THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE

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St Edmund, Abbess Roding

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The area between Chelmsford and Harlow may not sound promising to an outsider, but in fact this is one of the loveliest parts of Essex, a rolling landscape of quiet lanes connecting pretty villages, many with thatched houses. It is a perfect part of the world for church-exploring bike rides, for, apart from the main road connecting the two towns, the lanes are quiet and the churches are mostly open daily. Among the villages are eight styled as the Rodings, archaically the Roothings, the remnants of a powerful Anglo-Saxon dynasty's settlements that were later absorbed into the Kingdom of Essex. Abbess Roding sits on a back road between Leaden Roding and Beauchamp Roding, its parish church of St Edmund in the centre of its lovely little village. This is a small church, and it sits in an intimate churchyard. As often in rural Essex this was a 14th Century building with its chancel rebuilt in the 15th Century. Then in the 1860s the tower was added at the west end with a leaden spike more typical of churches over the border in Hertfordshire.The 19th Century restoration also brought a new east window and a general smartening up, so the overall effect from the outside is of a rather crisp building with its details largely renewed. You step into an interior which feels almost entirely of the 1860s. The restoration was at the expense of the Capel Cure family of Blake Hall in the parish and is suggestive of a High Church enthusiasm. There are older survivals, including a battered square 12th Century font, now held together with an iron band. Its sides are decorated with floral patterns. Two figures in 15th Century glass, a bishop and a female saint, are reset among contemporary fragments. An 18th Century hour glass stand in the wall by the pulpit is a reminder that congregations of the day did not like to be short-changed by too brief a sermon. Most striking of all though are the 17th Century memorials to the Capell family, particularly that to Mildred Capell who died in 1633. It shows her leaning in her hand and gazing out of what looks like a curtained theatre box, two cherubs descending to crown her in that curious fashion of the time. Two larger cherubs sit outside the box, one with an upturned torch and the other with an hourglass, but they don't look as if they are enjoying the show very much. Simon Knott, December 2021 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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