Earls Colne 1863 Whites Directory
COLNE, (EARL’S) or Great Colne, is a large and well built village, pleasantly situated on the south side of the river Colne, and on the Colchester and Halstead road, 9 miles W.N.W. of the former, and 3 miles E.S.E. of the latter town. It is near the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway ; and on the opposite side of the river are the three parishes of Colne Engaine, Wakes Colne, and White Colne, and also Colne Station. The four Colnes have their common name from the river Colne, and present a considerable variety of soils, some of which is heavy, but a mixture of sand prevails, both in the lower and higher grounds. Wakes Colne is in Lexden and Winstree Union, and the other three parishes are in Halstead Union. The parish of Earl’s Colne contains 1540 inhabitants, and 2959A. 2R. 1P. of land, extending southward to Markshall, and having many good houses. It has a fair on March 25th, and derived the distinctive part of its name from its ancient proprietors, the De Veres-Earls of Oxford. In Edward the Confessor’s time, it was held by Ulwin, a noble Saxon; but William the Conqueror gave it to Alberic or Aubrey de Vere, who married Beatrix, his half sister. The manor continued with the Earls of Oxford from 1137 till 1583, and they anciently had a mansion here called Hall Place, nearthe church andthe road leading to Colne Park; but they afterwards built a house in the Priory Close, where they resided occasionally, till the dissolution of the monasteries. John, the twelfth earl, was attainted and beheaded in 1461; but John, the thirteenth earl, was restored to this and his other possessions, in 1485.
Edward, the seventeenth earl, having wasted his patrimony, sold this manor, in 1583, to his steward, Roger Harlackenden. The heiress of his family carried it in marriage, in 1653, to Daniel Androwes, Esq. It afterwards passed to the Wale and Holgate families, and the heiress of the latter married the Rev. C. Carwardine.
Henry Holgate Carwardine, Esq., the present lord of the manor, has a handsome seat here, called the PRIORY, which was erected about 1825, and stands near the river, on the site of the ancient priory, founded by Aubrey de Vere, about 1100, for Benedictine monks. Having richly endowed it, and made it subordinate to the famous Abbey at Abingdon, in Berkshire, the founder afterwards became a monk on his own foundation, and was buried in the priory church, which was a stately edifice dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the Evangelist, and had two chapels dedicated to Our Lady and St. Peter. When this conventual church was destroyed, some of its monuments, belonging to the Earls of Oxford, were removed to the parish church; but about forty years ago they were taken back to the Priory. When suppressed, the Priory was given to the descendant of the founder. The original building was chiefly of timber, but was pulled down and rebuilt many years ago, and was cased with brick by John Wale, Esq. ,
about 1650.
COLNE HOUSE, another neat mansion, is the seat of Mrs. Gee; and a great part of the parish belongs Mrs. Honywood, R. H. Solly, Esq. , and several smaller owners. The soil is chiefly freehold.
The CHURCH (St. Andrew) is an ancient structure, con- sisting of a nave, chancel, south aisle, and a large square tower,
containing six bells. The top of the tower is of flint, and has ornamental carvings of stone at each corner, representing mullets. The interior of the church is neatly fitted up, and has a fine altar-piece, given by Mrs. Wale, and a gallery given by Mrs. Ann Cressener, in 1725. Anew gallery was erected in 1835, and 150 additional sittings were provided in 1839 ; so that the church has now about 840 sittings, of which about 500 are free. A mural monument to Roger Harlackenden, who died in 1602, has effigies of himself and four wives. The organ was given by the vicar, and the stone font by Mrs. Gee. The vicarage, valued in K.B. at £8 10s. 10d. , and in 1831 at £495, was augmented with part of the great tithes, in 1673, by Richard Harlackenden, a former patron and impropriator. It is in the incumbency of the Rev. Robert Watkinson, B.D., and in the patronage of H. H. Carwardine, Esq. The vicar’s tithes have been commuted for £616 per annum, and the other tithes belong to the patronand other landowners. Here is a handsome Baptist Chapel, in the Elizabethan style, built in 1861, at the cost of £1300, on the site of the old one, which was built by a congregation formed in 1786. In the parish is an old Friends’ Meeting House. The village is about to be lit with gas, by a Company formed in 1862. The Colnes Agricultural Society has a numerous list of members, and gives prizes to labourers, &c., for good conduct. The Colnes Literary and Mechanics’ Institution was established in 1860, and has a good reading room and library, and about seventy members. Mr. E. R. Fitzgerald is the secretary. The parish has an endowed Grammar School, and also large National and British Schools for boys and girls, and two Infant Schools. The church schools are liberally supported by the Vicar and Mrs. Gee.
The FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL was founded by the Rev. Christopher Swallow, who, in 1539, conveyed to the Earl of Oxford and others, and their heirs and assigns, divers lands and tenements, in the parishes of Stisted, Ardleigh, Messing, Marks Tey, and Coggeshall, on condition that they should maintain a godly and learned man to execute the office of schoolmaster at Earl’s Colne, who should be learned in the Latin tongue and skilful in grammar ; and should teach 30 poor children of this and the above-named parishes, without any fee or reward, except the rents and profits of the said lands and tenements. In 1673, the then Earl of Oxford, as surviving trustee and patron of the school, conveyed all his rights and interest therein (in consideration of 100 guineas) to George and John Cressener and their heirs. In 1708, John Cressener devised a messuage (then occupied by the schoolmaster), together with the perpetual gift of this free school, to Edward Cressener, in fee. In 1837, Mrs. Beatrice Towle, of London, was the sole trustee of this school, which had then been long conducted merely as a common English school, though it had in former years been in high repute as a Grammar School, and was conducted by two or more clergymen. Some of the Cresseners sold the mastership, and one of them, in 1756, agreed with the master that he was only to receive out of the school revenues a salary of £25, and 20s. per annum for each of the free scholars, provided they did not exceed fifteen. The property of this charity now comprises four farms (170A.), and several tenements, let for about £200 per annum, for which the master and usher teach, as free scholars, 30 boys, selected from the sons of small tradesmen, farmers, and labourers. The Vicar, H. H. Carwardine, Esq. , Archdeacon Burney, O. S. Onley, Esq. , O. Hanbury, and others, were appointed trustecs by the Court of Chancery, about twenty years ago, and the school is now well conducted by the master (Rev. J. Clarryvince) and usher In 1734 , and, Mary is numerously Poynter attended left in trust with the Overseers of Earl’s Colne, £300, to be laid out in land, &c. , and the yearly proceeds to be distributed among the poor parishioners not receiving alms. Of this legacy £283 was laid out in the purchase of a farm of 144., called Weston’s, at Wickham St. Paul’s, now let for £32, to which is added the interest of £50, saved out of former rents. The clear income is distributed in small sums by the churchwardens, who also distribute in bread a yearly rent-charge of £2, left to the poor by George Cressener, in 1722, out of an estate in Golden lane, London.
EARL’S COLNE DIRECTORY.
POST OFFICE at William Tawell’s. Letters via Halstead. There is a Savings’ Bank at the Post Office.
Burrows Mrs H.
Bridge Mrs
Carwardine Hy. Holgate,Esq. Priory
Cawston Fdk.Harding, plumber, &c.
Clarryvince Rev. John, M.A. master of Grammar School, & incumbent of Chappel
Clover Owen, miller, Ford Mill
Cordran Mr Hy.
Dell Mrs Sarah
Drake Rev. Nathan, B.A. curate
Eve Wm. Esq.
Mortimer Mr Jno.
Farrants Zachariah, grocer, draper, druggist, and stationer
Fitch Misses S. & E. dressmakers, &c.
Fitzgerald Edwin Richard, British schoolmaster, and secretary to the Mechanics’ Institution.
