Copford is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, England, west of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

. The hamlet of Copford Green is found a short distance to the south. The poet

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

noted he was struck by ''"the deeply rural character of the village and neighbourhood."''

History

Copford was originally a manor held by the

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

's office. Upon the death of

Edmund Bonner Edmund Bonner (also Boner; c. 15005 September 1569) was Bishop of London from 1539 to 1549 and again from 1553 to 1559. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonised by the Protestant reforms intro ...

in 1569 (also buried here) the land briefly became property of

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...

until 1609 when it returned to private ownership once more . The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of St Michael is renowned for its 12th-century Norman wall paintings that are among the best in England. The church door has been found to have human skin attached, possibly as a gruesome remnant of the ancient

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular ac ...

meted out to those who invaded the sanctity of the church.Wall, J. Charles (1912), ''Porches and Fonts.'' Pub. Wells Gardner and Darton, London. P. 41 - 42. Adjacent to the church is the manorial house of Copford Hall.

Governance

Copford is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

called Copford and West Stanway. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 1,915.

Transport

Copford is situated about half a mile east of the junction between the A12 and A120 at Marks Tey. The closest rail link is the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...

, which connects London Liverpool Street to Norwich, and stops at Marks Tey station. The village is served by the 70 and 71 bus services at the London Road end, thus giving access to Colchester, Chelmsford and Braintree via public transport. Copford Green and the neighbouring village of Easthorpe are served every Wednesday by a community bus for which tickets must be purchased in advance.

Community

Copford is divided into 3 distinct areas of population, the largest of which is the Queensberry Avenue Estate with some 250 houses. London Road/School Road (down to the Village Hall) has approx. 190 dwellings, and the Copford Green area a further 150. The village has a Hall built in the early 1990s, and a School parts of which date back to Victorian times, and the majority of which was rebuilt with the addition of a new School Hall in 2002. The Parish Council owns two play parks (one behind the Village Hall, the other on Queensberry Avenue), and woods complete with a picnic area and several walks.

Notable people

* Benjamin Lay, American abolitionist and Quaker

References

External links

History of the Parish of CopfordCopford at Streetmap.co.uk
{{authority control Villages in Essex Borough of Colchester