The memorial is made of riveted sections of bronze sheet metal, forming kerbs and a vertical cross. The edging follows the rectangular perimeter of the grave plot, with short pillars at each corner. Within the plot sits the Celtic wheel cross, decorated in relief with leaflike motifs. A curved shaft connects it to the foot, which, like the four-sided base upon which it is mounted, has curved and splayed sides. The plaques commemorating the Duffields are riveted to the base; a medallion, now lost, was once riveted to the centre of the cross.
Background
Duffield family
The Duffields were a prominent family in Chelmsford, having settled in Great Baddow by the time of Henry VIII in the early 16th century. William Ward Duffield was born on 25 November 1820, one of nine children to James Duffield, a farmer. William Duffield went on to become a successful solicitor, founding two firms: Duffield and Son, in Chelmsford, and Duffield, Bruty and Co., in London. As of 2023[update], the latter survives as Duffield Harrison LLP; the former, by then known as Duffield Stunt, merged into Backhouse Solicitors in 2015. He also held many public roles, including clerk to the Chelmsford Board of Guardians, clerk to the Justices at Chelmsford, registrar of the Chelmsford County Court and Bankruptcy Court, and governor (and later chairman) of the King Edward VI School. His private positions included director and chairman of the Chelmsford and Braintree Gas Companies, the Chelmsford and Blackwater Navigation Company, and the Reliance Life Assurance Company, and chairman of the London Board of the Norwich Union after it acquired Reliance.
William Duffield married Marianne Bartleet on 10 March 1860. The couple had three surviving children: sons William Bartleet (1861–1918) and Arthur Stewart (1867–1930), and daughter Florence Marion. Marianne Duffield died on 22 June 1910, three months after the couple had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. She was buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary in Great Baddow, following a family tradition of several generations. Her husband died two years later, on 7 August 1912, and was buried in the same grave. William Bartleet Duffield died a bachelor six years later in the Alpine spa town of Aix-les-Bains, France, where he had been wintering for his health.
Like the Duffields, the Maryons were native to the area; a family pedigree by Herbert Maryon's brother John Ernest started by declaring that "[t]he Maryon family has been located for centuries in the centre and west of co. Essex, the east of co. Hertford, and the south of co. Cambridge, so that a radius of 20 miles would include nearly every place in which they have held property or resided before the year 1800." This included a branch of the family in Chelmsford. Samuel William Maryon, whose grandfather was likely Herbert Maryon's great-great-grandfather (or the brother thereof), served as the Inspector of Corn Returns for the Chelmsford Corn Exchange Company, of which William Ward Duffield was the Secretary.
Description
The central medallion (now lost)
The memorial is located approximately 75 metres (250ft) east of the Church of St Mary. It is made of riveted sections of bronze sheet metal and designed in the Art Nouveau style. It consists of edging that follows the rectangular perimeter of the grave, and a vertical cross. Small pillars rise from each of the four corners. The memorial is placed over the grave of the Duffields, which is made of brick.
The Celtic wheel cross sits within the grave plot and surrounding edging, and is connected by a shaft to a four-sided base. The wheel is decorated in relief with leaflike motifs; a medallion, now removed, was once riveted to the centre. The shaft is curved, and meets the curved and splayed edges of the foot. This is mounted atop the base, which features similar lines.
Two copper plaques are riveted to opposite sides of the base. The west-facing one commemorates the elder Duffields, and reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
MARIANNE DUFFIELD
BORN MAY 7TH 1827 DIED JUNE 22ND 1910
WILLIAM WARD DUFFIELD
BORN NOVEMBER 25TH 1820 DIED AUGUST 17TH 1912
'LUX PERPETUA LUCEAT EIS'
The east-facing plaque reads:
ALSO IN LOVING MEMORY OF
WILLIAM BARTLEET DUFFIELD
BORN JANUARY 9TH 1861
DIED AT AIX LES BAINS FRANCE
JUNE 3RD 1918
History
Plaque added to commemorate William Bartleet Duffield
The memorial was erected around October 1912, within two months of William Duffield's death. Newspapers reported on it on 25 and 26 October, praising it as "very fine" and "admirably executed", and noting that it was "quite unique, at any rate in this neighbourhood". After William Bartleet Duffield died on 3 June 1918, the east-facing plaque was added to the memorial to commemorate him.
On 25 July 2022, Historic England designated the memorial a Grade II listed building, indicative of "special interest". The organisation cited historic and architectural interest, and group value, for listing the memorial. As to historic interest, Historic England termed the work "an unusual example of churchyard memorial design that is also memorial to prominent local citizen William Ward Duffield and his son". Architecturally, the organisation cited the "unusual example of Art Nouveau design in metal work, well detailed and combined with a conventional form of churchyard memorial, a Celtic wheeled cross". For group value, Historic England considered the memorial in conjunction with the Church of St Mary, itself a Grade I listed building (indicative of "exceptional interest").
Notes
↑Siblings of William Duffield included Walter Duffield, who moved to Australia and also went on to lead a prominent farming career, James Duffield, who became a large-scale farmer in Great Baddow, Sarah Duffield, and David Duffield.
↑The name Duffield Stunt continued in use as part of an affiliate business until 2017.
↑Another son, Frederick Albert Duffield, died in 1862 at the age of three months.
↑William Bartleet Duffield's will had left some of his estate to his niece Andrea Stillingfleet Duffield, along with £100 (equivalent to £4,913in 2025) for "a memento".
↑"[T]he contribution the building makes to the architectural or historic interest of any group of buildings of which it forms part".
↑"Great Baddow". The Essex Newsman. No.2, 991. Chelmsford. 7 May 1927. p.1. Archived from the original on 25 September 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2023– via Newspapers.com.
↑Chancellor, Wykeham (7 February 1930). "Arthur Stewart Duffield". The Essex Chronicle. No.8, 630. Chelmsford. p.7. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023– via Newspapers.com.
↑"Wills and Bequests". Chelmsford. The Essex Newsman. No.2, 231. Chelmsford. 12 October 1912. p.2. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023– via Newspapers.com.
↑"Death of Mrs. Duffield". The Essex County Chronicle. No.7, 605. Chelmsford. 24 June 1910. p.2. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023– via Newspapers.com.
12"Funeral of Mrs. Duffield". The Essex County Chronicle. Vol.147, no.7, 606. Chelmsford. 1 July 1910. p.2. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023– via Newspapers.com.
12"Herbert James Maryon". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951. University of Glasgow History of Art. 2011. Archived from the original on 27 December 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
