Everything about Writtle totally explained
The village of
Writtle lies in
Essex, England, just two miles to the west of
Chelmsford.
It is home of
Writtle College, one of the UK's oldest and largest land-based colleges and a partner institution of the
University of Essex. Writtle has a traditional village green, complete with duck pond, and
Norman church and has been described as: 'one of the loveliest villages in England, with a ravishing variety of ancient cottages'. The suggestion that Writtle is the birth place of
Robert the Bruce (or perhaps his father
Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale) is hotly contested; the importance of the village during the reign of the Plantagenet kings, however, is incontrovertible.
Early History
Growing archeological evidence shows that, not only were the Romans present in Writtle shortly after the
Roman conquest by Claudius, but also a major settlement may have been established; however, the presence of a metalled road, numerous archaelogical finds and the ease with which the river can be forded in Writtle are still not significant enough evidence to suggest that Writtle, rather than
Chelmsford, was the site of the Roman town of Caesaromagus, as suggested by the Essex historian Morant (et al.).
Named in the Little
Domesday Book, as a Royal
demesne (manor) of 194 households, the village boasts the site of one of
King John's hunting lodges, sited within the grounds of the present
HE institution
Writtle College (circa 1210).
The estate and village were later a possession of Isabel de Brus (Bruce), via a grant of
Henry III . For a time thereafter it was leased to a Francis and Joan Bache, but the estate was taken by Isabel's grandson,
Robert The Bruce, King of Scots, in the 1320s. . It was in Writtle in 1302 that Robert had married his second wife,
Elizabeth de Burgh; there's some evidence to suggest he was also born in the village rather than in
Turnberry Castle, but the story is possibly conflated with that of his
father of the same name.
Two Emma Toc, Writtle
Writtle holds a distinguished place in the history of
radio broadcasting. In the early 1920s it was the site of the experimental
Marconi station
2MT ("Two Emma Toc"), from where Captain
Peter Eckersley made the name of the village famous with his station announcement "this is Two Emma Toc, Writtle testing, Writtle testing". The Writtle transmission station was also the last independent to be assorbed by the
BBC, suspending transmission in January 1923. Independent Radio didn't reimerge in the UK till the 1960s.
Writtle Church
The
Domesday Book mentioning a church and priest in Writtle suggests that Christian worship in the village pre-dated the
Norman Conquest; the early 13th century nave and chancel seem to be extensions of an 11th century construction which itself replaced a Saxon church. During the mediaeval period, the church "changed hands" several times, revenues being received by the
Prior of Bermondsey in the 12th century, and then by the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome from the early 13th; the turbulent reign of
Richard II saw the church being seized by the king, eventually coming under the control of
William of Wykeham's New College, Oxford in 1399.
The church has twice suffered arson attacks in recent history - the first in 1974, the second in 1991.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Writtle'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://writtle.totallyexplained.com">Writtle Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
