Of tombs and parish registers: sailing into the afterlife!

Posted on January 17, 2025 by admin

Edward Harris, Customer Service Team Lead, together with Neil Wiffen, Archive Assistant and “Tintinophile” (Though he prefers Asterix) have been exploring the connections between newly listed tombs at St Clements, Leigh on Sea and Hegré’s salty sea-dog Captain Haddock.

Here at the Essex Record Office, we all love the history of our county, and are always on the lookout for further research. We were pleased to hear recently news about the listing by Historic England, of the chest tomb dedicated to Mary Anna Haddock (neé Goodlad, c.1610-1688), mother of Sir Richard Haddock (c.1629-1715), in the churchyard of St Clement, Leigh-on-Sea (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1481879).

Leigh Church (St Clement) – I/Mb 220/1/6

An added attraction was the suggestion of a connection with Hergé’s Captain Haddock, Tintin’s nautical sidekick.

Historic England state that the tomb ‘is relatively unusual as a single memorial to a named women of this date’ and that it is ‘an exceptional early example of a churchyard memorial … for the craftsmanship evident in the carved panels, posts, and tomb slab.’ How interesting and what might the Record Office have on Mary Anna Haddock and her important tomb?

While we do not focus on physical monuments in themselves, we do look after parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials for the Diocese of Chelmsford (under which St Clement falls) so, ‘do we have Mary Anna’s burial entry’ in the archive? If we do, it’s always nice to then share it with our followers – simple really. Well, no! As is so often the case when undertaking historical research.

Historic England’s listing informs us that Mary Anna died on January 6^th 1688, so taking a look at the relevant register (D/P 284/1/1), there is an entry for a burial taking place on January 13, 1688 (which seems right for arrangements to be made for burial from the time of death) for ‘M^rs [mistress – presumably stressing that she was elderly and respectable] Hannah Haddocke’ but not ‘Mary Anna Haddock’. Our interest was piqued!

Hannah Haddock burial 1688 – D/P 284/1/1

A couple of obvious answers, as to why there are differences, might be that the names ‘Hannah’ and ‘Anna’ were interchangeable in the period, or that she was simply known by ‘pet’ or preferred name as opposed to the name given to her at birth. The incumbent could have also made a mistake, especially if he was writing up the ‘official’ burial entry later than when the burial took place. What else can we find out though?

We initially went, as is normal, to the relevant volume of the monumental inscriptions produced by our friends at the Essex Society for Family History. That for St Clement being T/Z 151/89 (which is indexed and contains a great plan of the church yard). Due to weathering of inscriptions, they pointed us towards John Bundock’s 1978 Leigh Parish Church of St. Clement: a historical description:

There are two tombs to members of the Haddock family … [one] a large altar tomb with only the top inscribed. Part of it is not very legible. For this and most of the churchyard monuments described here the author has reproduced the readings of earlier copyists. (p.54)

For an ‘earlier copyist’, when the inscription must have been legible, we consulted Philip Benton:

This tombe was erected by Sir Richard Haddock, Kt, in memory of his Grandfather, Capt Richard Haddock who died 22 May, 1660, aged 79 years. As also his father, Capt William Haddock, who died 22 September, 1667, aged 60 years. And his mother, Anna Haddock, who died 6 January, A.D. 1688, in the 78 year of her age, who all lie underneath in the vault. Also the body of Dame Eliz. Haddock, wife of Sir Richard Haddock, who died 26 Feby, 1709-10 aged 59 years. As also the body of Sir Richard Haddock, Comptroller of his Majesties Navy who died 26 January, 1714-15, aged 85 years. (P. Benton, The History of the Rochford Hundred, 1 (Rochford, 1867), p.352.)

Sir Engraving of Richard Haddock I/Pb 8/2/2

Sir Richard Haddock I/Pb 8/2/2

An early twentieth century publication, when the tomb might still have been legible, describes the tomb thus:

In churchyard – E. end … to Capt. Richard Haddock, (1660?), Capt. William Haddock, 166-, Anna Haddock, 1688, Elizabeth Haddock, 1709, and Sir Richard Haddock, 1714, Controller of the Navy, table-tomb. (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Essex, 4 (London, 1923), p.83.)

So, it is clear that the tomb contained several members of both sexes of the Haddock family and that Anna/Hannah was one of them. We have not found a sniff of a ‘Mary Anna Haddock’, the nearest we have got is the burial entry to ‘M^rs Hannah Haddocke’. As the tomb in question, and several others around it, are so weathered now as to be illegible, we must rely on previous authors and, of course, what is written in the burial register. We just hope that we are talking about the same tomb and burial as Historic England. Unfortunately, the Leigh parish register that we have consulted is the earliest still extant. Any earlier registers, dating back to 1538, do not survive so we cannot check baptism or marriage entries for the Haddock family, which might have made clearer some of the family connections.

