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St Leonard's Chapel
and Brasses
[Extract from All Saints Writtle by
Stuart Platt, pub 1992]
St Leonard's Chapel On
the North wall is a projecting bay, formed in the 15th
century to enclose an altar and chapel dedicated to St Leonard, who
lived the life of a hermit in the woods; it has
a three light Decorated window, one of six on this side. A shallow recess in the wall probably
once housed a statue of St Leonard.
The Brasses
Immediately alongside the vestry wall is the
oldest of the Writtle brasses, the Bedell family brass dating from c
1500. The man is in early Tudor armour, whilst the lady and children
(six boys and two girls) are dressed in the costume of the period. The
foot inscription is lost, but from the coats of arms it can be traced
that this was John Bedell, a member of an important and long established
local family. Their manor house was Bedells Hall, in a hamlet within the
parish of Writtle then known as Bedells End, and now part of Chignall
Smealy; nearby at a former meeting of three ways stood Bedells Cross.
Although the name still appeared on ordnance survey maps as recently as
1940, the only trace of this family to be found on current ordnance
survey maps is "Beadles Hall". Another member of this family,
William Bedell, was in 1500 made a trustee of the Hawkin's almshouses
"builded in the Churchyard of Wry tell by the sow the styll ".
The present almshouses, still by the "South stile", were built
in 1878.
The next brass immediately to the left is c1500 and
depicts an unknown civilian with his four wives and twenty-one children.
The absence of any foot inscription or coats of arms make it impossible
to trace the family name; the significance of this large family
demonstrates not so much the virility of the man as the short span of
life that was normal in those days and in particular the early deaths of
so many women through childbirth.
Moving further left is a brass of a hundred years
later with a sad tale to tell. It is that of Edward Bowland and his wife
Jone, dated 1616. Fortunately the inscription is clear and records
Edward's death in 1609, whilst that of Jone 7 years later carries the
lament - "Twelve yeares she liv'd a happy wife, The rest was but a
lyngringe life, Bee left to live shee left alone Did leave to Joy he
beinge gone, But nowe (as her desires did crave) She lyes with him
within this grave"
Moving left towards the Nave is the Bell brass,
with effigies of Edmund Bell, gentleman, his wife Margaret and their
three sons; the brass effigy of the daughter, Anne is missing but the
foot legend is intact and dated 1576. The Bell family were of
Gloucester, but owned estates in Essex.
 On the West side of the screen is one of the few
examples to be found in Essex of a brass to commemorate a maiden lady.
This brass bears the figure of a lady with her long hair hanging down
her back and having no pendant to her girdle - the customary signs of
spinsterhood. Constans Berners is described in the inscription as the
"meyden daughter" of John Berners, of Turges (Sturgeons).
Regrettably, the four shields once on this slab are
missing; they were recorded as still being there in 1722, and a rubbing
of one was made by Hannah Barlow (of Greenbury) as recently as 1896;
this, with other rubbings made by her are stored in the choir vestry and
in need of some restoration.
 Beyond this is the very fine Heveningham brass,
with four adult figures. These are, from left to right, Thomasina
Thomas, nee Heveningham (dec'd 1513), her father Thomas Heveningham
junior, her grandfather Thomas Heveningham senior and grandmother, also
Thomasina. The Heveninghams, a branch of the famous Suffolk family,
lived in Tye Hall in what is now the parish of Roxwell. Thomasina's
third husband came from Crickhowell in Wales and lived at Rolleston's;
in his will, as well as bequests to the Church, he bequeathed
"Lawrence Croft in Wellfylde in Wrytell" to his son. Although
the shields for this brass are still intact, the foot legend is missing
and last recorded in 1610, when the final words of this inscription
stated that the four Heveninghams depicted in the brass lay "partly
under this stone, and partly more immediately before the Image of the
Holy Trinity; upon whose souls may God have mercy."
Some of the lost foot legends are probably missing
through neglect, but there is also a view. that some were removed during
Puritanical purges carried out in Cromwell's time, when wording such as
this was regarded as too Popish. It is said that in some cases the
families removed them to avoid such desecration.
What is certain is that some of the missing figures
from the Writtle brasses have at some time past been stolen - it is
possible that some of those traced may eventually be restored to the
Church.
Lying between the Heveningham brass and the South
wall of St Leonard's chapel is another slab on which only the effigy of
the wife and six sons remain; the man was William Pynchon who died in
1592 (an earlier Pynchon than the one who left in 1630 to found
Springfield, Massachusetts). Also missing are the figures of three
daughters, the foot legend and the shield of arms; this latter also was
recorded in a rubbing made by Hannah Barlow in 1896.
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