CHURCH
The church, which until 1854 stood
near the western parish boundary, was first
recorded c. 1145 when the tithes of Thiel of
Aldham's demesne were divided between it and
Colne priory. (fn. 32) It was exempt from the arch-
deacon's jurisdiction. (fn. 33) In the Middle Ages,
Fordstreet was perhaps served by a chapel
which, with its priest's house, was in private
hands before c. 1554; it may have been the free
chapel in Fordham recorded in 1549. (fn. 34) Aldham
benefice was held in plurality with Marks Tey
from 1951, and with Little Tey from 1981. (fn. 35) The
ecclesiastical parish boundaries were altered
in 1961 to coincide with the civil parish
boundaries. (fn. 36)
In 1283 Walter of Wigton and Robert of
Aldham agreed to present to the church alter-
nately, but in 1316 William Goldington gave the
whole advowson to endow a chantry in the
church or college of Stanstead St. Margaret or
Thele (Herts.). The rectory was appropriated
and a vicarage instituted, with the diocesan
bishop as patron. (fn. 37) In 1431 the college's pos-
sessions, including Aldham church, were given
to the hospital of St. Mary or Elsing Spital in
London, but in 1474 the bishop collated
to Aldham rectory. (fn. 38) Thereafter successive
diocesan bishops were patrons of the rectory,
presenting regularly except in 1600 and 1745,
when the Crown and the archbishop of
Canterbury presented by lapse, until 1874 when
the bishop of Rochester, to whose diocese Essex
had been assigned in 1852, exchanged the
advowson with Sir H. B. P. St. J. Mildmay for
that of Chelmsford. (fn. 39) The Mildmays presented
until 1933 when the patron was P. E. Warring-
ton. In 1933 or 1934 the advowson passed to the
Martyrs' Memorial Trust who were patrons in
1998. (fn. 40)
The rectory was worth 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.)
in 1254, and £8 in 1291, when it paid pensions
of 14s. 10d. to St. Botolph's priory, Colchester,
and of 8d. each to Colne and Little Horkesley
priories. (fn. 41) The St. Botolph's pension, reduced
to 13s. 4d. by 1498 and later to 6s. 8d., was still
payable in 1536. (fn. 42) The rectory was valued at
c. £12 in 1535. (fn. 43) In 1650 the glebe was worth
£13 and the tithes £101 a year. (fn. 44) In 1675 an
award regulated the rector's half share of the
demesne tithes, and 17th- and 18th-century
rectors negotiated compositions or moduses for
their tithes. (fn. 45) In 1835 the gross income was
£357, which was increased in 1839 by the com-
mutation of the rectorial tithes for a rent-charge
of £412 a year. In 1887 the tithe rent-charge and
glebe brought in £434 a year. (fn. 46)
The glebe, round the rectory house, comprised
c. 20 a. in 1610 and c. 21 a. in 1810. Although
21 p. was given for the school site c. 1829, the
glebe was measured as 24½ a. in 1839. (fn. 47) One
acre was sold in 1870, apparently leaving c. 21 a.
in 1887. About 19 a. was offered for sale in 1919,
and 4 a. was sold with the rectory house
c. 1956. (fn. 48)
The rectory house recorded in 1610 stood
north-west of the site of the later house; in 1662
it had five hearths. (fn. 49) In 1727 the lath and plaster
house was very small and inconvenient, (fn. 50) and
18th-century rectors used it only as a source of
income. A fund for a new house was established
in 1804, and one was built in 1829 and 1830, in
white brick, to a design by Edward Blore. (fn. 51)
From 1951 rectors lived at Marks Tey, and the
Aldham house was sold c. 1956. (fn. 52)
A rector was mentioned in 1289. (fn. 53) Most medi-
eval incumbents, except John Taylor (1370-
1400), resigned or exchanged the living after
short periods. (fn. 54) John Morgan, rector 1490-2,
was later bishop of St. David's. (fn. 55) John Podynger
or Potinger, LL.B. (rector 1503) had a dispen-
sation for non-residence and plurality. (fn. 56) There
was a Trinity guild in 1524. The existence of
two alabaster tables or reredoses in 1547 sug-
gests at least two altars. In 1557 a former rector
bequeathed 10s.-worth of ornaments to the
altar. (fn. 57)
In 1554 the rector was deprived for marriage;
his successor in 1560 was deprived under the
Act of Uniformity. (fn. 58) John Wilton, presented in
1563, was a member of the Dedham classis and
in 1584 signed the petition of puritan Essex
clergy against Archbishop Whitgift's articles. (fn. 59)
He was indicted in 1586 for not using the Book
of Common Prayer, (fn. 60) and was deprived in 1600
when the validity of his ordination was ques-
tioned. The queen presented his successor, a
former seminary priest, 'by lapse' a month
before Wilton's formal deprivation. (fn. 61) The next
two rectors were pluralists who resided only
occasionally, and Aldham was served by curates
until Daniel Falconer was presented in 1624. He
was ejected c. 1645 and was followed by puritan
ministers. John Wilson, who served the cure
from 1649, became rector on Falconer's death
in 1653 and appears to have conformed in
1662. (fn. 62) Robert Grove, rector 1669-71, was later
bishop of Chichester. (fn. 63)
In 1633 and 1684 the church was in a poor
state inside and out, and lacked some books. (fn. 64)
In 1727 the rector claimed to hold at least one
Sunday service, and in 1736 a single Sunday
service had been the norm for more than 60
years. (fn. 65) In the mid and later 18th century serv-
ices were held alternately in the morning and
afternoon, with communion 3 or 4 times a year.
