This
parish of 600 inhabitants lies five miles east of Saffron Walden on the
B1053 Haverhill road. The discovery of a Neolithic skeleton
evidences Radwinter’s early habitation. Roman roads
and
settlements where coins and other artifacts have been found, including
a bronze figurine of a Celtic warrior, demonstrate the
village’s
Roman origins. The discovery of a medieval tile kiln and
fishponds extend Radwinter’s early history until the period
when
written records abound.
The
parish was at one time divided into Great and Little Radwinter, but the
distinction is now lost. Four manors are known to have
existed,
Radwinter Hall, Brockhold’s, Bendish Hall and Radwinter
Grange. The earliest known holders of the manors were during
the
reign of Edward the Confessor and were Orgar, Aluric, a free tenant,
and Lessin. By the time of Doomsday, however, Frodo held
Radwinter Hall though not presumably as the hobbit Baggins.
Other
notable inhabitants and owners of Radwinter land, whose literature is
descriptive or Radwinter, include the Brockholds family, whose
correspondence between c1417 and c1453 is published in The Armburgh
Papers, and William Harrison, Rector of Radwinter between 1558 and
1593, who was author of The Description of England. This
classic
contemporary account of Tudor England is more descriptive of Radwinter
than England, as Harrison seldom traveled far, except on his annual
journey to Windsor as a Canon of St George's Chapel.
Harrison
tells how boats had once come up the Pant from Maldon to Radwinter and
how an anchor had been found locally. He also relates a story
about a water mill on the Pant standing by the church. It has
been confirmed that centuries earlier the river had carried a much
greater volume of water that would have made navigation
possible.
Certainly, the limestone of which the 13th century church is built, as
does that of Sampford, would have had to be carried by water.
Surviving
literature also includes the diaries and autobiography of another
Radwinter Rector, the royalist, Richard Drake, rector between 1638 and
1667 and a follower of Archbishop Laud. The puritan
churchwardens
of the time made life difficult for Drake. The local cobbler and a
tailor promoted brawling at church services. Drake was many
times
assaulted both in church and outside. Strange preachers were intruded
into the parish as Puritanism triumphed. At the Restoration
of
King Charles II, Drake was restored to his rights. But in 1667 he left
Radwinter becoming Chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral.
Much
of what we see in the centre of Radwinter today is the work of the
Bullock family, both as Lords of the Manor and as rectors of
Radwinter. Their rectorship survived between 1758 and 1795
and
again between 1806 and 1925. Principal contributors were,
John
Frederick Bullock who was rector between 1844 and 1865 and who built
the village school, and John Frederick Watkinson Bullock, who with his
architects William Eden Nesfield and Temple Moore, built what is now
the village hall, rebuilt the church and almshouses and centre of the
village following a major fire in 1874.
The Reredos was given to Radwinter Church by John
Frederick
Watkinson Bullock.
Within
living memory
Radwinter boasted two windmills, two blacksmiths, a hardware shop, a
saddler, a telegraph office, two butchers, as well as one who visited,
two bakers, two general stores, two brewers, several carpenters, two
wheelwrights, five carriers, four sweetshops, a tobacconist, a
fishmonger, two cobblers and a village tailor, a milkman, an
undertaker, a garage and numerous pubs, off-licences and
alehouses. It had its own registrar of births marriages and
deaths, a relieving officer to help the poor, a vaccination officer and
a school attendance and inquiry officer. There was also a
resident village policeman and postmaster.