We did however find an entry in the burial register of St Olave, Hart Street 1684-1805, held by The London Archive saying that ‘Mrs Anna Haddocke wid[ow] was caryed to be buryed at Leigh in the County of Essex.’ So this must have been where the funeral service took place, but still not, Mary Anna Haddock! (P69/OLA1/A/010/MS28870 – The London Archive)

As to the Tintin connection, like physical monuments this is not one of our areas of expertise, but a quick look at the online ‘go to’ place for answers, Wikipedia, states that:

Haddock’s name was suggested by Hergé’s wife, who noted that haddock was a ‘sad English fish’ over a fish dinner. Hergé then utilised the name for the English captain he’d just introduced … Although it has not been suggested that Hergé based Haddock on any historical persons, it transpired that there were several Haddocks who had served in the navy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Haddock)

Tintin.com (a fantastic website for the avid Tintinophile) does add:

As for his family, we know that he is the descendant of the knight François de Hadoque, a navy captain who served under Louis XIV. The king of France entrusted François de Hadoque with the command of the frigate “The Unicorn” which the latter lost under circumstances which were revealed in The Secret of the Unicorn. (https://www.tintin.com/en/characters/captain-haddock#)

The original french language version has the The Unicorn in the background flying a Bourbon Flag, interestingly, the English translation shows it flying a union flag only adopted in 1801, 86 years after the death of Louis XIV. The English translation also has François Hadoque become Francis Haddock who sailed in the English Navy in the reign of Charles II. Coincidentally (as Tintin’s Unicorn is fictional with the art based on a model of the French second rate ship of the line Brilliant) our Captain Richard Haddock commanded the HMS Unicorn from 1648 -1652.

Blistering barnacles, what do you think?

So often with historical research, things are not clear cut and very rarely is there a definitive answer. However, that’s the joy of looking at archives. If you would like to look at the images of parish registers held by the Record Office, further details can be found at: https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/ParishRegisters.aspx

What will you discover?

New! Guide to the Essex Record Office for creatives

Posted on October 28, 2024 by admin

Archives are a rich source of inspiration for many creatives interested in the histories of people and place – artists, writers, filmmakers, photographers, musicians, designers and producers. But it can be difficult to know where to start.

To help, we’ve put together a new guide to the Essex Record Office for creatives. The guide covers how to search, access, and use the archives, what we can offer, case studies, and inspiration from the collections.

If you haven’t come across us before, the Essex Record Office is the county archive for Essex. We’re based on Wharf Road in Chelmsford, where we preserve nearly 1,000 years of Essex history. That includes all sorts of records, from medieval charters to twenty-first century digital files. You can search the archives on our catalogue, Essex Archives Online, and access them either online or in-person in our searchroom.

Painting of a large bright room, with windows to the left and bright lights above. In the room are long desks and orange chairs.

The Search Room at Essex Record Office, Robert Priseman

As visual, material, textual objects, the archives preserved at the Essex Record Office can tell many different stories. We hope that this guide will help you find something that inspires you in your creative practice.

In turn, creative interpretations of the archives can give us new ways of understanding them. They also help to share them with a wider audience and open up a conversation about what has been preserved from our past – and what we should preserve for the future.

We’re thinking of the guide as a work in progress – let us know if you think we’ve missed anything that would be useful to know!

Please note that the charges given in the guide are accurate for 2024-25, and may change in future.

If you are part of a creative network or studio and would like a physical copy of the guide, please get in touch.

Access the guide online here.

Photograph of Basildon town centre from above at night, with the lights on in the office windows and along the pavement. Above the photograph is text: 'The Future is About to Begin'

Page from the Commission for New Towns guide to Basildon, 1980s (A8389)

A Mappa Monday

Posted on September 30, 2024 by admin

Customer Service Team Lead, Edward Harris, looks at the highs and lows of research using our manuscript map collection.

We may have said before that we love maps here at ERO. But some of our manuscript maps can leave you scratching your head.

We have often ordered up something titled “Map of the Parish of…”, hopeful that it will give us an extensive view of the parish in question, only to get something like D/DWe P5 below. A map of Bagg Wood belonging to Thomas White Esq surveyed in 1703.

Map of Bagg Wood in Aldham (D/DWe P5)

These maps may show one or more field with very little context and no real clue of where it is. We do at least know that it is in Aldham and which part of the ditch it was measured to!

Examining a Google maps satellite images leaves us with scant help. While many of the woodlands do reveal a name when clicked on, none of them are named Bagg Wood. A perusal of the National Library of Scotland’s excellent Geo-referenced map resource (https://maps.nls.uk/) reveals only one candidate that is roughly the right shape, but called Hoe Wood on the 2^nd Edition 25” to the mile Ordnance Survey. I suppress a little frustration that the surveyors in the late 1880s didn’t include an acreage as they had done in the 1870’s.

The perfect next step was our collection of copy Tithe Maps. Listing the owner, occupier, acreage and cultivation of every plot of land in the parish, but often also the names of houses, fields and woodland.

The Tithe Map of Aldham, surveyed in around 1839 (D/CT 2B) and it’s accompanying Award (D/CT 2A) is wonderfully clear and easy to consult, but it is also clear that there is no Bagg Wood. What is however, is a vast array of land owned by a Thomas Western, the major landowner in Aldham. One plot of land is the aforementioned Hoe Wood with an Acreage of 21 Acres 2 Roods and 21 Perches. Close enough?

Tithe map of Aldham 1843 (D/CT 2B)

Then I realised that I had fallen for yet another pitfall of a manuscript map, North is not always at the top of the page. A quick 90 degree counter-clockwise rotation of the parchment revealed the North is actually to the right hand edge of the map, and Bagg Wood and Hoe Wood are one and the same.

To add to the clues, the “DWe” part of the maps reference, tells me that it is part of the papers of the Western family.

Manuscript maps are often less clear even than this one, half the fun is in trying to locate their features on a modern map. Manuscript maps can be beautiful. Having a set of maps beautifully crafted for your estate was the status symbol of its day.

