Episode 43. Pleshey Retreat House, Essex and Evelyn Underhill

SYNOPSIS

Canon John Howden is an Anglican priest, a one-time presenter at BBC Radio Oxford and former Warden of the Pleshey Retreat House in the Diocese of Chelmsford, Essex. The interview examines the influences in John’s background and early career which led to his appointment as Warden.

As a resident of Essex, John brings his knowledge to bear upon the county’s  historic role in the development of Christianity to England, dating back to Bishop Cedd’s mission to the East Saxons in the 7th century which led to the consecration of the still-used Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell-on-Sea at around 660.  Pleshey’s own links to the de Bohun family and its mention by Shakespeare in Richard II are also referenced.        

The interview then explores the history of Pleshey Retreat House from its founding as the Anglican convent of the Congregation of the Servants of Christ in 1906 and the gathering religious controversy between the sisters and first Bishop of Chelmsford, John Watts-Ditchfield. Following the sale of land and building to the Diocese of Chelmsford, the Retreat House flourished from the 1920s under the inspired leadership of its Warden Lucy Menzies. Her close friend, the Christian Mystic, Evelyn Underhill, whose life is explored in Episode 50, became the retreat conductor most closely associated with Pleshey.

GUEST

The son of missionary parents to Iran, John grew up and was educated in Sevenoaks, Kent before embarking upon training as an architect, then working as a professional scenery designer in the theatre.

Feeling a calling to the Anglican ministry,  John was ordained in the Church of England, and after several curacies, he was appointed to Pleshey Retreat House by the Bishop of Chelmsford, spending over nine years there.. During his residency, connections to the neighbouring villages were strengthened and the Retreat House was upgraded to accepted modern standards of comfort. 

John’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded in the Evelyn Underhill Room at Pleshey Retreat House on 26 March 2024.