I set off from home on Friday the 29th April 2016 to meet Dan at Great Waltham, where we would leave a car opposite the Village hall and then drive the other to Peppers Green.We parked in a lay-by where we had finished our last walk, at least the fly-tip had been cleared away!
We take the path across some farmland passing a house called 'Ladyland'. A grade II listed house, built in the late 16th Century with 17th and 18th century alterations.
The path leads onto Fambridge End Road where we walk up for a short stretch before taking a path to our left and back over farmland heading towards Good Easter.
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| Fambridge End Road |
In the distance across the fields we could see
St Andrews Church at Good Easter.
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| St Andrews Church |
We now enter the grounds of St Andrews,Good Easter. It is a Grade II listed Church.
Built early C13, with C14 and C15 phases; restored in 1877-78 by S C McMurdie,
chancel restored 1879-81 by Ernest Geldart; andfurther restored after 1885
fire by Chancellor.
The church was built in 1200, renovated in 1885 but still has many 13
th and 14
th century features.
" 7 miles from everywhere, On the way to nowhere" is how one 19th century vicar described his village.
In days of old, armour or a crested knight's helmet was carried at the funeral of an important person, and afterwards it was placed over the tomb as a memorial. A number of these 'funeral acheivements remain in Essex churches. A funeral helmet probably Elizabethan date hangs in the chanvel of St Andrews.
We head out of the front of the church down Souther Cross Road for a short Stretch.
We pass Falconers Hall on our left and its barns. This has an important early medieval complex of timber framed buildings now forming an L plan barn by reason of ancient additions to the main structure. Inside, the original structure consists of 6 main posts of an aisled Hall with carved oak capitals, having carinate filets below the abacus, of a Norman type. Beneath the present floor
level the posts retain their timber sole pads. Some of the poets are trenched for passing braces. Other early features include traces of reversed assembly and tap joints, now out of their original contexts. Alteration to barn use probably occured in the late C15 or early C16 when the timber frame of the west wing would appear to have been added.
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| Falconers Hall |
We walk around to a cross road where the village sign sits in its place on the green.
We take Mill Road and head up along this road with its pretty cottages.
Opposite a pretty thatched cottage we take another footpath across yet more farmland.
We reach Hayron's Lane and head along this.
It was here that The Essex Way Signs let us down and the picture below shows Dan walking beyond the Byway we should have taken. We ended up walking probably a 100 of so metres more then we should have before realising something was wrong. We stopped outside a farm house called Round Roblets and consulted the map. It was at this point a local lady appeared walking her two dogs, so I asked if she knew where the Essex Way was and she happily obliged ,pointing us in the right direction.
So we trekked back up the road and onto the byway that would lead us to Stagden Cross.
We walked alongside a field of cows. These were strangely all walking in single file following a footpath. Well they were until Dan wound them up by mooing at them, he hadn't noticed they had calves with them and they headed over towards us and the fence. They looked quite menacing and I for one was glad there was a fence separating us!
Now the footpath became increasing muddy, obviously the farmer drives his cattle along this path!
After some walking we pass Hayrons House on our left. reputedly the home to one of Henry VIII's mistresses.
It is still encompassed by a moat, and has belonged to the Hayron, Gedge, and Glascock
families. An estate called Mannocks,
was long the seat of a family of its own name, the last of whom, Sir Francis
Mannock, sold it in the civil wars, to escape the ruinous effects of fines and
sequestrations.
We exit out onto The Street at Stagden Cross. Stagden Cross appears on Chapman & Andre's 1777 map of Essex as 'Staggin Cross'. It may come from the Old English name 'Staca' meaning " a man as thin as a rake" Cross refers to the crossroads there.
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| Stagden Cross House |
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| Snakeshead Fritillary |
After a little walking along The Street we take another path that runs alongside Stagden Cross House.
We follow this path towards Peshey.
Next to a field of Rapeseed was a large black mound. I said to Dan what's that you reckon. Well he was straight over there. At first kicking it then, bending over and picking some up and smelling it. Still none the wiser he climbs the heap and quickly starts to sink into it!! Well he never did find out what it was. I'm still convinced it was a large heap of dried manure, but who knows!
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| Dan Deep in the shit again! |
We exit out onto another road where we walked for a bit.
We then turned right onto a path heading for Peshey.
We emerge back onto The Street and walk into Peshey.
William the Conqueror gave Pleshey, in the parish of High Easter (southwest of Braintree) to
Geoffrey de Mandeville in appreciation of his services; Mandeville was one of William's battle commanders at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. At Pleshey, Mandeville built his caput
(centre of administration and main home) of the many villages in Essex
given to him by the king. Later, his grandson, another Geoffrey, was
made Earl of Essex by King Stephen.
We walk over to look around Holy Trinity Church.
The church at Pleshey was orginally part of of a college founded in
1394 by Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, who also held Pleshey Castle. There
was already a parish church at Pleshey, but it was apparently on a
different site in the NW part of the village as the parson and
parishioners gave their consent to moving the church. It is likely that
the parishioners subsequently used the nave of the collegiate church as
the parish church, as they purchased the nave after the college was
dissolved at the Reformation. The church was rebuilt in brick in the
C18, retaining only the medieval crossing arches, but the whole
building, except for part of the crossing was rebuilt in 1868. The
architect, Frederic Chancellor of Chelmsford and London was a well known
church architect who worked widely in Essex, London and elsewhere.
We walked through the pretty village, winner of Best kept village 2013.
