Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The Church of St. Stephen stood on the west side of the original course
of Walbrook stream. Over the new course of the stream a “covering” or
small bridge was made for access to the church, and in 1300 the
parishioners were found, by inquisition before the mayor, to be under
the obligation of repairing it. Little is known of this building; that
it possessed a belfry is shown from an entry in the coroner’s roll of
1278, which records the death of one William le Clarke, who, having gone
pigeon-nesting in the belfry, accidentally fell as he was climbing the
beams, and so ruptured and crushed his body on one of them that he died.
The fatal beam was thereupon “appraised at four pence, and two
neighbours nearest to the church were attached, each by two sureties, to
see the fine or deodand paid” (Riley’s _Memorials of London_, p. 13).
The “parsonage house,” before the Great Fire, stood, Stow tells us, on
the site of the first church, next to the course of the Walbrook. It was
rebuilt by one Jerome Raustorne (or Rawstorne) upon a lease of forty
years, commencing 1674, and by this, Newcourt says, was “reserved to the
parson £17 a year ground-rent.” The parish at this time enjoyed an
income of £100 a year, and with part of this, supplemented by sums of
money received from leases, and from compensations for encroachments and
new “lights” made upon the churchyard at the rebuilding of the City
after the Fire, the Vestry determined to build a new rectory house. The
leave of the Grocers Company, as patrons, and a faculty from the Bishop
of London, dated 1692-93, having been obtained, the new house was built
(between 1693 and 1708) adjoining the west end of the church by the
tower on a piece of ground, about 20 feet square, previously occupied by
a portion of the ante-Fire edifice. It was considered that the rector
had a title to some portion of the ground, and to half the compensation
money paid for new lights, and accordingly it was provided that in case
the rector or any of his successors should find it inconvenient or
inadvisable to live in the house, then the Vestry should let the same
from year to year, the parish to have two-thirds of the rental, and the
remaining third to go to the rector. This house is still standing, but
is let out for offices, the rector living at Brockley. It is a quaint
and small house, which almost touches the church wall at the back. Two
of its rooms stand over the church porch. The original staircase and
panelled walls remain. It is the only old house standing on the east
side of Walbrook. The churchyard is situated at the east end of the
church. It has a round flower-bed in the centre, two trees, and several
bushes, and is kept in excellent order. It is entered from Church Row by
an iron gate, and from the church by the door in the east wall.
The Mansion House occupies the sites of Stocks Market and St. Mary
Woolchurch Haw.
ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAW
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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