Layer Breton 1902 Kelly's Directory of Essex

Layer Breton is a parish, 5 miles south-east from Mark's Tey station, on the main line of the Great Eastern railway, 6 south-west from Colchester, 11 east from Witham and 7 east from Kelvedon, in the North Eastern division of the county, Winstree hundred, Lexden and Winstree petty sessional division and union, Colchester county court district, rural deanery of Coggeshall, archdeaconry of Colchester and dioceses of St. Albans. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a small edifice of brick in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western belfry of wood containing 1 bell: in the church is a stone, robbed of its effigies, to Alice, formerly wife of Nicholas Breton, who died May 6, 1392; there are other monuments, also in a defaced condition: there are 150 sittings. The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1765 and of marriages from 1735. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £170, with 39 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop and Round's trustees, and held since 1892 by the Rev. Francis Owston M.A. of St Catherine's College, Cambridge. On the Heath is a Congregational chapel, built in 1798 and rebuilt and enlarged in the year 1860, in connection with which is a school, capable of holding 100 scholars: here is also a Friends' meeting house. Charles Digby Harrod esq. of Morebath, Devon, who is lord of the manor, and R.C.A. Beck esq. the Right Hon. James Round P.C, M.P. of Birch Hall, and Joseph Gripper esq. are the principal landowners. The chief crops are wheat, beans and barley. The soil is loamy; subsoil, sandy. The area is 962 acres; rateable value, £891; the population in 1901 was 248.

Parish Clerk, John Wilsmore

Post Office - Mrs. Wilsmore, sub-postmistress. Letters through Kelvedon R.S.O. arrive at 9:20 a.m.; leave at 6:30 p.m. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid. The nearest telegraph & money order office is at Birch, 2 miles distant.

The children of this village go to the school at Birch.

PRIVATE RESIDENTS

Gilly Charles Pudsey
Gripper Joseph, White House
Law Richard, Sea view
Norfolk John
Owston Rev. Francis M.A. Rectory
Palmer John, Sea view
Preston Rev. Daniel John (Cong)
Simpson Thomas, The Lodge

COMMERCIAL
Beck R.C.A. farmer & landowner, Layer Breton Hall
Burmby Walter, carrier
Gripper Joseph, farmer
Hutley Ellen (Mrs) blacksmith
Mead William, Hare & Hounds P.H.
Norfolk Herbert, farmer
Norman Thomas (Mrs), farmer, Garlands Farm
Playle George, farmer
Smith Humphrey, baker and corn dealer

Date: 1902