South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society

Our Essex Ancestors commemorated in Brass

The county of Essex, with nearly 300 surviving memorial figure brasses in its parish churches, provides a rich source of study for students of a wide range of disciplines: genealogy, church history, medieaval art, the histories of costumes, the development of armour, as well as a study of church monuments themselves.  The monuments, which typically comprise shaped and inscribed brass sheets attached to tomb lids or commemorative slabs, can also be studied from the less definable perspectives of self-worth and religious belief...

Those individuals commemorated on brass monuments in Essex are derived from a surprisngly wide spectrum of classes of person which is not limited to the more obvious knights and their wives.  Priests and lawyers together with wealthy civilians are well represented in the county: a range of persons certainly not found commemorated on comparative monuments on continental Europe from where this method of memorial was originally derived.

The Monumental Brass Society, formed in 1887 and with a worldwide membership, is dedicated to the recording, study and preservation of these valuable and sometimes surprisingly vulnerable survivors from the past seven centuries.  The Society’s current president is Martin Stuchfield MBE who is visiting the next meeting of the South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society to present his illlustrated talk ‘Essex Church Brasses’.  This talk will take place at 8.00 pm on Wednesday 1May at Champions Manor Hall, Hullbridge Road, CM3 5LJ and will conclude the Local History Society’s 2018/2019 season of talks.  ‘Essex Church Brasses’ should provide a fitting finale that will serve to inspire and add considerable interest to any trips to historic Essex churches planned for the sunny summer days ahead...

Visitors are welcome to attend (admission £3). Any enquiries please telephone 01245 321518.