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St Andrew, Althorne

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I had spent the day completing visits to the churches of the Dengie Peninsula, picking off a few I had missed the previous spring, and the very last one of all was Althorne, handily placed at the top of a steep hill that led to the railway station and my journey home. The short nave is made to look more impressive by embattlement of the south side, but is in any case squeezed between a grand tower and a pretty red brick chancel, both coming at the start of the 16th Century. An inscription on the west door of the tower tells us that it was paid for by John Wilson and John Hill, and asks us to pray for their souls. A brass inside tells us that William Hyklott paid for the chancel, and also commends him to our prayers. This little church underwent three waves of successive restorations in the 1870s and 1880s, one by local vandal Frederick Chancellor, so it is perhaps surprising that the interior is more harmonious than we might fear. The brick chancel arch is pleasing, and was apparently the work of the rector at the time of the restorations. The most memorable feature of Althorne church is its font. It appears to date from the start of the 16th Century, as with so much of the work here, and in a fairly primitive local style depicts a number of scenes which are in my experience unique on fonts in Essex churches. The most striking appears to be Mary Magdalene's meeting with Christ in the garden on the morning of his resurrection. She throws up her hands in wonder while Christ reaches out to prevent her touching him. On another panel a priest is shown baptising a king, and what makes it interesting is that the king, an adult, is shown standing in the font in the manner we know was conventional in the medieval church. One panel depicts the martyrdom of St Andrew, while another a proud six-winged seraph. Other panels depict pairs of saints and royals. The simplicity of the font makes it all the more haunting, the centuries rolling away as you sit and contemplate it. The font panels were pronounced by Pevsner to be thoroughly bad figure carving. This is one of those moments when we are reminded that Pevsner's academic background was in art rather than architecture or church history, and that he didn't arrive in England until he was in his thirties. Sometimes he simply doesn't get English vernacular art. A sad event is remembered by a brass memorial plaque to three teenage boys who were accidentally drowned in the River Crouch in April 1919. Simon Knott, May 2020 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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