Tillingham

The most welcoming church of the day, St Nicholas's door was left ajar, but also one of the dullest. Thoroughly restored little of interest remains; having said that the font is curious (it slopes from E to W), there's a good brass, a Norman N door and interesting recycled material in its walls. The setting though is lovely.

ST NICHOLAS. The nave N doorway is Norman. Fine E.E chancel with three stepped E lancets and a quatrefoil above and single lancets on the N and S sides - all renewed outside The plain Sedilia and Piscina also belong to the C13. C14 S arcade of four bays with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches, renewed probably when the S aisle was rebuilt in 1866. The chancel arch of the same style. The W tower also is C14, with angle buttresses and W window of two cusped lights with pointed quatrefoil in the spandrel. The battlements are later. - FONT. Late Norman, with plain square bowl on quatrefoil foot with attached angle shafts. Carved foliage. - PLATE Large Cup of 1616. - BRASS to Edward Wiot d. 1584, kneeling figure (Chancel S wall, behind a door in the panelling).

TILLINGHAM. Its cottages are delightful; we remember especially the long white timbered house made bright by rose and creeper by the churchyard gate. Some of the neat cottages were built by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s, who since Christianity came to Essex have owned the land on which they stand. The church, almost lost among the limes, has a plain Norman doorway into the nave, handsome arches of the 14th century, and a square font with foliage carved about the time of Thomas Becket. St Paul’s Cathedral has honoured in a window here one of its greatest preachers, Canon Liddon, whose eloquence drew vast congregations to the cathedral in the 20 years he was preaching there.

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