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St Andrew, Willingale Spain

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Willingale is one of the sedate, attractive villages in the lanes between Harlow and Chelmsford, which to an outsider might not sound a promising area but it is one of the county's best for church-exploring bike rides. Historically there were two parishes, Willingale Spain and Willingale Doe, named after the manors. The two parish churches share a churchyard, although the two benefices were combined in the 1920s and in 1992 Willingale Spain church was declared redundant and vested in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The former church of Willingale Doe now serves the whole village and parish. Of the two, this church was here first. A small two-cell Norman church that was augmented in the 15th Century when a new chancel was built and the wooden belfry added at the west end. The church as it stands today owes much of its character to an 1890s restoration by the Essex priest-artist Ernest Geldart. You step into a plain but charming interior past an elegant 14th Century font and turn east towards Geldart's elaborately decorated chancel. The stencilling of the walls has been whitewashed, alas, but the floor tiles give an idea of the effect. It must have been quite something. Excitingly, the 12th Century ironwork on the inside of the north door may well have been part of the original church, but perhaps the most interesting survival is a pair of brass memorials to children of the early 17th Century minister here, Bartholomew Kello. The inscriptions refer to him as Minister of Christ Evangell and Parson of this Parish of Willingale Spayne. His two sons, nine year old Isaac and thirteen year old Joseph, died two months apart in 1614, which must have been heartbreaking. Kello was moved to write valedictory verses to both of his sons, and these are on separate plates. They are both oddly sweet, particularly as Kello was clearly of a puritan bent. Of one son he declared This happy child adornd with gifts of grace, his choice was dissolution, his song wth Simeon to depart in peace unto Christs heavenly mansion. Of the other, This Godly child knew his originall, and though right young did scorne base cells of Earth, his soule doth flourish in heavens glistering hall because it is a divine plant by birth. Equally moving is the tablet to twenty-three year old Richard Daunteshey Colnett of the Essex Regiment, only son of the rector of this parish, who was wounded and missing at Turmus Aya, Palestine, in 1918. Simon Knott, December 2021 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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