St Mary’s – Royal Arms, Havard and Art

Peter Noakes’ recent talk about St Mary’s Through Time, focussing on the Royal Arms and Rev Havard, was very well supported. (Read more below). Progress in setting up the Art Exhibition is well underway but more works would be much appreciated.  The Friends of St Mary’s report as follows:

Art In The Old Church

The Friends have had a lot of interest in their forthcoming art exhibition.  This takes place over the weekend of 15th-16th June but so far only about 20 people have submitted forms.  They welcome budding and established artists. There is no charge to exhibit or to visit the exhibition but they would be grateful to receive donations towards the cost of caring for the old church.

They hope to make this a successful and colourful exhibition and look forward to more forms in the next fortnight. The deadline for registration is 1st June and they will be accepting paintings on 14th June.

There are registration forms in the Old Church and they are also available from Jane 240167 or email [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].

St. Mary’s Through Time

We were treated to a most enjoyable and informative afternoon at the Old Church on Saturday 18th May. Peter Noakes gave a very interesting talk with slides. We discovered how the church grew from a humble wooden structure built by the Saxons, was replaced with the stone building by the Normans, added to later and how it is still in use today.

We heard how fortunate we are to have two royal coats of arms in the church both of which are quite interesting.   Peter reviewed the reformation of religion in England that occurred in the 16th century stimulated by Henry VIII followed by Edward VI, Mary 1 and then Elizabeth I.

The Royal Arms were also used to symbolise the King’s authority and, after Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1534, they began to appear in churches, representing the connection between the monarch and the church.
Source: https://www.britroyals.com/arms.asp.

We then discussed the structure of the Royal Coats of Arms; Peter pointed out the significance of the James I wall painting and the cast Hanoverian Royal Coat of Arms.  The Hanoverian cast was probably made by James Wallis at his foundry in Colchester.

Long Serving Priest

Having reviewed names of all the priests since the 12th century, Peter discussed the contribution of the longest serving.  Rev Alban Jenkins Havard was in post when the new St Mary’s Church was built and consecrated.  Rev. Havard and his wife evidently had a son called Alban Granville Erle Havard who was a Cowman and we were told lived in Albany Cottages in 1939.  Peter indicated that the West Bergholt Local History Group will be investigating this more fully.

At the end of the talk, the sixty people who came were treated to drinks and delicious homemade cakes.