Buttsbury Church

Buttsbury Church is dedicated to St Mary, and used to be the parish church of the village of Buttsbury near Ingatestone. The village has long since vanished, although Buttsbury Hall still exists nearby. The earliest part of the church goes back to the 12th Century, and there were subsequent additions in the 13th and 14th Centuries. The church blends well into the surrounding open countryside, over which it has presided for many a century.

Here is the time-honoured church, basking in tranquillity.




As we enter, we are greeted by a nice floral display, ...




... before we admire the timbered roof.




There are more colourful flowers by the altar.

Monuments

Church monuments often give us an insight into the language and customs of times past. Many church monuments, as at Buttsbury, were stone floor slabs with minimal inscriptions. These inscriptions, however, lived up to the passage of countless feet over the centuries.

This is quite easy to read, provided we remember that "obijt" is Latin for "died". Who was Edward Francklin? We read that he was a "Gentleman" and lived to a - for the time - ripe old age of 66. More than that we shall probably never know.




And here we read about Edward Francklin's daughter.
It looks as if "Burchbury" is another spelling of "Buttsbury". I mean, spellings were probably more fluid in the 17th Century compared to our own 21st Century.
Today, I think we can safely say, the literacy rate of the population in Britain is much, much greater than it ever was in 17th Century England.




Here is a wall-mounted monument from "our age".

Goodbye

It's time to make tracks into the world of the here and now. As we leave, we can have a quick look around the churchyard, where some members of the Petre family are buried, despite the espousal of the family to Catholicism.

The old porch seems to bid us farewell, ...




... as we have look at the churchyard.
This picture was, of course, taken in the spring time.




As we head towards Ingatestone, we can still see Buttsbury church presiding over the rolling countryside, as it has done for centuries.

Postscript

These pictures were taken by me at various times including on 2009-03-01, 2010-01-17 and 2017-08-13, on walks including my many walks from Wickford to Ingatestone, especially those in 2011 and 2013 and Paul's excellent IVC walk on 13th August 2017. Historical items for the text were gleaned from within the church as well as from on-line sources too numerous to itemize!