ALL SAINTS CHURCH
THE HISTORY

By kind permission of the authors Richard Cooper and Geoff Pettit of the book "Shrub End Looking Back", I am able to reproduce the following extracts about All Saints Church and its surrounding area.

Shrub End is a different place at the end of the twentieth century to what it was at the beginning. At that time Shrub End was just a small area in what we know today as Plume Avenue and King Harold Road. Although this area was developed in the 1930's, there is still evidence of some of the older properties. In King Harold Road we have a house known as High Chimneys together with a very pretty little Georgian cottage situated at the back of The Oaks where former Church Warden, Oliver Gentle, and his wife lived for many years. At the top of King Harold Road there are several older cottages and also ones close to the 'Huntsman's Tavern' which was, for a time, called 'The Berechurch Arms' and earlier 'The Round House'. In Pond Chase there are also some attractive cottages which have been restored.

The area around the 'Leather Bottle' was in fact known as Bottle End which is a very ancient building and further reference will be made to the history of the Leather Bottle' and the local inns later. Although several of the older cottages have over the years been demolished, there are still several standing today, notably in Straight Road and Gosbecks Road and some of the finer houses, including Gosbecks Farmhouse and Brickwall Farmhouse, still remain and are very attractive dwellings. On the corner of Gosbecks Road with Shrub End Road, close to the present parish church, was Pedders Cross. This was a site for traders to set up market stalls outside the town boundary to avoid paying tolls; if they entered the town itself they would have had to pay before setting up their stalls. The Cross was also thought to have been part of the Pilgrims Way to Walsingham and, again, known as Pedders Way. The land on which the present All Saints church is built, together with what was farmland to the south and known as Gosbecks, has had some spiritual bearing since before the time of Christ for it is believed that the Celtish settlement called Camulodunum worshipped their own gods there and later the Romans, when they took over the site, after the great and powerful King Cunobelln died. He had ruled most of south-east Britain thus making it the main objective for the conquest when they invaded in A.D. 43. To mark the importance of this victory, Emperor Claudius himself led the victory parade into the British stronghold. The Romans set up their own town on the hill a mile or so east to become what we know today as Colchester. They built a road direct to Colchester from the old Camulodunum which entered the town through the Head Gate in the wall that had been built after Boadicea had sacked their first town. Although the settlement at Gosbecks continued to thrive, the more safer town on the hill became the main centre of trade and culture although remains of a Roman temple and theatre on the Gosbecks site have been found.

At the beginning of the twelfth century, St. John's Abbey was built on the west side of the town and its lands extended out to Berechurch and the area today we know as Monkwick. Both were later to become manors taking much of the abbey land. The manor of Berechurch was at one time owned by Sir Thomas Audley and his descendants who held it from the beginning of the sixteenth century until the end of the seventeenth. Included in this manor was the area we know as Gosbecks. The manor of Monkwick and West Donyland was in 1818 inherited by an Elizabeth Ward who became the wife of Vice-Admiral Nicholas Tomlinson who gave the land on which the parish church of All Saints was built in 1845. It is not known whether he already owned the land or whether he bought it in order to give to the church. It is, however, known that his wife had died the year before; it is, therefore, a possibility that the land in question was given in her memory. Both are buried at St. Michael`s, Berechurch in the Ward family tomb, Admiral Tomlinson having died in 1847 At that time there was no Anglican church serving Bottle End or Shrub End and the whole area was in the parish of Stanway. The manor of Stanway, of which parts are found in the adjoining parishes of Lexden and Layer-de-la-Haye, was a Saxon division of land, part of which was held by King Harold - hence the naming of King Harold Road.

