| Langham | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's church, Langham | |
  Langham Location within Essex | |
| Population | 1,036 (2011) [1] |
| OS grid reference | TM025315 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Colchester |
| Postcode district | CO4 |
| Dialling code | 01206 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Langham is a small village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England.
There is little evidence of pre-Roman occupation of what is now Langham, but the Romans built a villa at the north end of the village close to the River Stour and the Roman Road from Colchester into Suffolk also ran to the east of the village, and so there was probably Roman activity in the area of the village.
The Anglo-Saxons later established a settlement which was possibly called Laingaham, the spelling in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Domesday Book shows a small agricultural community with the manor held by Walter Tirel, the man who was accused of shooting King William Rufus while hunting for deer in the New Forest.
Langham, like most of the villages along the Stour Valley, was primarily agricultural until the 20th century, with a few large farms and many small holdings. Like the other villages it enjoyed a period of prosperity due to the cloth trade, which started at the end of the 14th century and lasted until the 17th century. The church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the 12th century. In 1830 John Constable painted a landscape The Glebe Farm which featured the church.
Up to the start of the 20th century Langham would have been a reasonably self-contained community and everyday items could have been bought at the village stores or from the variety of shops in Dedham. However, the Essex Great Road from London to Norwich via Colchester, later known as the A12, ran up its east side and after the growth of the coaching routes in the 18th century it would have been possible to go to Colchester, Ipswich or even London.
During World War II a large airbase (called RAF Boxted) was built on land to the south of the main village area. Although much of the airfield has since reverted to agriculture some features and memorials remain. [3]
Since 2004 [4] a small community shop, housed in the community centre, and staffed by volunteers, has acted as a community hub selling local produce and hosting a mobile post office. [5]
There are two schools in Langham.
Langham Primary School has roughly 90-100 pupils. [6]
Langham Oaks School [7] [8] The school's enrollment is 80 male pupils, [9] the majority of whom come from Essex and the school is an Academy delivering SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health) provision. [10]
The school moved into a new purpose build school on the site in 2021 [11]
The School delivers a comprehensive curriculum which follows an Academic and Vocation model (Including residential provision [12] ) to meet both the social and academic needs of the students. [13]
In October 2024 the school was rated as Good in all 4 judgment areas by Ofsted [14] . The School forms part of the SEAX trust [15]
Sir Robert Balfour, 1st Baronet An MP & businessman, he lived at the Hall. His son's name is on the village war memorial. [16]
Charles Darling, 1st Baron Darling An MP and judge who lived at the Hall. He was made Baron Darling of Langham in the County of Essex in 1924.[ citation needed ]
George Dummer was a farm worker who lived at Munsons, Moor Road. Dummer bred the Discovery (apple).[ citation needed ]
John Middleton Murry Literary critic, writer, socialist, pacifist who co-founded The Adelphi where George Orwell gave a summer school lecture in 1936.[ citation needed ]
Mary Edith Pechey Pioneer women's doctor who lived at the Manse/Highfields, Dedham Road.[ citation needed ]
Max Plowman Journalist, poet, authority on William Blake, and leading pacifist who lived at Little Oaks. He co-founded The Adelphi and is buried in the village churchyard.[ citation needed ]
Frederic Raphael Screenwriter who lived at the Wick.[ citation needed ]
The River Stour is a major river in East Anglia, England. It is 47 miles (76 km) long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury, Bures, Nayland, Stratford St Mary and Dedham. It becomes tidal just before Manningtree in Essex and joins the North Sea at Harwich.
Tendring District is a local government district in north-east Essex, England. Its council is based in Clacton-on-Sea, the largest town. Other towns are Brightlingsea, Harwich, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.
The City of Colchester is a local government district with city status in Essex, England, named after its main settlement, Colchester. It is, with 194,394 people according to Office of National Statistics estimate for mid 2022, the most populous district in the Essex and also includes the towns of West Mersea and Wivenhoe and the surrounding rural areas stretching from Dedham Vale on the Suffolk border in the north to Mersea Island in the Colne Estuary in the south.
Colchester Royal Grammar School (CRGS) is a state-funded grammar school in Colchester, Essex. It was founded in 1128 and was later granted two royal charters - by Henry VIII in 1539 and by Elizabeth I in 1584.
Nayland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Nayland-with-Wissington, in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between Suffolk and Essex. In 2011 the built-up area had a population of 938.
East Bergholt is a village in the Babergh District of Suffolk, England, just north of the Essex border.
Sturmer is a village in the county of Essex, England, 2 miles (3 km) southeast of Haverhill and close to the county border with Suffolk. Its name was originally "Stour Mere", from the River Stour and is explicitly mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. A Tudor illustration of the mere from the summer of 1571 exists in the National Archives. The mere still exists today to the east of the village. The village also gives its name to the Sturmer Pippin apple which was raised by Ezekiel Dillistone from 1831, and grown in the orchards of the village.
Boxted is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) north of Colchester and 24 miles (39 km) northeast of the county city of Chelmsford. The village is in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a Parish council. The village was the site of a series of skirmishes between Parliamentary and Royalist troops in July 1648, known as the Battle of Boxted Heath.
Great Bentley is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Tendring district of north Essex, England, located seven miles east of Colchester. The parish includes the hamlets of Aingers Green and South Heath. It is home to the second largest village green in the country, at a size of 43 acres (170,000 m2), behind Duncan Down and has won 'Essex Village of the Year' and 'Daily Telegraph/Calor Gas Village of the Year' awards. Great Bentley railway station provides the village with frequent rail services along the Sunshine Coast Line to London Liverpool Street, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze.
Harwich and North Essex is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Bernard Jenkin of the Conservative Party since its creation in 2010.
Elmstead Market is a village in the civil parish of Elmstead, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It lies 3 km north-east of Wivenhoe and 6 km east of Colchester. It is on the A133 road which runs to Clacton-on-Sea to the south-east and Colchester to the west. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 1,684.
North Colchester was a Borough Constituency in Essex, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Dedham is a village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is near the River Stour, which is the border of Essex and Suffolk. The nearest town to Dedham is the small market town of Manningtree.
Philip Morant School and College is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located within the Prettygate suburb of Colchester, Essex. The school is named after Philip Morant, a local 18th-century historian and archaeologist who was chosen as the school's eponym a few months after its achieving technology college status in 1994. In November 2011 the school became an academy. After Sue Cowan's retirement, Roger Abo Henrikson became Headteacher for two academic years. During the school's 50th year, Rob James was appointed Acting Headteacher and is largely credited for returning the school to a 'good' OfSTED rating, which took place two terms after Catherine Hutley's appointment as Executive Headteacer. Philip Morant School joined the Sigma Trust in 2018, moving from the then defunct Thrive Partnership, which it co-founded.
Mark Plowman, generally known as Max Plowman, was a British writer and pacifist.
Thurstable School is a mixed secondary academy school, situated in the village of Tiptree, Essex, England. The school is about 8 miles south of Colchester.
Colchester Academy, formerly Sir Charles Lucas Arts College, is a secondary school in Colchester, Essex specialising in English and Health Sciences. It opened on 6 September 2010.
Essex is a ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea, and the county town is Chelmsford.
