Featured Article Summary #93

The Duffield Memorial is a gravesite monument in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary in Great Baddow, Essex. It was designed by Herbert Maryon and installed in 1912 to remember Marianne Duffield and her son William Ward Duffield, who died in 1910 and 1912. A second plaque was later added for their son, William Bartleet Duffield, who died in 1918. In 2022, Historic England listed it as a Grade II building, describing it as an unusual example of Art Nouveau metalwork used for a churchyard memorial. The memorial is built from riveted bronze sheet metal, including a rectangular edge with corner pillars and a Celtic wheel cross with leaflike decoration. The plaques are fixed to the base, and a medallion that once decorated the centre of the cross is now missing. The Duffields were an important family in Chelmsford, settling in Great Baddow by the early 1500s. William Ward Duffield (born 1820) became a successful solicitor and founded firms in Chelmsford and London, later becoming part of Duffield Harrison LLP, while the Chelmsford firm merged into Backhouse Solicitors in 2015. He also held many public and business roles, and married Marianne Bartleet in 1860; they had three surviving children, and Marianne died in 1910, with William dying in 1912 and their son William Bartleet Duffield later dying in France in 1918. When William Ward Duffield died, Herbert Maryon was 38 and taught sculpture at the University of Reading. Maryon studied at major London art schools, ran the Keswick School of Industrial Art, taught metalwork, and later designed multiple memorials, including First World War monuments. After teaching, he became a conservator at the British Museum, where his work on the Sutton Hoo ship burial earned him an OBE. The Duffield Memorial is located about 75 m east of the Church of St Mary. It is an Art Nouveau style grave memorial made of riveted bronze sheet metal, with a rectangular border, a vertical cross, and small pillars at each corner, placed over the Duffields’ brick grave. Inside the grave plot is a Celtic wheel cross with leaf-like decorations and a curved shaft, mounted on a four-sided base with two copper memorial plaques on opposite sides. The Duffield memorial was built around October 1912, soon after William Duffield’s death, and newspapers soon praised it as a “very fine” and well-made design that was unusual for the area. After William Bartleet Duffield died in 1918, an east-facing plaque was added to remember him. In 2022, Historic England listed the memorial as Grade II, saying it is of special historic and architectural interest, including its unusual churchyard design and Art Nouveau metalwork with a Celtic wheeled cross. It was also listed because of its strong connection to the nearby Church of St Mary, which is Grade I.