The village of Stanway formerly consisted of two hamlets: Stanway Magna or Great Stanway and Stanway Parva - Little Stanway. Both hamlets stood on important stone road from Camulodunum to London, hence the name Stone Way, Stanway and both had a church. The principal parish church was All Saints at Great Stanway. Little Stanway Church, dedicated to St. Albright (the Saxon st. Ethelbert), was originally a wayside chapel for the use of pilgrims travelling the adjoining Stone street to the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham Other divisions of land, lesser manors, were stanway Hall, Bellhouse, Olivers, Shrebb Abbots rectory (possibly the name preserved in 'Shrub End'). The original All Saints, Stanway, which now stands ruinous in the grounds of Colchester Zoo at Stanway Hall, was built in the time of Edward I or II probably by one of the Bellhouse family. It consisted of a nave and west tower. The church was already more or less a ruin by the time of Henry VIII though it was restored for a period early in the seventeenth century by Sir John Swinnerton when a north porch was added. The church was used until Cromwell' s time but in the course of the Civil War between the Roundheads and Cavaliers, the structure was rendered useless for worship; the roof was taken off and the timber and lead sold. Around the middle of the seventeenth century the incumbent found it more convenient to live near St. Albrright's and All Saints at Great Stanway was not repaired. The building was left derelict, but some of the contents and windows found sanctuary in the church of St Albright's. Of the remains of the church, which have been incorporated into the Zoo, the tower is still an imposing sight in which Roman brick can be seen worked into the masonry.

Following a break of two centuries, the present church was built in 1845. It carried on the name of All Saints, Stanway until 1960 when changes in the parish boundaries and the building of the dual-purpose church of St. Cedd in 1955 made it more appropriate for the parish to be re-named as it is today - Shrub End. With the original church of All Saints standing derelict and the popu1ation of both Bottle End and Shrub End increasing, it was found difficult for the inhabitants to find a place of worship within walking distance; it would have entailed the walking either to St. Albright's at Stanway or St. Leonard's at Lexden. At the earnest request of the inhabitants, which now amounted to over 500 and with the sanction and approbation of the Bishop of London, it was proposed to build a new district church containing 286 sittings, 202 of which were to be free. On the site it was proposed to build a school-room as well as the church and vicarage but, of course, the school-room was later built on its present site in Straight Road. The cost of the church and school-room was calculated to be about £2,150 and upwards of £1,700 had been subscribed by the more immediate encouragers of the undertaking. An appeal was made to The Friends of the Church of England at large and with their zealous and ready co-operation, a fund adequate to its speedy completion was provided. A list of subscribers published at the time which were to be made to the Reverend H. Jenkins! the Rector of st. Albright's, stanway, included the Bishop of London, £25. The Church Building Society, £150 and The Essex Church Building Society, £160. One of the largest subscriptions was made bw Mrs. E. Papillon of Lexden Manor in the sum of £300. There were many smaller donations of one guinea with five shillings provided bw a Mr. William Smith of Lexden. It was necessary to endow the parish in order that the vicar had an income and to this end Mrs. Papillon also gave £60 per year. The Rector of StanWay contributed an additional sum of £40 per year in perpetuity and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners provided £88 making a total of £188 per annum.

At that time, this was probably quite a good income for the vicar as he also received fees, voluntary offerings, and had the benefit of an attractive vicarage house which was built in 1847. The new parish was formed out of portions of the old parishes of Lexden and Stanway and covered an area of about 1,200 acres. The population according to the census of that period had risen to 553. The church dedicated to All Saints was consecrated by the Right Reverend C.J. Blomfield, Bishop of London, on 8th April 1845 and this is the day observed as the Dedication Festival. The first vicar was the Reverend J.S. Dolby who stayed at Shrub End until 1864. He is remembered in the church by a stained glass window and his photograph hangs in the vestry. The second incumbent, the Reverend D. Hunter, decided that the vicarage was not large enough and it is believed that at his own expense he enlarged the building. During the incumbency of the Reverend H.F. Rackham, 1876 - 1886, the organ was erected in place of a harmonium and the organ chamber built (this is now the priest's vestry). A memorial window was inserted for the Reverend Hunter which depicts a scene from The Acts of the Apostles and has particularly beautiful colouring. The lovely alabaster reredos was constructed by friends in memory of an Edward Fulsher of the 12th Royal Lancers who died in India in 1880 and also of Henry Egerton-Green who lived at King's Ford. At the same time the school was also enlarged by the addition of an infants room. The first confirmation was held by the Bishop of St Albans and the choir was surpliced.

