Thoroughly Thaxted 3 — Church Micro 1367 Traditional Geocache

This is third in the Thoroughly Thaxted series of four caches. For the start of the series see Thoroughly Thaxted 1

The cache is a 35mm film canister containing only a log and perhaps a pencil, but bring your own pen or pencil just in case. Access to the cache is straightforward, and does not require access to the Church, which however is open most daytimes.

St John the Baptist, St Mary and St Laurence, Thaxted

Construction of the current Parish Church first began around 1340 with the erection of the nave arches. The building was added to over the following 170 years, each new section being more ambitious than the last, as improving building techniques and the increasing prosperity of the town allowed. Thus, for example, the two aisles are significantly wider than the nave itself. The last parts to be built were the Chancel and its chapels, probably replacing the original Saxon church, the nave clerestory, and the roof, completed in 1510. The church is often described as the Cathedral of Essex. The tower with its 181 ft (55 m) spire — thought to be the only mediæval stone spire in Essex — can be seen for many miles around.

The exterior
The North (King's) Porch and the earlier South (Duke's) Porch are both vaulted, with a room above each reached by a turreted spiral staircase. The King's Porch bears the arms of King Edward IV, while the Duke's has the coronet of Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

There are many fine carvings around the church, including gargoyles, spouts and a pair of 'wild men' over the north porch. A booklet available in the church describes them well.

At the eastern end, note the typically mid-Tudor 'walls of glass', which give the church an airy, spacious feel.

Then there is the magnificent spire with its flying buttresses atop the tower, originally completed about 1485. This is the third spire, erected in 1822, two earlier ones having been destroyed by lightning and wind. The tower houses a peal of eight bells, the tenor weighing a hefty 15 cwt (563 kg).

The interior

The interior includes a number of impressive decorations, including carved heads on the nave arches; the painted ceilings of the Chancel and its chapels; the stella, the great 42-light candelabra in the cross-aisle, and some early stained glass — the Adam and Eve window in the South Aisle dates from c1450, while the picture of a knight in the South Transept dates from about 1341).

Around the Chancel are four chapels. To the left (north) is the chapel of St Thomas (Becket) of Canterbury, to the right (south) that of "Our Lady and St Anne", the mother and grandmother of Christ.

In the South transept is the chapel of St Catherine of Alexandria, portrayed in a carving by Siegfried Pietzch with the wheel on which she was martyred. The north transept was originally dedicated to St Laurence, Bishop of Rome and the patron saint of the town's cutlers. It now houses the older of two organs in the church, the 'Lincoln ' organ (c1820), now sadly unplayable.

Rev Conrad Noel
At the crossing there is a fine bronze head by Gertrude Hermes of the Rev Conrad Noel, known as the "Red Vicar" of Thaxted. In the early years of the 20th century (for the exact date you will need to find the clue in cache Thoroughly Thaxted 1!), the local landowner Daisy, Countess of Warwick, once a scandously celebrated socialite but later dedicated to radical Socialism, appointed Father Noel, a Christian Socialist, to the living of Thaxted. He was a man of enormous energy and talent and, with Lady Warwick's support, transformed Thaxted into a maelstrom of political and cultural activity. He joined the Independent Labour Party and in 1911 became a founding member of the British Socialist Party. He remained vicar in Thaxted until his death in 1942.

Conrad Noel’s most notorious action was to hang the red flag of the Socialist movement and the flag of Sinn Féin alongside the flag of St George in the Church. Flags can arouse passionate feelings, as was demonstrated by the resulting long-running "Battle of the Flags" which disrupted Thaxted for several years. Cambridge undergraduates journeyed here regularly to remove the flags. They led attacks on the church and ceremoniously pulled the flags down, sparking off fist-fights and other disturbances. Noel himself was accused of sedition in the House of Commons. Eventually a consistory court ruled against his displaying the flags and Noel obeyed the ruling.

He founded the Catholic Crusade to propagate his views, which had some impact in the origins of Trotskyism in Britain. Conrad was inevitably dubbed "The Red Vicar" by the popular press as a result of his actions and beliefs.

But Fr Noel's undoubted charisma, and his insistence that Christianity was about beauty and ritual, too, attracted many well-known artists, musicians and folklorists to Thaxted. It is no coincidence that the Morris Ring found a friendly home in the town (see Thoroughly Thaxted 2). For several years the composer Gustav Holst and Noel collaborated on musical events, and the celebrated Thaxted Festival, first held in 1916, still takes place in the church over four weeks every June and July.

The 1952 organ is a memorial to Conrad Noel.

Thanks are due to Thaxted Parish Council for the information in this section.

You are welcome to add churches to this series. If you wish to do so, please let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the church numbers and names to avoid duplication.