By way of example, here is another estate map for the estate of Thomas Western. D/DCm P29 dating to 1809 and surveyed by Robert Baker meticulously records all of the estate over several membranes and is beautifully decorated.

The value of this volume of estate maps can be seen in the gold leaf and beautiful colours used. It has also been separated from the other family papers at some point which can be seen by the different reference. Was this because it was sold off at some point to raise some vital funds? Can you spot Bagg Wood? Also, bonus points if you spotted the route of the railway marked across the estate.

Plan of the Estate of Thomas Western (D/DCm P29)

A contemporary view of the Americans – the diaries of E.J. Rudsdale

Posted on June 4, 2024 by admin

Back in April, we held an event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of when the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) reached peak strength in Essex in the run-up to D-Day, Welcome to Essex. We were delighted that Dr Catherine Pearson gave a fascinating talk based on the diary entries of E.J. Rudsdale, about relations between the Americans and the Essex locals. We are even more delighted that Dr Pearson has kindly taken the time to turn her talk into a blog post. To mark the anniversary of D-Day, we have also recorded an edited version of Rudsdale’s entry for that momentous day.

Black and white photograph of identity card, with photograph of a man and a signature on the left side of the page and his name and registration number on the right.

E.J. Rudsdale’s travel identity card, 1946 (D/DU 888/66)

Eighty years ago, in the midst of the Second World War, Essex had become home to thousands of US service personnel in readiness for the allied invasion and liberation of occupied Europe. Essex Record Office holds a contemporary diary account by Colchester Museum curator, E.J. Rudsdale (1910-1951), which records the impact of the arrival of the USAAF in Colchester and the nearby USAAF airfields of Boxted and Wormingford.

Rudsdale was seconded from Colchester Museum in 1941 to become Secretary of the Lexden and Winstree District Committee of the Essex War Agricultural Committee for the duration of the war. This gave him a valuable insight into the development of the American airfields because the USAAF commandeered agricultural land from the Essex War Agricultural Committee for the construction of the airfields at Boxted and Wormingford.

Owing to the drive to increase agricultural production for the war effort, the Essex War Agricultural Committee viewed the takeover of farmland for airfields with some trepidation and a degree of antagonism. This is evident from Rudsdale’s first official encounter with USAAF personnel:

April 29 1943

Went to the Office of the Clerk of the Works [at Wormingford Aerodrome], … and found to my surprise that it was not Air Ministry men whom I was to meet but United States Air Force Officers. Two of them I had seen [in Colchester], a Major Miller and a Lieutenant Walters. … Miller … looks the typical “small-town” American one sees in so many films, his worn, lined face surmounted by rimless glasses. … Walters was dark and dapper … The arrangement was that we all went off in two cars, driven by English girls in pseudo-American uniform, to inspect sites for a shooting butt. I was supposed to say whether the site was suitable from an agricultural point of view.

As we moved off along the concrete perimeter road, through a desert of derelict farm land, I remarked “Well, there has certainly been a change since I was here last. Why, you’ve changed the whole landscape.” I said this quite innocently, but at once Major Miller turned on me and snapped out “Well, wouldn’t you rather have us here than the Germans?” … He went on “We can’t bother about the convenience of a few British farmers, you know.” It was obvious from his manner that he had already had a good deal of criticism since he came to England.

(D/DU 888/26/3 pp.568-571)

It was clear that greater accommodation on both sides was necessary for establishing more harmonious relations and Rudsdale’s next encounter with American personnel was of a warmer nature. On 1 July 1943, he was called to Boxted Airfield to discuss the USAAF’s further plans for the site and wrote:

… Major Anderson of the USAAF … was very affable. … [He] looked at the lay-out plan, and said: “This is a mean site, I guess this is the meanest site I’ve ever seen.” Then we went into various details, and their final requirements were not unreasonable. …

We rode all over the site in two jeeps – old [Gardiner] Church [a member of the Lexden and Winstree District War Agricultural Committee] was very tickled, and said “These are the things for farming, boy! I’m going to have one o’they after the war!”

(D/DU 888/26/4 pp.819-822)

In 1944, Rudsdale visited Wormingford Airfield in order to rescue historic timbers from Harvey’s Farmhouse, which was demolished in the course of the aerodrome’s expansion, and his diary entry recorded:

January 15 1944

Thick fog this morning, and bitterly cold. … we got busy loading the moulded ceiling timbers, with the help of three Land Girls. The driver ventured onto the mud, against my advice, and soon the lorry was stuck fast, so that no amount of tugging could release it. Took one of the Land Girls … and went off to see if we could get any help. It was very strange to wander about among planes and lorries in the thick fog, hearing the accents of America and Ireland intermingled as we passed groups of mechanics or labourers.

Found the big hanger, which thrilled the Land Girl a good deal – “Well,” she said, “I never thought I should see the inside of a hanger.” Neither did I.

… The sergeant could not do enough for us, and within a matter of minutes [an] enormous tractor, … was ploughing through the mud towards us. … [a] wire was attached to the lorry’s front axle, the motor raced, and out she came, … leaving behind four pits almost as big as graves, where the wheels had been.

