St Mary the Virgin, Henham

The church sits quietly on Henham's high street, all flint and stone with a tower that's seen six centuries of Essex weather. St Mary the Virgin is the sort of place you might walk past without thinking, then stop and go back because something about it catches your eye. The interior does the real work though - there's some proper medieval glass if you know where to look, and the chancel's worth a proper study if you're into that sort of thing. It's a working parish church, so you'll need to catch it when it's actually open, which means avoiding random visiting hours. Ring ahead or check the church noticeboard. Worth twenty minutes if you're in Dunmow anyway, which is only a few miles off. The walk around the churchyard is pleasant enough, and it's the kind of spot where you can actually hear yourself think. Not a destination in itself, but solid if you're combining it with a walk around the village or heading to Hidden Gem Glamping nearby - gives you a real sense of what Essex looked like before the commuter belt got busy. Families won't lose their minds here, but anyone interested in parish churches and their layers of history will find something genuine rather than polished.