If, as it would appear, John Ball, the visionary social reformer, who first raised the standard of revolt against injustice and tyranny, was born in Peldon, may not Peldon have contributed in the fourteenth century, the greatest of all Essex sons?

So asks Kay Gi ...

From Essex Review Vol 3, Page 275 (1894) By: J.C. Atkinson, Danby Parsonage, Castleton.

My reminiscences of Salcott and Virley Churches of sixty-five to seventy years ago (c1830) are somewhat peculiar. My father was frequently officiating in them, one or both, ...

In burial registers from 1666 up to 1814 a note is often written alongside entries saying affidavit or An affidavit that he was buried in woolen.

This refers to the oath that had to be sworn by the relatives of the deceased to show compliance with ...

Fraternise, centralise! With brotherly feeling with a united front, with every district welded into a great whole, with a common fund to which all shall pay, and on which all shall have right to draw, the time will not be distant when every agricultural labourer shall have, ...

CHURCH BRIEFS

A transcription in P.A.F. Stephenson's book "The Parish Registers of Great and Little Wigborough" 1905

In th ...

From the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (1922)
Typed by T.B. Millatt, source document not known.
Transcribed August 2020 by Anne Taylor

Great Wigborough is a parish 7 miles south of Colchester.

Parish Church of St. Stephen stands ...

A descendant of a wealthy Berkshire family, it was fitting that the rector should return to the village where his ancestors, had settled ...

St Stephens has two bells although only one is now rung. The older bell was made by itinerant bell founder John Danyell who was founding bells between 1450 and 1470. Medieval bell-founders did not confine themselves to bell-making as their only ...

At a time of a Europe-wide move to break away from the Roman Catholic Church, in 1534, Henry VIII, declared himself supreme head of the Church of England . This move, triggered by his wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon was also a means by ...

22 April 1884 An earthquake at 9.20am, knocking down a chimney of the house which nearly came through the roof, frightening everybody very much and ringing all the bells. The damage done all the way to Wigboro', Peldon, Mersea, ...

To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of the soldiers of this Parish who fell in the Great War 1914-1918.
Their Name Liveth for Ever ...

THEOBALD, FREDERICK GEORGE
Rank: Captain
Regiment: Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) 1st Bn.
Age 38
Date of death 26 August 1914
Service No.

PONDER, ALEXANDER CHARLES
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regiment: South Staffordshire Regiment, 1/6th Battalion, TF 137th Brigade, 46th Division.
Age 36
Date of death 13 ...

OXENHAM, Frederick James
Rank: Rifleman
Regiment: London Regiment (City of London Rifles) : 6th Battalion.
Age 22
Date of death 23 May 1917
Service No. ...

JUNIPER, BERTRAM CHARLES
Rank: Private
Regiment: Essex Regiment in the 2nd Battalion. 12th Brigade, 4th Division.
Age 22
Date of death 15 September 1915
Service ...

HUTLEY, FREDERICK
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment, 12th Battalion. 116th Brigade, 39th Division.
Age 34
Date of death 30 June 1916
Service No. ...

FRANCIS, ALFRED CHARLES
Rank: Serjeant
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery: "D" Battery. 58th Brigade
Age 23
Date of death 3 June 1917
Service No. ...

BONNER, CHARLES GODFREY
Rank: Private
Regiment: Coldstream Guards 2nd Battalion. 1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division
Age 34
Date of death 27 August 1918
Service ...

Trawling through the Peldon and Wigborough Parish Magazines I came across three articles written by a Wigborough man, Edward Ponder, who I believe was born around 1916 although other biographical information is needed.

The first article is ...

BOND, WILLIAM CHARLES POTTER (also known as William Edward Bond)
Rank: Private
Regiment: Essex Regiment 2nd Battalion,12th Brigade, 4th Division.
Age 18
Date of ...

Henry William Smith was born in Peldon in 1853 and during his working life he was a horseman on a farm and farm labourer. He married Angelina Cousins (born 1857) in 1875.

In 1935 they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and in honour ...

THE WHITING FAMILY OF PELDON

The picture above is taken outside the front (North West corner) of Games Farmhouse, Lower Road, Peldon, it was passed on by Tony Baldwin whose ...

MIHS was founded in 1876 and over the years, several shows have been missed because of wars and even pandemics, so we are now long past the centenary of the society.
The ...

Pete Hall (otherwise known as Peet or Peete Hall) Colchester Road, Peldon, Essex.

It remains uncertain as to when Pete ...

Fingringhoe Wick, Langenhoe Wick, Middlewick, Abbots Wick, Tollesbury Wick are all names we are familiar with in this part of Essex but what does 'Wick' actually mean?

Wicks were in fact shepherds' huts where sheep, grazing on the low-lying marshes of this coast, ...

In investigating the history of houses in the village of Peldon where few of them are numbered, without the help of house deeds it is often impossible to identify a house by its current name. Even in Peldon's Tudor wills it is quite common ...

From a very detailed account published in the ...

My first experience of competing in a Tug-of-War competition occurred at the East Mersea village Fete' during early August 1973. At that time I lived in West Mersea, so I was over the border so to ...

Moor Farm is the white weather-boarded farmhouse on the right of the main road travelling from Mersea to Colchester a few hundred yards on from The Peldon Rose. It ...

Beautifully situated on the top of a hill at the highest point of the parish, the tower of the church is a landmark for many miles around. The ...

This story of the King's Head is rather incomplete. An inn is recorded as being at the site in the 17th ...

Little Wigborough ...

The Parish of Great Wigborough contains about 2000 acres of land, 3 of water, 5 of tidal water and 80 foreshore. It is 7 miles south-west from ...

DAVID WILSON in 1947 and in ...

BATTEN, Thomas Bossence
Australian Rank: Private Australian Infantry
A.I.F. 26th Battalion
Age 19
Date of death 29 July 1916
Service No. 1718

Schooling in West Mersea in Victorian Times. (1837 - 1901)

Mersea Island is joined to the mainland by a causeway, known locally as the Strood. Even today the Strood is subject to flooding at high tides and, in Victorian times it was made of shingle with posts along each ...

Memoirs of Phyllis Day née Wilson

Transcribed by Geoff Gonella

The following account was found tucked into the Memorial Folder at St. Mary's church. It was in the form of a typed manuscript, marked-up with a note that it was an extract from the author's ...

"We were there! We lived in Nottinghamshire at the time, and my father suggested we should have a family day out....and that ...

Memories of Bernard Ratcliffe (Bernie)

Bernard Ratcliffe, of 1 New Hall Cottages, Copt Hall Lane, Little Wigborough, sadly passed aw ...

There was a party and bonfire in the field between Brierley Hall and Cross Lane to celebrate V.E. Day. ...