Langham, Essex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Langham is a small village in the north east of Essex, England.

[edit] History

There is little evidence of pre Roman occupation of what is now Langham but the Romans built a villa at the north end of the village close to the River Stour and the Roman Road from Colchester into Suffolk also ran to the east of the village and so there was probably Roman activity in the area of the village.

The Anglo-Saxons later established a settlement which was possibly called Laingaham, the spelling in the Domesday Book. The Domesday Book shows a small agricultural community with the manor held by Walter Tirel, the man who was accused of shooting King William Rufus while hunting for deer in the New Forest.

Langham, like most of the villages along the Stour Valley, was primarily agricultural until the 20th century, with a few large farms and many small holdings. Like the other villages it enjoyed a period of prosperity due to the cloth trade, which started at the end of the 14th century and lasted until the 17th century.

Up to the start of the 20th century Langham would have been a reasonably self contained community and everyday items could have been bought at the village stores or from the variety of shops in Dedham. However, the Essex Great Road from London to Norwich via Colchester, later known as the A12, ran up its east side and after the growth of the coaching routes in the 18th century it would have been possible to go to Colchester, Ipswich or even London.

[edit] External links

• Village website