THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE

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

All Saints, Stisted

Click on the 'play' symbol in the second image to see all my photographs of this church as a slide show, then click on any image in the slideshow to see it large in a new page. Alternatively, if you don't have flash enabled, you can go straight to the set for this church on flickr. Braintree suburbia seemed to roll on and on as I headed eastwards, but suddenly I reached the Halstead road and I was free of it, crossing into narrow, winding country lanes that began to climb and dip. It was idyllic after dull suburbia. The lanes threaded through little woodlands and copses, and then out into rolling meadows. There was birdsong all around, and hardly any cars. After a couple of miles I came to what appeared to be a three-way ford, and crossing it I climbed up and up into the pretty and surprisingly large village of Stisted, pronounced sty-sted. This is the home village of the former poet laureate Andrew Motion, now chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. He grew up in the village, and has often written about it. The pub, the Onley Arms, looked inviting, and I might have been tempted if it had been open, but instead I carried on to the far end of the village and found the church. Locked without a keyholder notice. A large church with the tower oddly placed against the south side of the chancel, which I am sure is a result of the 19th Century restoration rather than anything medieval. You approach from the east, and the chancel is rather stark, but you can see the panels of 17th Century continental glass in the triple lancets which form the one feature of interest here. As I pushed my bike around to the south side of the church I came upon a small group of people chatting. We wished each other good morning and remarked on the fine weather (we were all English, after all) and then I noticed that one of them was the vicar - or, at least, I assume he was, as he was dressed in black and wearing a dog collar. As you may imagine, as soon as the others left I asked him if it was possible to see inside the church. He looked sad. 'I think the church is locked, and I'm afraid I don't have the key'. Now, you may think that this tells you everything you need to know about the Church in Stisted, but in fact there was more to come. I asked him why it was, in a sea of hundreds of open churches in the northern half of Essex, those in the Braintree area are kept locked without keyholder notices. He embarked on a bizarre litany which sounded as if he'd said it all before, many times: 'well, we've had all the lead taken off the roof, and there's been a number of break-ins, there's a lot of crime in the Braintree area...' But locking the church doesn't prevent that, I interrupted. In fact, a locked church is more likely to be broken into than an open one. He had an answer to this. 'Yes, but I'm afraid to say that there are a large number of gypsy camps in the Braintree area, and they'd be interested in having what we've got inside the church.' Now THIS tells you all you need to know about the Church in Stisted. I might have dismissed him as hysterical, but he wasn't. He was a mild-mannered man about my own age, and perhaps even believed what he was saying. We talked about the church for a while, and the continental glass, and as so often before I had the not entirely comfortable feeling that I knew more about it than he did, despite never having seen inside. He thought for a moment and then said 'now let me see if my partner is around, they might have the key with them'. I was jolly grateful, and he went off, and I took the opportunity to explore the churchyard. I found the headstone of Andrew Motion's father and noticed the letters TD after his name, which puzzled me, because I hadn't realised he had been a member of the Irish parliament, but when I got home I discovered that it also stands for Territorial Decoration. As I stood there, the vcar came back to say that his partner 'had headed off to do a service at another church'. I thanked him anyway. 'Will you be in the area again?' he wondered. I smiled. I don't think that is very likely, certainly not in the near future, I told him. We said our goodbyes and I headed off down the little lanes, swooping down, down into the horror of the A120 which I crossed as quickly as possible and then up, up into pleasant rolling fields of oilseed rape coming into full flower which, despite the fact I knew I was heading towards Braintree's southern suburbia, lifted the spirits. Simon Knott, April 2014

 

Amazon commission helps cover the running costs of this site

 

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