Chelmsford, The Cathedral, The Interior 1919

Photo ref: 69024

More about this scene

Both Back Lane and the High Street were well supplied with inns: the Blue Bell, the White Hart, the Talbot, the Three Arrows, the Dolphin, the Rose. Near the top of Back Lane stood a lock-up, a pillory and stocks. There was even a maypole where HSBC Bank now stands, and beside it a dunghill. The level area where the marketplace opened out was called Cornhill. Here, in the middle of all the people, animals and carts, stood the Market Cross - an open-sided structure consisting of a roof supported on wooden posts. Corn transactions took place there. Just behind it, backing onto the edge of the churchyard, was the Tollhouse, an administrative office where the market tolls were collected, and where the manor-court sat. Chelmsford was now an assize town, and the court hearings were sometimes held in the Tollhouse, sometimes in the Market Cross. In 1394, 11 respectable Townsmen were hauled before the manor-court for 'playing at ball… over the church'. The church cannot have been particularly big if a group of shopkeepers were able to punt a football over it. It was not a good size for the church of a county town, and a complete rebuilding began in the first half of the 15th century. The nave and clerestory were added in 1489, and the final details - the chancel, tower and south porch - were added in the early 1500s. A host of human-sized wooden angels hung from the nave's roof. Outside, the handsome new church was topped-off with an inscription requesting prayers 'for the good estat of the Townshyp of Chelmsford'.