The number of communicants fell from c. 30 in
1766 to 8-12 in 1790. In 1766 Philip Morant,
the Essex historian and rector 1745-70, noted
that people from Fordstreet usually attended
Fordham church which was nearer to them. He
and other 18th-century rectors lived at St.
Mary's-at-the-Walls, Colchester, which they
held in plurality; they visited Aldham frequently
and also employed curates, often the incumbents
of neighbouring parishes. (fn. 66)
Although H. C. Jones, rector 1823-40, was
also archdeacon of Essex and vicar of West Ham,
he was active in Aldham, building the new
rectory house and the school and establishing,
with his curate, the Aldham and United Parishes
Insurance Society. (fn. 67) His successor Charles
Bannatyne (1840-82) built the new church
nearer the centre of the parish in 1854-5. (fn. 68)
Attendance at the morning, and apparently the
only, service on census Sunday 1851 was only
29 with 23 Sunday school children, although
Bannatyne claimed average attendances of 40 in
the morning and 100 in the afternoon with 32
Sunday school children at each service. (fn. 69) By
1911 a weekly communion service had been
introduced. (fn. 70)
The church has maintained a low church
tradition in the 20th century. Evening services
were discontinued c. 1990, and in 1998 there was
one Sunday and one mid-week service, some-
times using the Book of Common Prayer; half
the services were led by laymen. In the 1930s a
churchwarden led a men's fellowship; (fn. 71) weekly
Bible study meetings were held in the 1980s and
1990s.
The medieval church demolished in 1854
comprised chancel, and nave with north chapel,
south aisle, south porch, and western bell turret.
A small 13th-century or earlier church seems to
have been enlarged and remodelled in the 14th
century, when the north or St. Anne's chapel
was added, apparently by James at Lee, and the
south aisle built, perhaps by the Tey family. The
chapel was roofless by 1639 and had been demol-
ished before the mid 18th century. (fn. 72) In 1633 the
steeple, presumably the bellcote, was in decay,
one of its buttresses had partly fallen, and the
stairs were ruinous. In 1684 the steeple boarding
needed replacing. (fn. 73) By 1853 the south arcade
had been replaced by wooden posts, and a west-
ern singers' gallery had been built. (fn. 74) Although
the church was repaired in 1800 it was in a
'wretched state' by 1853. (fn. 75)
The new church of ST. MARGARET AND
ST. CATHERINE, (fn. 76) possibly formerly ST.
ANNE, (fn. 77) was built on a new site in 1854-5 to
designs by E. C. Hakewill. Its plan is the same
as that of the old church, but enlarged, and many
of the old materials were re-used in its construc-
tion. It comprises a chancel with new north
vestry, a nave with south aisle and the 14th-
century timber porch, and a new west tower and
spire. The c. 15th-century roof timbers of the
nave and south aisle, with some of the 13th-
15th-century Barnack limestone windows, were
re-used. The three lancet windows in the south
wall of the south aisle, the chancel arch, and the
south nave arcade, were new. An external stair
turret at the east end of the south aisle appears
to have been copied from the rood loft stairs of
the old church. (fn. 78)
Figure 04:
Aldham church porch c. 1845
The south tower door of c. 1300, the 14th-
century piscinae in the chancel and south aisle,
the 14th-century vestry door, the 15th-century
door of the south porch, (fn. 79) the early 18th-century
altar rails, and the lower part of the font are all
from the old church. Wall plaques to Philip
Morant (d. 1770) and his wife Anne (d. 1767)
and to Susanna (d. 1795) and Robert (d. 1814)
Lay were re-erected in the new church. In 1855
the 15th-century east window was filled with
stained glass in memory of Philip Morant, and
in 1966 his tombstone from the old church was
placed against the south wall of the chancel. (fn. 80)
A silver chalice was stolen in 1552 and a
copper one shortly afterwards. (fn. 81) In 1684 there
was a silver chalice and cover, but the surviving
chalice and cover and the paten, the latter prob-
ably by R. Hutchinson, are of 1730 and 1727
respectively. (fn. 82)
One of the four bells was sold in 1552, and
another was lost between 1684 and the 1760s.
The surviving bells are (i) Thomas Bullisdon,
early 16th-century, (ii) William Dawe, c. 1400,
repaired 1972. (fn. 83)
The graveyard at the old church was disused
by 1887 and officially closed in 1965, the tomb-
stones being moved to the new churchyard. The
site of the old church and graveyard was sold in
1981. (fn. 84) The war memorial of c. 1920 was moved
from across the road into the south-west corner
of the churchyard in 1972. (fn. 85)
Edward H. Lee's charity, founded by a dec-
laration of trust of 1973, gave a quarter of its
income, which totalled £168 in 1998, to the
rector towards his expenses, and a quarter for
the maintenance of the church; the remainder
was given to the elderly. (fn. 86)