Ugley

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Ugley
Essex

Pretty cottages in Ugley
Location
Grid reference: TL520284
Location: 51°56’3"N, -0°12’37"E
Data
Population: 430  (1991)
Post town: Bishop's Stortford
Postcode: CM22
Dialling code: 01279
Local Government
Council: Uttlesford
Parliamentary
constituency:
Saffron Walden

Ugley is a small and pretty village in Essex, found about 2 miles north of Stansted Mountfitchet, standing between Saffron Walden and Bishop's Stortford. Within the parish is the village of Ugley Green, a mile and a half to the south, which is bigger than its parent. The two are joined by a bridleway and indirectly by the B1383.

The village is within a major transport corridor. The M11 motorway passes by to the east and the main north-south railway line beside it. The B1383 is to the west. Ugley has no station, the closest lying at Elsenham, beside Ugley Green.

Ugley was first recorded in 1041 as "Uggele". It appears in the Domesday Book as "Ugghelea". The name probably means "Ugga's meadow".

About the village

St Peter’s, Ugley

Within Ugley there are many lovely buildings in the village, and several of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Grade II* listed church, St Peter's, has a 13th-century nave and a Tudor brick tower.[1] Orford House is a Grade II* listed building built by Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, c.1700.[2]

Name

The village's name is its main claim to fame, ill-fitting as it is to the place. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names,[3] along with Nasty close by in Hertfordshire. (It is said that a local newspaper once delighted in the announcement "Ugley woman marries Nasty man".) There was once an 'Ugley Women's Institute', but it appears to have closed in 2009.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Ugley)

References

  1. National Heritage List 1275055: Church of St Peter
  2. National Heritage List 1221630: Orford House
  3. No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else - The New York Times, 22 January 2009