In 1843, two years before the parish church was built, a chapel was constructed in King Harold Road as a Congregational Chapel. This continued until about 1954 when the United Reformed Church in Plume Avenue was built with the Reverend Frank Meak as its first minister. In 1993 this church underwent a major reconstruction and enlargement plan under the guidance of the Reverend Crell who is still the minister of the church. The old chapel in KIng Harold Road became the Jesus Centre and remains so today. Since the building of the church and at the beginning of the twentieth century, several of the wealthy landowners who lived within the parish were very generous benefactors and are, of course, remembered by their gifts and commemorated by their memorials in the church and elaborate gravestones. In the 1930's and after the Second World War, the parish of Shrub End grew enormously and the population today is approximately 18,000, which includes Prettygate. Many alterations have been made to the church building itself with an extended vestry and a very useful annexe provided in the Will of the late Mrs. Jenny Simpson; there are now six bells instead of the original three and a new organ has been installed at the rear of the church, turning the old organ chamber into the priest's vestry. The original vicarage which stood on a plot of three-quarters of an acre was sold in 1973 and a new house, which is much less attractive, was built in the garden. It is a pity that at that time no thought was given for providing a car park or for using the land to the benefit of the church.

Not only was the district changing and enlarging, changes were also taking place at the old parish church of All Saints. During the war period the incumbent vicar was the Reverend W.H. Wiggins who was also the vicar of St. Michael's, Berechurch and in the early 1950's was quite an elderly gentleman who had been used to village life and although he was certainly an energetic little man, was obviously unable to cope with the huge increase in the population. The vicarage had been rather neglected and badly needing modernising; it was a lovely old Victorian house which still had Victorian amenities and gloomy black paint. Mr. Wiggins, who was very close to this, then moved to a little country parish at Cornish Hall End, near Braintree and late in 1953 a new family moved into the vicarage. This was in the form of the Reverend Harold Richard Darby, his wife, Betty, and their two children, Jane (aged 4) and a baby son, John. The black paint of the vicarage disappeared and all looked fresh. A wind of change was blowing through the parish. For the first time the young people were encouraged to go out carol singing and were invited back to the vicarage for hot drinks, sausage rolls and mince pies. A Youth Club was formed and also other activities for the young members of the congregation. Dick Darby was aged about 36; he had been a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese and while he had suffered greatly, he said little about his experience. He had the most wonderful sense of humour and in the pulpit he would frequently gain attention by telling a funny story (laughter in church had never been heard before) and once your attention had been gained, the message he had to give could be very forceful. The Sunday Schools grew and at one time there were over 300 children. Classes were held not only in the church but in the Egerton-Green Institute, the Social Hut, the vicarage and, of course, after 1955, in the newly built St. Cedd's. Christmas parties were held in local schools over a two week period and the church services were bright and cheerful; to be sure of a seat you had to get there early.

Shrub End and Bottle End have lost their village identities and are now popular residential suburbs of the Borough of Colchester. It is, however, interesting to still catch glimpses of the old 'village' and houses which have been integrated into the modern development. One wonders how many of these will still be existing at the end of the next century and the type of life that the residents will be leading.

Over the years there have been various incumbents these were -

J.S. DOLBY (1845), D. HUNTER (1864), H.F. RACKHAM (1876), C.F. MAUDE (1887), J.M. GATRILL (1888), H.A. ALLPASS (1910), H. STEPHENS (1914), L.F. FENN (1936), V.F. WIGGINS (1938), H.R. DARBY (1953), L.J. READING (1960), B.J. COBB (1964), C. GOULDING (1972), D.F. COWIE (1984), C. NEWLANDS (1996)




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