EXCLUSIVE a new feature in this magazine
A history
of Much Dewchurch church, which we
shall be serializing in eight
parts - starting this month on page 4.
The
account was written in 1936 by Mr. Hubert C.
Reade, who lived at Church Farm, Much Dewchurch, as a paying guest of the Edwards family. He wrote
it
at the request of Mr. Henry Smith, sometime sub-postmaster at Wormelow
and long-serving churchwarden of Much Dewchurch.
The copy in our possession was
sent to the Rector recently by the Rev. Leslie Rhodes. It is not the original
manuscript, but a carbon of a careful transcription. For the purposes of this
magazine it has been necessary to fill in one or two gaps in the text, and these
instances will be denoted .with a broken underline
Hubert Reade would not have
claimed that this paper was a complete history of Much Dewchurch, or even of its
church. For example he could easily have listed all the parish priests and said
something about many of them, but he does not do so. He does, however, give us a
good idea of how the parish church came into being, how it developed and why it
changed; and he clads this framework with fascinating detail - mostly factual,
though a few of his statements do look a little bit like flights of fancy.
So do read it, even if you don't
live in Dewchurch – there is plenty to interest any local person. If you knew
Hubert Reade personally, or if you have any documents which shed light on local
history, I should be most interested to hear from you (Mayfield Cottage, Much
Birch; G.V. 540316).
The copy we are using will be
passed into the custody of the Churchwardens of Much Dewchurch, who will decide
whether to keep it in the church safe or at the County Record Office.
Malcolm Acheson
***