Terling (pronounced Tar-ling) 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 authorit ...

in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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

, England, between Braintree to the north,

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 ...

to the south-west and

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

to the east.

History

A settlement at Terling dates back to Roman times. According to a Saxon document dated 627 AD, about seven hundred acres of land was occupied in the Terling and Fairstead area. In 886 Terling was part of the Witham Hundred and there are references to this in records of Terling and Fairstead until the nineteenth century. Terling is named 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 ...

of 1086 as ''Tarlinga'', giving the approximate population as one hundred and twenty five. Before 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 Con ...

the three manors of Terling were presented to the Abbot of Ely. During the thirteenth century successive Bishops of Norwich acquired land in the Parish, by 1238 known as ''Tarlinges'',P H Reaney, ''The Place-Names of Essex'', Cambridge University Press 1935 and the remains of the foundations of their palace exist to the west of All Saints’ Church. Henry VII later used the palace as a hunting lodge. During the fourteenth century more people were encouraged to take up farming and names of the farmers who purchased holdings at this time are remembered to this day in place names such as Loyes, Scarletts and Porridge Pot. Arable farming and sheep rearing were the basis of the village economy in the sixteenth century. Other local industries included tanning, weaving, malting and the milling of flour. Houses of the period were made of timber and clay and were thatched. Although yet un-standardised, by 1718 the spelling ''Tarling(e)'' was most common . It is unclear when the present-day spelling ''Terling'' became pre-eminent in documents and maps, but the change came about over the course of the 18th century. For example,

Robert Morden Robert Morden (c. 1650 – 1703) was an English bookseller, publisher, and mapmaker, globemaker and engraver. He was among the first successful commercial map makers. Between about 1675 and his death in 1703, he was based under the sign of the ...

's 1722 map of Essex, and

Emanuel Bowen Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries for p ...

's map of 1724 spell the name as ''Tarling'', along with other placenames that are rendered in a phonetic spelling that accords with their pronunciation but, like Terling, is at variance with their modern spelling.

Herman Moll Herman Moll (mid-17th century – 22 September 1732) was a London cartographer, engraver, and publisher. Origin and early life While Moll's exact place and date of birth are unknown, he was probably born in the mid-seventeenth century in G ...

's map of 1733 introduces another variant, spelling it ''Tarleing''. A later 18th-century map of Essex located in the Moot Hall in Maldon hedges its bets naming the village as ''Tarling or Terling'', but defers to the phonetic spelling in naming ''Tarling Hall''. A map of the Chelmsford and Witham Hundreds, dedicated to Sir William Mildmay Bt (of the

Mildmay Baronets There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Mildmay, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of Great Britain. Both are extinct. The Mildmay Baronetcy, of Moulsham in the County of Essex, was created ...

) in 1768 names the village as ''Tarling''. John Strutt, the second

Baron Rayleigh Baron Rayleigh, of Terling Place in the County of Essex is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The peerage was created on 18 July 1821 for Lady Charlotte Strutt, wife of Colonel Joseph Strutt, Member of Parliament for Maldon. Stru ...

, built the village school, enlarged the church and, in 1868, after a terrible epidemic of typhoid fever, installed a village water supply system. Since 2002 Terling has been the location of the Terling International Trifle Festival, held each year in September. Terling was named as Essex Village of the Year in 2017.

The village

The village is split into two halves by the

river Ter The River Ter is a river in Essex, England that houses various aquatic creatures. The river rises in Stebbing Green and flowing via Terling it joins the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation at near Rushes Lock. A small part of it, the River Ter SS ...

. P H Reaney suggests that the name of the river is a back-formation, taking its name from the settlement, rather than the other way round . On the West side of the river there is a cricket pitch, tennis courts, swimming pool and playground. On the East side of the river is the village's single public house, the Rayleigh Arms (commonly known as the Monkey), as well as a tearoom, the village shop and post office, the Terling Primary School and the Anglican Church.

Population

In 1991 Terling had a population of 741, increasing to 764 at the 2011 Census.

Notable buildings

The manor house,

Terling Place Terling Place is the Georgian family seat of Baron Rayleigh and the largest house in the village of Terling, Essex, England. It was built for John Strutt, MP between 1772 and 1777 to the designs of John Johnson. The wings, a new porch, a two ...

, was built between 1772 and 1777. The

Terling windmill Terling Windmill is a grade II listed Smock mill at Terling, Essex, England, which has been converted to residential use. History ''Terling Windmill'' was built here in c.1818. It is said to have been originally built at Cressing c1770, but t ...

, latterly converted to residential use, was featured in the film ''

Oh, Mr Porter! ''Oh, Mr Porter!'' is a 1937 British comedy film starring Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt and directed by Marcel Varnel. While not Hay's commercially most successful (although it grossed £500,000 at the box office – equal to ...

''. The Anglican church dedicated to All Saints is located on the village green. The body of the church is medieval, restored in the 19th century, while the brick-built tower dates from 1732.

References

External links