Virley 1899 Kelly's Directory of Essex

Virley (or Salcott Virley) is a parish separated from Salcott by a creek 7 miles south-east from Kelvedon station on the main line of the Great Eastern railway, and 8 south-south-west from Colchester, 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 Mersea, archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese of St. Albans. The church of St. Mary the Virgin, a small and ancient building of flint and rubble, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel and nave, is now ruinous and disused, and the inhabitants attend the church of Salcott. The register of baptisms dates from the year 1628; burials, 1633; marriages, 1732. The living is a rectory, annexed to Salcott in 1879, net yearly value of £153, with 72 acres of glebe, in the gift of Edward Coxwell esq. and Sir William Neville Abdy bart. the Rev. Frederick Watson M.A. and W. Hall esq. alternately, and held since 1878 by the Rev. Edward Musselwhite, and rural dean of Mersea. Abdy's charity of £4 is for bread and clothing. Sir William Neville Abdy bart. is lord of the manor and the principal landowner. The soil is heavy; subsoil, the same. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area is 347 acres; rateable value, £314; the population in 1891 was 75.

Parish Clerk, John Boley

Letters delivered from Witham arrive at 7:15 a.m.

Nearest receiving house at Salcott, & the nearest money order & telegraph office is at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, 2 miles distant.

Letter Box cleared at 5:30 a.m

The children of this village go to Salcott school.

Musselwhite Rev, Edward, Rectory
Bright Thomas, blacksmith
Foakes Arthur, White Hart P.H. & coal merchant.
Date: 1899