In this section, you will find most things you might want to find out about our church. Please contact us using the form at the foot of this page if you have any further enquiries.
Please note that until further notice, Thursday morning services are being held in the church hall at 9.30 am. We also have monthly family themed services on Sundays. Our services are taken mainly by clergy from All Saints Creeksea Church.
If you would like further information, please use the Get in Touch form at the bottom of this page.
For any enquiries, please contact:
The Revd Suzie Fryer, Priest-in-Charge St Mary the Virgin, Burnham on Crouch, St Andrew’s Althorne, Holy Trinity North Fambridge; Associate Priest, All Saints Creeksea
01621 782071
For any enquiries, please contact:
The Revd Suzie Fryer, Priest-in-Charge St Mary the Virgin, Burnham on Crouch, St Andrew’s Althorne, Holy Trinity North Fambridge; Associate Priest, All Saints Creeksea
01621 782071
For any enquiries, please contact:
The Revd Suzie Fryer, Priest-in-Charge St Mary the Virgin, Burnham on Crouch, St Andrew’s Althorne, Holy Trinity North Fambridge; Associate Priest, All Saints Creeksea
01621 782071
At present, St Andrew's Church, Althorne, requires extensive and expensive repair. It is a central focal point of the village that's stood for over 700 years and we'd like it to stand for another 700! Please support us to achieve this - every penny counts! Thank you! Please click on this link for more info.
The hall offers a large floor space with marked out badminton court; modern kitchen with oven, fridge microwave, crockery and cutlery; tables and chairs for up to 90 persons; refurbished cloaks area with toilets; wheelchair access; car parking with 20 spaces; paved patio area.
For bookings, please contact Mary Stoker on 01621 742464.
Presently, the following clubs & activities take place in the hall:
Mondays:
Table tennis 1-2 pm
Monthly-Ladies Club
Tuesdays:
Yoga-10-11 am
Wednesdays:
Fundraising ladies 2-4 pm
Salsa dancing 7.30-8.30 pm
Thursdays:
Morning worship 9.30-10.30 am
Choir 12:30 plus evening session
Parking at the church is very limited. Please use the car park at the church hall on Summerhill.
Our church building needs major structural repair to ensure the building can survive and continue to be open for community use. It is a Grade 2* listed building and is currently on Historic England's Heritage At Risk Register.
We have an exciting heritage plan to address the issues and see the building saved for future use. We are planning a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support us with most of the repair costs to see it reopened. They will also hopefully fund activities to enable St Andrew’s to be more widely used for activities around history and activities that benefit our village. We need to match fund and have set up a number of online fundraising tools.
We are conducting a survey of residents and community groups to help us learn more about Althorne's needs and how we, as a church, can better try to serve all in our community. We have a new priest-in-charge and a set of new vision and mission. We want the church to be the heart of the village and to address gaps in local provision.
Your responses (data) to this survey are being collected on behalf of St. Andrew’s Parochial Church Council (PCC) (The Data Controller). The purpose of this survey is to inform the application being made by the PCC to the National Lottery Fund for financial support in order to repair and improve St. Andrew’s Church, Althorne. The lawful basis used to support this data collection is Legitimate Interest, in that you have an legitimate interest in improving the church and its facilities and support our legitimate interest in making an application to do so. The data collected will be anonymised and used to produce statistics to support our application. Your responses (personal data) will not be shared with any other individual or organisation. Your responses will be retained for a period of three months after the result of the application is known and then will be securely erased. This is anticipated to be no later than 31st December 2024. If you wish to ask any further questions regarding this survey please send an email to st.andrewspcc@crouchvalleychurches.com
We value all comments and will feedback what this survey has told us. This is your chance to have a say-the deadline for your response is 30 September. Click here for the survey
In this section, you will find most things you might want to find out about our church. Please contact us using the form at the foot of this page if you have any further enquiries.
7 October: Craft-a-noon- tea. See poster for more info.
13 October:
Maldon Citizen's Advice rep will be in the church hall from 10-12 noon to help people with advice on benefits, debt and money issues, legal, housing, employment, family and relationships and consumer issues. Coffee & biscuits will be provided and advice given will be confidential. Please contact Jean Ingram on 07748666066 for further queries. Or email jeaningram@btinternet.com
Quiz night. Join us for a quiz night. Please contact Mary Stoker to book a table.
21 October: Harvest celebration-see poster for more details.
18 November: Christmas bazaar. More details to follow.
Please use the get in touch section at the bottom of this page to obtain more information for these events.
