Tolpuddle Martyrs Walk: Greensted, Essex 2017

On Sunday 16 July Sunday 2017 during the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs weekend, I went for a walk with Gill in Chipping Ongar and Greensted to visit the wooden Saxon Church and pay homage to the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were resettled in farms around here, after they were released from transportation to Australia.

It is a lovely part of the world and the Church is just amazing. It is also thought to be the oldest wooden Church in the world and the oldest wooden building standing in Europe.

One of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, James Brine (I used to manage James Brine House in Bethnal Green as a Council housing officer) married the daughter of another of the victims, Elizabeth Standfield, here on 20 June 1839.

The Martyrs were driven out of the area due to opposition due to the local Rector and they emigrated to Canada.

The walk was about 9 miles (we got a little lost) but it was a good planning event for next year, so any supporters of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who cannot get to Dorset that weekend may want to join us on a walk to Greensted.

The starting point of the walk in the village of Chipping Ongar is also well worth a visit.

Tolpuddle and the Essex Connection

This year my plans to go to the Tolpuddle Martyrs' festival this weekend in Dorset fell through again.

The 6 martyrs were farm labourers who were sentenced to transportation to Australia for forming a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset 1834.

There was an outcry against this injustice and after 3 years the men were given free pardons and brought back home.

What many people do not realise is that when they returned from Australia they were given farm tenancies in Greensted and High Laver in Essex near Chipping Ongar. (TOWIE 1837?) This is only a 25 minutes drive from Newham in East London.

So today I retraced the walk I went on in 2010 (apart from getting lost this time) and revisited the historic Saxon church at Greensted where one of the Martryrs James Brine, had married Elizabeth Standfield (daughter of another Martyr) at the Church in 1839. I think this was their local parish church (despite most of them being Methodists).

The reactionary Rector of the Greensted Church at the time (I wonder if he took James wedding?) was virulently opposed to the Martyrs and helped make their lives so unpleasant that all of them eventually left and apart from one they emigrated to Canada.

Despite this latter association I would recommend that anyone who lives nearby and cannot make it to Tolpuddle to visit Greensted. It is believed to be the oldest wooden Church in the world and even the oldest wooden building in Europe. It is also incredibly beautiful and peaceful in lovely surroundings. 

The Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Essex Saxon Church

On Sunday morning I was looking for a short walk in the nearby countryside and picked this “Chipping Ongar and Greensted Church” walk from the Essex “Pathfinder” series. I had read about the 11th century Saxon Church at Greensted and how it is reputed to be the oldest wooden building in the world.

The walk started in Chipping Ongar which is a lovely Essex county village and was only a 20 minutes drive from Newham. It was a great little walk (4.5 miles), warm sunshine and cool breezes with hardly a sole to be seen. A little bit flat but lots of greenery and shade in very ancient woods, enclosed paths and lanes. The church itself was of course chocolate box perfect inside and out (see picture) and it is to me amazing that this building (well, parts of it) has been used continually by the local community, as a place of worship, for just under a 1000 years. There is still a regular service each Sunday at 9.30am.

I then bought a guidebook (via the unmanned honesty box ) and was astonished to read that there was a very topical labour movement history connection with the church. Since the Tolpuddle Martyrs after they had been released from slave labour and transportation to Australia had been unable to return to Dorset due to opposition from local landlords. So they had been given farm tenancies in Greensted and High Laver. One of the Martyrs, James Brine, had actually married Elizabeth Standfield (daughter of another Martyr) at the Church in 1839. The rector of the church later opposed the renewal of the farm tenancies and they emigrated to Canada. (for what it is worth I use to be the estate officer for “James Brine House” in Bethnal Green in the early 1990s).

The weekend after next it is the annual festival at Tolpuddle which I was planning to go down and visit with some West Ham Labour Party comrades but this hasn’t worked out this year since there a number of things going on in London that weekend as well (e.g. Labour Housing Group AGM). Hopefully next year we can organise something better, but I was glad to visit Greensted and enjoy all its history and in a little way, honour the Martyrs nearer to home.

So - if you can’t make it to Dorset on the 16/18 July weekend but have transport, walking boots and sun hat - then I recommend you buy the same guidebook and take yourself off to Chipping Ongar!