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St Mary, Burnham-on-Crouch

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A warm, bright Saturday in early spring, and I took my bike back to the Dengie peninsula to finish it off. The 0652 from Ipswich, change at Shenfield for the Southend train and then change at Wickford for the funny little Southminster line, the little train shuttling back and forth along the peninsula all day. I got off at Burnham on Crouch, a splendid little town full of seaside character. Ahead of me were nine churches, and the first was St Mary, my 325th Essex church and my first new one for nearly a year. The church was open - or, at least the sign out on the road said it was, and the outer porch doors were locked back, but guess what! The inner doors were locked. I phoned the parish priest, who said 'oh dear' in a kind of resigned voice as if he was used to this happening, and said he'd be up in about twenty minutes. Using my time wisely, I cycled out on the Maldon road and then about half a mile down a narrow country lane to the church of St Andrew, Creeksea. Then back to Burnham, where the Priest had opened up and was saying morning prayer in the south chancel aisle. This is quite unlike any other churches in the area, indeed unlike many I can think of. The over-riding impression from outside is one of length. This was obviously once a church in the fields, but Burnham has grown to meet it. One field still separates it from the road, partly turned into a car park. Its location might simply be because we are at the highest point in the town, but another clue is that immediately to the north is the moated Burnham Hall, the moat within metres of the church north wall. The apparent size of the church is due to its length rather than its bulk, fully nine bays long, and it is aisled but has no clerestory, accentuating the height of the rugged tower. From the east the church appears wide, but not triple-gabled in the typical south Essex/north Kent manner, rather chancel and aisles each have their own shape. You step through the south porch into a space which immediately appears wide, and full of light. The curved ceiling creates a tunnel effect, but there is no gloom. The only coloured glass is up at the east end in the furthest two bays. Best of all, the floor is 18th century red brick, a lovely survival. Indeed, the character is of that and the following century, for a great fire in 1774 completely gutted the church and the only early survival is a simple Purbeck marble 13th Century font. The other character is the High Church feel, for the living here is in the gift of the Walsingham Shrine. And yet it is not stratospheric, there is not the feel of an urban Anglo-catholic temple, this still feels like a proper, prayerful country church. I liked it a lot. Burnham is the second largest town on the peninsula after Maldon. The third largest, Southminster, is just two miles to the north. (All these things are relative, of course - wikipedia gives Maldon 14,000 people, Burnham has 8,000 and Southminster just 4,000). So it didn't take long to cycle up the road to Southminster. Simon Knott, May 2020 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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