The island you see here is the mound where Pleshy Castle once sat. It is one of the finest Norman castle earthworks in England, the greater outer rampart and ditch still enclosing the entire village. In 1397 The Duke of Gloucester was lured away from his castle at Pleshy to Calais, where he was murdered on the orders of Richard II. Thus Pleshey earned its mention by Shakespeare in Act 1,scene 2 of "Richard II" where Gloucester's widow sighs "With all good speed at Plashy visit me". she speaks of the castles empty lodgings and unfurnished walls of which, unfortunately nothing remains today.
Pleshey Castle was originally a
motte and bailey castle, which consisted of a wooden
palisade
and tower on a high man-made hill (motte) surrounded by two baileys
(castle yard or ward), which at some time in the castle's early history
was surrounded by a
moat.
Later, probably in the 12th century, the motte was fortified with a
stone castle. The motte at Pleshey is now about 15 metres high, and is
one of the largest mottes in England.
The castle was dismantled in 1158 but was subsequently rebuilt at the end of the 12th century.
The castle was passed to the Dukes of Gloucester through marriage and after
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
had been executed by Richard II in 1397, it decayed and became ruined.
Most of the masonry was dismantled for building material in 1629,
leaving just the motte and other earthworks.
We stopped at
The Leather Bottle for a drink. I went for Whitstable Bays East India Pale Ale while Dan had a Captain Bob.
The Leather Bottle is owned by none other than Keith Flint from The Prodigy. Hence a ale they had called Firestarter makes sense now!
Keith Flint bought and restored The Leather Bottle – a pub in the village of Pleshey in his native Essex – in 2014.
A lovely pub full of knick knacks and its own tap room too!
We head out of the village and past Mount House,complete with its own herd of cows that appear to have escaped from Milton Keynes!
We turn onto a path beside the sewage works,it would be very easy to miss this sign post!
We follow Walthambury Brook.
We found another dangerous knackered old bridge we didn't need to cross, but again Dan just couldn't help himself! Soon very soon he'll end up in the drink!
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| Deadman's bank |
This is a mill dam, and is probably the site of Pleshey Castle Mill. A spooky little spot,legend has it that Deadmans brook takes it name from the outcome of a duel fought here.
We pass a reservoir and follow along until we reach Bury Lane.
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| A bird scarer, made us both jump when it went off, even though you was expecting it! |
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We cross Bury Lane and look down to the ford crossing there.
We cross over into another field, the wind is now getting up and its started to rain. We were expecting this but was hoping to miss it. Still the walk is all but nearly over now, so we have done well.
We exit out onto the road where the walk ends, and we head up up into Great Waltham where the car is parked.
We pass The Beehive pub and cross over to visit
St Mary & St Lawrence Church.
It’s a fine light and spacious church, unusually wide for a Norman
church, with a wonderful acoustic for music. The angels on the early
16th century roof beams gaze down on even more ancient pews, fine glass
and wood carvings, and on the wonderful tomb of the Everard family with
their little children.
There's Roman brick in the tower, castellated
side aisles and tower, and the heaviest set of 8 bells in Essex. The
church is set in a beautiful churchyard with several other ancient and
important buildings around, and there is a charming lime walk studded
with snowdrops and daffodils in spring.
St. Mary and St. Lawrence which has Norman or earlier origins and is
constructed of flint and stone with stone dressings and some Roman
tiles. The Romans had settlements in the area and the tiles would have
been most probably salvaged from ruined Roman buildings. It is believed
that the Romans had vineyards in Great Waltham. Roman coins were found
at the Ford in Bury Lane during the repairs to the road surface of the
lane some years ago. It is thought by some that this era may have been
the original settlement of the the village. The nearby main road A131
follows the route of the Roman road to Braintree and then on to
Colchester, the one time capital of Roman Britain.
The Village of Great Waltham is overlooked by Langleys a large red brick
house set in parkland laid out in a classical style with many fine
mature broad leaf trees. The site was first recorded in 1200 as a mill
named Marshall which was later changed by new owners to Langley. Around
1500 the house was owned by the Everard family. A fine monument to Sir
Anthony and his wife Anne lying on their tomb can be seen in Great
Waltham Church. She died in 1609 and Sir Anthony died in 1614. The
estate was later sold to a London family of merchants named Tufnell in
1710 and it has remained in the ownership of that family ever since.
During the 18th century the house was rebuilt (completed in 1721) and
the extensive gardens and parkland laid out, this work involved a
diversion of Chelmsford road.
We walk through the graveyard to a beautiful building the
Guildhall!
Variously named as the Guildhall, Bollingtons and Badynghams. There is a
plaque attached to the building that states John and Agnes Badyngham
lived on this site in 1371. This building is late C16 so they must have
lived in an earlier structure.
"Badynghams" known locally "The Guildhall"
an "E" shaped timber framed house with four sets of distinctive
original chimneys. The house has had many alterations throughout its
long history but most of what we see today dates from the late 16th to
the early 17th century. For many years the building served as the main
village store and post office at that time it had a Georgian façade
filing the space between the two wings. It was heavily restored to its
present state in the 1960s and made into a private house. Since this
picture was taken the distinctive black beams and white plaster render
have been lime washed in a single flat colour. Shown above
In July 2014
TV pictures of Great Waltham were beamed around the world when Le Tour
de France swept through the parish and village centre.
The
picture above shows Banbury Square with the village war memorial in
the foreground. The memorial commemorates those village men that gave
their lives in the two world wars of the last century.
We arrive back at the car for the drive back to Peppers Green. A lovely walk of 9 miles.
