North Shoebury Trail #2 Church Micro 5426 St Mary Traditional Geocache

This is the second in a series of 5 caches around North Shoebury.

The cache is a small plastic clip lock container which has enough room for swaps and small trackables.

Dont forget your pen

Hope you enjoy our series!

The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a small 13th century country parish church, typical of the period, which has retained much of its character and attractiveness. Despite surrounding modern urban development, its setting has also kept something of its past rural appearance. It is now protected as a Grade II Listed Building.

The present church is believed to be the third church built on this site. Its modest size and architectural development reflects the small scattered rural community in North Shoebury which it served for more than 700 years.

The first written evidence for settlement in the area comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles AD 894, and this is backed up by archeological evidence of scattered pre-Norman settlement in the area. Around the year 1165 Thomas Beckett, then Archbishop of Canterbury, took what was probably the second church under his protection. Shortly after his death in 1170 the church came into the possession of the Cluniac Priory of Prittlewell.

The present church dates from around 1230 with its foundations on a reed bed. The walls are built almost entirely of Kentish ragstone rubble and flint, with limestone dressing around  window and door openings. In contrast to most domestic and farm buildings, parish churches were traditionally built of the best and most permanent materials which, if possible, would be stone. Our part of Essex has no stone, other than some flint. But a coarse type of limestone (ragstone) from Kent is readily available and transporting it by boat is easy - hence why many churches in our region are built of ragstone.

The Chancel (the area for the priest), and the Nave (the area for the congregation), are roofed with hand made clay tiles, but there is evidence of thatch underneath. Clay tiles were rare at the time and thatch is likely to have been the original roofing material. The present Nave roof dates from the 15th century and is supported by two king posts.

The Chancel was the first part of the church built in around 1230, and the Nave and a south aisle added shortly after. The church has an early English style typical for the period. The lower part of the church tower was added around the end of the 13th century, the top stage of the tower was added or rebuilt in the late 14th or 15th century with a timber frame and weatherboarding to form a pyramid roof and a small broach spire. The bell tower is a later addition or rebuild.

Diagonal buttresses were added to the tower, and the north wall of the Nave was rebuilt in the mid 14th century suggesting possible problems with the foundations. The south aisle was also demolished at a later date and the arcade between the Nave and Aisle filled in. It's octagonal piers and capitals are still visible in the external south wall.

The south porch was added in the 18th century although the paving is much older. Since then the church has had no further significant additions and remains externally as it has for many centuries.

In the years 1884-1885 the church was extensively restored, the old gallery at the west end was removed and the pulpit and pews replaced.

Significant features

The interior is full of interesting features. The low, rather wide, structure of the Chancel still retains a priest's doorway in the south wall, a rectangular locker (the aumbry) in the north wall and a piscina (a small basin in a niche used for washing Eucharist vessels) of c1230 on the south side. On the Chancel below the alter step there is a pavement of square red tiles, medieval, originally patterned and glazed. In the Nave are four large head corbels probably of the 14th century.

Features to note especially include:

• The east window by Sir Ambrose Poynter with a medallion of the Ascension. It dates from 1866
• The 12th century font which has an unusual square bowl and is made of Purbeck marble. Each angle of the rim is decorated with a fleur-de-lis; it came from either the previous church or the Priory at Prittlewell
• Part of a Saxon coffin cover late 12th or early 13th century, ornamented with the capitals GRE
• The churchwardens' chest from the 15th century has a lid made from an even earlier door
• King George I Coat of Arms (recently restored) on the west wall dating from his reign during the 18th century. After the Restoration in 1660 of King Charles II to the throne, it became compulsory for all churches to display the coat of arms as a pledge of loyalty to the Crown after Cromwell's Commonwealth
• The Chancel has 13th century lancet windows

Footnote

From serving a population of 192 in 1851 the congregation was reduced to just 5 elderly ladies by the end of WWII. Presently the population is 11,500 and rising so it seems almost certain the future of this magnificent church is again safe, hopefully for many more centuries to come.

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While visiting the church please take some time to visit the small nature reserve next door which is maintained by the South East Essex Conservation Volunteers.

You are looking for a small clip lock container. Don't forget your pen! The cache is not within the church boundaries.

*****Congratulations to womble1971 for the FTF!*****

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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.

See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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