Category Archives: People

The Manor of Barrowhall

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In his classic book, “Forgotten Thameside”, Glyn Morgan states that there were three manors in Little Thurrock – the manor of Little Thurrock itself, the manor of Torrells and the manor of Berewes or Barons “which stood near the road to Chadwell”. Morant’s “History of Essex” gives Barowe as a manor in Little Thurrock, but with appurtenances in Chadwell. It used to appear in the Manorial Documents Register as Barrowhall and Longhouse where it was listed as one of five Chadwell manors. The recent digitisation of the MDR seems to have culled Barrowhall from the register.

Domesday mentions only one manor in Little Thurrock, so presumably Barrowhall was created sometime after 1086. The earliest mention of this manor seems to be in 1466 when one Richard Blyot acquired “the manor of Barrow and one toft and 18 acres of marsh” in Little Thurrock and Chadwell from Nicholas Codorowe and his wife, Elizabeth. It is interesting to note a warranty against the Abbot of Westminster, although his connection is unclear. When Humphrey Tyrell died in 1507, his possessions included the “Manor of Berowe, worth £12., held of the earl of Routeland (Rutland), as of his castle of Rochester, by fealty and a rent of 12s. yearly.” Once again the connection with Rochester castle or the Earl of Rutland is unclear. The rent of 12s is listed as “castleguard” in “Villare Cantianum” by Thomas Phillpott in 1659. Castle-guard was an obligation to provide guards for royal castles or payment in lieu.

The manor appears in three other feet of fine in the 16th century, as well as various 17th century deeds in the Essex Record Office. In 1607, it came into the possession of Sir Alexander Temple along with a number of other local properties. In 1610, he was  hauled over the coals for not providing a cart and workman for the highways of Little Thurrock which he should have done as the owner of Barrow Hall.

The manor passed to James Temple (Sir Alexander’s son) who sold it to James Ravenscroft. He commissioned a magnificent estate map. The map has a cartouche which names the owner as James Ravenscroft and described the estate being mapped as “the manor of Barowhall and of Longhouse”.  The cartouche goes on to say that the survey was made on 26th April 1646. The survey work for this map was undertaken by Richard Colier. It gives an accurate measurement of the size of each field – a key consideration in setting rents. The survey results were then used by Sylvanus Morgan to paint the map. Morgan was a heraldic painter and author of several books on heraldry.

In 1700, James Ravenscroft’s son Thomas sold the Thurrock estate to Sir William Russell of Stubbers in North Ockendon and it remained in the Russell family until the 20th century. The manor largely disappeared from public view after being mention in Phillpott in 1659.

 

Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee spoon


We had a fascinating e-mail from Brian Russell. He has in his possession a silver spoon and a commissioned portrait that was presented to his grandmother (Florence Beatrice Peck) on being the first baby girl born in Grays on the day of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The painting (above) of his grandmother holding the spoon also seems to highlight a golden necklace bracelet and finger ring. Although not distinguishable in the photo the necklace is inscribed with the word “jubilee”. There was also a spoon presented to the first male.

On the back of the spoon is her name and birthdate but also that it was presented by A.W. Boatman, Grays. There was a Boatman Jeweller (who also sold clocks and watches) located at 70 and 72 Hugh Street, Grays. At one point his grandmother wrote to the Grays Gazette asking about the spoons. He has a letter from A.W. Boatman who saw the letter in the newspaper. At that time, Boatman couldn’t identify the boy baby who also received a spoon. The letter from Boatman goes on to mentions a plan for similar spoons to mark the coronation (of George VI).

(There was apparently a similar scheme that applied only to babies born in London. Spoons were given to 310 babies born on Jubilee day. However Brian’s grandmother would not have qualified for this.)

It would be extremely satisfying to learn more about these or any other similar schemes.

A family portrait of Lord Dacre, his wife and child

On 30th October, the BBC4 TV programme, looked at a portrait of George Oakley Aldrich which the programme’s presenter, Bendor Grosvenor, believed could be attributed to Pompeo Batoni. During the programme, his co presenter, Emma Dabiri, visited the Essex Record Office to look at a Batoni painting in their collection. This was a portrait of Thomas Barrett-Lennard (17th Lord Dacre), with his wife, Anna Maria Pratt, and their daughter, Barbara Anne who had died before the work was painted.

