Steeple is a village on the

Dengie Peninsula __NOTOC__ Dengie is a peninsula in Essex, England, that once formed a hundred of the same name (sometimes spelled Dengy). The peninsula is formed by the River Crouch to the south, the Blackwater to the north, both of which are tidal, and the N ...

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 situated just east of

Maylandsea Maylandsea, and the adjacent Mayland, are villages on the Dengie Peninsula in the English county of Essex. They are part of the Althorne ward of the Maldon district, and have a parish council that covers both villages. Governance Mayland is an ...

and Mayland, on the southern side of the River Blackwater

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

. A hamlet, within the village of Steeple, on the banks of the River Blackwater is called Stansgate.

Steeple Church

The original parish church of St Lawrence, located west of the present building, was destroyed by fire. The current church was built in the centre of the village re-using some materials from the old church. On the west side of the village, there is a former chapel building of the

Peculiar People The Peculiar People were a Christian movement that was originally an offshoot of the Wesleyan denomination, founded in 1838 in Rochford, Essex, by James Banyard, a farm-worker's son born in 1800. They derive their name from a term of praise foun ...

, built in 1877.

Stansgate Priory

Stansgate Priory was a

Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wi ...

Priory built near to the banks of the River Blackwater in about 1120. It was one of many priories closed by

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 char ...

in 1534.

Viscounts Stansgate

The village has been home to several generations of the Benn family, who were created Viscounts Stansgate in 1942, since about 1900. They live in Stansgate House.

References

Villages in Essex Maldon District {{Essex-geo-stub