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The Hedinghams face each other
across the infant River Colne. Sible Hedingham, the
name a variation of Civil Hedingham to differentiate
it from its non-identical twin Castle Hedingham on
the other side of the water, is much the larger of
the two, with a population not far short of four
thousand people. It is also perhaps the less
attractive of the two villages, but it does feel as
if it has a busy life of its own and does not depend
on tourists like its neighbour. In the 1860s Sible
Hedingham was the setting for the last recorded trial
by ordeal for witchcraft in England, when local
worthies got together to duck a feeble-minded tramp
who had been accused of putting a spell on a local
woman. Unfortunately he drowned, though the
instigators only received six months hard labour each
as a punishment, suggesting that at the time such an
approach to local law enforcement was not entirely
frowned upon in this part of Essex. The church is imposing without being
huge, sitting on an ancient site above a meeting of
roads from the west. It was largely constructed in
the late 14th Century, but there was a lot of money
spent here at the start of the 16th Century when the
impressive tower was added at the west end. It is not
tall, but its proportions are powerful and it
dominates the scene from its hilltop. There were
substantial restorations of chancel and nave in the
1890s, but enough survives to show the patronage of
the Hawkwood and De Vere families at the end of the
medieval period.
You enter a spacious interior,
light and open thanks to the lack of coloured glass.
Not much old survived the restorations, but if you
look up as you step in from the south porch you can
see a very fine carved 16th Century roof at the west
end of the south aisle, with intricate trailing vines
and scrolls. At the other end of the aisle there is a
splendid recess for Sir John Hawkwood who died in the
1390s. The tall ogee arch is flanked by perpendicular
panelling, one architectural period morphing into the
next. It is a cenotaph rather than a tomb, for he is
not buried here. As James Bettley notes in the
revised Buildings of England volume for Essex,
Hawkwood, though the son of a local tanner, rose
to become a condottiere of the Florentine army and
son-in-law of the Duke of Milan. He is buried in
Florence Cathedral, where a fresco by Paolo Uccello
commemorates him. It seems likely that the aisle
was built to accommodate his memorial. Back at the
west end of the nave there's a very good carved set
of royal arms for William III and at the east end of
the chancel the sanctuary is a late 19th Century
period piece, the Apostles painted on zinc boards.
Daniel Harrall, one of my
great-great-great-great-grandfathers, was born in
Sible Hedingham in the 1780s. He was not baptised in
Sible Hedingham church because the Harralls were
strict non-conformists, attending the chapel across
the river. As a young man Daniel moved to Hoo in
Kent, but he remembered where he was from because as
an old man at the time of the 1851 census he was
asked his birthplace, and the recorder mangled it
into 'Civeledenham'.
Simon
Knott, December 2021
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