Danbury, Essex

Description
Danbury, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands on high ground 4 1/2 miles E by S of Chelmsford station on the G.E.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Chelmsford. Its name is a contraction of Danes-bury, signifying the " town or castle of the Danes." The parish includes also Runsell hamlet and part of Bycknacre. Acreage, 3495; population of the civil parish, 839 ; of the ecclesiastical, 827. The manor was held at Domesday by Geoffrey de Mandeville, passed to the St Cleres, the Veres, the Greys, the Darceys, and the Mildmays, and belongs now to the Plumptre family. Danbury Place, now called Dan-bury Palace, was sold in 1845, and again in 1892, and is now the property of the Taylor family. Danbury Hill, at the village, is 353 feet high, and has vestiges of an ancient camp, 680 yards in circuit. It is one of the highest hills in the county, and commands a noble view. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £340 with residence. The church has a stone tower and a lofty wooden spire, and contains effigies of the St Cleres. At Bycknacre there are the ruins of a priory of Austin Canons, which was founded in the reign of Henry II. by Maurice Fitz Geoffrey.