Chadwell St Mary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Chadwell St Mary | |
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  Chadwell St Mary shown within Essex |
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| Population | 9,631[1] |
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| OS grid reference | |
| Unitary authority | Thurrock |
| Ceremonial county | Essex |
| Region | East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | GRAYS |
| Postcode district | RM16 |
| Dialling code | 01375 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| European Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Thurrock |
| List of places: UK • England • Essex | |
Chadwell-St-Mary is a dispersed settlement, Church of England parish and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in England. It is a few miles east of the town of Grays and is located north of the modern town of Tilbury which was part of the parish until the end of the 19th century. It is frequently referred to simply as Chadwell, particularly before the 19th century.
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[edit] Geology
The southern part of the parish was originally a natural saltmarsh adjacent to the River Thames which is tidal and saline at this point. Decaying vegetation together with mud and silt from the river were deposited from the end of the most recent ice age until the marshes were reclaimed sometime before the 14th century. These sedimentary deposits reach a depth of fifty feet or more and are interleaved with a number of peaty layers.[2]
About two miles north of the river, the land rises steeply to a ridge that provides excellent views over the marshes and out to the Downs of Kent. This is one of the finest gravel beds in the country and has been extensively worked. The higher (and dryer) ground extends north for roughly another mile. The north west of Chadwell lies at the end of the chalk outcrop.
[edit] History
[edit] Origins of the parish name
Chadwell means "cold spring" [3]. Confusingly another old word (Chaud) means a warm. St. Mary was added to the name in Victorian times to reduce confusion with Chadwell Heath, near Romford. There is, however, another more romantic, but less academically respectable theory as to how the name of Chadwell originated.
[edit] St Chad's Well
A 19th century directory is tersely specific. "Chadwell St Mary takes its name from a well blessed by St Chad whose bishopric was at Tilbury".[4] Thurrock's earliest historian, William Pallin, described the well: "Descending the hill from the venerable church, we find ourselves on the border of the level, face to face with an ancient well, having more the appearance of a tank, wide and shallow, large enough to walk into, just such as the apostolic Chad might be thought to choose for the baptism of his East Saxon converts"[5]. "St Chad’s Well” is shown on the late 19th century 6” Ordnance Survey map, just north and east of the roundabout at the bottom of Chadwell Hill, although, the modern Ordnance Survey map appears to place it a few yards away, just south of Marshfoot Road – roughly where the Gateway College is being built. By 1980 the well had disappeared, but Arthur Astbury [6] was able to conclude that "it is likely that it was Roman, and the road beside it. It is presumably the cold well that gave Chadwell its name”.
There are, however, problems with this account. It was not St Chad, but St. Cedd, a Christian Missionary to the Mercians, whose bishopric was at Tilbury. He built churches in several places, two of which were at Ithancester (Bradwell on Sea) and Tilbury. The church at Bradwell, St Peter on the Wall, is still standing, but the site of the church at Tilbury is not known. Cedd was one of four brothers, all of who were priests, the others being Chad, Caelin and Cynibill. Although St Cedd was certainly active in the Thurrock area, there is no evidence that Chad ever visited Essex. The confusion may have arisen because a large part of what we know today as Tilbury was in the Parish of Chadwell St Mary; indeed until the early part of the 20th century St Mary's was the Parish Church for the developments around Tilbury Docks.
There are a number of places in Essex said to be named after Chad, with whom Cedd is regularly confused and there are eight towns or villages in Essex that have the termination 'Well', which in Anglo-Saxon meant 'spring'. However, "Chad's Well" is not consistent with any early forms of the parish name[7]. It is nonetheless a very common name - there are apparently 42 instances of “St Chad’s Well” in different parts of the UK[8]. The most likely reason is relatively modern confusion about the place name, Chadwell, which means (in old English) “cold spring” rather than having any connection with St Chad.
If the village name had retained its ancient Domesday form, Celdewella, St Chad would in all likelihood be forgotten in Thurrock.
[edit] Parish history
Artifacts found (some of which are in the local museum in Grays) show that the area was inhabited in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. [9]
It is known that there was a sizeable non-military Roman settlement to the south of the road between Chadwell and West Tilbury. A Roman oven was found in this location in 1922 containing three complete pots, fragments of others and a small clay lamp, all of which were given to Colchester Museum. [10] In the early Roman period, sea-levels dropped, making the marshes inhabitable and there may have been a Roman settlement on the site of what is now Tilbury Docks.[11]
Not much is known of the occupation in Chadwell until the Saxon period of British history. An archaeological investigation during the construction of new facilities for Chadwell Primary school recently discovered a complete site of a Saxon sunken floored hut (Grubenhaus) from the 6th century[12].
