The Essex Churches Site

 

THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE

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St Margaret, Margaretting

Margaretting

Margaretting Margaretting

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  I'd come down into south Essex on the Historic Churches bike ride day 2013 to explore some churches normally kept locked without a keyholder. It had been raining since midnight, and when I got off the train in Chelmsford at about 8am there was a gloomy, penetrating drizzle, giving something of the effect of cycling underwater. I headed south down the lanes to the outskirts of Ingatestone, where I found Margaretting parish church locked, but with a keyholder notice. I had arrived an hour before the open churches event was due to start, so I suppose that it was no surprise to discover that the church was not open. Mind you, they didn't seem particularly geared up for it.

The rain intensified. Uniquely in England, you reach Margaretting churchyard across a level crossing, and as this is on the busy line into Liverpool Street from Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich, there are trains every few minutes. The keyholder is on the opposite side of the tracks to the church, which meant a certain amount of fiddling about as I waited in each direction several times for the barriers to open. The tower, as at Blackmore, is an aisled wooden structure, splendid even in the drizzle, but the interior is almost entirely late 19th Century in character. However, the star of the show, and a surprising one, is a 14th Century stained glass tree of Jesse, reset in the east window. Most unusual in such a cosy setting. William Aikman's touching Arts and Crafts depiction of the infants Christ and St John the Baptist being introduced to each other by their mothers perhaps feels more at home.

Simon Knott, September 2013

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Margaretting Tree of Jesse (14th Century)
Tree of Jesse detail (14th Century) Sadoch and Nathan: Tree of Jesse detail (14th Century) Jacob and Joseph: Tree of Jesse detail (14th Century)
The young Christ and the young St John the Baptist (William Aikman) The young Christ The young Christ and the young St John the Baptist (William Aikman)
Good Samaritan Killed in action in France, formerly a Chorister in this Church Scout leader, Organist and Choirmaster 1912 art nouveau memorial
level crossing

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home - index - latest - e-mail
links - small print - about this site
Norfolk churches - Suffolk churches
www.simonknott.co.uk