Greensted is a village and former
civil parish, now in the parish of
Ongar,
Essex, England, strung out along the Greensted Road approximately one mile to the west of
Chipping Ongar. In 1961 the parish had a population of 711.
Toponymy
Greensted's full name is Greensted-juxta-Ongar (Greensted adjoining Ongar) but this title is considered archaic now, and the settlement is known locally by its primary title. Greensted means green place, ''sted'' being in the Anglo-Saxon language, the old word for place (and is still used in modern English words e.g. 'instead', 'steadfast'). Greensted is also both a current English and, as Grønstad, Danish surname. The area of England where Greensted is located is at the edge of the area once known as the
Danelaw. There is also a part of
Vestre Bokn
Vestre Bokn is an island in Bokn municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The island is the main island of the municipality. It lies on the northern side of the Boknafjorden at the southern end of the Karmsundet strait. Vestre Bokn lies betwe ...
in
Rogaland
Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...
,
Norway, called Grønnestad. About 200 people in Norway has Grønnestad as a last name, likely derived from the farm in the area.
Greensted is situated in a large natural clearing, and would have been a logical place to build a settlement in the dense surrounding
Epping Forest especially as it was near an existing route, the Ongar road, later part of the
Canterbury pilgrimage mentioned in ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
''.
Greensted, near
Ongar, is sometimes confused with
Greenstead, in
Colchester. Both places are located in the county of Essex, but they are over 30 miles apart. Use, where appropriate, of
postcodes can reduce the risk of confusion. Postcodes for addresses in Greensted, near Ongar, commence with the letters '
CM', postcodes for Greenstead, near Colchester, commence with '
CO'.
History
Greensted is important because of its longevity: the parish has existed since
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
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*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
times, and little has changed. It is also a place that has strong ties with
St Edmund Saint Edmund may refer to:
* Saint Edmund the Martyr (d. 869), king of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr saint soon after his death at the hands of Vikings
* Saint Edmund Arrowsmith (1585–1628), Jesuit, one of the Forty Martyrs of England ...
, King of
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
. King Edmund's body stayed in the church, following his death in 1013, before being moved onwards to
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
.
On 1 April 1965 the parish was abolished to form Ongar.
Landmarks
While very small, Greensted does have one particular feature of note, being
St Andrew's Church, commonly known as
Greensted Church, the oldest wooden church in the world. It was featured on a British postage stamp issued in April 1972.
[''Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue'' (1982), Part 1: British Commonwealth. London: Stanley Gibbons Publications Ltd., p GB 24.] The east end, of brick construction, dates from the sixteenth century, while the brick footings, visible below the timber walls, are a feature of extensive restoration undertaken in the nineteenth century
See also
*
Greensted Hall
Greensted Hall is a large house in Essex of two storeys with attics. It is of timber-framing partly covered with a later facing of red brick. As it exists today, most of the house dates from about 1700, when it was largely rebuilt by Alexander Cle ...
References
External links
*
Greensted Network
{{Authority control
Villages in Essex
Former civil parishes in Essex
Epping Forest District