By this time … we … set off back to Colchester… first collecting one of the Land Girls from the pilot’s seat of a nearby ‘plane, where a sergeant was showing her the controls. …

(D/DU 888/27/1 pp.48-51)

Rudsdale also discussed the black servicemen and women who formed part of the American Forces and were regularly seen in Colchester. African-American service personnel were employed as drivers or military policemen or worked in supplies or in the construction of aerodromes. Under American segregation orders, black troops had their own club in Priory Street in Colchester, and white troops had a club in Culver Street. However, Rudsdale and his fellow curator, Harold Poulter (1880-1962), regularly talked to the black service personnel. On 10 June 1944, Rudsdale wrote that he had ‘called at the American Red Cross Club in Priory Street’ to deliver a message from Poulter to a Miss Marie Wall, who Rudsdale described as a ‘delightful’ black servicewoman ‘of about 25’ and went on to record that they ‘Talked for an hour or so’. (D/DU 888/27/3 p.491).

Colcestrians do not appear to have been in favour of American segregation orders. Rudsdale noted black and white Americans troops sitting in the same café in Colchester in February 1944, albeit at separate tables (D/DU 888/27/1: 25/2/1944 p.182). He also recorded that black service personnel staged a week’s theatre performance at Colchester Repertory Theatre in December 1944 (D/DU 888/27/5: 30/11/1944, p.820).

Black and white photogrpah of five men in uniform and another in a smart outfit and trilby hat stood on top of castle walls.

American servicemen on the Castle Walls, Colchester Castle, 1944. Harold Poulter, Curator of Hollytrees Museum, is in the centre of the photograph and Lieutenant Stich, Public Relations Officer at Wormingford Airfield, is on the left (D/DU 888/27/4 p.590)

The positive developments in Anglo-American relations in Colchester were made apparent in late 1944, when the Americans were invited to stage an exhibition at Colchester Castle. The display was the brainchild of Lieutenant Stich, Public Relations Officer at Wormingford Airfield and Harold Poulter, the Curator of Hollytrees Museum. The exhibition, entitled The England that America Loves, featured paintings and photographs of English scenes that had appealed to the American troops during their time in the UK (Colchester Museum and Muniment Committee Report 1948, pp.5-6).

Black and white photograph of a stone building with wooden timber structure and exhibition panels. A woman sits on a bench and a man sits on a pallet in the foreground.

An American serviceman and a woman visitor at The England that America Loves exhibition at Colchester Castle Museum, 1944 (Courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums)

Black and white photogrpah of a crowd of people in coats and uniform looking at exhibition panels.

Visitors to The England that America Loves exhibition at Colchester Castle Museum, 1944 (Courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums)

The shared experience of war was a further factor in bringing the allies closer together. One of those who participated in the Castle exhibition, Lieutenant-Colonel Elwyn G. Righetti, a pilot at Wormingford, lost his life on 17 April 1944 when his plane went down over Germany. A party to celebrate his 30^th birthday had been prepared for him back at the airbase to which he never returned (Benham 1945, p.57). Such tragic incidents increased the local community’s gratitude for the sacrifices being made by the Americans.

Four men in uniform stand around a man in ceremonial robes. Behind them is an exhibition of artwork and a stone wall behind that.

Pilots of the 55th Fighter Group, Wormingford Airfield, meeting the Mayor of Colchester at The England that America Loves exhibition at Colchester Castle Museum, 1944 (Courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums). Left to right: Lt-Col Elwyn G. Righetti (who lost his life on 17/4/45 over Germany, aged 30); Col George T. Crowell; Arthur W. Piper, Mayor of Colchester; Col Joe Huddleston; unknown.

With the arrival of VE Day on 8 May 1945 and the close of hostilities in Europe, there were opportunities for the troops to relax and local people were invited to visit the US airbases. As the USAAF prepared to leave Colchester in July 1945, they presented Colchester Corporation with a silver rose bowl to thank the town for its hospitality and this remains part of the City’s regalia today.

Black and white photograph of a group of people, including men in uniform and a man and woman in ceremonial robes. The man in the centre of the photograph holds a silver bowl.

The presentation of a silver rose bowl to Colchester Corporation to thank Colchester’s inhabitants for their hospitality towards American service personnel, 1945 (Courtesy of Colchester and Ipswich Museums)

After the war, American veterans made regular visits to the UK to remember their time in Essex and to pay homage to fallen comrades. One ex-serviceman wrote to the curator of Colchester Castle in 1988, that the veterans ‘would like to see a museum exhibition depicting their life as it was here in Colchester from 1943-1945 … with its bitter sweet memories’. (Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Historic Displays & Exhibitions file, Lewis to Davies, 22/11/1988). Colchester and the Castle Museum, therefore, remained as touchstones for the veterans’ wartime experiences in Essex.

Black and white photograph of Colchester Castle, with trees and plants in the foreground. There is a notice on the grass.

Colchester Castle Museum, 1944, a photograph by Lieutenant Stich, USAAF. Note the air raid shelter sign in the rose bed (D/DU 888/27/4 p.586)

In this excerpt from Rudsdale’s diaries, read by the ERO’s Neil Wiffen, he recalls 6 June 1944 – D-Day – from being woken up by planes warming up at Wormingford Airfield at 2am to hearing the King’s speech on the radio at the end of the day. You can read a transcript here.

Dr Catherine Pearson will be speaking to us about E.J. Rudsdale at ERO Presents on Tuesday 3rd September. Book your tickets on our Eventbrite page.

References

Primary sources:

Rudsdale, E.J., (1939-1945). ‘Colchester Journals’, Essex Record Office, ERO D/DU 888.

