Lawford church

I visited Lawford Church last over 20 years ago. I am not often in this part of Essex but I was visiting my friends Jan and Tony yesterday so I popped in to St Mary's.

It has one of those eccentric Essex towers.

To be honest the nave is of little real interest,

The chancel on the other hand...

We come for the decorated gothic chancel. It has been partly damaged by iconoclasts.

Some of the niches have been refilled.

Each of the windows are different.

Nice to revisit 

Harlow Museum

Back in February 2021 I walked past Harlow museum and said I'd go back once it reopened. Well I am a man of my word even if took 3 years.

The museum is in the stable block  of the old Marks Hall after which the school is named, There is a walled garden which will be worth a revisit in summer,  part of the walled garden date back to the 17th century. The hall was demolished after fire in 1847.

The museum has galleries on the Romans and the finds in the area. You may remember I visited the site of the  Roman Temple in the town. There is also information on the parsishers that were combined to make the New Town. There is a brief bit on Hester Woodley the last african slave in Harlow. If ever Little Pardon church is open I'll have wo wander down and see her memorial. She was never freed but she was the only one of the enslaved people the family memorialised odd. There is a bicycle museum and artifacts common to the town since 1947 and pictures of houses and rooms. Oh and information on many of the companies that were based here. And boy how many good jobs have we lost. Ahem.

Now obviously this is not the V&A or the Natural History Museum but it is well worth a visit because there is a lot of local history I expect many people no longer know. There were names I knew thanks to stories from my parents. It also contained one thing I was VERY excited to see.

This Gin still used to sit outside Gilbeys who were based in the town.

Coins have been found dating from pre-conquest to the end of the occupation!

These windows are from Netteswell church which I visited earlier in the year.

The temple site

Limestone head of Minvera.

Medusa

Bacchus 

My dad's family left the east end of London in 1940 once the Blitz started and got off at Burnt Mill station (it is now Harlow Town station but my dad ALWAYS called it Burnt Mill). Dad sais there was a row of cottages one was enpty and they broke in and spent the night (he was 11 at the time). They were evenutally but up in a "big house" called the  Priory. One of the first V2's landed in the field next to it one night whilst they were alseep and blew the back off of their house!! I mentioned this to a volunteer who pointed me to these fragments of said V2!!! WOW. The family were rehomed into Frogs Hall which is also long gone. Most of Harlows big houses seem to have vanished.

I have shared this before but there was a time all our road signs looked like that.

And the Mallards find water.

Well the thaw has begun. 

When I went out this morning I headed to the Coalport pond. There were a few defrosted bits and the ducks were back

I always wonder where they go and how they comeback so quickly.  There was someone with a child feeding them (there often is) and I guess they remember that. 

The Newhall pond was still frozen though defrosting. 

When I walked back there were 18 Mallards on Coalport and a Moorhen had arrived back at the split pond.

Churchgate Street

With all the frosts I realised that the paths to Churchgate Street might be passable.

Harlow is known as a new town from the New Town act of 1947 but it dates much earlier. As I've documented earlier the Romans were here and the name Harlow has Anglo-Saxon origins. 

Churchgate street is part of, what is now known as, Old Harlow one the villages incorporated into the New Town. Today a road runs between Old Harlow and  Churchgate street and they feel discrete.

This building dates to 1630.

The church of St Mary and St Hugh although it seems to be known as St Mary.

I got a shock when it was open! Apparently the men meet for breakfast on certain Saturdays so I went in for a look, The church is Norman but was heavily renovated by Victorian architect Henry Woodyer. In fairness the church had been damaged by fire in 1708 so I'm unsure how much of the lost medieval is down to him. The majority of the glass is Victorian and by Hardman.

The monument is by W Theed but Pevsner says no more.

I always fund these WWI memorials moving.

Another charitable building for the poor this from 1716.

A nice walk and good to get into the church.