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Essex Sketches

Pictures > Frank Tingey's Drawings

Essex Drawings


Blackmore – Priory Church of St. Lawrence 1988

The church was founded in about 1150AD for Augustinian canons and is mainly built in flint rubble. The timber tower, which dates from about 1400, is one of the most impressive in England. The priory was dissolved in 1525. Delicious cream teas are served  monthly inside the stunning timber tower, which contains a five bell carillon, on Sunday afternoons.


Chigwell – King’s Head

Charles Dickens frequently visited Chigwell, which he described in a letter as "the greatest place in the world". He referred to the King’s Head as "a delicious old inn opposite the church" and used it as the model for The Maypole in Barnaby Rudge.  Dickens famously wrote that is was ‘an old building, with more gable ends than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day’.  It dates from the 17th century, is of three storeys and has jettied upper floors.

Ye Olde King's Head, which was operated as a pub until 2011 was subsequently sold to local resident Lord Sugar's property company Amsprop which now leases the Grade 1 building to the Sheesh Turkish restaurant.


Great Sampford – The Black Bull

This former public house has been converted into a dwelling now known as Bull House. This residence has two floors, a slate roof and tall prominent, decorative chimneys. It is rendered and dates from the 19th century or earlier.  Deeds from 1686 to 1984  are held at Essex Archives in Chelmsford.  Comparing the current building with Frank’s sketch of the old pub reveals several significant changes.

Benskins, founded in 1693, was the pre-eminent brewery in Watford, and Hertfordshire's biggest brewer  until its acquisition by Ind Coope in 1957. Benskins Best Bitter continued to be produced in Burton-upon-Trent until it ceased production in 2002.


Great Warley – St. Mary the Virgin

This magnificent Arts and Crafts Art Nouveau church was built between 1902-1904 to a design by Charles Harrison Townsend as a memorial to Arnold Heseltine who died in 1897. This pretty roughcast and buttressed church is framed with trees.


East Horndon - All Saints Church 1987

This picturesque brick church, which is such a familiar site on the north side of the A127, was made redundant in 1970. The church was rebuilt after 1442 and the west tower dates from the 17th century.


Manuden - The Street, Osier House, Old Bakery and Pub 2003

Pevsner, in his Buildings of England, Essex volume states that ‘Manuden has an especially pretty street with timber-framed cottages with jettied upper floors’. Frank has sketched a range of 17th – 18th century   timber-framed and plastered houses of  two storeys with casement  windows some with  glazing bars and leaded  lights.


Ongar – A Corner of Old Ongar

This cluster of timber-framed houses is located at the junction of the High Road and the lane that leads up to St. Martin’s church. Four Vitruvian scroll brackets support the jetty which has the date 1642 carved on a lintel. The adjacent structure  is traditionally the oldest dwelling in Ongar and probably dates from the late 15th century.   


Orsett – St. Giles & All Saints, Church Road

The range of buildings to the left of the bare trees is on the north side of the High Road adjacent to the churchyard. The first, no.6 High Road, is a low 17th century timber frame house. Attached to the west is the 18th century red brick fronted numbers  8 and 10 High Road. Apparently the sliding sash windows are of particular note.


Passingford Bridge – Old Mill 2002

This grade II listed 18th century water mill, is timber framed, weather boarded; and roofed with handmade  red clay tiles.  It is aligned approximately north- south on the south bank of the River Roding, with a brick wheel-housing at the north end.  The mill is three storeys with attics.  The windows are 18th and 19th century casements. The original hoist  mechanism is inside. Passingford mill was converted to turbine operation in the early 20th century with a stationary engine in a brick building to the north of wheel-housing, installed in the 1930’s. The mill was still in use in 1983. Currently  the mill is falling into disrepair.

Stapleford Tawney – St. Mary’s Church 1999

This church is built of flint rubble with limestone dressings. The nave and chancel date to the 1200’s while the belfry is 15th or 16th century. Frank probably visited and sketched this church during the building of the parish room, designed by  Tony Mitchell of Herbert & Partners, in 1998-9.


Stifford – 1938

Frank sketched this tranquil lane with its scattered thatched cottages at Stifford in 1938 on the eve of the Second World War. This scene, which has long since disappeared, was to the west-north-west of the medieval parish church. A photograph of the  17th century twin gabled cottage on the left was published in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Volume 4: South East (Plate 15 figure 8) which appeared in 1923.


Upminster – St. Lawrence Church and Rectory

The impressive rubble walled tower with its leaded and shingled spire dates from the 1200’s. The former H-shaped rectory, which is west of the church and dates from about 1735, is now offices. It is constructed of brick which has now been whitewashed.  The windows have segment-headed windows.


 
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