Rawreth

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Rawreth
Essex
St nicholas rawreth.jpg
St Nicholas's Church
Location
Grid reference: TQ781934
Location: 51°36’39"N, 0°34’21"E
Data
Population: 1,126  (2011[1])
Postcode: SS11
Dialling code: 01268
Local Government
Council: Rochford
Parliamentary
constituency:
Rochford

Rawreth is a village and parish in the hundred of Rochford, Essex. It is situated between Wickford and Rayleigh.

The place-name 'Rawreth' is first attested in the Pipe Rolls for 1177, where it appears as Raggerea. It appears as Ragherethe in the Feet of Fines for 1240, and as Raureth in the Charter Rolls of 1267. The name means 'herons' stream'.[2]

The area is mainly agricultural, sparsely populated, and with a small amount of industry.

Historically most of the farmhouses in Rawreth were moated manors, many of which survive today.

The original civil parish was annexed by Rayleigh in the 1930s. It was reformed in 1994.[3]

Geography

A stream linked to the River Crouch passes under Church Road near to Rawreth Equestrian Centre. It joins the river near to the A1245 (the old A130).

Church

The parish church in Church Road is dedicated to St Nicholas. Although mediæval in design, only the tower is an original of that era, the majority of the building having been rebuilt in late Victorian times.

School

St Nicholas Church of England Primary School closed at its original location and has relocated to a new building just a few yards over the civil parish boundary into Rayleigh.

Chichester Hotel

The Chichester Hotel is supposed to have derived its name from the Norman Knight, Sir John de Chichester, rumoured to have been the first occupant of Chichester Hall, a 13th-century moated farmhouse which still survives.[4] However, during the 16th century the hall was the home of the Andrewes family, one of whom, Lancelot, became Bishop of Chichester (1605 - 1609), and it is more likely the hall was named by him for the eponymous city.[5] In the early 18th century, the hall was home to Thomas Holt White FRS, brother of the celebrated naturalist Gilbert White. White raised the famous Chichester Elm cultivar from a tree which stood in the grounds.

References

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Rawreth)
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11127852&c=SS11+8SN&d=16&e=62&g=6425547&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1443019816116&enc=1. Retrieved 23 September 2015. 
  2. Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.382.
  3. http://www.rochford.gov.uk/rdc/main.asp?page=501
  4. The Chichester Hotel & Restaurant website, http://www.thechichesterhotel.co.uk/
  5. Benton, P. (1888). The History of the Rochford Hundred. Vol. II. Harrington, London.