England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Radwinter St Mary the Virgin

The Parish

The parish of Radwinter lies in the extreme north of Essex forming a rather short stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Cambridgeshire. Radwinter is located roughly 5 miles east of the town of Saffron Walden and sits on the B1053 road which links Saffron Walden with Braintree. Radwinter is a small crossroads settlement with most properties clustered around the junction of the B1053 with Church Road & Water Lane, a few more lie along the B1053 itself towards where it forks with the B1054 headed for Hempstead. Early gazetteers describe the parish as being well-wooded which is not matched by today's landscape where only 2 significant patches of woodland remain Great & Little Bendysh Woods. The landscape is today a spread of agricultural fields mainly growing cereals alternating with beet and oil-seed. Radwinter stands on the northern banks of the River Pant which drains the parish southeast, after passing through the outskirts of Braintree the same river is renamed as the Blackwater wherein it heads to Maldon and reaches the North Sea through the Blackwater Estuary. Radwinter is sited at around 80 metres above the sea in lightly rolling countryside where local hill-tops reach a little over 110 metres on occasion. North Essex rural parishes are often fairly extensive and Radwinter parish covering just over 3,800 acres is probably twice the area of a similar rural parish in much of the county, that acreage would have supported a population of around 900 parishioners. Radwinter in Domesday times recorded 47 households which just manages to place it amongst the largest 20% of settlements by population, it was shared by 4 landholders with the largest share with one Frodo, not a hobbit but the brother of Abbot Baldwin, collectively the assets of 15 ploughs backed by extensive meadows & woodland point to a comfortable mid-range rural settlement.

The Church

St Mary's church stands at the main junction of the village where the B1053 is met by Church Road. This is a church which has been heavily modified by the Victorian restorers to the point where it almost constitutes a rebuild. very little remains that is truly intact medieval fabric, just the western 3 bays of the nave, of uncertain date, the Early English Gothic southern arcade from c1280 and its northern equivalent in the Decorated style of the mid-14th century. Everything thing else is a product of 19th century work, sometimes reusing the original masonry and at other times rebuilding anew. The first restoration of 1867 required extending the nave eastwards by a further bay which necessitated rebuilding the chancel and southern vestry, the aisles were also rebuilt at the same time. Further work of 1886 rebuilt the western tower, restored the 14th century porch adding the jettied upper storey and also added a northern vestry. Much of the internal fittings are also from Victorian work and the wrought-iron chancel screen and reredos in particular warrant seeing, the reredos was made in Brussels in c1510 and bought and added to St Mary by the incumbent, Fred Bullock. Both Church Road and Water Lane have on-road parking, the entrance stands immediately west of the junction through a tall lychgate, regrettably the churchyard is quite well wooded requiring careful choice of angles by the photographer to achieve acceptable views.