Wix 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
Tendring district of north-east
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. It lies in a small valley about south of the
Stour Estuary. The valley drains east towards
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring District, Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-w ...
. Formerly an important crossroads on the route to Harwich, it has now been bypassed by the
A120 road
A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to:
Education
* A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
* Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects
* A1, a ...
.
The place-name 'Wix' is first attested 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 manusc ...
of 1086, where it appears as ''Wica''. It appears as ''Wikes'' in 1191 in the
Feet of Fines, and as ''Wiches'' in the
Curia Regis Rolls in 1198. The name is the plural of the
Old English
Old English (, ), 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 was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
'wic', meaning a dairy farm.
Eilert Ekwall
Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 t ...
, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.529. has a detached
belfry, which stands in the churchyard and contains one bell. In 1961, the then owner of Wix Abbey Farm was ploughing in the church which was overgrown when he struck a large piece of dressed limestone, which with further investigation revealed a large stone coffin with a skeleton inside. Archaeologists were called in and dated the coffin to circa 1140, due to the decorative cross on the lid having Saxon influences. The skeleton is very likely that of Alexander de Wix, a founder of
Wix Priory
Wix Priory was a Benedictine nunnery in Wix, 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 ...
, which occupied the church grounds until the 12th century. This coffin is now on show, or was until recently on display in
Colchester Castle
Colchester Castle is a Norman castle in Colchester, Essex, England, dating from the second half of the eleventh century. The keep of the castle is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe, due to its being buil ...
. An almost identical but slightly smaller coffin from the same site can be found in the bellhouse, in the churchyard.
There is one pub, The Waggon at Wix, which on Saturday evenings has live bands. There is also a village shop in Colchester Road next to Anglian Timber. There is an equestrian centre in Clacton Road which hosts dressage, show jumping and carriage driving.
Nearby places
References
External links
Entry in Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1894and earlier spellings of the name
St Mary's Church website
Villages in Essex
Civil parishes in Essex
Tendring
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