Blackmore is a village in
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 Grea ...
, England.
It is located approximately 3 miles (5 km) east of
Chipping Ongar
Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 th ...
and 4 miles (7 km) north of
Brentwood. The village is in the parish of
Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green in the
Brentwood district and the parliamentary constituency of
Brentwood & Ongar. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 826.
History
It is thought that the name Blackmore was introduced in the Middle Ages as a reference to 'Black Marsh' or 'Black Swamp'.
The origins of the
Priory Church of St Laurence date back to 1114 and marks the site of a former Augustinian Priory,
dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII in 1525. The church is the original building (but without the chancel, which was destroyed at the time of dissolution) and is now the parish church. It has one of the last remaining all-wooden
steeples
In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...
in England which was added around 1400. The site still shows signs of the original moat.
[Brentwood Guide] The village itself is believed to have migrated to a location closer to the chapel of the Priory from around Fingrith Hall during
the mediaeval period.
Jericho Priory, on the site adjacent to the church and still within the moated area, was built in the 18th century on the site of an earlier 16th-century building which was believed to be the country retreat of Henry VIII and where, in 1520, his 'natural son',
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, was born.
Other old buildings in the village include the 15th- 16th-century Bull Inn, a traditional Essex timber-framed house, and Fingreth Hall, in the north of the parish, where
Sir Walter Mildmay,
Chancellor of the Exchequer during the
Elizabethan era lived.
was recorded 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 manus ...
'' as 'Phingaria' which was a Latinised form of its original Anglo-Saxon name, Fingreth, meaning 'the stream of the people of Fin'.
Transport
The village is close to the Chelmsford Road, part of the
A414, to the
A12 and the
M11 and
M25 motorways; it has rail links from Brentwood—four miles away—to London.
[ The 261 bus route connects the village to Brentwood. The 32 bus route also goes through the village connecting it to Ongar and ]Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...
. A 339 service operates from Blackmore to Ongar, Brentwood and Warley.
References
External links
Blackmore Players Amateur Theatre Group
Blackmore Sports and Social Club Website
Blackmore Primary School Website
Infield Football Club Website
{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Borough of Brentwood