The Domesday Book records, that at the time of the survey, the Bishop of London and Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux held the two manors in this parish. Later the land was divided into four manors, Chadwell, Ingleby, Longhouse and Biggin (the last three names are kept in perpetuity by local road names). The manor of Ingleby was bought by Peter Symonds in the 1580s and was bequeathed by him to found Christ's Hospital in Winchester. [13] Since the time of Domesday, the community has continued to thrive over the centuries.
[edit] Chadwell Church
The original Chadwell parish church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and this is the source of the suffix "St Mary" in the modern name. It is located at the crossroads overlooking the marshes. There was a church in Chadwell before the Norman conquest. The present church has a number of Norman features and probably dates to the 12th century. The tower was built in the early 16th century[14]. The church contains an early memorial brass to Cicilye Owen (died 1603), the wife of Thomas Owen of London, who was a merchant tailor. The church has an extension on the south that was built at the beginning of the 20th century. There is now a second anglican church in the parish - Emmanuel.
On the north side of the church is a war memorial to eight of Chadwell's dead from the first world war. In 2006, five names of second world war dead were added to this memorial[15].
Among the stones in Chadwell churchyard there is a memorial to Kadzuo Yamazaki (or Kazuo Yamazaki), a 22 year old Japanese naval officer. He died on July 13th 1899 in a fire on board the SS Kawachi Maru, while she was in Tilbury docks[16]. The stone has an inscription in both English and Japanese.
[edit] Chadwell in the Second World War
During the Second World War, Chadwell was at risk from enemy action both because of its proximity to Tilbury Docks and because German bombers used the Thames to navigate to London. A number of buildings were destroyed or damaged in the Battle of Britain or the Blitz. As part of the air raid protection scheme for London, there was an anti-aircraft battery (designated N16) on former heathland just south of the Greyhound pub. Immediately after the end of the war, prefabs (pre-fabricated houses) were erected on the ground north of the church. [17]
[edit] Administrative History
Chadwell St Mary was within the Kingdom of Essex, which was one of the kingdoms in the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy and which became the shire and subsequently county of Essex. From 870 until 917, Essex (including Chadwell) was within the Danelaw. It is part of the Barstable hundred.
Chadwell is a traditional Church of England parish. It was part of the Orsett deanery and the archdeaconry of Essex. It was within the Diocese of London until 1845 when the archdeaconry became part of the Diocese of Rochester, transferring again to the Diocese of St Albans in 1878. In 1914 it became part of the newly established Diocese of Chelmsford.
Following the building of Tilbury Docks and the establishment of the new community of Tilbury Town, in 1903, the southern portion of the ecclesiastical parish was separated to form the parish of Tilbury Docks.
Chadwell was one of the parishes that formed the Orsett Poor Law Union in 1835 and from 1875 it was part of the Orsett Rural Sanitary District.
Chadwell was part of the Orsett Rural District from 1894 until 1912, when it became part of the Tilbury Urban District and became known as the upper ward. In 1936 it ceased to be a civil parish when it became part of the Thurrock Urban District. This became a borough in 1984 and in 1998 became the Thurrock Unitary Authority.
[edit] Demographics
The population of Chadwell increased erratically during the 19th century from 167 in 1801 to 587 in 1881. With the opening of Tilbury Docks, the population grew to 3,391 in 1891.
