Chadwell St Mary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chadwell St Mary | |
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| Population | 9,631[1] |
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| OS grid reference | |
| Unitary authority | Thurrock |
| Ceremonial county | Essex |
| Region | East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | GRAYS |
| Postcode district | RM16 |
| Dial code | 01375 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Thurrock |
| European Parliament | East of England |
| List of places: UK • England • Essex | |
Chadwell-St-Mary is a dispersed settlement and former parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in England. It is a few miles east of the town of Grays and is located north of Tilbury. It is frequently referred to simply as Chadwell, particularly before the 19th century.
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[edit] Geology
The southern part of the parish was originally a natural saltmarsh overlooking the River Thames. Mud and silt were deposited from the river from the end of the most recent ice age until the marshes were reclaimed sometime before the 14th century. These sedimentary deposits reach a depth of fifty feet or more and are interleaved with a number of peaty layers. [2]
About two miles north of the river, the land rises steeply to a ridge that provides excellent views over the marshes and out to the Downs of Kent. This is one of the finest gravel beds in the country and has ben extensively worked. The higher (and dryer) ground extends north for roughly another mile. The north west of Chadwell lies at the end of the chalk outcrop.
[edit] History
[edit] Origins of the parish name
Chadwell means "cold spring" [3]. St. Mary was added to the name in Victorian times to reduce confusion with Chadwell Heath, near Romford. There are, however, other more romantic, but less academically respectable theories as to how the name of Chadwell originated.
One refers to St. Cedd, one of four brothers, all of who were priests, the others being Chad, Caelin and Cynibill. Cedd, a Christian Missionary to the Mercians, built churches in several places, two of which were at Ithancester (Bradwell on Sea) and Tilbury. The church at Bradwell, St Peter on the Wall, is still standing, but the site of the church at Tilbury is not known. There are a number of places in Essex said to be named after Chad, with whom Cedd is sometimes confused, but there is no evidence that Chad ever visited the County. The confusion may have arisen because a large part of what we know today as Tilbury was in the Parish of Chadwell St Mary and indeed until the early part of the 20th century St Mary's was the Parish Church for the developments around Tilbury Docks.
In Essex, eight towns/villages have the termination 'Well', which in Anglo-Saxon meant 'spring'. The ancient well at the bottom of Chadwell Hill, known as St Chad's Well, which has now disappeared, had more of the appearance of a tank, wide and shallow, large enough to walk into, was likely to be of Roman origin, as was the road beside it. It is presumably the cold well that gave Chadwell its name, although confusingly another old word (Chaud) means a warm spring. If the village name had retained its ancient Domesday form, Celdewella (cold spring), St Chad would in all likelihood be forgotten in Thurrock.
[edit] Parish history
Artifacts found (some of which are in the local museum in Grays) show that the area was inhabited in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. [4]
It is known that there was a sizeable non-military Roman settlement to the south of the road between Chadwell and West Tilbury. A Roman oven was found in this location in 1922 containing three complete pots, fragments of others and a small clay lamp, all of which were given to Colchester Museum. [5] In the early Roman period, sea-levels dropped, making the marshes inhabitable and there may have been a Roman settlement on the site of what is now Tilbury Docks. [6]
Not much is known of the occupation in Chadwell until the Saxon period of British history but since then it the community has continued to grow over the centuries.
The Domesday Book records, that at the time of the survey, the Bishop of London and Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux held the two manors in this parish. Later the land was divided into four manors, Chadwell, Ingleby, Longhouse and Biggin (the last three names are kept in perpetuity by local road names). The manor of Ingleby was bought by Peter Symonds in the 1580s and was bequeathed by him to found Christ's Hospital in Winchester. [7]
[edit] Chadwell Church
The original Chadwell parish church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and this is the source of the suffix "St Mary" in the modern name. It is located at the crossroads overlooking the marshes. There was a church in Chadwell before the Norman conquest. The present church has a number of Norman features and probably dates to the 12th century. The tower was built in the early 16th century.[8] There is an extension on the south that was built at the begining of the 20th century. There is now a second anglican church in the parish - Emmanuel.
On the north side of the church is a war memorial to eight of Chadwell's dead from the first world war. In 2006, five names of second world war dead were added to this memorial. [9]
[edit] Administrative History
Chadwell St Mary was within the Kingdom of Essex, which became the shire and subsequently county of Essex. From 870 until 917, Essex (including Chadwell) was within the Danelaw. It is part of the Barstable hundred.
It is a traditional Church of England parish. It was within the Diocese of London until 1845 when it became part of the Diocese of Rochester. In 1914 it became part of the newly established Diocese of Chelmsford. It was part of the Orsett deanery and the archdeaconry of Essex.
Following the building of Tilbury Docks and the establishment of the new community of Tilbury Town, the southern portion of the ecclesiastical parish was separated to form the parish of Tilbury Docks.
Chadwell was one of the parishes that formed the Orsett Poor Law Union in 1835.
Chadwell was part of the Orsett Rural District from 1894 until 1912, when it became part of the Tilbury Urban District and became known as the upper ward. In 1936 it ceased to be a civil parish when it became part of the Thurrock Urban District. This became a borough in 1984 and in 1998 became the Thurrock Unitary Authority.
[edit] Politics
Chadwell has two councillors on Thurrock council. For most recent elections, two Labour councillors have been elected.
[edit] Famous Residents
James Temple who signed the death warrant for Charles I lived in this parish between 1607 and 1622.
It is sometimes suggested that the writer Daniel Defoe or his family came from this parish, but research by a local historian has proved this unfounded.[10] However it is known he managed and later owned a tile factory on the Tilbury Marshes and lived in a house on the edge of the river.
World javelin champion, Fatima Whitbread, grew up in Chadwell St Mary after being adopted by the Whitbread family when she was thirteen.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ Census, 2001 [1] Population is for the ward which differs slightly from the parish.
- ^ RJN Devoy, Tilbury, the World's End site in Sidell and Long (eds), Coastal environmental change during sea-level highstands: The Thames Estuary
- ^ Reaney, The Place Names of Essex
- ^ James Kemble, ""Prehistoric & Roman Essex"" (Tempus, 2001)
- ^ Essex Sites and Monuments Record - record number 1685
- ^ FCJ Spurrel, Early sites and embankments on the margins of the Thames estuary (in The Archaeological Journal, 1885)
- ^ See J. N. Hare, ‘Symonds, Peter (c.1528–1586/7)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 2006 accessed 4 Feb 2007
- ^ N Pevsner, The Buildings of England Essex
- ^ UK National Inventory of War Memorials at http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.45799/fromUkniwmSearch/1
- ^ Randal Bingley, Daniel Defoe: His Trail Uncovered (Panorama, The Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, Volume 27)
