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The following are extracts from the History, Gazetteer,
and Directory of the County of Essex by William White
published in 1848.
Great Bentley
BENTLEY (GREAT) is a large and pleasant village, scattered
round an extensive level or common, of 42 acres, on the
eastern side of the vale of a rivulet, 8 miles E.S.E. of Colchester.
It has a fair for toys, pedlery, &c., on the Monday after
the 15th of July. Races were formerly held on the green, which is
often the resort of cricket players. The parish contains 1005
inhabitants, and 3188 acres of fertile land, pleasingly diversified
with hill and dale, and extending southward to the creek, which
communicates with the Colne, near Brightlingsea. The lordship
was held at the Domesday Survey, by Alberic de Vere, ancestor of
the noble family of the first Earls of Oxford, who held it till
about 1550, when it was sold to a Mr. Glascock, of whom it was
purchased by Sir Roger Townshend. It afterwards passed to the
Papillon, Clay, and other families, and is now held by W. W.
Francis, Esq., solicitor, of Colchester, but a great part of the
soil belongs to Lord Ashburton, Wm. Auston, Esq., of Bentley
Hall, Wm. Carrington, Esq., the Smythies family, and other
proprietors, mostly copyholders, subject to arbitrary fines and
the custom of Borough English. The ancient Hall, which stood in
Hall-field, near the church, was long a seat of the de Vere family,
and was a stately mansion, with an extensive park, but there are
now no remains, except some traces of its moat and fish ponds.
The Lodge estate belongs to Lord Ashburton; and another
estate, with the woods of Great and Little Catlins, belongs
to Cains and Gonville College, Cambridge. The Church
(Virgin Mary,) is a plain building, with a tower and five bells.
The arches of the doors are semicircular, and the walls are of rag
stone, but the tower has a mixture of flint. The rectory was
appropriated to Colne Priory, in 1321, by the Bishop of London,
who reserved the advowson of the vicarage to himself and his
successors. The benefice is a discharged vicarage, valued
in K.B. at £7, and in 1831 at £236, in the patronage
of the Bishop of London, and incumbency of the Rev. Thos. Jones,
B.D., who has a good residence, and about 13A. of glebe. The
present value of the living is £306 per annum, and on the
death of the present Bishop of London, the patronage will pass
to the Bishop of Rochester. The great tithes belong to the land
owners. A neat National School, with a dwelling for the
master and mistress, was built by subscription, in 1848; and here
is a Wesleyan Chapel, registered for marriages.
POST OFFICE at N. Mawby's
Letters desp. 7 evening via Colchester
CARRIER Wm. Poulton to Colchester
Mon., Wed., Thurs. & Sat. 8 mng.;
& POSTCART daily
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