Saint Mary the Virgin is a parish of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Foulness Island Foulness Island () is a closed island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. In the 2001 census, the usually resident population of the civil parish was 212, living in the settlements of C ...

, in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. Before the 15th century, the island of Foulness was divided among several neighbouring

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es. The inhabitants were expected to attend church services in their respective mainland parish churches but in practice this must have been difficult and at times impossible,Smith (1970), p.23 as in those days there was no bridge linking Foulness to the mainland. In 1407, Lady Joan de Bohun, Countess of Essex, obtained a licence from the Bishop of London to found a

chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...

of a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

to celebrate

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

on a daily basis in a chapel on Foulness. She also managed to secure the payment of church dues towards the upkeep of the chapel, rather than having the islanders’ payments going towards the various mainland parishes among which the island had been split. Some 150 years later, the Chantry was dissolved under the massive religious upheaval resulting from

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The chapel's land and possessions were confiscated. However, the desire for local services remained and within three years Foulness became a separate ecclesiastical parish. The old chantry chapel was demolished and a new timber-framed church was erected on the site, this church being dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. By the middle the 19th century this old church was in a poor state of repair and the size of the population of the parish had outgrown the small building. In 1848 the parishioners decided to pull the old church down and build a new one in its place.Smith (1970), p.24 The present church, which is now

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, was erected a little to the west of the original site. The parishioners themselves provided some forty per cent of the cost of building, and George Finch, the then

Lord of the Manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, twenty per cent. The rest came from two ecclesiastical building societies and from private subscription, including £50 from the Elder Brethren of

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

so that the spire might be built of a sufficient height to be of value as a seamark for sailors. The church was built in the Early English style, to a design by William Hambley, with a spire, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with two aisles, and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

. The churchyard was expanded, using ground given by George Finch. The new church was consecrated in 1853 and dedicated to "Saint Mary the Virgin, Saint Thomas and All Saints". The church is quite plain inside, with almost no stained glass. The organ was built in 1866 and gained “a gold medal at an exhibition” but the brass plaque attached to it does not tell us which exhibition; it was purchased from

North Ockendon North Ockendon is the easternmost and most outlying settlement of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is east-northeast of Central London and consists of a dispersed settlement within the Metropolitan Green Be ...

and dedicated in 1908. A swell was added to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

and was dedicated in October 1936. Although no obvious evidence remains of the earlier church buildings, there are several gravestones which clearly predate the present building., including one for Jonas Allen who died on 27 April 1698, which carries a skull and crossbones motif. There are also three

War Grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

s from the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

containing the remains of unidentified

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

sailors
CWGC Cemetery Report. whose bodies were found on the coast of the island. Inside the main gate of the churchyard is the island's War Memorial. On one face are listed the names of seven Islanders who gave their lives in the “Great War”, and on an adjoining face the names of the three who died in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The church was permanently closed in May 2010, and the building was later put up for sale. In 2019 there were plans for it to become a five-bedroom home.

References

Bibliography

External links

The Church of England, a church near you
{{coord, 51.602, 0.8922, type:landmark_region:GB-ESS, display=title Grade II listed churches in Essex Rochford District