BRADWELL JUXTA MARE.
HISTORIC ecclesiastical architecture and the problems of its treatment have been brought into some prominence during the last few months. A Commission appointed to report to the Bishop of London has recommended the alienation and total or partial destruction of nineteen City churches, of which thirteen were the work of the master hand of gar Christopher Wren ; the Dean of Westminster has warned us of the urgent necessity of active steps if the walls of the Abbey are to be saved from the ravages of time and smoke ; and. though less has been said of it lately, we must not forget that the needs of the Fabric Fund of St. Paul's (the greatest of all the City churches and worth all the rest put together) grow greater and not less. The sky seems cloudy indeed, but over a quiet corner of Essex there may be seen a little streak of silver lining, small perhaps, but though humble it heralds an encouraging story which ought not to be wholly overlooked. although it has hardly been heeded in the storm of controversy and consternation which the announcement of the Bishop's Commission and the Dean's appeal have evoked.
During the war the Latchingdon Peninsula was well known to those responsible for our military operations, but in normal times it is a sparsely populated and rarely visited district. The Peninsula is formed by that part of the Essex coast which lies between the estuaries of the Blackwater and the Crouch, two of those long creeks which render so much of the county difficult of access and cut it off from the main arteries of life. At its extreme north-eastern point, on the very edge of the marshes, there stands one of the earliest of. English churches, the Chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell-on. Sea. The site is historically important, for it is that of the great Roman port and town of Othona, which gave way in turn to the Saxon Ythancestir. Now Roman and Saxon alae have vanished, and all that remains of those early civilizations is the small chapel of St. Peter, built athwart the western wall of the Roman city.
At the beginning of the seventh century Essex was ruled by
Sabert, who was a nephew of lEthelberht of Kent and by his influence converted to Christianity. Under his auspices St. Augustine appointed Mellitus Bishop of London, and charged him particularly with the duty of preaching the Gospel to the East Saxons. The influence of Sabert and Mellitus, however. was temporary, and the kingdom relapsed into paganism ; an& it was not until half a century later that Christianity reappeared in Essex. Then the impulse came not from Canterbury but from Lindisfarne, for the East Saxon King Sigebert was the friend and guest of the great Northumbrian Oswig and was induced by him to allow St. Cedd, brother of St. Chad of Lichfield, to carry the Gospel of the Cross to Essex. Success crowned the efforts of Cedd, and Bede tells us that he founded churches at Tilbury and Ythancestir. It is this latter church which stands to this day, probably little altered, a well-knows landmark to sailors and yachtsmen approaching Maldon.
The city of Ythancestir was probably ravaged by the Danes.
and most of such remains as survived to a later date have now been lost by encroachments of the sea. The chapel, at any rate, is now practically all that is left above ground, and it is most fortunate that it stands—a solitary reminder of early Church missionary efforts in these parts. Its preservation is almost certainly due to the fact that after its use as a church had ceased the little building was found convenient for other purposes and was not, therefore, allowed either to fall into disrepair or to be used, as generally happened in :uch cases, as a convenient quarry for constructive work in its neighbour- hood. So far as is known, it was used as a church until damaged by fire some time before 1442. At that date it possessed an apse, apparently connected with the body of the building by a triple archway, and, it is said, a belfry tower. There is a local tradition that one of its bells was stolen by the fishermen of Mersea Island across the Blackwater estuary, who, when hotly pursued by the men of Bradwell, threw their booty into the water, where in stormy weather it may be heard tolling to this day. More certainly the building was used as a beacon towards the end of the sixteenth century, and for the last 150 years as a barn.
After six centuries of secular use the chapel has recently been repaired under the conservative supervision of the Inspector of Ancient Monuments and made over to a body of trustees and devoted once again to religious purposes. This happy result is due to the enterprise of the owner, Mr. Christopher Parker, and to his generosity and that of his friends ; to him and to them the public owe a very heavy debt of gratitude. For the service of re-dedication by the Bishop of Chelmsford some two or three hundred people recently visited this isolated spot. As a part of the service Bishop Browne, late of Bristol, delivered an address in which he recalled the earliest history of the chapel and illustrated it with anecdotes of the life of St. Cedd and his contemporaries. The seating accommodation in the chapel being limited, the Bishop read his address in the open air, and a picture of great simplicity but of much beauty will have been engraved on the minds of those present. The congregation, many seated on the ground, surrounded the two scarlet-robed Bishops and peurpliced clergy, who stood with their backs to the eastern wall of the chapel. They were flanked on each side by the luxuriant crops of reclaimed land ; in front lay the wide stretches of St. Peter's Sands, with the open sea beyond, while close by were sandbagged trenches and many coils of rusty barbed wire—grim reminders that the Reign of Peace is not yet.
To one who made a comparison of St. Peter's with the little chapel of St. Aldheim on the Dorset coast, an alternative more startling, but in truth more apposite, was suggested. As architecture the rude simplicity of St. Peter's is, of course, far removed from the noble glory of Paestum ; but in its marsh surroundings, its propinquity to the sea, above all its peculiar character as a religious temple standing the sole survivor of a long dead city, St. Peter's may justly challenge the comparison. After all, the differences between this little chapel and the more splendid Doric temples are not unlike the differences between Christianity and classical paganism, and both offer to the thoughtful " sermons in stone," adorning their tale in like manner and pointing a similar moral. NKIEL BOND.
Previous page
