Essendon

I was duped into thinking that St Mary the Virgin, LNK despite the notice board declaring 'Come in and pray' which plainly only applies on Sunday, was old  because of the C15th tower. In fact the nave and aisles were rebuilt in 1883 and then restored in 1916-7 after bombs jettisoned from a Zeppelin caused damage in 1916 (see below).

Unusually the 1833 rebuild is rather good and this is a pleasant building - just a shame it's kept locked; a small compensation is a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon.

ST MARY, 1883, by W. White. Essendon is worth a special visit if only to see the FONT in the church. It is of Wedgwood’s Black Basalt ware, an exquisitely beautiful classical shape and with all the appealing matt sheen of the Wedgwood body. It was given to the church in 1780. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten, 1569; large Paten, 1692; Flagon, 1769 ; Baptismal Dish, 1778. - MONUMENTS. Brass to W. Tooke d. 1588 with wife and children (S aisle). - Large Epitaph to W. Prestley d. 1664.

Essendon. The village will not soon forget the dark September night in 1916 when a German Zeppelin was brought down in flames at Cuffley, not far away, for before this ghastly blaze lit up the sky this Zeppelin, one of the first criminals of the air, had emptied what was left of its load of bombs on this peaceful village, shattering cottages and wrecking the chancel of the church. The tower of the church alone is as it was in the 15th century, but inside are various memories of the past. One, a melancholy reminder of English justice not so very long ago, is a stone high on the west wall on which is written that a young man who suffered at Hertford for theft in 1785 “begged a grave in this churchyard and prayed to God that his suffering might prove a warning to others.”

The church has a delightful christening bowl which has the distinction of having been made by the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood. On a brass is pictured an Elizabethan family, William Tooke, his wife, and 12 children, all kneeling, the father having died in 1588. Many of their descendants lie here, and towards Hatfield Park is their old home, Pope’s Farm, where George Tooke retired in 163 5 after having taken part in the ill-fated attack on Cadiz. Thereafter he spent 40 placid years in writing prose and poetry which tells us much about the military tactics of his day.

The church, which has a noble cedar in the churchyard, stands in the centre of this pleasant village, and a road from the south approaches it between two big estates, Bedwell Park (which is now a school) and Essendon Place with its handsome iron gates and luxurious trees, the home of several Baron Dimsdales since the physician of that name was summoned to Russia in 1768 by the Empress Catherine to inoculate her and her son against smallpox. So satisfied was the Empress with the skilful Thomas Dimsdale that she loaded him with gifts and created him a baron. His grave is in the Quaker burial ground at Bishop’s Stortford.

Zeppelin Raid

On the evening of Saturday the 2nd of September 1916 Germany launched the largest air raid of the Great War using a total of 16 airships. 14 aluminium-framed Zeppelins operated by the German Navy and 2 plywood-framed Schütte-Lanz craft operated by the German Army headed out across the North Sea to cross the English coast over East Anglia from where they then headed for targets in the North, the Eastern counties and London.

By mid 1916 England's defences against these air raids had been considerably strengthened since the first big raid a year earlier. Searchlights and anti-aircraft batteries now ringed London; the Royal Flying Corps was flying regular patrols above 10,000 feet and their aircraft were equipped with a recently developed ammunition for their Lewis guns - a mixture of three types of rounds designed specifically to puncture an airship's gas bags and then to ignite the released hydrogen gas.

The first of the airships heading for London that night, a German Army Schütte-Lanz airship, the SL-11, commanded by Wilhelm Schramm, arrived over St Albans at ten minutes past one in the morning of Sunday the 3rd of September. Schramm dropped bombs on the northern suburbs of London and while heading further south his airship was picked up by the searchlights at Finsbury Park and Victoria Park. Turning back to the north over Tottenham and Enfield, the SL-11 was spotted by Second Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson in his B.E.2c biplane. Leefe Robinson pursued and engaged the SL-11 and eventually with his third drum of ammunition succeeded in setting it on fire.

The descent of the blazing SL-11 from a height of two miles to a field at Cuffley was not only seen by many Londoners, but also by the Navy Zeppelins then making their approach. The L-16, commanded by Erich Sommerfeld was the nearest to the SL-11 when it burst into flames, and was seen by one of the RFC pilots who had been chasing SL-11. Sommerfeld headed off to the north, to escape the glow from SL-11 before the planes could arrive at his position. To speed this escape he jettisoned his bomb load as the L-16 was passing over Essendon and though many of the bombs fell on open land, others caused considerable damage to the church, and other buildings nearby. In one of these houses two daughters of the village blacksmith were mortally wounded.

Later that day thousands of sight-seers flocked to Cuffley hoping to see the wreckage of SL-11 which was quickly removed by the authorities. On Monday, the newspapers carried extensive reports which focused largely on the shooting down of the SL-11 - a victory to be contrasted against the grim news from the battlefields of the Somme. "A Great Air Raid. One Zeppelin Destroyed. Wonderful Spectacle in London. Slight Casualties" was the heading to the leading article in The Times. That evening an inquest into the deaths of the 16 crew of SL-11 was held at the Plough Inn, Cuffley a short distance from the crash site. The coroner announced that the War Office had decided to give them a military funeral at the nearest cemetery and this took place two days later at Potters Bar cemetery.

On Tuesday, 5th, the country's delight in this first shooting down of a German airship on English soil was heightened when the King awarded the Victoria Cross to Leefe Robinson.

Frances and Eleanor Bamford were laid to rest in Essendon churchyard on the 13th of September.

The bomb that hit the church came down on the flat roof of the vestry, flattening it, wrecking the organ, making a huge hole in the south wall of the chancel and shattering the roof above the altar. The east window was severely damaged, as were other windows in the church, but the nave, aisles and tower all withstood the blast. The church clock stopped at 23 minutes past two. Behind the rubble-strewn altar, the picture of "The Last Supper" was unharmed. Among the treasures destroyed in the vestry were the Baskerville Bible, presented to the church in 1791 by the Marquess of Salisbury, the remains of the old pulpit made in 1778, a table and two Chippendale chairs. The contents of the safe including the registers and church plate were undamaged.

The church insurance had been reviewed a short time before and confidence that the cost of repairs would be recovered allowed these to be set in motion quickly. The ruined parts of the church were restored close to their original state. Four stained glass windows were replaced by their original makers using the drawings kept from the 1883 rebuilding of the church and the Willis organ was rebuilt. A stone set in the south wall of the vestry commemorates the re-opening of the restored areas just one year later on Sunday, 2nd September 1917.

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