Some History as reprinted from KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
ST. OSYTH parish
is on a creek of the Colne, opposite Brightlingsea, 4 miles south from
Thorrington and 4 from Great Bentley stations on the Tendring Hundred branch of
the London and North Eastern railway, 4 west from Clacton-on-Sea, 12 south-east
from Colchester and 12 south-west from Walton steamboat pier, in the Harwich
division of the county, Tendring hundred, petty sessional division and rural
district, Colchester, Clacton and Halstead joint county court district, rural
deanery of St. Osyth, archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese of Chelmsford;
some parts of this parish, which is very extensive, are high, including Beacon Hill, but a great portion is marsh
land.
The church of SS. Peter and Paul and St. Osyth is a large and ancient
structure, originally built
of rubble and flints, in the same manner as the priory buildings adjoining,
mainly in the Late Perpendicular style, with portions of Early English and
perhaps of the Norman styles: it consists of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles
with south chapel, north and south porches and a massive embattled tower at the
west end, containing 6 bells: on each side of the chancel are the monumental
recumbent effigies in marble of the first and second Lords Darcy, and their
wives, with inscriptions, and with armorial bearings: in the chapel of the
south aisle is a mural tablet to Briant Darcie, high sheriff of the county, ob.
25th Dec. 1587, and Bridget his wife, with other members of his family: in the
same chapel is the recumbent effigy of John Darcy, serjeant-at -law, in his
robes, ob. 15th March, 1638: on the south side of the chancel are mural tablets
to the Right Honourable William Henry (Nassau), 4th Earl of Rochford K.G.
ambassador and secretary to George III. who died 20th Sept. 1781, and to Lucy
(Young), his wife, d. 9 Jan. 1773: there is a modern tablet in the north aisle
to Benjamin Golding M.D. founder of Charing Cross Hospital, who died in 1863.
A
stained window was erected in 1911 in memory of the Rev. G. A. Webster, vicar
1897-1910: a new organ was erected in 1907, at a cost of £400: there are two
Gothic screens, designed by Sir H. Blomfield R.A. which were bought by the
parochial church council from Whitelands Training College, on its removal to
Putney hill: one divides the St. Cleres chapel from the south aisle and the
other forms a protection to the belfry: there are 400 sittings. The register
dates from the year 1666. The living is now a vicarage, net yearly value £460,
with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chelmsford, and held since 1922 by
the Rev. John Henry Mitchell M.A. of St. John’sCollege, Cambridge.
A cemetery of 2 acres was formed in 1855, at a cost of £1,000, and has two
mortuary chapels; it is under the control of the Parish Council acting as a
burial board.
The Johnson Institute erected in 1911 by Mrs. Cowles in memory of the late Sir
John Johnson, contains reading room and billiard rooms, and a boys’ room fitted
with gymnastic apparatus.
There are four almshouses, restored by public subscription in 1897, in
commemoration of the
Diamond Jubilee of her late Majesty Queen Victoria. The charities include the
Town Field, near Weeley, now let for £5 (less 24s. annual tithe), and Banyard’s
charity, a first charge of £2 10s. on a field at present attached to Braziers
Farm. These sums are distributed at Christmas
to the poor in food and clothing and money for the support of the almshouses.
This is one of the oldest places in the county and was originally part of the Royal demesne of King
Canute, who granted it to Earl Godwin, and by him it was given to Christ
Church, Canterbury, and at the Conquest was transferred to the Bishops of
London; it was formerly called “"Chich," but takes its present name
from St. Osyth, daughter of Frithwald, a Mercian prince, who built a nunnery
here, of which she was first abbess and where in 653 she was martyred by
heathen pirates.
On the site of the nunnery, probably destroyed by these
invaders, Richard de Belmeis of London, in the reign of Henry I. founded a
priory for canons of St. Augustine, and his remains were buried in the chancel
of the church in 1127: he bequeathed the church and tithes to the canons, who
elected as their first abbot or prior William de Corbeuil, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1136, bequeathing large benefactions to
this house, to which valuable charters were granted by Henry II. and in Abbot
Vyntoner’s time it was largely rebuilt, the gate way, abbot’s tower and other
portions now remaining being erected in that period.
At the Dissolution its
revenues were valued at £758 5s. 8d. yearly: it is now, in its modernized form,
the residence of Brig.-Gen. Kenneth John Kincaid-Smith CB., C.M.G., D.S.0.,
D.L., J.P. and is entered through a gate house of Late Perpendicular date,
elaborately covered with panelled work in flint and stone and consisting of an
arched entrance with flanking towers.
The whole is embattled and is supposed to
have been erected about the reign of Henry VII. : in the quadrangle is a range
of old buildings in the Tudor style, with an octagonal observatory; there is
also a lofty clock tower of modern date and two smaller ones; in the front of
the mansion is a fine 16th century oriole window, in the wall of what was part
of the abbot’s lodgings, on which the initials of John Vyntoner, the last abbot
but one, are frequently repeated, along with in every case a bunch of grapes. a
tun of wine and his initials J. V. end the date 1527: the park of 350 acres is
well studded with trees, and at the east
end of the house are extensive vineries, a conservatory and peach house.
St. Cleres hall, the residence of H. L. Thornhill esq, one mile south-east from
the village, presents
a very ancient appearance: it was once wholly and is still on three sides
surrounded by a moat and was the residence of the Dean family for over 200
years; the last representative died in
1888.
On the coast are three Martello towers.
Cowley Park, a recreation ground of 7 acres, situated in the centre of the
village, was presented
in 1920 by Mrs. M. B. Cowley, former owner of the Priory: a pavilion was
erected in 1927: at the entrance to the ground is a war memorial, which
contains the names of 57 men who fell in
the Great War, 1914-18.
The manor is vested in trustees. The principal landowners are Brig.-Gen.
Kenneth John Kincaid-Smith
C.B., C.M.G., D.S.0., D.L., J.P. the Earl of Onslow P.C., 0.B.E., D.L., J.P.
Messrs. Edward and Harold Hutley, Leonard G. Dale, Thomas Rowland, Joseph Smith
(Farms) Limited and Alfred Dale.
The soil is good mixed; subsoil, gravelly and sand. The chief crops are wheat,
barley and oats. The
area is 8,956 acres of land, 37 of inland and 22 of tidal water and 854 of
foreshore; there is a fine stretch of sand on the beach, some four miles in
extent, and the place is rapidly becoming a popular holiday resort; the
population in 1931 was 1,463 in the civil
and of the ecclesiastical parish in 1921, 1,283.
BLOCK HOUSE WICK is situated on the coast at the mouth of the river Colne. LEE
WICK, is another farm
divided by a creek from St. Osyth beach. WIGBOROUGH WICK, is a mile and a half
southeast.
Post, M 0., T. & T. E. D. Office. Letters from Clacton-on-Sea Cemetery, Edward Salmon, clerk to burial
board; Mrs. Scrag, registrar
Carrier to Colchester.—William Warner, wed. & sat
Motor Omnibuses at frequent intervals to & from Clacton-on-Sea,
Brightlingsea & Colchester & (Samuel Walley, carrier) from St. Osyth to
Clacton-on-Sea
