Castle Hedingham

The command was clear, meet at 2.pm or else.
Therefore earlier today I took possession of the bus pass and marched out resolutely towards the bus stop in time for my bus.  Having spent considerable time attempting to understand the timetable, which became clear once I realised where the bus began its journey and how it related to me, I made it to the stance.  This caused trickle of fear as a bus pulled out as I got in and it took a while to discover there were two routes covered here on those buses, the red ones.  
I scrutinised the queue.
Not the zimmer frame lot here this was more country bumpkin.  Indeed most left at the town up the road, the one that used to remind some people of those programmes where the CIA chase UFO's, it's that sort of place.
While waiting a second bus emptied it's untidy load and I found a strange man staring at me.  This took me a while to realise who this person was, John my old mate, a man I did not recognise because he looked well, fit and fat and therefore different to my weary eyes.  Unfortunately we could not talk as my bus arrived but he did tell the why he was almost happy, he was happy to come into town, he was unhappy she got off the bus and told him she thought she had left something switched on and got back on the bus to go home to check.  I expect John will be even happier when she returns 50 minutes later indicating she had switched off and all was well!

  
G.K.Chesterton had a line "The rolling English drunkard/Made the rolling English road."  He must have been in North Essex when he came up with that!  Sitting upstairs, right at the front, like an 8 year old, on a near empty top deck, only two adolescents at the rear and they did not speak as they stared into their phones, I viewed the world around me.  
Green fields rolled gently this way and that, occasional cows, once  shepherd and his newly fleeced sheep, many fields of crops about to turn from green to gold.  The bus rolled with the narrow roads, up and down, left and right, and naturally through the housing estates that insist everybody has a car or you are trapped.  Today at least three buses pass through these but for how long?  Cuts are losing such services and people do not count to Tory governments.  The bus pass is already under threat.  

No pictures on the way as the recent changeable weather did not leave the windows clear enough for that.  However on time we arrived the 'The Bell' at journeys end and I popped into St Nicholas Church for a look around.  Dating from 1180, and built by the Normans on top of probably a Saxon wooden church, many Norman features remain in spite of constant upgrading.  I believe this door is known as the 'Skin door' as some poor wretch was flayed and his skin attached there in an effort to deter crime.  Whether anyone else attempted to rob the church is not mentioned but in the  19th century when renovating the building pieces of skin were found in the door.  

I happened to notice a War Memorial at the front.  The 37 dead men were commemorated by an Anglo-Norman shaft which dates from the 12th century and appears unfinished.  This cross was placed at Crouch Green (cruc in Latin as you know) and appears to stood for 400 years until Henry VIII dissolved the Monasteries.  It was then dumped and later found to be supporting the roof of the Falcon Inn basement.  Donated, one a replacement was found, it became the shaft of the memorial erected in 1921.  Indications are the shaft was ordered by de Vere, the Lord of the Manor up the road in his castle.  Such ancient relics connected to the district put to good worthy use is to be commended.

 
This ancient church, musty smell as always, has many little items dotted around dating back generations and not always clear as to their purpose.  On the right is an external 'Stoup' placed outside for those passing by.  What is a 'Stoup?'  Google dictionary says :-
 stoup /stuːp/.  noun
a basin for holy water, especially on the wall near the door of a Roman Catholic church for worshippers to dip their fingers in before crossing themselves.
But you know that.  

There is of course the usual lectern not one found in the local St Paul's I can tell you!  This rather haughty one appears content to dominate the nave.

This is a wee bit blurred picture of a wee bit blurred image which could be an aged Saxon relic of Mary Magdalene, or possibly an aesthetic priest, or anything else.  It is aged, broken and blurred, such things are interesting and possibly over a thousand years old. 

What was this used for?  

An excellent piece of craftsmanship offers this dedication to the Boy Scouts of the district.  Sadly I slighty moved on taking it and stupidly did not take another.  Excellent work however.

The Chancel was very dark which does not show on here and I have another blurred pic.  I should have stayed at home.  This was John de Vere, the 15th earl of Oxford who was not buried with the other de Vere's in Earls Colne Priory but here.  This was because Henry VIII was still dissolving such places and our man died at the wrong time.  The restorers also treated him with little concern and moved him to the side.  What would he have said I wonder?   

Norman arches abound around here, this one carries the entrance to the chancel.  The church is a bit darker in real life but consider the people who have passed through this door over the years.  Go back to the Saxons before them and allow the type of people, Lords and peasants who have been seen inside this place.  

 
Time to meet the rest of the gang so I wondered around the graveyard, untouched since a new cemetery opened in 1910, maybe they had a fear of plague breaking out...    

On the right 'Falcon House; once the Inn now a private house.  This was where the lords falconer lived.  To the right a narrow lane (are lanes not all narrow in places like this?) which connects swiftly to the castle grounds.  Like all such villages round here many homes date back a good while.

  
The money must have remained around here.  The number of Georgian houses next to much older abodes was noticeable.  Agriculture was surely the main thing, as well as keeping in with royalty, where else would cash come from?  The peasants did not get much.

I was struck by the close connection between the pillar box and the phone box.  The bright red colour standing out in the sunshine.  Then I realised it was a defibrillator box now.  So many of these things are being installed in a wide variety of places and this appeared to me to be a good spot for one of these items.

I wonder if the falconer knew these cottages on the lane.  These may have been modernised and cost over half a million but possibly go back many years.

I cared now for nothing but reaching my goal, under the flag atop the castle walls waited my comrades desperate for historical information and tea and cake, but not in that order....