Tag: #reports

You could get a ring of 8 in there!

Annual Report delivery day #3 took us to the NE of the County and to the home of the NE District Secretary to delivery the reports for the NE District members.  One the way back we stopped off at Brightlingsea for our picnic lunch.  Neither of us has ever been to Brightlingsea before, and to be honest, are not likely to ever go there again.

However, as you go into the town, there a large church, All Saints, at the top of the hill.  We know that there are no bells in there (not for full circle ringing anyway) however the structure of the church and tower could easily take a decent set of 8 bells or event a set of 10.  It pinged up on our Sat Nav which is loaded with the Doves Guide points of interest, so it must have a bell in there.  

When we eventually got a signal, we checked the new and improved Doves Guide but Brightlingsea wasn’t listed at all.  C did a google search and according to the church guide “the most striking external feature is the embattled tower, built of local flint in the last years of the 15th century. The tower stands 97 feet high, in three stages, with a minstrel gallery built into the lowest stage. The tower really is quite remarkable; with one of the finest examples of diagonal buttress bracing in East Anglia” https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/essex/churches/brightlingsea.htm

 “Said to be 2 bells, one by William Dawe circa 1400, inscribed Dulcis Sisto Melis Vocor Campana Michaelis. Sanctus uninscribed.” https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1337182

“the ringing chamber presents some curious features; in the belfry are frames for 5 or 6 bells, but only one of the ancient peal, dating from about A.D. 1450, now remains; there is also a small sanctus bell unhung: in 1889 a peal of 10 tubular bells was presented by M. Bayard Brown esq. an American gentleman visiting Brightlingsea in his steam yacht “Valfreyia:” https://ukga.org/churches.php?pageid=4444

Our route back home took us to drop off reports for Inworth (6 bells), Tollesbury (10 bells), Tolleshunt D’Arcy (6 bells), Great Totham (6 bells), Goldhanger (8 bells), Maldon St Mary (6 bells) and Maldon All Saints (8 bells).

So many bells and we didn’t even ring one of them.

Skylarking around Dengie Deliveries

Annual Report delivery day #2 took us out to the Dengie Peninsula, a stretch of Essex coastline that is formed by the Rivers Crouch and Blackwater, both tidal, and the North Sea to the east.  The boundary of the Dengie Hundred ran from North Fambridge to west of Maldon.

We drove out to via Purleigh to Bradwell on Sea, home of the power station (not The Power Station – Robert Palmer and escapee Duran Duran band members) and the Chapel, where St Cedd landed to teach us heathens about Christianity in 654 AD.  We walked down to the Chapel, then instead of turning left, the usual route that walkers take along the coastline towards the power station, we decided to talk the right hand path that tracks along the saltmarshes towards Burnham on Crouch.  We walked for a while then stopped for a packup lunch and watch a bit of nature.

I have one of those apps that helps you identify birds by their call, so when I set it off, it told me that the riotous squawking was coming from Skylarks. We couldn’t see any but they were making an almighty racket.  Then there was a different sound, just in one particular spot, and the app told me that was a Redshank.  Again, couldn’t see any but this one was rather vocal.  We also spotted, but didn’t hear some gulls, mallards, a coote and a solitary egret type bird.  There were some other sea birds a bit further out be we couldn’t make them out.

After our 4 mile round trip, we started our deliveries.  Reports for Bradwell, only we went up and down the same stretch of road about 4 times trying to find a house name.  Then the return journey via Southminster to Tillingham and then Burnham on Crouch.

When we arrived at Burnham we decided to have another little walk along the river edge.  And stop for the obligatory ice cream.  What a palaver that turned out to be. There are two ice cream outlets opposite each other.  One seemed to have a long queue, the other didn’t, so we joined the one with the shorter queue.  Then we noticed that they had a sign telling you that basically they’d run out of all flavours of ice cream except two.  So we turned around and joined the other queue.  It took FOREVER to get served.  There seemed to be four staff, one on ice creams and the other three taking it in turns serving chips and hot food, or standing around chatting.  The young lady serving the ice cream seemed to have the memory of a goldfish.  If you gave her too many options, she just couldn’t remember it.  And from the time of taking your order, and your money, to actually starting your order, she had everything jumbled up.  It must have taken at least 20 minutes to get our order.  We did wonder whether it was worth it, but when you so close to the front of the queue, you kind of have to stay with it.

Anyway, eventually with ice cream in hand, we continued our walk passed some houseboats and the playing field to as far as we could get along the harbour, where the marina is.   We clocked up another 1.7 miles.

A leisurely drive back home through the countryside and back into the city, on a beautifully day.  Tomorrow’s adventure takes us north!