Colchester and Ipswich Museums, ‘Historic Displays and Exhibitions’ archives.

Secondary sources:

Beale, A., (2019). Bures at War: A Hidden History of the United States Army Air Force Station 526.

Benham, H., (1945). Essex at War, Essex County Standard: Colchester.

Pearson, C., (2010). E.J. Rudsdale’s Journals of Wartime Colchester, The History Press: Stroud.

8^th Airforce Historical Society: https://www.8thafhs.org/research/ Accessed 16 April 2024.

Archive of the American Air Museum in Britain, Imperial War Museum Duxford, including the Roger Freeman Collection of USAAF images: https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive Accessed 16 April 2024.

Black GIs in Britain: https://mixedmuseum.org.uk/brown-babies/black-gis-in-britain/ Accessed 16 April 2024.

Colchester Museum and Muniment Committee Report 1944-1947 (1948): https://www.esah1852.org.uk/library/files/C0938954.pdf Accessed 15 May 2024.

US Black Servicemen in Suffolk in WW2: https://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/sharing-suffolk-stories/us-black-servicemen-in-suffolk-during-wwii/ Accessed 16 April 2024.

USAAF Airfields: Guide and Map, East of England Tourism. http://www.ukairfields.org.uk/uploads/7/0/8/5/7085670/usaaf_airfields_guide_and_map.pdf Accessed 16 April 2024.

Recordings of D-Day experiences in the Essex Sound and Video Archive:

SA 1/455/1: ‘Essex at War’, BBC Essex programme, 1989; role of Southend and Leigh in D-Day

SA 1/634/1: Interview with John Hayes on BBC Essex, 1990; serving as an RAF Ground Technician at Southend airfield in the run up to D-Day

SA 1/1183/1: Interview with Clifford Pontbriand on BBC Essex, 1994; American D-Day bomber pilot at Stansted

SA 8/540/1 (Colchester Recalled reference 2057): Interview with Alfred Douglas Chignall, 1989; serving in the Royal Navy during D-Day

SA 8/948/1 (Colchester Recalled reference 2208): Interview with Fred Ramplin, 1990; serving in the army during D-Day

SA 8/14/1/6/1 (Colchester Recalled reference 2141): Interview with Harry Finch, 1990; involvement in the D-Day invasion, including movements of warships

SA316 (Colchester Recalled reference 1272-4): Interview with Lance Corporal Ken Lambert, 1994; involvement in D-Day with the 8th Battalion Middlesex Regiment

SA443 (Colchester Recalled reference 1621): Interview with Fred McIntosh, flying instructor, at a reunion of American airmen, 1992; covered the Arnhem parachute drops.

SA779 (Colchester Recalled reference 1532): Interview with Arthur Parsonson, 1988; NCO with 431st Bty, 147th (Essex Yeomanry) Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 8th Armoured Bde during D-Day (see also Imperial War Museum interview)

SA 20/1138/1: Interview with Geoff Barsby, 1983; serving in the Royal Navy during D-Day, covering the Canadian landings, escorting the battleship Nelson, and being based off Normandy

SA 20/1533/1: Interview with Jack Nelson Wise, 1981; serving in the Royal Navy, operations in preparation for D-Day, MTBs

SA 20/1/47/1: Interview with Howard Stone, 1984; serving as a Telegrapher Air Gunner in the Fleet Air Arm during D-Day

SA 20/1/22/1: Interview with Sylvia Ebel, 1983; serving in the ATS during D-Day, D-Day preparations at Eastleigh, near Southampton

SA 79/1/1/1: Interview with Alec Hall, 2016; serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps during D-Day; stationed along the east coast of England, then travelling to Arnhem by glider

SA 79/1/3/1: Interview with Alfred Smith, 2016; serving in the Royal Army Service Corps during D-Day, driving his lorry onto Gold Beach, Normandy

SA 79/1/4/1: Interview with Ken ‘Paddy’ French, 2016; serving in the RAF during D-Day, flying over American troops at Omaha Beach

SA 79/1/5/1: Interview with Alfred Fowler, 2016; serving in the Royal Navy during D-Day; being involved in the dummy convoy to Norway

SA 86/1/3/1: Interview with Ron, 2017; serving in the Royal Navy during D-Day, escorting HMS Belfast on HMS Ulster at Gold Beach

SA634: Interview with Olive Redfarn, 2012; working on HMS Leigh, printing instructions for D-Day in the weeks beforehand [including her own diary entry of the 6 June 1944]

Mystery motorcycle riders

Posted on April 24, 2024 by admin

Among a recent deposit of postcards is this one showing a man and woman on a motorcycle with sidecar. But who are they?

A postcard showing a man and woman on a motorcycle with sidecar from the Dowsett Collection (catalogue ref: A15840)

The licence plate is clearly visible which means that we can look it up in our Vehicle Licensing Registers (C/DF 11). An Enfield with the licence HK3016 was registered to Frederick Jay, High Street, Mountnessing on 8 June 1917. Is this an image of Frederick Jay on his new Enfield motorcycle? Or is it another person with aspirations of one day owning such a machine?

The photograph was taken by Geo. Francis Quilter, a photographer in Ingatestone, who’s listed in the Kelly’s Directory for 1917. In the same Directory is Harry Raven, dairyman, whose shop can be seen in the background of the postcard, and Mark Wells, cycle agent, who operated from Ingatestone High Street. At this time motorcycles were often called “cycles”, so it is likely that this cycle agent sold motorcycles, perhaps even the one shown?

