236
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
VISIT TO BARKING (608th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 13TH MARCH, 1926.
A meeting to inspect some of the numerous objects of interest in this
old-time fishing town, which still seems to retain an alluring flavour of the
sea, was arranged for the above date. A fine sunny afternoon enabled the
town to be seen to the best advantage, and the thirty-five members who
attended did not fail to express their pleasure at a very successful visit. 
Our member, Mr. Charles J. Dawson, F.R.I.B.A., with the Honorary
Secretary, were leaders of the expedition.
The party foregathered in the venerable parish church of St. Margaret
at 2.30 o'clock, when Mr. Dawson gave a brief account of the fabric, and
pointed out some of the modern restorations and improvements for which
he personally, as architect to the structure, was responsible.
Referring to the ornate coved ceiling of the nave, Mr. Dawson said
that it was due to the generosity of Sir Crisp Gascoigne, who, about the
year 1770, masked the open timber roof with this Italian plaster decora-
tion. Unfortunately the oak roof timbers were being attacked by the
"death-watch beetle," although not at present to a very great extent,
and one of the chief objects of the approaching restoration was to repair
these. As regards the ceiling itself, opinion was at present undecided
as to whether it should be allowed to remain, or be removed entirely;
although certainly more fitted for a concert hall than a church, it yet had
from its antiquity, he considered, a certain claim to retention, and the
roof timbers behind it (of which Mr. Dawson exhibited detail drawings
prepared from measurements he had taken) were of roughly adzed oak
which might not be suitable for exposure.
Mr. Dawson afterwards conducted the party around the church,
pointing out the many interesting features which it presented. He
remarked that the east end of the chancel showed the oldest work, the
shafts of the columns of the arcade between the chancel and the north
aisle being Norman tooled, although their bases and capitals were but of
cement; and an aumbry of primitive Early English character in the
east wall, to the north of the altar, with a couple of windows in the north
wall of the chancel, are other early features.
Various incised slabs and other relics discovered on the site of the
neighbouring Abbey, and now preserved in St. Margaret's Church, were
inspected with interest, and the visitors were also interested to learn
that Captain James Cook, the celebrated navigator, of the parish of
Shadwell, was married in this church to Elizabeth Batts, spinster, of
Barking, on December 21st, 1762, as is duly recorded in the register.
A visit was next paid to the "Firebell Gate," containing the ancient
Chapel of the Holy Rood, where the crude 12th century sculpture of the
Crucifixion was inspected, and from the roof of which a fine view was
obtained over the picturesque buildings of the church and the equally
picturesque, though tumble-down, cottages which bound the churchyard.
Thence the visitors passed to the site of the Benedictine Abbey, now
a public recreation ground, in which the exact positions of the foundations
of the great Abbey Church and of the monastic buildings, as disclosed
during the excavations carried out in 1911, were outlined by dwarf stone