The Barret-Lennard’s lived at Belhus, in Aveley. The portrait discussed in the programme is among a large collection of paintings donated by the Barrett-Lennard family. They range in date from Lady Dacre and John Lennard, both painted around 1600, to the fifth Baronet, painted in 1936. A few of the portraits in the collection are on display in the public search room at the ERO. In addition to Batoni, the collection includes works by Gheeraerts and Lely. More than a dozen are illustrated on the Art UK website which also lists others without illustration.

The Barrett-Lennard collection in 1974 (not all of which are in the Essex Record Office) was photographed and a list published by the Courtauld Institute of Art. However, some works from the collection had already been sold in the Belhus sale of 1923. The ERO has a typescript entitled A Short Account of the Previous Owners of Belhus since it was built, with Catalogue of the Family Portraits there, and of the armorial glass in some of the windows, April 1917. This has been heavily annotated in manuscript. Information about most of subjects of the portraits can be found in An account of the families of Lennard and Barrett written by Thomas Barrett Lennard and published in 1908. A copy of this is available in the Grays Central library, which also has a copy of the 1923 sale catalogue.

Education of an Elizabethan Gentleman

Binding of book donated by Sir Alexander Temple, courtesy of Christopher Skelton-Ford, New College Library, Oxford, BT3.193.6 © Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford

Chadwell’s Sir Alexander Temple was an educated man. He was literate, conducting business and personal correspondence and he spent some time studying at Lincoln’s Inn. However, unlike his brother who graduated from Oxford, Sir Alexander was not listed in the standard reference works as attending either of the ancient universities.

However, evidence from a book donated to an Oxford college library has recently come to light that suggests he may have atended New College, although he probably didn’t graduate. There are more details in the 11th edition of New College Notes .

Lodge Lane

The society received an enquiry about the Lodge Lane area and particularly some house built on Lodge Lane around 1902. The name “Lodge Lane” is puzzling – what “Lodge” ? The route itself seems to be of considerable antiquity along the ridge of chalk and gravel cut off from the North Downs by the changing course of the Thames in pre-history.

From the 1910 Ordnance Survey map

The road was probably resurfaced, widened and slightly repositioned in the 1920s/30s. It is possible that the road gets its name from the lodge to the Grays Hall Estate. This was quite a large estate and probably had a lodge. Lodge Farm was just north of Lodge Lane. A scheme for building houses south of Lodge Lane on the Greys Hall estate was announced in August, 1918 and a more detailed plan was published in 1921. According to Terry Carney’s book, Thurrock in the Twenties, in 1928, two newly built houses on Lodge Lane were on sale for £500. The Oak had its license application granted in April 1929 and a number of shops were built adjoining it at the beginning of the 1930s. The “Nutberry” estate on the north side of Lodge Lane was also built at the beginning of the 1930s. The name “Lodge Estate” was applied to these various developments and it was described in the Thurrock Gazette as being “like a new suburb or Garden City”.

One of the early houses on Lodge Lane was built to the design of and to be lived in by Christopher Shiner the local architect and another was lived in by William Edwards, school master and council chairman after whom the school was named.

(Contributions from Susan Yates, John Webb and Norma Leach.)

Items from the military career of Sir Francis Whitmore

Earlier in the year, the Thurrock Local History Society was contacted by a lady from Orsett who believed she had a wooden chest that had belonged to Colonel Sir Francis Whitmore. It had come with the property when they bought it about 20 years ago. She was in the process of selling her house and associated buildings and wondered whether anyone in Thurrock was interested in the chest.

It was a large wooden chest with a metal lining, probably lead. There were small ventilation grills near the bottom at each end. It appeared to be in good condition. The outbuildings were part of the Orsett Fruit Farm and it may have been used at one time for storing fruit.

Inside there were named bags for Lt Col Whitmore, and for Major Whitmore as well as 2 – 3 incomplete tents, together with an incomplete campaign table and bed. The chest and contents have been donated to the Purfleet Heritage & Military Centre. It is hoped that they can form part of an exhibit in the Heritage Zone at this year’s Orsett Show.

We are very grateful to Mrs Frances Schwar for donating these items and ensuring they remain part of Thurrock’s heritage. We are pleased that the Purfleet Heritage & Military Centre has been able to provide them a new home.

New CWG headstone in Chadwell Churchyard

The fighting in the Great War ended more than 100 years ago, but participants in that war are still being recognised. Sometimes bodies are recovered on the former battlefields of France and Flanders, but discoveries are also made closer to home. In 2012, a new Commonwealth War Grave headstone was erected in Chadwell churchyard in memory of Stanley Ansell who died in 1919 and is buried in the churchyard, althFirst World War CWG headstone erected in March 2012 | John Matthewsough the exact location of his grave has been lost due to imprecise records.