Mountnessing is about 2 miles south-east of Ingatestone and was home to two people named Frederick Jay – a father and son. The 1911 Census tells us that the younger Frederick, then aged 21, was a boarder at 3 Redcliffe Road, Moulsham Street, Chelmsford while working as an “Engineer Journeyman [ball bearing works]”. By 1921, he was back at his parents’ house in Mountnessing and working at the Hoffmann Manufacturing Company.

Marriage Register from St Giles Church, Mountnessing showing the marriage of Frederick Jay and Kate Everett on 3 Jun 1922 (catalogue ref: D/P 73/1/10)

On 3 June 1922, Frederick Jay married Kate Everett at St Giles’ Church, Mountnessing. Is the woman in the sidecar Kate or one of Frederick’s sisters? Sadly, we will probably never know for sure, but it’s nice to imagine that this is an image of Frederick Jay, the proud new owner of a motorcycle which he used to commute from his home in Mountnessing to work at the Hoffmann’s premises in Chelmsford.

Welcome to Essex: remembering the USAAF

Posted on February 20, 2024 by admin

Tickets are selling fast for our forthcoming event, ‘Welcome to Essex’: remembering the USAAF.

The Saracens Head in Chelmsford (Now ‘The Garrison’) was used as the American Red Cross Service Club.

In the spring of 1944, the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) reached peak strength in Essex during the run-up to the hotly anticipated invasion of Europe — D-Day. Week after week new units of the USAAF flew into recently constructed airfields across the county, to start participating in the air campaign against the Luftwaffe and German coastal defenses. Small, rural villages across Essex became the center for many hundreds of American servicemen to descend on, to look at the ancient architecture as well as go in search of a pint of warm English beer! For the locals their quiet roads were filled with unsurpassed numbers of trucks and Jeeps buzzing around, ferrying men and material about the countryside. Overhead the air was filled with aircraft, Mustangs Thunderbolts, Flying Fortresses, Liberators, Havocs and Marauders, and many a morning was interrupted by the thunderous sound of hundreds of thousands of horsepower engines warming up.

Join us 80 years on from these momentous times for this mini-conference to remember the impact the Americans had on the county, both in how they shaped the physical landscape as well as making memories with the locals. Remembrance will be a theme running through the event, the date on which it is being held being of particular significance to one of the speakers in relation to one of those Americans who flew out of Essex.

This mini conference will see a series of short talks given on various aspects of,
predominantly, the Ninth Air Force, although mention will be made of the Eighth as well

– there’s just so much to discuss!

For further details and bookings please visit: www.essexrecordoffice.co.uk/events.

Reduced price ‘early-bird’ tickets are available If you book before mid-day on March 14^th – don’t dilly-dally as tickets are selling fast. We look forward to seeing you there.

Where there’s a will, there’s often an archaic word!

Posted on February 5, 2024 by admin

Chris Lambert, ERO Archivist

The ERO’s collection of wills, stretching from 1400 up to 1858, is widely used by family historians, but also by those trying to get closer to our ancestors’ material lives and their mental worlds. In particular, wills can tell us about the language that they used. A query from our friends at the Oxford English Dictionary recently brought this example to our attention.

One page of Black ink on paper, secretary hand, sentence concerning temes loaf outlined in black

Will of Thomas Leffyngwell of Pebmarsh (catalogue ref: D/ABW 23/83)

It comes from the will of a man from Pebmarsh called Thomas Leffyngwell, made in January 1553 when he was sick and probably close to death (will reference D/ABW 23/83). Having made over his landed property to his two sons, his main concern was to provide for his wife Isabel. The two were to pay her, in quarterly instalments, a pension of £1 6s.8d. (half each), and to provide her with food, drink, clothing, a room called ‘the nether chamber’ with a bed, and a cow that they were to keep fed, winter and summer. And then, as if thinking that perhaps more detail was needed:

‘… Item I wyll that myne executores shall / delyuer unto Osbell my wyffe wekely one pote wythe ale off too galons & a [word struck through] / Temes loffe wythe a chese as often as nede shall requyre …’

Close up of manuscript. Black ink on paper, secretary hand, sentence concerning temes loaf outlined in black

Close-up of the section of the Will of Thomas Leffyngwell concerning “Temes loffe”. Right-click the image and open in a new tab to see an enlarged copy

All perfectly clear, except just possibly that bit about ‘a temes loffe’. ‘Loffe’ is easy enough if you give it a long ‘o’, but ‘temes’ may puzzle you as it certainly did us. It turns out that this is the earliest known reference to a ‘temse loaf’, meaning ‘a loaf made of finely sifted flour’. To temse, you see, was to sift, and a temse was a type of sieve, especially as used for bolting meal. A ‘temse loaf’, therefore, was one of several contemporary expressions for a better sort of bread – a class distinction as well as a culinary one, even in the 1500s.

The word temse itself, of Anglo-Saxon origin, survived into the 20th century, although seemingly restricted latterly to the brewing industry. The burial register from Pebmarsh unfortunately did not, and so we do not know whether Isabel lived to enjoy her ration of bread, cheese and ale. One can only hope that Thomas’s careful instructions were useful to her as well as to the makers of dictionaries.

