Tea, cakes and memories

Today we popped down to East Hanningfield with a marquee for their commemorative tea. All Saints is not the first church to be built in East Hanningfield. The first was built there in the 7thC by the Saxon Chief after he converted to Christianity. Sadly, this church was burnt down by a fire that is thought to have started in a heating stove, in 1883. As there were no telephones, a messenger travelled on horseback to Chelmsford to summon the fire engine, which took another 45 minutes to arrive on the scene. The heat of the fire was so great that the bells melted and fell as a shower of molten metal, salvaged by local schoolchildren. The insurance of £1000 was not enough to build a new church so villagers coughed up the large difference to the backdrop of sharp intakes of breath from insurance assessors. Some things never change. The new church was built, Henry Stone was the architect and William Wood the builder. Nice names!

Today, the church folk opened their church to the village to commemorate the start of World War I. They have researched every name on the war memorial and written a page on each person who died. Quite a gift to the families and friends of ones who perished. And they served tea and cakes in the marquee, as you do in England.