Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

My Mother, Minnie Winifred Greening, married my Father, Jesse Herbert Gregory, at St Mary’s The Virgin Anglican Church, Prittlewell Essex, on the 24th. of August 1918.

This old church, dates back to the Saxon period, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Early in the twelfth century Robert de Essex, the Lord of the Manor, made a grant to enable the foundation of Prittlewell Priory. It included the church and the rectorial thithes and all the emoluments of the priests serving Ptittlewell, Eastwood and Sutton.

The interior dimensions are approximately 154 feet long by 45 feet wide, and the church is dedicated to the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary. Most of the fabric is of Kentish ragstone, and limestone from Ancaster in Linclonshire, and the earlier copper and lead roofs have now been replaced by green Westmoreland slates. In the northern wall is half of a Saxon arch, built from Roman bricks, and this is the odest part of the church.

The Bells.
The three oldest bells date from 1603, and have all been recast. The tenor bell, made by John Darbie in 1682, weighs almost a ton, it was named after King Edward VII, with his approval, as it was in his Coronation year that it was recast, and the full peal of ten bells was hung.

The Glass.
The oldest and finest glass in the church is in the east window of the Jesus Chapel. It dates from the first half of the 16th. century, and was originally the south west window of St. Ouen in Rouen. During the French Revolution it was sold in the market place in Rouen coming into the possession of the Neave family, in whose keeping it remained until placed in the chapel; in the 1880’s. It is possible that some of the panels were made to designs of the German artist, Albrecht Durer.

Here is a photograph of my Mother and Father on their wedding day, and a post card depicting the church which I visited some years ago.

Minnie Winifred Greening married my father, Jesse Herbert Gregory

 

St Mary's Church