Writtle, Essex
Historical Description
Writtle, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands 2 miles W by S of Chelmsford station on the G.E.R., was once a market-town, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Chelmsford. The parish, including the ecclesiastical district of Highwood, comprises 8596 acres of land and 28 of water; population, 2462. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. The manor belonged to Harold, passed to the Albinis, W. Longsword, T. de Woodstock, the Staffords, and others, and belongs now to Lord Petre. A palace, built in the 13th century, stood on a farm now called the Lordship. A hermitage was founded in the time of Stephen at Highwood Quarter, and in the time of Henry II. became a cell to Colchester Abbey. There is a large brewery, with extensive mailings, and gasworks. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £421 with residence. Patrons, New College, Oxford. The church is a large building of rubble and stone in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and a lofty embattled western tower with eight bells. It has a Norman font and some ancient and interesting brasses, tombs, and memorials. There are a Congregational chapel and almshouses for six widows. Highwood is a hamlet and ecclesiastical district, the latter formed in 1875 from the parish of Writtle. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £126 with residence, in the gift of New College, Oxford. The church, erected in 1842, is a building of brick, consisting of chancel, nave, W porch, aud western bell-turret.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Essex | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Writtle All Saints | |
Hundred | Chelmsford | |
Poor Law union | Chelmsford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Writtle from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Writtle (All Saints))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.
The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.
Maps
Online maps of Writtle are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online: