Mountnessing, Essex

Description
Mountnessing, a village and an ancient parish in Essex. The village stands on a branch of the river Wid, 2 miles S by W of Ingatestone station on the G.E.R.. and 3 1/2 NE of Brentwood. The parish has a post and money order office under Brentwood; telegraph office, Hutton. Acreage, 4206; population, 912. Thoby Priory was founded in 1141 for Augustinian canons by Michael Capra Roisi, had at the dissolution an income estimated at £75, and has left some remains. A mansion, bearing the name of Thoby Priory, is a seat of the Arkwright family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £124 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of St Albans. The church, which was repaired and restored in 1890, is an ancient building of brick in the Early English style, having a curious bell-cot built up from the ground with a massive framework of oak timber. There is a small iron church, which was erected in 1873 as a chapel of ease to the parish church, and also a Congregational chapel.