Writtle

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 Isobel de Bruys (Brus), via a grant of Henry III. Then leased to a Francis & Joan Bache, the estate was seized by Isobel's Grandson, the ex-communicated, Robert De Bruce, King of Scots, in the 1320's, also noted here.

Of its claims to fame, the most notable are:

The birth of Robert the Bruce in July 1274 (chronicled by Richard le Baker),
Roberts later marriage to his second wife Elizabeth de Burgh in 1302, while trying to gain the crown of Scotland at the court of Edward I.
The home of Writtle College [1], one of the UK's oldest and largest land based colleges. It is a partner institution of the University of Essex.

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 did not reimerge in the UK till the 1960's.

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'.

[edit] External links

Writtle - White's Directory of Essex, 1848

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