26
NOTES AND QUERIES, tio s. vm. JULY 13, 1907.
street ; it was circular in structure, lighted
by a dome on the roof, and a tower indicated
its position. Some little time ago, when its
approaching doom was sealed, I went in,
as the door was open, and saw the many
monumental tablets ranged on the staircase.
The attendant asked me if I should like to
go into the vaults beneath the church, but I
declined. Most probably their contents
have been transferred to one of the London
cemeteries. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
[The Daily Telegraph and The Standard of 3 July stated that the price realized was 96,00(M.]
ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, BREAM'S BUILD- INGS. (See 8 S. i. 261.) The Church of St. Thomas, Liberty of the Rolls, was demolished in the course of the alterations described in the article at the above reference, when the office of ' N. & Q.' was removed to its present site. The church was described and illustrated in The Surveyor, Engineer, and Architect for October, 1842, p. 257, from which it appears that the works were commenced on 16 May, 1841, the architects being Mr. C. Davy and Mr. J. Johnson. The church was consecrated on 13 July, 1842, and was intended to serve that part of the parish of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, situate in the county of Middlesex, known as the Liberty of the Rolls, the population being 2,440. The site was not considered very eligible, Bream's Buildings being then a cul-de-sac ; but the writer of the article in The Surveyor foresaw " that the time is not far distant when a thoroughfare will be opened through Bream's Buildings."
But when this came to pass, half a century later, the church was swept away. It cost in all 4,275Z., of which 3,400Z. was given by Hyndman's Trustees, who also gave 1,OOOZ. to form an endowment fund. The Com- missioners of Woods and Forests, who owned property in the neighbourhood, contributed 300L The site was purchased from the Bishop of Chichester. Although the building was absolutely destitute of architectural merit, I should like to be allowed to place on record these few facts relating to its brief existence. The con- secration is shortly described in The Illus- trated London News for 16 July, 1842, p. 150, col. 3, where it is stated that the bishop preached from Matt. ix. 27, 28, " to a highly respectable congregation," and that the collection amounted to IOQI.
R. B. P.
MORAVIAN CHAPEL, FETTER LANE. The proposed destruction of this old chapel
recalls the fact that it is one of the original
eight Dissenting chapels permitted by the
Conventicles Act of the seventeenth century.
Baxter preached in it in 1672, and later Thankful Owen (who at one time had been an Oxford Don), Whitefield, John Wesley, and the great Moravian pastor Count Zinzendorf. During the riots connected with the trial of Dr. Sacheverell the mob stormed and almost ruined the chapel, very nearly killing the pastor, Thomas Bradley. It had a long period of usefulness after that, and continued to draw good congregations till the middle of the nineteenth century.
An illustrated account of it appeared in The Sunday at Home many years since, and I once came across an old print of it entitled ' The Church of the United Brethren in Fetter Lane,' in a second-hand bookshop in Philadelphia.
FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
[Some particulars concerning the chapel will be found under the heading 'Vanishing London,' at 9 S. vi. 222, 331, 351. A ' History lof the Moravian Chapel' is published at 32, Fetter Lane.]
GREENSTED CHURCH, ONGAR. Referring to the review of Mr. Heath's book on ' Homeland Churches ' at 10 S. vii. 500, I may mention that during the restoration of Greensted Church about the year 1849, the nave which dates from the beginning of the eleventh century had to be pulled down, in order that the rotten bottom ends of the split trunks of trees, forming the walls, might be sawn off and replaced by a brick foundation. At that time a violent controversy arose as to the character of the trees, some antiquaries positively asserting that they were oak, and others that they were chestnut. It was, I think, finally determined that these trees were placed alternately.
It is a remarkable fact that, although these trunks of trees had been exposed to the weather for upwards of 800 years, they were so hard at the time of the restoration that the saws and axes of the workmen were blunted in the act of cutting the bottoms off. This I have since verified, for I have found it impossible to get even the point of my knife into the wood. It is like iron.
HENRY TAYLOR.
Rusthall, Kent.
[Greensted Church has already been fully dis- cussed in 'N. & Q.'; see 6 S. vii. 472; 7 S. x. 297; 8 S. vi. 297 ; xii. 134.J
" BLOOM " IN IRON MANUFACTURE. The above word is applied to the mass of iron from the puddling furnace ^
