preacher mentioned the ‘Sacred name’ during his sermon, Wrenn was known to add a fervent and loud “Amen”.

He wore Reeves father’s cast-off clerical garments, arriving early on Sundays and, despite having a wife and several children, stayed all day at church bringing with him his dinner.  He perhaps found the church a peaceful place to be. 

He kept near him a hazel stick, with which he could prod youngsters who chose to speak, titter or misbehave during worship.  During Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, when the local school attended church, his stick was frequently in use: clouting the head of an offending culprit.

As a young man he played the flute in the church choir, later turning the handle of the barrel organ which superseded the players in the west gallery.