76
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Field Meeting at Broomfield and 13TH Annual General Meeting,
and Special Meeting at Chelmsford.
Saturday, April 15th, 1893.
In order to fill up the time previous to the Annual Meeting in the Museum in
the evening, a ramble in the neighbourhood of Chelmsford was projected, and
on the receipt of Mr. Christy's kind invitation to the Club to visit him at
"Pryors," our steps naturally turned in the direction of Broomfield.
The members assembled at the railway station about three o'clock, under the
guidance of Mr. Durrant. Mr. David Houston was botanist, and Mr. Chancellor
archaeologist to the party. The route led by the alluvial meadows bordering the
Chelmer, where the marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) was very abundant, many
plants showing their first blooms. "Our Lady's Smock" (Cardamine), was fully
out, and in the river the yellow water lilies were throwing up their foliage leaves,
while the alder trees on the banks were covered with male and female cones,
intermixed with the old black fruit cones of last year. The early sedge was just
exposing its brown spikes of unisexual flowers. Mr. Walter Crouch, Mr. Fitch,
and Mr. Reginald Christy managed to do a little shell-hunting in the river near
Bishopshall Mill. The species noted were :—Limnaea peregra and L. auricu-
laria, Planorbis carinatus, P. vortex, and P. alius; Bythinia tentaculata; Succinea
putris; Sphaerium corneum, and Pisidium amnicum.
[On the following day Messrs. Miller Christy and Crouch obtained (besides
some of the above) other species from the river, near Gutters Farm, Broomfield,
including a large Unio pictorum, Anodonta cygnaea, a number of Limnaea palustris,
Planorbis corneus, and Neritina fluviatilis.]
The party regretfully left the pleasant meadows for the road leading to
Broomfield, but on the hedge banks the botanists found consolation in examining
the quantities of the "Crow Garlic" (Allium vineale). The flowers in this plant
are either partially or entirely replaced by small greenish or purplish bulbs,
about one-fourth inch in size, and, as it is a frequent weed in some Essex corn.
fields, Mr. Houston remarked that the plants were often harvested with the corn,
and the strong-flavoured bulbils get ground up with the grain, so that tons of
flour are frequently spoiled in this way.
Every one was pleased with the picturesque little village of Broomfield (so-
called, perhaps, because Broom may have grown there, the gravelly soil being
well adapted for the plant). Mr. Chancellor fully explained the structure of
the church (St. Mary). It is one of the round-towered churches of Essex, and is
fully described in Buckler's "Twenty-two Churches of Essex." It is probably
Norman, or earlier, and much Roman tile has been used in its construction. Mr.
Chancellor said that, as a diocesan architect, he had had a good deal to do with
the church, and when examining it some years ago, he came to the conclusion
that the original church was built by the Romans, or that a Roman building
stood where the nave now stands. Portions of the walls he considered as
decidedly of Roman work. The church is also interesting as being the burial-
place of certain relatives of Sir John Manwood, the historian of the ancient