The CWG has also now agreed to erect a Special Memorial, to Gunner Alfred William Ansell in Chadwell churchyard. It will be inscribed with his name, rank and number, date of death and his regiment. At the top, it will be inscribed “KNOWN TO BE BURIED IN THIS CHURCHYARD”

Alfred William Ansell was the son of William and Catherine Ansell of Tilbury and husband of Emmie Ansell of Paddington, London. He was a reservist who was mobilised in August 1914 and served in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He saw active service in the BEF for about 18 months. He was discharged in March 1916 as no longer fit for active service and died on 31st July 1917, aged 30.

This belated recognition is due in no small measure to Geoffrey Gillon, who has worked hard to persuade the CWG that Gunner Ansell deserves a memorial. Geoffrey is a volunteer with the “In from the Cold” project which is dedicated to recognising the sacrifice of the thousands of men and women who died in the service of Britain and the Commonwealth during two world wars and yet have no official recognition.

Sir Thomas Penistone

This month (April, 2018) saw the publication of Rosemary O’Day’s magnificent (if expensive) account of the Temple family of Stowe (An Elite Family in Early Modern England, Boydell Press). The book focuses on Sir Thomas Temple and his wife, Dame Hester, but, having been born at Stowe, Sir Alexander Temple of Chadwell is one of the minor characters. Sir Alexander’s children – James, John and Susan – appear only in a pedigree, but his stepson, Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Penistone has a more significant role, having married Sir Thomas Temple’s daughter, Martha.
Sir Thomas Penistone, was already studying at Oxford when, in 1607, Sir Alexander acquired Chadwell Place (also known as Longhouse Place – the source of the Chadwell street name, Longhouse Road). However, he was very likely to have visited Chadwell regularly, since Sir Alexander was his legal guardian as well as his step-father. A rather young Thomas appears alongside his mother in a portrait that currently hangs in Leeds Castle. O’Day notes (p. 254) that in 1610 (when he was 19, and not yet of full age), he accompanied his step-father on a visit to Sir Arthur Throckmorton. He married Martha Temple the following year. Martha “was venerated as a saint and a beauty … she was not as virtuous as her tomb suggests” (p. 36)

Sir Thomas Penistone was among a large number of gentleman in the retinue of the third Earl of Dorset – “one of the seventeenth century’s most accomplished gamblers and wastrels” according to Robert Cooper in The Literary Guide and Companion to Southern England (Ohio University Press, 1998). O’Day chronicles the ensuing affair between the Earl and Martha using Temple family sources as well as the diary of Anne Clifford, the Earl’s wife. The family appear to have turned a blind eye to this liaison. The affair ended in January 1619/20, when Martha was taken ill while at the house of Sir William Andrews (the husband of her sister Anne). She was taken to Stowe, but “my sister Penistone dyed at Stowe of the small pockes upon Friday night about 11 or 12 of the clock, being 14th January”.(p. 270) Sir Thomas Penistone remarried, but continued on good terms with his step family, and in 1633, his step-sister, Susan (who grew up in Chadwell), chose him rather than her brother James as a trustee for her marriage settlement when she married Sir Martin Lister.

O’Day’s book is a tour de force, combining the use of the extensive Temple archive in the Huntington Library in California with documents from numerous record offices in the UK. The specific details of the life of Sir Thomas and Dame Hester are used to illustrate and comment on social and political issues of much wider relevance. At £75, it is good value but not cheap and it will not be an automatic purchase for its Thurrock local history content. However, it is essential reading for any student of the period.

Terry Carney (1945 – 2018)

We learned this week of the death of Terry Carney who was a former curator of the Thurrock Local History Museum – the museum curator had not yet metamorphosed in to a Heritage Officer. He spoke to the society on many occasions including a talk marking the publication of Thurrock in the Thirties, an accompanying volume to his earlier Thurrock in the Twenties.
In those days, the museum organised local history walks during the summer. I signed up for the Belhus walk. When I arrived, Terry told me I was the only person to do so. We waited a short while to see whether anyone else turned up, but when they didn’t, Terry and I set off on our own. We had a fascinating couple of hours as he talked about the mansion and visited the ice house. Then he took me in to the woods to see the site of a former pottery.
When he retired, I was privileged to be invited to his farewell dinner – at Mumford’s, the fish and chip shop. I bumped in to him from time to time thereafter. Once at the train station, but more often (though not frequently) at funerals for departed Thurrock local historians. The diminishing band of current local historians will say their last respects to him in March.