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ICRAITRRU60 - VALERIO DI STEFANO or
Greenstead Church
A SAXON CHURCH WITH WOODEN WALLS
=How to get there.=–Train from Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street.
Great Eastern Railway.
=Nearest Station.=–Chipping Ongar (1 mile from Greenstead Church).
=Distance from London.=–22-3/4 miles.
=Average Time.=–Varies between 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=–Single 3s. 11d. 2s. 10d. 1s. 11-1/2d.
Return 5s. 9d. 4s. 2d. 3s. 1d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=–Inn, etc., at Ongar.
Entering Ongar from the railway station one finds on the right a
footpath leading into a fine avenue. About ten minutes’ walk down this
brings one to Greenstead Hall, a red brick Jacobean house, with the
church adjoining it. Set among a profusion of foliage, the simple little
building would be quite interesting as an ideally situated little rustic
church, but when one realises how unique it is, the spot at once becomes
fascinating. The walls of the diminutive nave, as one may see from the
illustration given here, consist of the trunks of large oak trees split
down the centre and roughly sharpened at each end. They are raised from
the ground by a low foundation of brick, and inside the spaces between
the trees are covered with fillets of wood. On top the trees are
fastened into a frame of rough timber by wooden pins. The interior of
the building is exceedingly dark, for there are no windows in the wooden
walls, and the chief light comes from the porch and a dormer window.
This window in the roof, however, was not in the original design, for
the rude structure was only designed as a temporary resting-place for
the body of St. Edmund the Martyr. It was in A.D. 1010 that the saint’s
body was removed from Bury to London, its protectors fearing an
incursion of the Danes at that time. Three years afterwards, however,
the body was brought back to Bury, and on its journey rested for a time
at Greenstead–a wooden chapel being erected in its honour. The remains
of this chapel, built nearly half a century before the Conquest, are
still to be seen in the wooden walls just referred to. The length of the
original structure was 29 feet 9 inches long by 14 feet wide. The walls,
5 feet 6 inches high, supported the rough timber roof, which possessed
no windows. The chancel and tower were added afterwards.
Ongar Castle, a huge artificial mound surrounded by a moat, is close to
the main street. The church contains in the chancel, hidden by a carpet,
the grave of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter. A house in the High Street is
associated with Livingstone.
[Illustration: GREENSTEAD CHURCH, ESSEX.
Built in 1013, is remarkable for its nave, constructed of solid tree
trunks.]
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Farnham, Surrey •
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Shottermill •
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Layer Marney •
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Reculvers •
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Tewkesbury •
Exeter and Its Cathedral •
Market Drayton, Salop •
Chester •
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Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey •
Knaresborough, Dripping Well •
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Ripon Cathedral •
Dartmoor •
Haworth •
Rievaulx Abbey •
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Llandovery, South Wales •
Dartmouth, Devon •
Richmond, Yorkshire •
Tintagel •
Whitby •
Carnarvon Castle •
Plymouth •
Durham and Its Cathedral •
Raby Castle, Durham •
Snowdon •
Harlech Castle •
Grasmere and Rydal Mount •
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St. Davids Cathedral •
Furness Abbey, Lancashire •
Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow •
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Fowey •
Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall •
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