Planes, trains and automobiles (but mostly planes)

Posted on November 17, 2023 by admin

Chris Lambert, Archivist

Surprise presents are the best. The Record Office recently welcomed an unexpected gift from the Friends of Hylands House, who had acquired this splendid wedding album.

It belonged originally to Dorothy Cadwell Taylor, heiress to an American leather goods fortune, who ended her life as the widow of an Italian count. In between, while living the life of a wealthy socialite, she had been married briefly to Claude Grahame-White, a pioneering British aviator whom she had met while crossing the Atlantic on the ‘Olympic’.

Black and white photograph of bride and groom leaving the church with scouts as guard of honour

Bride and groom leaving the church, May 1912

The marriage took place in May 1912 at Widford church, seemingly for no better reason than that both parties were friendly with Sir Daniel Gooch, a railway magnate who had bought Hylands House and offered it for the reception. The wedding was one of the social events of the year, receiving a huge build-up in the press – only somewhat dampened by the loss of the ‘Titanic’ in April. The Great Eastern ran a special train from Liverpool Street, although Grahame-White himself and several others – including the representative of the Daily Express – arrived by plane, taxi-ing on to the lawns at the back of the house. Public flying demonstrations were given during the day, and even the wedding cake bore the model of an aeroplane. The whole event was a confection of money, modernity, celebrity and speed, with a country house and its grounds used as an almost theatrical backdrop. of Hylands House

Black and white photograph of wedding party (mainly men with some women nearly out of shot) posing with a biplane in front of Hylands House. Groom and several men on the biplane wing. Bride standing in front of the biplane in white wedding dress

Wedding party posing with a biplane in front of Hylands House, May 1912

Black and white photograph of the bride and groom leaving by car surrounded by wedding party throwing confetti

Bride and groom leaving Hylands House in their wedding car, May 1912

Fans of motor transport were not entirely left out: the wedding car, a present from groom to bride, was a Métallurgique, made in Belgium. Dorothy herself, however, seems to have had a liking for Rolls Royces. Tucked into the back of the album is a letter of 1951 from a now aging Claude, writing from his flat in London to his very much ex wife in New York. He tries to explain the difficulties he is having in getting her Rolls repaired: the garage is slow, they are blaming a shortage of steel (which he does not believe), and anyway there is no demand for second-hand cars, especially with petrol at 3s.7d. a gallon (about 4 pence a litre) … Elsewhere he commiserates on their mutual problems with osteopaths, mechanical and human frailty seemingly now going hand in hand. The glitz of Widford must have seemed far away.

Ornate, four tiered cake topped with a model aeroplane

Wedding cake, May 1912

If you are registered on Essex Archives Online, you can see full-size images of the complete album at document reference D/DU 3465/1. The wedding photographer, improbably enough, was our old friend Fred Spalding of Chelmsford, and you will find several photographs of his that seem to exist nowhere else.

Black and white photograph of a man (Mr Grahame-White at the front) and woman, Miss Dorothy Taylor sitting in a biplane. The man is wearing a suit and tie and the woman is wearing a dress or skirt and shawl.

Mr Claude Grahame-White and Miss Dorothy Taylor on a biplane, 1912

What on earth is a Seax – Essex Day 2023

Image

The 26th October is the feast day of St Cedd, it is also Essex Day. Over on our social media we have taken you on a treasure trail of where you can find Seaxes here at the Essex Record Office. The three Seaxes will be familiar to many Essex residents as part of the logo for Essex County Council and on a red background, as their Coat of Arms. But what is a Seax and why has Essex taken it as their symbol? Customer Service Team Lead, Edward Harris delves deeper.

Essex County Council was first granted it’s Coat of Arms by the College of Arms on the 15^th July 1932 comprising:

Gules, three Seaxes fessewise in pale Argent, pomels and hilts Or, pointed to the sinister and cutting edges upwards.

The somewhat archaic terms used by the College of Arms can be translated to:

Red, three Seaxes horizontal in pale silver, pommels and hilts gold, pointed to the viewers right with cutting edges upwards.

So now we know what the official Coat of Arms should look like, but we are still not given any clues as to the origin of the name Seax for the bladed weapons shown on the Coat of Arms.

The seax, (or scramasax as it is more usually called by archaeologists) is a weapon used by the Anglo-Saxon people who had displaced, at least culturally the Romano-British inhabitants of the British Isles in the 5^th and 6^th Centuries. The earliest evidence for the use of a Seax is from the mid 5^th Century, though they would still see use in one form or another into the late 13^th Century. The term Seax covers a whole family of germanic blades which varied widely in size and shape. The Anglo-Saxons widely used the distinctive broken back seax which varied in length from 30″ to as short as a few inches and, for most, it was probably a utility or defensive knife rather than a weapon of war.

Iron seax, with a straight cutting edge and sharply angled back, the tang offset from the blade.
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

It is from the Saxons that the County of Essex (along with the Ancient County of Middlesex) takes its name. The Boundary of Essex still resembles that of the Saxon Kingdom of Eastseaxe. And it is from this Saxon heritage that Essex adopted the seax as it’s symbol.

The Coat of Arms itself was in regular use well before the grant from the College of Arms in 1932 albeit unofficially. It is likely that the Arms were first assigned to the Saxon Kings of Essex by the more romantic minds of the Late 16^th and early 17^th Century, as the heraldry in any recognisable sense would not exist until the 12^th Century.