| Year | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 |
| Population | 167 | 153 | 202 | 180 | 236 | 282 | 457 | 589 | 587 | 3,391 | 5,203 |
| Chadwell St Mary compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 UK Census | Chadwell St Mary ward | Thurrock borough | England |
| Population | 9,631 | 143,128 | 49,138,831 |
| Foreign born | 3.1% | 5.0% | 9.2% |
| White | 97.4% | 95.3% | 90.9% |
| Asian | 0.7% | 2.4% | 4.6% |
| Black | 1.0% | 1.2% | 2.3% |
| Christian | 78.0% | 75.1% | 71.7% |
| Muslim | 0.7% | 1.1% | 3.1% |
| Hindu | 0.2% | 0.6% | 1.1% |
| No religion | 14.4% | 15.5% | 14.6% |
| Unemployed | 3.6% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
| Retired | 18.1% | 11.8% | 13.5% |
As of the 2001 UK census, the Chadwell St Mary electoral ward had a population of 9,631. The ethnicity was 97.4% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.7% Asian, 1.0% black. The place of birth of residents was 96.9% United Kingdom, 0.5% Republic of Ireland, 0.6% other Western European countries, and 2.0% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 78% Christian, 0.1% Buddhist, 0.2% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh, 0.1% Jewish, and 0.7% Muslim. 14.4% were recorded as having no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion and 6.3% did not state their religion.[18]
The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 37.5% in full-time employment, 12.9% in part-time employment, 5.2% self-employed, 3.6% unemployed, 1.9% students with jobs, 2.1% students without jobs, 18.1% retired, 8.7% looking after home or family, 6.9% permanently sick or disabled and 3.1% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 23.9% retail, 14.2% manufacturing, 9.4% construction, 8.8% real estate, 8% health and social work, 5.4% education, 12.2% transport and communications, 3.5% public administration, 4.2% hotels and restaurants, 4.7% finance, 0.8% agriculture and 4.9% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in retail, transport and communications. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 6.9% had a higher education qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide. According to Office for National Statistics estimates, during the period of April 2004 to March 2005 the average gross weekly income of households was £490, compared with an average of £650 in South East England.[18]
In 2007, Chadwell was described by the local MP, Andrew Mackinlay, as one of the "pensioner hot spots" of Thurrock[19]. Nearly a quarter of the current population is sixty or over.
[edit] Education
There are two primary schools - Chadwell St Mary Primary and Herringham Primary. The Gateway Academy (Secondary) is being built between Chadwell St Mary and Tilbury (near the corner of Marshfoot Road and St Chad's Road). Palmer's Sixth Form College is in the adjacent settlement of Little Thurrock, as is the Woodside campus of the Thurrock and Basildon College.
[edit] Politics
Chadwell has three councillors on Thurrock council. For most recent elections, Labour councillors have been elected. Current councillors are Gerard Rice (elected May, 2008), Anthony Fish (elected May, 2007) and Marion Canavon (elected May, 2006). In the 2008 election, the BNP candidate came second but with a reduced vote compared with 2007.
[edit] Famous Residents
James Temple who signed the death warrant for Charles I lived in this parish between 1607 and 1622. Another regicide, Temple's kinsman Edward Whalley also lived in the parish in the 1620s and 1630s.
It is sometimes suggested that the writer Daniel Defoe or his family came from this parish, but research by a local historian has proved this unfounded.[20] However it is known he managed and later owned a tile factory on the Tilbury Marshes and lived in a house on the edge of the river.
World javelin champion, Fatima Whitbread, grew up in Chadwell St Mary after being adopted by the Whitbread family when she was thirteen.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ Census, 2001 [1] Population is for the ward which differs slightly from the parish.
- ^ RJN Devoy, Tilbury, the World's End site in Sidell and Long (eds), Coastal environmental change during sea-level highstands: The Thames Estuary
- ^ Reaney, The Place Names of Essex
- ^ Post Office Directory, 1859
- ^ William Palin, Stifford and Its Neighbourhood, Past and Present. Printed for Private Circulation
- ^ Arthur Kenelm Astbury, Estuary: Land and Water in the Lower Thames Basin
- ^ Reaney, The Place Names of Essex
- ^ James Rattue in The Living Stream: Holy Wells in Historical Context.
- ^ James Kemble, Prehistoric & Roman Essex (Tempus, 2001)
- ^ Essex Sites and Monuments Record - record number 1685
- ^ FCJ Spurrell, Early sites and embankments on the margins of the Thames estuary (in The Archaeological Journal, 1885)
- ^ Thurrock Museum Factfiles
- ^ See J. N. Hare, ‘Symonds, Peter (c.1528–1586/7)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 2006 accessed 4 Feb 2007
- ^ Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England Essex
- ^ UK National Inventory of War Memorials at http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.45799/fromUkniwmSearch/1
- ^ Panorama - the Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, Number 35, p47
- ^ R Reynolds and J Catton, Thurrock Goes to War
- ^ a b Neighbourhood Statistics. Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
- ^ Andrew Mackinlay MP
- ^ Randal Bingley, Daniel Defoe: His Trail Uncovered (Panorama, The Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, Volume 27)
