ESSEX-UK-L Archives

From: "David Lamb" <>
Subject: Re: Lion Walk
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 07:39:52 -0000
References: <021a01c506b8$74859db0$0301010a@majorhome>

Hello,

One further item which may be of interest concerning Lion Walk. It (the
street generally, but the Congregational church in particular) was damaged
by the so-called "Colchester Earthquake" on 22 April 1884. Peter Haining's
book, "The Great English Earthquake" (ISBN 0-7090-4391-0) has quite a lot
about Lion Walk, including pictures. Here are two extracts:

First Extract

"(Eye witnesses). Like young Herbert Johnson, the ten-year-old son of Mr
Herbert Johnson senior, a plumber, who lived in Lion Walk almost immediately
opposite the Congregational Church. He was actually standing at the door of
his home, one of a row of two-storey red-bricked houses, when the quake
struck. "Everything shook and bounced about," he said, "and there was a
great rumbling noise. Then the spire on the church seemed to shake apart
and came crashing down all over the place."

The small, terrified boy stood unable to move as the masonry crashed down,
huge chunks bouncing up from the road against the houses. Pieces flew
around Herbert, missing him only by inches, and one large section actually
coming to rest by his feet. At this, he at last turned and fled in panic
into the house.

A large proportion of the spire fell clear of the church and into the
graveyard, demolishing the tombstones and converting the whole enclosure
into a wreck. Other portions fell on to the roof above the North aisle of
the church, and crashed through into the main body of the building, some
heavier pieces even breaking into the basement. As The Essex Telegraph
summarized, "The whole fabric was shattered to the basement. The effect of
the shock seems to have been to lift the tower bodily on its southern side,
and there is now a distinct inclination to the north of the rent and
fissured building. Many of the stones at the point of detachment threatened
at any moment to overwhelm any passing pedestrian."

The destruction of the church proved to be the second of two terrible blows
to the congregation. For not only was the spire a replacement for an
earlier edifice which had been blown down by a storm, but only the previous
week, the man who had been responsible for the building of the church and
ministered to its people for many years, the Reverend T.W. Davids, had
died."

Second Extract

"Another Colchester church featured in a sad case of coincidence which I
found in the pages of The Illustrated Police News of May 3rd 1884 under a
column entitled "Passing Notes ". It referred to the unfortunate Lion Walk
Congregation Church which, as we have already seen, was badly damaged and
lost its spire. The report states:

There is a rather curious coincidence in connection with the destruction of
the spire of the Lion Walk Congregational Church by the late earthquake.
Some thirty or forty yeas ago where it stood was a queer, ugly octagonal
building, called the Round Meeting. The congregation here chose as their
minister a brilliant young student, T.W. Davids. After he had preached in
this building for many years, the desire grew very strong in him to see a
worthier building, and he laboured to obtain one with a zeal and energy that
was tireless. He was active during the building, absorbed in every detail
of it, and well do we remember his satisfaction and pride in the completion
of the work, to which there had been many obstacles of many kinds. The
opening of the new building - dedication service, or whatever it was, we
forget the name they gave it - was very impressive. The sermon in the
morning was preached by the late Samuel Martin, of Westminster, whose
silvery hair, deep, earnest eyes, and musical voice gave him advantages that
we have heard some of the Dissenting brethren comment on with just a soupçon
of fox-and-the-grapes contempt. We remember that he preached from the
text, 'And the King said unto the prophet Nathan: See now, I dwell in an
house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' His sermon was
an eloquent plea for beautiful architecture for the purpose of religious
worship, and the way he brought in that phrase -'I will dwell in an house of
cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains'- like a chorus, or the
refrain of a song, was one of the most effective things I ever heard. Well,
in this new 'house of cedar', Mr Davids preached for years. Some time ago
his health necessitated his retirement, and only last week he was found in
his study - dead. It was only on Monday that I got a newspaper giving an
account of his funeral, and on Tuesday morning came the earthquake shock,
which toppled down the spire of the church, to the building of which he had
given so much of life and energy, and which we laughingly called 'St
David's' after him. The spire may be rebuilt; but the generous,
warmhearted, kindly human brother, to whom so many young men - now growing
grey, some of them - looked, and not in vain, for ready help and sympathy,
who stirred them to think and feel, to love what was beautiful and true - he
has gone beyond recall. His work, though, remains, and those who caught
inspiration from him have become themselves centres of influence."

Regards,
David Lamb (Paignton, Devon, UK)
Interests (Essex): BAXTER, BERRY, EREY, GOLDSTONE, LAMB, MOTT, PARTRIDGE,
SARGENT, TICHBORNE, WEBB, WHEELER, WILLSHER
(Suffolk): BRYNGLOVE, CRISPE, FINCH, PARTRIDGE, PORTER, PRATT



----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne or Gordon Major" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 10:42 AM
Subject: Lion Walk


> Thank you to all those that responded to my request for information on the
> Lion Walk Meeting House. I'm glad to know Lion Walk is still there and
> hope to see it in June sometime.
>
> Thanks again
>
> Anne - Oz
>
> ______________________________

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• Re: Lion Walk by "David Lamb" <>