When I was appointed Curate-in-Charge of the Wigborough parishes nearly two years ago, the old rectory adjacent to St Stephen's Church was declared by the Bishop's surveyor to be unsuitable as a Rectory. It was sold by auction about a year ago to Mr and Mrs Baker who had previously lived in Gt. Wigborough and wished to return. Their married daughter and her husband and family, Mr and Mrs Osborne, shortly came to reside there and after making many repairs, Mr and Mrs Baker joined them. We are all glad to welcome them into our parish, and are pleased to see them in Church from time to time. They have now named their home Shalum, a Hebrew word meaning Peace, and we hope that they will indeed find peace there in a house which looks onto one of the most beautiful views in Essex.

When the old rectory was sold, we were promised another a little more central to the two parishes. A few years ago, Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Horn bought Green Acres Farm to add to their farms at Abbotts Hall and Virley Hall, but the house at Green Acres was not required. The farm buildings and land was their first consideration.

Besides being parishioners of Gt. Wigborough, because of their ownership of Virley Hall, Mr and Mrs Horn were also parishioners of Salcott-Virley, and in 1960 they made it possible for me to be appointed to Salcott-Virley as Honorary Assistant Curate. This was necessitated by the fact that the Rev. A.E. Payton, Rector of Salcott-Virley, was also Managing Director of Inter-Church Travel, Ltd of Fulham Palace and in 1960 had the tremendous task of arranging for over 10,000 people to visit the Passion Play in Oberammergau.

Mr and Mrs Horn kindly placed at my disposal, and at no charge whatsoever, the Cottage at Drakes Corner, where I have resided for almost three years. It was because the Rectory was unsuitable that on the resignation of the Rev. Arnold de Quincey, the Bishop of Chelmsford asked me to return from the Antigua Diocese in the West Indies where I had gone to serve for a few months.

When the question of another Rectory was being discussed, Mr and Mrs Horn offered Greenacres to the appropriate Authority at a very low price indeed, and this was subsequently accepted by the Church Commissioners. Last month I moved into Greenacres, now the official Rectory of Wigborough. Its situation is delightful, set amid lovely open country with a view of the Blackwater at high tide, and it is almost equidistant from both Churches.

I am mentioning these matters in such detail because I want to place on record the great kindness shown to me by Mr and Mrs Horn and emphasise that their action made it possible to avoid a long interregnum.

[This arrangement seems to have lasted until the arrival of the next incumbent in 1964, The Rev. Arthur Brand who being priest-in-charge of both Wigborough and Salcott was housed in Salcott Rectory]

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The Rectors of St Stephens, Great Wigborough

More Wigborough History.