Sutton 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the District of Rochford in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, 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 ...

, England. It is located between the River Roach and the adjoining Borough of Southend-on-Sea, and includes the hamlet of Shopland. It has a population of 127, increasing at the 2011 Census to 135, the smallest in the District, although at the time of 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

it had a flourishing village with its own market and fair.Rochford District Council : District Tour
/ref> The place-name 'Sutton' is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Suttuna''. The name means 'southern town or settlement'. The place-name 'Shopland' is first attested in a list of c. 1000 AD of the manors of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MS. 383), where it appears as ''Scopingland''. It appears as ''Scopelanda'' in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as ''Scopiland'' in the Feet of Fines in 1208. The name means 'island with a shed', the first element being the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''sceoppa'', or the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

''schoppe'', meaning 'shop' or 'shed', the origin of the modern word 'shop'. The area is known locally as Sutton with Shopland. Most of the civil parish of Shopland was amalgamated with Sutton in 1933. When St Mary Magdalene's church in Shopland was demolished in 1957 following wartime bomb damage, artifacts were removed and went to Sutton Church and others. Shopland churchyard is rededicated every year. Sutton Road (B1015) is approximately long and runs from the

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

Public House on Southend Road in

Rochford Rochford is a town and civil parish in the Rochford (district), Rochford District in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford. At the 2011 census, the Civil parishes in England, civil parish had a population ...

to Southchurch Road in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

. Sutton is rural with large farms, and is bordered by industrial estates on its northern (Purdeys Industrial Estate) and southern (Chandlers Way/Temple Farm Industrial Estate) borders.

Church

All Saints' Church is of Norman origin and is listed at Grade II* on the National Historic List for England (NHLE). The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

date to the early 17th century. The bell turret dates to the 14th and 15th centuries. There are various 1869 and later repairs and restorations. The church is built of ragstone rubble, with Reigate stone and Barnack stone dressings. It has a red plain tiled roof and a cedar- shingled bell turret and spirelet. The church is unique among Essex churches inasmuch that its south door is of a rare rebated or interlocking type, with only five other churches in the county having similar doors. This door was faced to the south in 1869. Other examples can be found at the churches located in Castle Hedingham and Elmstead. When the nearby Shopland church was demolished in 1957, due to partial ruin from the Second World War, a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

coffin lid and brass, dated to 1371, of Sir Thomas Stapel, Sergeant at Arms to

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

, was moved to All Saints' Church in 1971. The brass shows Stapel dressed in the armour he would have worn at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. All Saints' Church was declared redundant and permissible for secular use in 2015, and the brass and slab were moved again to St Andrew's Church in nearby

, Essex in 2018, where they were set into the internal north wall of the tower.Monthly Bulletin
Monumental Brass Society, October 2018, pp. 764–65.

References

External links

Sutton Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Rochford District