A few days ago I promised a post about the second church we visited on our very brief perambulation of Essex, the first being Stondon Massey, so here it is …
A handful of miles from Stondon Massey, the other side of the lovely small town of Chipping Ongar, is the hamlet of Greensted, or more correctly Greensted-juxta-Ongar. Although I’ve been there before (like 50+ years ago!) Noreen hadn’t, and that was an omission to be corrected.
The church of St Andrew is, according to the church website, the oldest wooden church in the world, and the oldest “stave built” timber building in Europe. The walls of the nave, which date from around 1060, are built from a series of upright tree trunks. Needless to say the church has been restored several times over the centuries; as an example in the the south wall of the chancel you’ll see Norman flint-work below Tudor brickwork; and the tree trucks have had to be underpinned with brick to ensure their stability.

The photo above shows this tiny church and something of the well-kept and very pretty churchyard, complete with glorious yellow roses lining the path to the south door. Behind the roses, against the church wall to the right of the porch is the 12th century grave of a Crusader, probably a bowman.
Below are two views of the north wall, which better show the detail of the stave construction.


Delightfully the church was open, despite there having been a number of thefts – so more power to the rector and churchwardens for maintaining access for the not inconsiderable trickle of visitors. (In the 45 or so minutes we were there at least three other small groups of visitors arrived.)
As you might imagine, with light only from half a dozen dormer windows and a panelled interior, it is is fairly dark inside the church, so I didn’t attempt taking photographs but just took in the intense calm. That’s a calm which, in my experience, comes most in a really old church (there is evidence of a church at Greensted at least as early as the 6th century) which is used and cherished. Greensted is one of those delightful places.
Adding to the delight were this (unintentionally) amusing sign and those gorgeous yellow roses.

I somehow doubt this will be the last time we visit.
PS. If anyone can identify the variety of those yellow roses I would love to know.