The Essex Churches Site

 

THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE

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St Andrew, Creeksea

Creeksea

Creeksea mock-perp

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  Essex is not short of idiosyncratic churches. It has several unique oddities, including the only church in England where you need to cross a level crossing to get into the churchyard (Margaretting), the only one I know with a water tower in the churchyard (Saint Lawrence) and here at Creeksea on the outskirts of the pleasant town of Burnham-on-Crouch it has what claims to be England's only parish church set on a golf course. The long gravel drive to Creeksea Hall leads to a five-bar gate, which in turn lets you into the middle of Burnham-on-Crouch Golf Club. The little church is set in its hedged and tree-shrouded churchyard directly between two greens.

This is a typically small, towerless Essex church with a bell turret, the 19th Century work of that local low-brow architect Frederic Chancellor. A small church as I say, but busy, apparently because Burnham parish church is so high (daily Mass) that the stout-hearted protestants of the town have to come here instead. Indeed, they are building an extension on the north side (with, one assumes, golf-ball-proof glass in the windows). The church was, of course, locked, and there was no keyholder notice. This was not unexpected, because Essex churches tend not to have keyholder notices. They are either open (mostly) or locked.

Simon Knott, June 2020

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