Castle Hedingham
| Castle Hedingham | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
 St James Street, Castle Hedingham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL787357 |
| Location: | 51°59’28"N, 0°36’14"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,000 |
| Post town: | Halstead |
| Postcode: | CO9 |
| Dialling code: | 01787 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Braintree |
Castle Hedingham is a village in northeastern Essex, standing four miles west of Halstead and 3 miles southeast of Great Yeldham in the Colne Valley, on the ancient road from Colchester to Cambridge.
The village's main attractions are the well preserved Norman Hedingham Castle, the Colne Valley Railway and its many timber-framed mediæval buildings.
Parish church
The church of St Nicholas is late Norman and Gothic, building, built from around 1180. Its Romanesque wheel window and cemetery cross are remnants of the Norman church.
The fine double hammerbeam roof is attributed to Thomas Loveday, who was responsible for work on St John's College, Cambridge.
History
The village grew up around Hedingham Castle, the ancestral seat of the de Veres, Earls of Oxford. The first earl, Aubrey de Vere III, finished the initial building of the keep and established a Benedictine nunnery, Castle Hedingham Priory, near the castle gates. Hugh de Vere, fourth earl of Oxford, purchased the right to hold a market in the town of the crown in the mid-13th century. He also founded a hospital just outside the gates of the castle around 1250.
The village was served by Sible and Castle Hedingham railway station which was opened by Colne Valley & Halstead Railway Company in 1867. The station closed in 1964 and was dismantled and rebuilt in 1974 on a new site to the north west of the village by the Colne Valley Railway Preservation Society.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Castle Hedingham) |
- SEAX Archaeology - Unlocking Essex's Past An in-depth essay about Castle Hedingham.
- Hedingham School
- Castle Hedingham: A brief history of the village