langham_essex

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in Langham Essex is sited on the Langham Hall Estate
located in the northern part of Langham which overlooks Dedham Vale. The church dates back
to the 12th Century with additons of the south aisle in the 14th century. Major Victorian restorations
were carried out in 1861/63 and the 1890's. The tower was damaged by fire in the 1870's and
was later reconstructed. The Church was given a Grade 1 Listed building status in 1965.

St Mary's Langham is the only church so far found in Essex to have installed the most commonly found underfloor Hypocaust warm air heating system that is related to Mitchell's Principle.

This Hypocaust underfloor heating system is similar to the systems found in St Margaret of Antioch Church in Wellington Herefs, and St Michael & All Angels Church in Ufton Warwickshire.

Another church in Essex with Hypocaust underfloor heating that has a different style of heating system but is still based on Mitchell's Principle and described in the Northampton Architects Report of 1858. This church is at Roydon.

The Hypocaust heating system in the church was considered no longer to have been in use from possibly when the tower was damaged by fire. After the hypocaust system fell into disuse it is thought that the church was then heated by a single solid fuel stand alone warm air stove, that was sited at the east end of the south aisle. The present oil fired wet heating system was installed in the 1950's.

Built into the floor of the various aisles in the Nave were five cast iron floor plates each approx 400mm square with a centre lift out section. Each floor plate covered a deep pit, with a firebrick lining forming the sides of each pit.

The purpose for these various floor pits was for use as the hot fire pits acting as furnaces for the Hypocaust warm air heating system.

The adjacent diagrammatic layout shows the most likely route of the underfloor flue ducts connecting with the other fire pits before entering the vertical flue/chimney.

Millenium stone in approx position of original cover plate	Millenium stone looking towards floor grille over radiator
Location of hot pit cover plate	Remaining hot pit cover plate

While preparing for the new floor in the south doorway area, the workmen exposed the ducts of a branch of the mid-19th century hypocaust system.

There were four parallel flue ducts made of bricks and tiles loose laid to form floor, walls and roof. The bricks showed evidence of scorching indicating very high temperatures, to the extent that their surfaces had been vitrified.

The system had been covered by the base to the late 19th century quarry tiles and the cast iron access plate moved to one side when being imbedded in the tiles.

Underfloor flue ducts from cover plate A to Tower North Wall (exposed in 1997)	Underfloor flue ducts from cover plate A to Tower North Wall (exposed in 1997)

The arrow indicates the position of the angled quoin locating the likely position of the hypocaust chimney.

A metal plate covers the top of the quoin/chimney.

The original chimney must have been much higher built against the wall of the tower but has since been demolished.

The wording on the floor cover plate reads
Mitchell's
Patent
Reverbrating
Smoke Consuming
Hypocaust

for warming
Churches