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St Peter, Great Totham

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The scattered settlements of the parishes of the Tothams, the Braxteds and Wickham Bishops sprawl and entwine to the east of Witham, their churches often adrift along narrow lanes. One such is St Peter, the gingerbread parish church of Great Totham, sitting beside the Hall about half a mile from the village centre. The busy exterior is a massing of roofs and gables and the mixture of materials that gives it its colour and character. James Bettley points to a 14th Century core and 15th Century roofs, and then to a sequence of restorations and extensions. Joseph Clarke rebuilt the tower and added the north aisle and south porch in the late 1870s, and then in the 1880s local priest-architect Ernest Geldart added a vestry, organ chamber and a transept to accommodate the Champion de Crespigny family and their memorials. The most recent addition has been the north extension in the 1990s. Stepping inside, the feel of the interior is all of the late 19th Century and 20th Century as you would expect, but it is homely and pleasant, the light wood and carpets not out of place. This is not a large church, despite the impression you might get from the exterior. The wooden chancel arch and beam have a counterpoint in the half-timbered bell chamber at the west end of the nave, and the domestic feel is completed by the ticking of the clock that hangs in the south-east corner of the nave, its decoration the familiar work of Ernest Geldart. Geldart also designed some of the glass which was made by Cox, Sons & Buckley. The glass on the south side of the nave depicting the Risen Christ flanked by St Paul and St Alban is by Powell & Sons, and marks an interesting historical moment. It dates from 1913, the last year in which Essex was in the Diocese of St Albans. It had previously been in the Diocese of London, and the glass depicts the patron saints of those two dioceses. In 1914 the Diocese of Chelmsford was created. The Champion de Crespigny family pew transept is set off of the chancel, out of sight of the parishioners in the nave. It is not a large space, and it is dominated by their memorials which tell us that they were variously killed in action at Compiegne, a Captain in the 2nd Life Guards and, most memorably, a Game Ranger in Tanganyika East Africa where he died. Despite the slightness of the tower there is a ring of six bells which is considered one of the best in Essex. A board at the west end records that in 1901 they were rung with the bells deeply muffled as a last token of respect to our late Majesty Lady Queen Victoria. Simon Knott, December 2021 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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