One of the earliest mentions of a coat of arms is by Richard Verstegan who writes in 1605 of the East Saxons having two types of weapon, one long and one short. The latter being worn “privately hanging under their long-skirted coats” and “of this kind of hand-seax Erkenwyne King of the East Saxons did bear for his arms, three argent, in a field gules”

Peter Milman’s History of Essex 1771 (LIB/942.67 MUI1-6)

By the 18^th Century the use of the Arms seems commonplace, in 1770, Peter Muilman published the first volume of his History of Essex. The frontispiece shows a shield with the three seaxes although with an unfamiliar shape.

The Plans for the building of the Shire Hall in Chelmsford drawn up in 1788 (Q/AS 1/1) clearly show the Seaxes emblazoned on its neo-classical portico. These wouldn’t form a part of the final design though with this space being blank in an engraving from 1795 (I/Mb 74/1/59) shortly after the building’s completion. It now houses a clock.

[You can find about more about the history of Shire Hall on our blog – ed]

John Johnson plans for Shire Hall 1788 (Q/AS 1/1)

Engraving of Shire Hall shortly after it’s opening 1795 (I/Mb 74/1/59)

The seaxes on a red field would make numerous other appearances, among them: the Essex Equitable Insurance companies fire plate from around 1802; the Essex Local Militia ensign formed in 1809 and the Chelmsford Gazette in 1822. It appears on the cap badge of Essex Police and who remembers the single seax that appeared on the original logo for BBC Essex way back in 1986?

BBC Essex logo from 1986

The shape of the seax on Coats of Arms has led to confusion and myth. As you can see from the examples here, the shape of the Seax changes with use, the notched back of the weapon may simply be to distinguish it from a scimitar for which it is often mistaken. The notch itself has gained a myth all of its own. To many people the notch exists so that the Saxons could hook their Seax over the cap-rail of an enemy longboat to haul it closer. This sounds rather difficult to achieve, but also to justify, given that the notch doesn’t appear on any of the real world weapons categorised as Seaxes.

The Coat of Arms of Essex

Either way, the Essex Coat of Arms remains an enigmatic and iconic link to our county’s Saxon past.

I owe much of the information that I have garnered from the excellent pamphlet ‘The Coat of Arms of The County of Essex’ produced by F.W. Steer, an Archivist at Essex Record Office ,in 1949 (LIB/929.6 STE) which is well worth a read on your next visit.

Just who is St Cedd? Essex Day 2023

Posted on October 26, 2023 by admin

The 26th October is St Cedd’s day. It is also known as Essex Day as St Cedd is Essex’s very own patron saint. Bur who is St Cedd? And why is he held in such high esteem in Essex? Archive Assistant, Robert Lee takes a look at the life of St Cedd.

St Cedd – A Hagiography

Icon of St Cedd

Cedd’s life began in the Kingdom of Northumbria under the tutelage of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne. The oldest of four brothers (Chad, Cynibil & Caelin), Cedd in particular would be unwavering to the Celtic Rite imbued to him by Aidan. Cedd’s introduction to Christianity was anti-diocesan: not liturgical and parochial, but peripatetic and abstinent. In one of very few sources on Cedd, the Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, emphasis is made on both Cedd and Chad’s devotion to Saint Aidan; such that four years after Aidan’s death in 651, Cedd is said to have been consecrated by the hands of his successor, Saint Finan of Lindisfarne.

Cedd’s reputation in Christendom had much to do with his proselytizing. In 653, at the behest of King Oswiu of Northumbria, Cedd journeyed into the Midlands with three other priests in order to evangelise the “Middle Angles”: an ethnic group predominantly living in Mercia. By Bede’s account, Cedd was greatly persuasive, with masses coming forward to listen to his preaching and receive baptism. Cedd’s enthusiasm would even sway the opinion of King Penda of Mercia, a long committed pagan. Later in the same year, Cedd would be recalled from Mercia and sent into Essex to aid King Sigeberht of the East Saxons. Again Cedd’s evangelism was highly successful, and Essex was thoroughly Christianised. For his efforts Cedd was ordained Bishop of the East Saxons.

Cedd attended the Synod of Whitby in 664 as a vigilant mediator between Iona (followers of the Celtic Rite) and those who followed the Roman Rite. Roman missionaries were arguing for their own computation of the calendar day of Easter, to which the predominantly Celtic northern English initially disagreed. Uncharacteristically, Cedd was won over by the catholic system, and converted to the Alexandrian computus of Easter Sunday. Following the Synod, Cedd returned to Northumbria to supervise the foundation of a monastery, but the Kingdom had been overwhelmed by the yellow plague, which would bring about Cedd’s death.

St Peters-on-the-wall in November with clear skies

St Peters-on-the-wall in November (Copyright Edward Harris)

Perhaps appropriately, Cedd is remembered far more for his itinerant sainthood than for government of the East Saxon Church. The chapel of Saint-Peter-on-the-Wall in Bradwell-on-Sea is said to have been built by Saint Cedd after his ordination. Having gone through several phases of disuse and ruination, the chapel still stands as testimony to Cedd; to God’s glory and the humility of man.

His role in converting the East Saxons and role as their bishop is the reason that Essex now claims Cedd as their patron saint.

If you would like to visit the Chapel of St Peter yourself it can be reached by taking East End Road from the brick built church in Bradwell-on-Sea for about one and a half miles, until you can see the carpark ahead of you, from there it is a ten minute walk to the Chapel. It is open all year and is well worth a visit!

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