This Parish consists of two historic churches
St Mary & All Saints in Rivenhall and St Francis in Silver End.
The Anglo Saxon church Built around 8-9th Century St May & All Saints is A grade 1 listed building and along with the nearby Manor house have been in continuous human use since their origins as parts of a Roman villa.
The Church appears to be Victorian, but underneath its exterior stucco and internal 19thc century plaster, there are thick Saxon walls the entire length of the nave and for half of the chancel: they are built from flint rubble and Roman tile taken from the Roman Villa which once dominated tis site.
On The outside you will find a medieval font dating back to the 1300’s and the priest door on the south side of the chancel reputedly has a head figure of Julius Caesar and the Virgin Mary Mother of Jesus linking it nicely to the Roman Villa which stood here.
Inside The East window contains stained glass purchased by the Rector, Bradford Deane Hawkins from the church of St Martin at Chenu France in 1839 and reassembled in 1840.
The cost at the time to Rev’d Deane was £64 19s 5.5p in todays prices that would approximately be around £120,000 pounds.
The Royal arms of King James 2nd can be seen over the south doorway and were restored in 1977 and there is only one or two examples from James 2nd’s reign to be found in Essex, the other is at Ashington.
Click any photo to view in gallery