Writtle, Essex

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.