Church of St Peter and St Paul

Details

STONDON MASSEY

TL50SE ONGAR ROAD 723-1/1/542 (East side) 20/02/67 Church of St Peter and St Paul (Formerly Listed as: BRENTWOOD ONGAR ROAD, Stondon Massey Church of St Peter and St Paul)

I

Church. c1100, c1400 late C19. Flint, rubble and quartzite with tile courses, all old walls rendered except W end where original walling visible, some tiles are of post medieval type but some are characteristic Roman tegulae especially low down. Late C19 N vestry, organ chamber and chapel added to NE side in split flint, limestone dressings. Roof peg-tiled. Norman S doorway and one Norman window in N wall of nave (unrestored) of tufa. Simple 2-celled plan, chancel arch removed by the C15 but reduction in width at chancel/nave junction. S elevation, W to E: timber-framed porch, 1849-51, in late medieval style, inner post, tie-beam and wall plates possibly old. S doorway simple round head with voussoirs, plain jambs and chamfered imposts. The splays have draw bar holes (door hung from W jamb) timber lined and some tile within the tufa courses. Norman window, narrow, internal splay, dressing restored. Late C14 3-light window with cinquefoiled ogee lights and tracery in a square head, Upper Greensand dressings, part restored. Chancel, late C14 2-light window similar to one in nave. Norman window, restored, similar to one in nave. C19 doorway, steep shallow 2 centre arch and C19 boarded door and ironwork. N side, W to E: Norman window, dressing in tufa but arch a solid greensand block. Projecting late C19 chapel, organ chamber and vestry, angle buttresses, windows lancets with trefoiled heads, leaded panes and stained glass, W elevation has 3 lights, N elevation has blind arch, C13 style, containing 2 leaf, boarded door and above it quatrefoil light in roundel, high in gable, trefoiled oculus. E elevation single light lancet of 1849-51. Organ chamber and vestry, N elevation 2-light window, C19 boarded door. Vestry E elevation 2-light window. Nave W wall, C15 window, 2 cinquefoiled lights in 4 centred head, moulded label, partly restored, in gable lancet window (possibly C19) and 3 simple oculi above, uncovered in 1850. Belfry stage at W end, weatherboarded with louvred vents and small octagonal spire rising from pyramidal roof, wooden shingles. Chancel E wall, late C19 E window of early perpendicular style, 3 lights, cinquefoil heads. The original E end of the chancel is said to have been an apse. A vertical crack in the rendering of the S wall and additional lengths of timber cornice added to the squared off end within the chancel support this, also when the rendering was repaired on the S side the additional work was seen to be brick, possibly Elizabethan. The whole nature of the original work seen in the nave W wall looks very early, Saxo-Norman. The rubble courses where undisturbed are pitched as are the tiles. The tiles occur in 2 single rows level with the sill and arch springing of the W window. In the gable is a band of 3 rows of pitched tiles set at half height. At tie-beam level an elaborate tile pattern crosses the entire wall. It comprises a lower double course and an upper course. Between the 2, tiles are set to create a series of equilateral triangles. Roman tegula tiles exist in all the work although later ones have been added. Together with the oculi and the use of tufa for door and window dressings these features reinforce a very early dating for the building. INTERIOR: W end, early C15 belfry frame of Essex type with lower table frame and belfry rising from centre. Curved arched braces to tie-beams and curved 'shore' braces to belfry stage, curved 'X' bracing of stage frame. Eastern principal lower posts have inward facing chamfered fillets, western posts had fillets, now cut away. E tie-beam with double hollow chamfer moulding to E. Nave, terminal post of crown post roof sits on belfry tower. E tie-beam (contemporaneous). Roof has 2 bays with central 4 way braced crown post of square section with square fillets on each face, no capital and simple block base with rounded top, lateral braces to soulaces, collar purlin visible but rest obscured by plaster ceilings inserted in 1735. Early C15 timber cornice, moulded, roll in a hollow chamfer, runs round nave and chancel walls. MONUMENTS AND FITTINGS: 3 bells. First by Robert Mot, 1588, Second by John Bird, early C15 with inscription 'Johannes Cristi Care Dignare Pro Nobis Orare'. Pulpit and reading desk built as one, dated 1630, pulpit octagonal and panelled with arabesque and pendant decoration. Reading desk panelled, carved with pyramids, cabochon and pendants, sheaf of corn and grapes. Screen between chancel and nave, 10 bays,central doorway with 4 centred arch. Side lights with traceried heads and moulded muntins, c1500, lower section completely replaced, upper part some restoration. Brass in chancel of John Carre, 1570 with figures of man in civilian costume and 2 wives, 3 shields and merchant's mark, indents of groups of children in stone slab of Purbeck marble. 2 other fragments of brasses now set in mahogany panels attached to chancel wall - Rainold Holingworth 1573 with figures of man in armour with wife and shields. Palimpsest on male figure part of a 'Flemish' canopy and an achievement of arms of Cleves quartering Mark with a quartered scutcheon of Burgundy and Flanders over all. Palimpsest on lady part of Flemish canopy with figures of St Bartholomew and St Andrew. Font, octagonal, sides of bowl panelled with quatrefoils enclosing bosses of foliage, moulded base C15, some restoration in plaster. Chapel erected by Marianne, wife of Philip Herman Meyer of Stondon Place in his memory, 1870. William Byrd, the Elizabethan - Jacobean renowned, but recusant, musician who lived at Stondon Place was buried in the church in 1623. Wall plaque in Jacobean style erected in 1923 to commemorate him. (RCHM: Central and SW Essex : Monument 1: 226; Reeve EHL: A History of Stondon Massey in Essex: 1906-).

Listing NGR: TL5726501587

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

373810

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of Essex Central and South West, (1921), 226
Reeve, E H L, A History of Stondon Massey, (1906)

End of official list entry

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