Gager Thomas, hairdresser
Gardener Mrs Eliza
Gee Mrs Mary, Colne House
Goldstone William, saddler & harness maker
Griffin Rev. Geo. Hinton, (Baptist)
Guyon Mr John
Kirk Rt. police
Harrison Misses Mary and Susanna
Hayne Emma, dressmaker
Hills H.& Co. corn millers, Chalkney
Hoare Rev. Jas. O’Brien, B.A.curate
Hunt Thomas, Robert, and Reuben, engineers, millwrights, founders, & agricultural implement makers, Atlas Works
Hunt Miss Barbara, dressmaker
Johnson Miss
Hill Mrs Elizabeth
Jones Rev. Maurice, (P. Baptist)
MannThomas, cooper &hurdle mkr.
Mann Mrs Sarah, straw hat maker
Matthews Mrs Jane
Mills Mrs My.
Monk Joseph, assistant overseer and parish clerk
Pilgrim William maltster & corn dealer
Rogers Zach. bricklayer & maker
Smith Dl. furniture bkr. upholsterer. &c.
Smith Henry, plumber, painter, &c.
Smith Robert Edwin, ironmonger, druggist, grocer, & photographer
Southern Thomas, excise officer
Spooner William, usher, Grammar School
Stuttor Misses M. E. and Ann
Tawell Frederick &James Augustus, tailors, drapers, and hatters
Tawell William, postmaster and insurance agent
Tawell Mrs Sarah
Taylor Rev. George John, M.A. curate of White Colne
Taylor John, surgeon
Watkinson Rev. Robert, B.D. vicar and rural dean, Colne Place
Woodward William, maltster & insurance agent.
Woolley John, manager for Mrs Coe, & agent for Bentall’s ploughs, &c.
ACADEMIES AND SCHOOLS.
Gardener Miss E. A. (boarding)
Grammar School, Rev. J. Clarryvince, M.A. & Mr W. Spooner
British School, Edwin R. Fitzgerald
National School, William and Mrs Mantle, and Matilda Cowlin
Infant School, Mrs Tyler & MrsCowlin
INNS AND TAVERNS.
George, John Kerlogue
White Hart, John Arnold
White Lion, William Culf
FARMERS.
Barnard Osmond, Hay House
Freeman George, Nightingale Hall
Hills Harris, Green Farm
Hills Henry, Chalkney
Humphrey Thomas, Broomfield
Mann Robert
Moss Thomas
Matthews William, Ashwell’s
Pudney Robert James, Tilekiln
Pudney Robert, Peartree Hall
Quilter John, (and maltster)
Stuttor John Newman, Mills
Taylor Thomas, Priory Farm
Woodward William, (and maltster, and insurance agent,) Chandlers’ Farm
BAKERS, &c.
Bartholomew Mrs Eliza
Buck Joseph
Moss Samuel
Nunn Francis
Sadd Isaac
Stedman J. G.
Surrey William
BEERHOUSES.
Moss Mark
Sadd Isaac
Smith William Lay
Webb Daniel
BLACKSMITHS .
James William
May William
BOOT AND SHOEMAKERS.
Brewer George
Bridges Samuel
Brown Elias
Fairhead Ts. jun.
Lee Samuel
Rawlinson William
BUTCHERS
Fairhead George
Fairhead Thomas
Wendon Henry
CARPENTERS .
Clark Noah
Jarman John
Wash Philip
GARDENERS.
Buck Richard
Moss Thomas
Owers Thomas
SHOPKEEPERS (Grocers, &c.)
Bourne Thomas N.
Bridge Joseph
Farrants Zach
Gallafent Thomas
Long William
Moss Samuel
Scillitoe John
Smith Robert
Smith Robert E.
Stedman Jno. G.
Stedman Robert
Taylor William
TAILORS
Eminson William
Pilgrim George
Pilgrim John
Tawell F. & J. A.
Wendon John G.
WHEELWRIGHTS.
Coe Mrs Sus. (& coach builder)
Surrey William
CARRIERS pass to Colchester, Halstead, &c.
James Pudney, to London, every Monday and Friday.
RAILWAY Trains from Colne Station, several times a day, to London, &c.