Programme

Our 2023 programme: 23 Feb: '1926' - our speaker is our Chairman, Martyn Lockwood. 23 Mar: Annual General Meeting. 27 Apr: 'John Ray' - Jennifer Rowland. 25 May: Napoleonic Invasion Plans - Neil Wiffen. 22 Jun: 'Jersey under the Jackboot: the occupation of Jersey during WW2' - Patrick Griggs. 27 Jul: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd (c1540-1623): A Local History' - Andrew Smith. 26 Oct: 'The Prison at Hill Hall' - Anne Padfield. 23 Nov: Pre-Christmas meeting. Talk to be confirmed. Admission: Members £1, Non-members £5 Annual Membership: £15 (Family: £30)

Saturday 26 July 2014

Lest Willingale Forget: Sunday 3 August & Monday 4 August 2014

Friends of St. Andrews
& All Saints Church



Lest Willingale Forget.

It is important not to forget the debt we owe those who gave their lives for us in the World Wars. As an act of commemoration and remembrance of the outbreak of the Great War the Friends of St Andrews and Willingale Community Archive ask you to come along to St Andrews and spend some time in reflection.

Sunday 3rd August between 2 and 5 pm
or Monday 4th August between 10 and 3 pm

Please come to St Andrews,
 light a candle
and lay a flower as a mark of respect.

Rosemary represents remembrance, whilst white lilies represent purity and sweetness  or you could choose a flower from your garden.

There will also be an interesting display on those Willingale men who lost their lives. Over the last year Brian Rew has been researching the names and history of these gallant men and if you know of any relatives or have any other information please contact us.



Friday 25 July 2014

Great War Centenary Commemoration

To mark the centenary of the commencement of the First World War, Martyn Lockwood is working on a special edition of the Journal to record those who fell in the four High Country parishes.  The Group will also have a display at the 400th anniversary celebrations at Theydon Mount church on 27 & 28 September and will be represented. 

Wednesday 16 July 2014

That Precious Legacy: Vaughan Williams and Essex Folk Song. Our talk on 24 July 2014

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 -1958) and his folk song collecting in Essex during the Edwardian era will be the subject of Sue Cubbin’s talk to the High Country History Group on Thursday 24 July at Toot Hill Village Hall commencing at 8pm.  Sue is a retired sound archivist from the Essex Record Office, and folk song singer forming one part of ‘Potiphar’s Apprentices’. In 2003 she organised an exhibition at the ERO entitled ‘That Precious Legacy’ to commemorate the hundred years since RVW began collecting rural songs which were in danger of extinction.  The first song – ‘Bushes and Briars’ – was collected from Charles Potiphar of Ingrave.  This promises to be a great evening of local history and song – with perhaps audience participation!


Members: £1.  Visitors and potential new members welcome: £3.

Monday 7 July 2014

Tour de France in Essex Today

Edward Henry Lisle Reeve
(future Rector of Stondon Massey)
with Penny Farthing bicycle c.1880

Saturday 5 July 2014

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Journal No. 52 (June 2014)

Members of the High Country History Group received their copies of the latest Journal at the meeting last week.  Items in this edition include:
- Anniversaries
- Unhealthy Occupation: The Derby Mercury commenting in 1749 on the high number of clergy who had died in the Ongar district
- Centenary of Chelmsford Diocese (1914 - 2014)
- Dedication of Church at Theydon Mount, taken from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society 'New Series' Volume 12 Part 3 (1911)
- William Sworder of Stapleford Tawney
- Christmas Eve: taken from Leaves of a Hunting Diary
- Inquest of the body of William Reed, 1788
- Hue and Cry: Stanford Rivers Imprisonment for Fowl Stealing, 1897
- The Queen's Jubilee and the Woes of Stanford Rivers
- Opening of a Jubilee Fountain at Stanford Rivers, 1898
- The Pilgrims Way: a reference to St Edmund
- Place Names Quiz (answers)
- St Michael's Church Theydon Mount 400th Anniversary Weekend, advertisement
- Parliamentary and Parochial Electors for Stapleford Tawney, 1914
- Dr. Livingstone I Presume!
- That's My Seat. Anne Archer of Theydon Garnon