If you are interested in contributing to our match funding for our National Lottery bid, you can do so by:
1. Setting up and account with easyfundraising and choosing St. Andrew's as your nominated charity. Then shop online via them and the church receives a small donation from them. Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/how-it-works/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrMKmBhCJARIsAHuEAPTv5km_GOOC9AsCNNlcpspJdZp0cutoaKntAZQ-wccHnL4i4b4dDhgaAiJbEALw_wcB
2. Donate or do a fundraising activity for the church. Go to
https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/wall/st-andrews-church-althorne-essex
Or scan the QR code above with your phone camera
3. Donate via Parish Giving. Go to https://www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/
We would like to thanks the following organisations for their generous financial support:
Benefact Trust -grant towards church hall kitchen roof, windows and door repairs
Our current Parochial Church Council members are:
We were blessed with good weather for the day. This was a lovely day for the village community of Althorne to come together in aid of raising funds for the church repairs.
St. Andrews is located off the B1010 Fambridge Road. Entry is via a narrow road next to the Old Vicarage. Parking is very limited. Parking is available in the Church Hall car park on Summerhill.
In early times the Parish of Althorne belonged to St. Paul’s Cathedral. By 1120 a Bishop of London had founded the Priory of St. Osyth, near Clacton and gave Althorne with other parishes to his new foundation. The fact that a church was endowed in about 1225 is confirmed in a Charter from Henry III, dated 11th September 1268. The first known incumbent was Henry Mot, a Chaplain from Kelvedon, who was instituted on 25th September 1323.
After the Dissolution of the Priory of St. Osyth in 1535, Henry VIII gave the Lordship of the Manor of Althorne (along with 100 more), to his agent, Sir Richard Rich. It remained in his family until 1593, passing to the Wisemans of Mayland, to Lord Stourton in 1745, and so on. The present Patron is the Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Chelmsford. Althorne and Creeksea were united as one Benefice from 1795. In January 1980, the group of Crouch Valley Parishes was formed, comprising Althorne, Creeksea, Latchingdon and North Fambridge. Rev. Vincent Castle, the incumbent at the time was also the last Rural Dean of the Dengie Deanery from 1974. In 2008 Creeksea became a separate parish and Cold Norton and Stow Maries joined the Crouch Valley group.
The Church is much restored though the form of the Late Perpendicular building remains, with walls of flint and stone rubble.
The CHANCEL, with brick walls, was built during the 16th century but has a modern East Window. The two early windows, with cinque foiled lights and vertical tracery, and the Chancel Doorway have been restored. The Chancel Arch is modern though the stone responds may be 14th century. A Victorian screen was removed in the 1940s. Sets of four beautiful Altar Frontals and Palls were made in 1964.
The NAVE (38’ x 20’) was built in the late 1400’s. Part of the upper and lower doorways to the narrow rood loft staircase are seen at the east end. They are blocked and formed into a projection. The South Doorway has moulded jambs and a four centre arch, with a painting of the Royal Arms set above. A similar North Doorway opposite is now blocked. The piscina and drain in the South Wall, and moulded bracket on the North Wall are 15th century. The roof timbers and many alterations and repairs were made for Rev. Henry Milligan, by a Faculty of 1884. The Pipe Organ was moved to the west end of the Nave in 1948. A picture of ‘The Last Supper’, worked in 1979, hangs on the wall below the Minstrel Gallery. The Porch is 18th century.
The FONT, dated about 1400 is said to be the finest early 15th century Font in Essex. Pevsner, however, was not impressed! It is an octagonal bowl with seven sculptured panels and a moulded base with flowers. The panels represent the Martyrdom of St. Andrew, the Baptism of a Prince (in a similar font), a King and Queen, a Seraph, two men with scrolls, a man and woman, two figures of men. The Font now stands on a memorial stone to Elizabeth Gordon.
The BRASSES were probably made in London. An inscription below a missing principal effigy reads ‘Of your charity pray for the soul of Margaret Hyklott which deceased 27 August 1502’. Below are 6 ½ “ figures of two daughters, one a nun. William Hyklott is represented full faced, long hair, long civilian robe with wide fur cuffs and broad toed shoes. He ‘paide for the werkemanship of the walls of the church’ and died on 16th September 1508. Two smaller brasses represent The Holy Father and The Blessed Virgin and Child. There is no further history of the Hyklotts.
A Wall Brass in the Nave commemorates three local boys, drowned when their boat capsized in the fast running current of Bridgemarsh Creek on Easter Monday 1919.
