Ancestry at the Church - Monday April 30, 2012

Church of the Assumption of St Mary the Virgin, Addington

I wouldn't doubt that every member of the immediate family could have been in this church and the rectory next door. 

Edward John Stevens

My grandmother's brother, Edward Stevens, shown here at about age 16, was married to Ruby Vale Cottam by Mackwood Stevens in this church in October 1910. His sister Kate (below) was present at the wedding. I wish I knew if my grandmother talked about him - he was the only brother of four to live beyond his 20s. He lived to be 86.

 Kate Winifred Stevens

My grandmother's only sister, Kate (Kitty) Stevens - who just happens to be near and dear to my heart, was married here in March, 1912 to Jack/John Fielden Baker before they moved to South Africa. She lived for only 55 years and passed away on my birthday, a couple of decades before I was born.

Mackwood Fielden Debroyd (Roy) Baker

And their first born, Roy Baker, was baptised here in January 1913.

*  *  *  *  *

I wanted to get back inside the church. Out before the church is a green area like an island surrounded by lanes on all sides. A man was out there exercising his springer spaniel.

I decided to go knock on the door of the big manor at the property on the other side of the church, which I had passed on my way in. I walked down a straight driveway only to find that it didn't lead to the house.

 At the end was a yard that looked like a park, with a fountain in it.

I went around to the next driveway. The front door of the house was open but nobody answered when I knocked. Maybe it belonged to the man with the dog and around there they don't have to worry about closing and locking doors.

I went out to the road and the man came along and commented on the large puddle. I asked if he knew of anyone who might have a key for the church. He suggested I try Izzy and led me around a corner and pointed out her house. It was another huge, older brick building but with large newer windows - called the Tithe Barn. 

Her dog barked when I opened the gate so she came out her door. She was a nice looking, friendly woman, younger than me, wearing a blue and white scarf. She said the church should be open but she would come over with me to check. She didn't seem to mind me interrupting her day and thought it was neat that I'd come to this little place from so far away.

Here again I felt a little like I was in a Midsomer Murders episode where Chief Inspector Barnaby knocks on a door of a country house and a woman appears who invariably, no matter what time of day, is perfectly manicured with hair and make up done, wearing a scarf or a necklace and earrings - looking as though she's about to go to a ladies' luncheon or an event that royalty might attend. Izzy could have been one of those women.

I said I'd be very embarrassed if the door was open. So of course it was. The handle was a big ring - I didn't realize it had to be turned. Obviously I don't go to many churches.  

It was handy that she was there though because she turned on all the lights.

IN PIOUS MEMORY

MACKWOOD STEVENS

THE BELOVED PRIEST OF

THIS PARISH 1886-1920

R.I.P.

When I mentioned hearing that there was some sort of memorial for grandma's Uncle Mackwood, she said yes, and she thought she knew right where it was. She led me to it next to a stained glass window. Well, that was something I didn't know existed. There is a candle in front of it and she said they light the candle. It was an emotional moment for me to see that. She said she'd leave me to it and just asked that I turn off all the lights when I left.

But first, outside the front door, she said she figured she knew where the photo was taken of Granddad and supposedly Christiana Stevens (Mackwood's wife), which I had shown her on the way over. Facing away from the church door, she pointed diagonally to the right in the rectory yard. The photo shows fields in the background and a fence that is still there.

I wrote in the guest book and left two photos - of Thomas & Mary, and Arthur who are buried in the churchyard. We don't have a picture of Norman, the fourth family member buried in that row.

I heard a plane and ran outside to see it pass across the front of the church. Either it turned around or another came along on the same path the other way. There must be an airfield around.

It was cold inside. I looked at the windows and took photos. Then I went back outside, where it was blissfully warmer, and went over to the grave markers again. I picked up a few small stones from the walkway and put them in my pocket.

From the net: 'The windows now have the largest collection of Netherlandish glass in any church in the country, and are thought to have been collected by the first Lord Addington (restored  in the 1970s).'  

Internet picture of Netherlandish glass

From the net: 'This roundel is formed from a single circular pane of glass. The glass-painter drew the design with a simple brown/black pigment composed of iron filings and ground glass. He then highlighted areas of the design in yellow, in a technique known as 'silver staining'. To do this, he painted a silver compound onto the back of the glass. When the glass was fired, this compound changed colour, in a lemon-yellow to a burnt-orange range depending on its concentration. Silver staining was first used on window glass in Europe in the early 14th century.'

Interestingly, on a TV show last week I saw this very thing mentioned - making yellow from silver, and apparently gold turns to pink or red.