Mundon 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 authority ...

on the

Dengie peninsula __NOTOC__ Dengie is a peninsula in Essex, England, that once formed a hundred (subdivision), hundred of the same name (sometimes spelled Dengy). The peninsula is formed by the River Crouch to the south, the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater to ...

Maldon District Maldon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Essex, England. The council is based in Maldon, Essex, Maldon, and the district includes other notable settlements such as Burnham-on-Crouch,Heybridge, Essex, Heybridge, Wickh ...

in the county of

Essex Essex () is a 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 River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. It lies 3 miles south-east of

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

. The manor of Munduna passed from the king's thegn Godwin to

Eudo Dapifer Eudo Dapifer (sometimes Eudo fitzHerbertBarlow ''William Rufus'' p. 474 and Eudo de Rie); (died 1120), was a Norman aristocrat who served as a steward (server, Latin 'dapifer') under William the Conqueror, William II Rufus, and Henry I. Life Eud ...

at the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

. The place-name 'Mundon' is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086, where it appears as ''Munduna''. The name means 'Munda's hill'. Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries Mundon formed part of the estates of St John's Abbey, Colchester; it passed to

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false charge ...

before being returned to the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of ...

, which held the right of presentation to the vicarage until the

20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear ...

.St Mary's Church, Mundon
The 14th-century timber-framed Church of St. Mary, built within the remains of the moat of Mundon Hall, and likely on Saxon and Norman foundations, has been disused since the 1970s, but is currently in the care of

Friends of Friendless Churches Friends of Friendless Churches is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As of April ...

, supported by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. Following a long period of remedial work, the church re-opened to visitors in August 2009. The entire church was underpinned, and much structural work was carried out by Bakers of Danbury. The church was re-glazed, and now, internally, appears lighter than it has in recent years. It is a grade I listed building. Mundon Hall is now represented by an

18th-century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave tradi ...

farmhouse of rendered and whitewashed brick. The village was struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Mundon Furze

The Furze is one of the last areas of surviving

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

in the Dengie peninsula. The dominant tree species are oak and ash.

Pedunculate Oak ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...

(''Quercus robur'') dominates the northern half of the Furze.

Bramble A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus ''Rubus'', which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries. "Bramble" is also used to describe other prickly shrubs, such as roses (''Rosa'' species). The fruits inclu ...

(''Rubus fruticosus'') covers most of the ground layer, with small wet areas supporting Pendulous Sedge (''Carex pendula'') and

Soft rush ''Juncus effusus'', with the common names common rush or soft rush, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant species in the rush family Juncaceae. In North America, the common name soft rush also refers to '' Juncus interior''. Distribution '' ...

(''Juncus effusus''). Several houses have been built in the southern part of this ancient wood.

White House Farm Canal

From 1832 to about 1880 a private canal operated from White House Farm to the River Blackwater.White House Canal
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References

External links

* ttp://www.essexchurches.info/church.asp?p=Mundon&ty=e Mundon St Mary on Essex Churches websitebr>Information and photographs of Mundon village
{{authority control Villages in Essex Maldon District