FRINTON: BUILDINGS

THE CHURCH

The old church has been almost completely demolished and rebuilt in the course of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Probably the only surviving parts of the medieval structure are short sections of the north and south walls which, like the later walls, are of septaria and flint rubble. The north and south doors may be 13th-century. The medieval church, whose angled western buttresses suggest a rebuilding or extension in the 14th century,[1] seems to have comprised a simple nave and chancel. A south porch, of brick, was added in the 16th century,[2] and by the 1790s there was a bell-cote at the west end of the nave.[3] By 1708 the church was ruinous, and the chancel and the east end of the nave were demolished; the west end of the nave, the soundest part of the structure, was remodelled as a small square church.[4] The lower part of the new east wall was brick with a square east window; the upper part was weather-boarded.[5]

The church was extensively repaired in 1868. The work apparently included inserting, or possibly opening, a lancet window in the south wall, and giving the east window a round head. Inside, new benches, pulpit, and lectern were installed.[6] In 1879 the church was thoroughly restored. The nave was repaired and extended 2 ft. eastwards, a new window being inserted in the south-west wall, and the porch was rebuilt, using the old bricks. A chancel was built onto the new east end of the nave. The architect was Richard Stone’s son Henry. [7] In 1893, the nave was extended 21 ft. westwards and a new bell turret built, again to designs by Henry Stone.[8] The west wall was demolished in 1911, when a temporary nave seating 400 people was built at the west end of the church.[9] That nave was demolished in 1934 and the church was restored to its late 19th-century appearance.[10]

HOUSES

Only one house survives from the period before the development of the seaside resort, Frinton Wick farmhouse, now the library. The house originated as a late 17th- or early 18th-century brick house of two storeys and attics with chimney stacks at either end. Soon after its construction, another room was added at the back, with another fireplace and stack on its north wall, making the house L-shaped. The alterations may have been made for Cornelius Tilborge or Tilbury, the only owner who is known to have occupied the house, or perhaps for James Bushell and his wife who are said to have lived there in the 1720s or 1730s. Later the angle between the new room and the remainder of the house was filled in, creating a double-pile, rectangular house. A wing had been added at the rear by 1874.[11] In or shortly after 1934 the newly-formed Frinton and Walton District Council, which owned the house, extended it northwards, and replaced the rear wing by a small, square, extension. In 1987 the house was adapted to accommodate the branch library and two flats.[12]

There is evidence for the appearance of two demolished early houses, Frinton Hall and the small parsonage house.

The 17th-century manor house, Frinton Hall, lay c. ½ mile north-east of the church, near the field called Old Hall Yards in 1839. It was assessed on 6 hearths in 1671. In the 1690s it comprised a hall, parlour, bakehouse and four chambers. The hall was large enough to contain 18 chairs and 3 tables, suggesting a late medieval plan of hall with parlour and service wings at either end. The parlour chamber was probably over the parlour, and another chamber was over the bakehouse, presumably at the service end; the position of the ‘first chamber’ and the ‘man’s chamber’ is unclear. The 30,000 bricks and tiles on the estate in 1697 suggest that rebuilding was planned,[13] perhaps because of the encroaching sea, although Warren may also have wanted to build himself a more fashionable house. Warren’s death seems to have delayed that rebuilding, for later tradition suggested that the hall was not demolished until c. 1720. The new Frinton Hall, immediately north of the church, which may have re-used some materials of the old, was a brick house of two storeys with attics.[14] It was refronted and extended in the earlier 19th century,[15] presumably for one of the Richard Stones, and a porch was added between 1874 and 1898.[16] It was demolished c. 1930.[17]

The parsonage leased to a farmer in 1529 presumably included a house,[18] but the rectory house was first specifically recorded in 1671 when it was assessed on 2 hearths. In 1683 it was out of repair.[19] In 1710 the tenant was required to leave the glass windows in the house and the thatch and daub of the barn and stable in good condition, unless they were blown down by a great wind.[20] The house was regularly let to tenants in the 18th and 19th centuries.[21] It was in poor repair in 1790 and the rector complained that he had been unable to recover any dilapidations from his predecessor. Although he expressed his intention of partly rebuilding the house he does not appear to have intended to occupy it himself.[22] The house and barn were repaired after a great gale in 1860.[23] An inventory of fittings made that year, when the tenant vacated the house after 36 years, referred to a fireplace in an unnamed room and a stove in the parlour; no other rooms were named.[24] In 1887 the small house, divided into two cottages, was described as ‘wooden’, presumably barge-boarded, with a tiled roof. It had been sold by 1898.[25]