Friends of Essex Churches Trust

Church of the Month Archive

ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, CHURCH LANE, LITTLE LEIGHS, CM3 1PQ

The bench outside our church is lovely place to rest half way along the Essex Way.  Close to the old pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Walsingham, via Bury St Edmunds, St John’s Church lies down a quiet lane which follows the line of the River Ter.  According to Norman Scarfe, in his Shell Guide to Essex, Little Leighs Church has preserved a true rustic feel and we hope you enjoy your visit, virtual or otherwise...

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Wycliffe Baptist Church Parsons Heath Colchester

Three years ago we welcomed into the pastorate George Balfor as part time minister who has done a wonderful job of building up the fellowship in terms of both numbers and spiritual fervour...

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Langford, St Giles

The July edition of Essex County Council’s Essex Matters magazine asked its readers ‘What would you do with £10,000 to improve your community?’  As the deadline for entries was coming up very quickly, Churchwarden, Irene Allen, sent in an entry....

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September 2007, THE SIDE CHAPEL,  Stanway, St Albrights

One Saturday in the Autumn of 2004 some members of the PCC met in the church and wondered how they might spend the next couple of hours before lunch and a pint in the pub. It was possibly the Rector who suggested that it might be a good idea to try and sort out the vestry. Let’s give him the credit! For about 25 years, the vestry had been used as a repository for anything that could not be used in the church, but looked as if it might be useful one day.

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August 2007, Church of the Month - St Michael, Galleywood

The Parish of Galleywood Common, was formed by Order in Council dated 2Oth Oct. 1874, from portions of the Parishes of Great Baddow, West Hanningfield, St Johns Moulsham and of the Parish of Orsett. It covers a scattered area which extends roughly from the Pumping Station (now Fowler Court) on Galleywood Road, to the turning to Wickford on the Stock Road and from Seabrights Farm on the road to Baddow, to and beyond Whites Bridge on the Margaretting Road. The boundaries were clearly marked in different places by ten boundary stones which bore the inscription ‘G.C., St. M.C.C. 1874’, which being interpreted means  Galleywood Common, St Michaels Consolidated Chapelry 1874.

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July 2007, The Church and Parish of St James, Clacton 1907-2007

The development of Clacton as the seaside town we know today started around 1871, thanks to an entrepreneur called Peter Bruff. Mr Bruff was the chief engineer of the Colchester to Walton railway and had engineering interests along the Essex coast.  With the fashion for taking a sea side holiday coming into vogue, Mr Bruff could see the potential for Clacton’s sandy coastline.  Before 1870, much of what is now central Clacton, around Station and Rosemary Roads, was Sea Side House Farm held in trust by Mr and Mrs William Watson. With the death of Mr Watson in 1864, the trust expired and Mr Bruff bought the land in order to realise his dream.

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June 2007

Great Maplestead, St Giles stands on a projecting spur of land bounded by two streams which eventually join and run into the river Colne. Great Maplestead is a picturesque but scattered village 1½ miles SE of Sible Hedingham and 3 miles N of Halstead. Many of the houses around are 16th & 17th Century but this ancient church was built c.1100. It probably stands on the site of a pagan temple which was used for services after the arrival of Christianity.

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