The TOWER has an embattled parapet with flint inlay in a trellis work of ashlar. It was built in 1500 by John Wylson and John Hyll. An inscription over the West Door (now badly eroded) asks prayer for them, “Orate pro animabus dominorum Johannis Wylson et Johannis Hyll quorum animabus propicietur dues amen”. The West window is modern, flanked by two plain brick crosses The Bell Chamber, with a window in each wall, contains two bells. The larger one, with the lighter tone, was made by Thomas Harrys in about 1480. The smaller bell is inscribed “Miles Graye made me, 1638”. The Tower was restored in 1875 and in 1976.
A mediaeval SCRATCH or MASS DIAL is set in a Nave buttress on the South Wall near the porch. An oak peg in the centre was used to cast a shadow for the priest to indicate time of the next Mass.
The SUN DIAL pillar was originally from St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, and was presented by the Spencer-Smiths in memory of two sons killed in the Great War.
THE VICARAGE. Kelly’s Directory 1848, refers to a good Parsonage with 6 acres of glebe. Rev. Henry Milligan built a new Vicarage in 1862. This and some of the land was sold in 1972 and the present Vicarage built in 1977. The house known as “Silver Ley” was used temporarily as the Vicarage from 1971. Access to the Church was much improved by the surfacing of the Chase and Car Park.
ST. ANDREW’S HALL was built in 1909 at a cost of £400.
ALTHORNE WAR MEMORIAL was paid for by public subscription and erected, in Lych Gate style, by voluntary labour on land given by the London and North Eastern Railway Company (L.N.E.R.). The cost to the Parish was £252. The Memorial was dedicated by the Bishop of Barking on Sunday 11th July 1926.
ALTHORNE is not named in the Domesday Survey of 1066, probably because it was then held by a Bishop of London as part of his vast Manor of Southminster.
In the distant past Althorne formed the three Manors of:
It has been recorded that a Fair was held on June 5th but there are no details.
Althorne is of course marked on many early maps. The Church and Oyster Layings in the Creek are clearly shown in a charming drawing of the Crouch Estuary, of about 1775. “Sighting lines” had evidently been used in the preparation of the sketch and the one from a point north of Foulness to St. Peter’s, Bradwell, is well defined.
In Chapman and Andre’s Atlas of Essex, 1777, Althorne Hall, Stokes Hall, Barns and Mansion Farms are shown, with smaller buildings in the area of the Black Lion, the Forge and Church Chase. The population was then about 350 and the most important land-owners were St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, with extensive interests in the area, and the Wilson family.
A typically “long” village, Althorne had a population of less than 500 until its recent development. With definite plans for main drainage, River View Park expanded in the 1960’s and two housing estates were developed in the 1970’s. The population has more than doubled in 20 years. There is of course much interest in the people and places of the recent past. Village histories are seldom spectacular – that is part of their fascination, and Althorne is no exception.
Vicars of Althorne
1323 Henry Mot
A framed Chronological list hangs on the North Wall of the Nave.
1795 John Robinson, M.A. Benefice united with Creeksea 1795
1831 Henry Fothergill, M.A.
1831 James Bruce
1859 Henry Candy
1861 Henry Milligan, B.A.
1908 Wm. Shaw Stewart, D.D.
1935 Herbert G. Browning
1958 Joseph F. Hayes
1963 Bernard A. B. Rose
1967 Bertram A. C. D. Wilson, B.A., A.K.C.
1971 Vincent C. Castle, B.A. Crouch Valley Parishes 1980
1982 Arthur Marshall
1986 Johnston Llynfi Davies, B.A.
1989 Michael L. Langham, B.A.
1996 Stephen A. Robertson, B. Sc.
2006 Sandra E. Manley, B.Mus., G.R.N.C.M., F.R.C.O., A.R.C.M.
Sandra died on 5th December 2019.
The Late G. A. Newman Esq. Churchwarden 1943-1970
ALTHORNE
- named for its wildness, covered with forest trees. The second element is clearly “thorn bush”; the first is old English for “burned”. Through the centuries, various spellings have been:
Aledhorn, Aletorn, Alesthorn, Aldthorne, Alestorn, Alderne, Aletherne, Alborn.
Community links:
Althorne facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/535326480148133/
Althorne village news: https://www.facebook.com/groups/535326480148133/
The Revd Suzie Fryer, Priest-in-Charge: St Mary the Virgin, Burnham on Crouch, St Andrew’s Althorne, Holy Trinity North Fambridge; Associate Priest, All Saints Creeksea
01621 782071
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