Local Churches

It was lovely yesterday and yet when I poked my head out of the window this morning it was foggy. It was positivey autumnal!

I decided that you would fancy a change from wildlife and so you can have a look at a couple of local churches.

People refer to Dunmow but what they mean is Great Dunmow and just down the road is Little Dunmow.

On first glance the church might be assumed to be a small box but we need to look closely. Those wonderful decorated windows look big for a small building don't they.




But from this side the windows are on a much smaller scale.


And yet when we go inside that same uninspring wall has magnificent arcading which has been filled in!


What we see is a small fragment of the Priory of St Mary and a chapel off of the Priory churches chancel.

It was the Priors of Little Dunmow who came up with the idea of the Flitch. Weddings were informal affairs and the Priors offered a flitch (side) of Bacon to any couple who agreed to be married in church and remained "unregreted" after a year. The tradition died out at the reformation but was reinvented in the 18th century by a manorial lord. It is carried on today at Great Dunmow.








Down the road is St Mary Stebbing with its fine Stone Rood screen (these are quite rare but there is also one a few miles away at Great Bardfield).