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St Mary, Little Bentley

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The pleasant village of Little Bentley sits in the quiet lanes to the east of Colchester, its parish church almost a mile to the south in a pleasing group with Bentley Manor. Approaching by road, the most striking building is not the church or the Manor, but the red brick Tudor-style 1840s National School that sits immediately to the west of the church, the great 15th Century tower rising up immediately behind it. That the tower looks so East Anglian is perhaps because we know how close we are to the Stour and the Suffolk border, but coming around to the south side of the church brings another surprise, for the nave and south porch are in the red brick of the start of the 16th Century, a typical Essex rebuilding of this date. Externally, the oldest part of the church appears to be the Early English chancel, but, as Pevsner describes, when you step inside you find that the north arcade has been cut through a thick Norman wall, and this was a Norman church. The thickness of the arcade and the height of the chancel arch create the feel of a tall, narrow church, an impression accentuated by the triple lancets of the east window in the chancel. There was a substantial 1860s restoration, but there are plenty of earlier survivals, several of them fragmentary including some old glass and a couple of battered 15th Century bench ends. There are brass figures of the Pyrton family from the end of the 15th Century, contemporary with the font which has the Pyrton arms on it, so perhaps we might reasonably think them responsible for the rebuilding of the nave shortly afterwards. Sir William, who died in 1490, wears the Collar of Ss. An unusual memorial remembers Mrs Elizabeth Lidgould and Mrs Jane Spencer, who both died in their seventies in 1740. The three glum cherubs fluttering at the top appear to be all that is holding it up, the drapery making the memorial look as if it is melting off of the wall. The huge 15th Century parish chest is quite something too. But as interesting as these details are, the overall memory of the church will be of a rustic space without too many intrusions from the modern world, a quiet, atmospheric spot in which to stop for a while. Simon Knott, January 2022 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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