150 COL!) NORTON. . [KELLT'S

vro-y large portion i)f the land is in pastJu.re. The area is office, 2 miles· distant, & the nearest post & money order 1,69'1 aores; rateable value, £I,Q96; populatiion in I9

PRIVA.TE RESIDENTS. Shirman Tboma$. Beacon Hill villa Miller Robert M. Railway Inn P.H Bown Henry Simson Rev. Samuel Barker M.A. Partridge Robert, brmer, Gt.. (hnne~ Clarke Miss, The Cottage Rectory Pond William, Butchers' Arms P.H Hams Thomas, Old Ashes COMMERCIA.L. Read Henry Wm. faTffier, Fowlers frlll1 Hanis Miss, Norton Park house Stevens Edwin, farmer, The Hall Macpherson Miss, Norton Lea Bardwell George, .shopkeeper Stock Samuel William, falmer, Little· Macpherson Malcolm, Norton Lea Howard Sydney, shopkeeper Canney Norton-Smith James G. The Rise Kaplan Joseph, farmer, Wild farm Willis George, farmer EARLS COLNE (or Gr.eat Colne, otherwise called 1889, with shrubs, trees, &c. The kennels of the Ead Colne Monachorum) is a town as ancient as the time of Essex Fox Hounds are loeated here; Edmund Deacon King : it derives its name from the esq. of Sloe House, Halstead, is master. Brai:nttree•. river Colne and from its ancient occupation by the de Witham, Colchester, Halstead and Sudbury aye conve­ Veres, Great Chamberlains of , Earls of Oxford, nienlt places for hunting visit-ors. and Dukes of Dublin, who with little interruption were Prior to the year 1100, Aubrey de Vere, first Earl oi lords ef the manor from the Conquest till 1583, and had Guisnes, founded here a Benedictine priory in honour­ a seat here, called Hall Place, with a park of about 700 of St. Maryand St. John the Evangelist and St. Andrew.. acres attached, which stood on one side of the church: which was richly endowed and made subordinate to the­ the town is near the banks of the Colne, and on the famous Abbey founded in 675 by Cissa, at Abingdon, i1). road from Colchester to Halstead, I mile south-east Berkshire; he afterwards became a monk in his own from Colne station on the Colne Valley railway, establishment and' was buried here. with Beatrice his 3! east-south-east from Halstead, 10 north-west from wife, sister of William the Conqueror; some remains­ Colchester, 4 north from 'and 54 by rail of the priory are still to be seen near the river: in the from London, in the Eastern division of the county, priory church were buried 13 Earls of Oxford of Lexden hundred, South Hinckford petty sessional division the princely house of de Vere; several ancient monu­ (Halstead bench), Halstead union and county court dis- ments of that family are preserved in a cloister attached. trict, and in the rural deanery of Halstead, archdeaconry to the present priory, including four altar tombs with of Colchester and diocese of St. .Albans. The village is recumbent effigies of the de Veres, Earls of Oxford, the well drained and the public places and houses are lighted earliest being to Robert de Vere, 5th earl, ob. 1296; with gas from works the property of a company estab- the others to Robert de Vere, 9th earl, who died of a lished in 1865. The church of St. .Andrew is an wound received from a wild boar while hunting in Kov. edifice of flint in the Decorated style, consisting of chan- 1392; to the second wife of. the last named, and to. eel, nave of six bays, aisles, south porch and a large Thomas de Vere, 8th earl, ob. 1371: at the Dissolution. embattled western tower containing a clock with chimes, the revenues of this religious house were estimated at i~serlted in 1'8'8'7, and 6 bells, dated N69; the tower was £175 14S' 8!d. yearly. The modern mansion called I'estored in 153'2 by John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, ., The Priory," erected near the site of the ancient whose 'aT'lllS wioth supporters and crest are ca.rven on the monastery, is the residence of Augustus .Maunsell Brad­ east and west sides, ag,ain in li864, and fumher restored burst esq. Colne House, a modern mansion pleasantly in 1900 at a cost of about £900: there is a stained situated at the entrance of the village from Halstead, is­ window and two bil'asses, pl'aoed by the parishioners the property and residence oil Frederick John Marsden and friends as a memorial to the Rev. Robert esq. J.P.; Co1ne Place is the residence of WaUer Edwa!l'd Watkinson, vicar from 1829; three other stained windows Grimston esq. J.P.; Colneford House, an old mansion, were presented in 1897 by John Taylor and Reuben dated 1685, is the residence of Joseph Wren esq.; the­ Hunt esqrs. and one by the congregation; two of these boundary between this parish and passes. were erected in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee through this house, and inside the house is a leaden. of 'her late Majesty Queen Vlictoria: the organ plate, dated 1724, marking tfie division. The trustees­ was provided in 1893, at a cost of £650: the of the late John Carwardine esq. J.P. (d. 188'9) are lords­ reredos is of freestone with mosaics by Salviati: the oak of the manors of Earls Colne and Colne l~riory. 'l'he­ choir stalls were presented in 1896 by the vicar: there landowners are Thomas Phillips Price esq. of Marks is a marble monument to Richard Harlakenden esq. Hall, Kelvedon; the trustees of the late J. Carwardine­ and bis four wives, 1602; another with arms to George es9.. J.P. (d. 1889); }