Downham is a small village and former
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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
, now in the parish of
South Hanningfield, in the
City of Chelmsford district,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, England. It is located approximately south of the county town of
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a 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 Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
. The village is in the parliamentary constituency of
Rayleigh Rayleigh may refer to:
Science
*Rayleigh scattering
*Rayleigh–Jeans law
*Rayleigh waves
*Rayleigh (unit), a unit of photon flux named after the 4th Baron Rayleigh
*Rayl, rayl or Rayleigh, two units of specific acoustic impedance and characte ...
; however, the closest two towns are
Billericay
Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon in Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, east of the City of London. The town was founded in the 13th century by the Stratford Langthorne Abbey, Abbot of West Ham, ...
, west-south-west, and
Wickford
Wickford is a town and civil parish in the south of the English county (England), county of Essex, with a population of 33,486. Located approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of London, it is within the Borough of Basildon along with the orig ...
, south-east. In 1931, the parish had a population of 833.
History
There is evidence of
Roman remains in the village suggesting it was originally of pre-
Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
origin,
though it is not 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086.
The hilltop parish church is dedicated to
St Margaret Saint Margaret, St. Margarets, or St. Margaret's may refer to:
People
In chronological order:
* Saint Margaret the Virgin of Antioch (died 304)
* Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045–1093)
* Saint Margaret of England (died 1192)
* Saint Margaret ...
. The oldest section of the church is a 10ft by 11ft square redbrick tower from the late 15th or early 16th century. However, Christians have been recorded as worshipping on the site for over one thousand years. The
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
of the church was restored in the nineteenth century, using some material from an earlier 13th-century building, and the interior was refurbished in the 1970s after a fire in March 1977. An ancient
Field Maple lies north of the church. The village is home to ''Downham Hall'', which was once the home of the De Beauvoir family; the building which currently stands is smaller than the original 17th-century mansion.
[
On 1 October 1934 the parish was abolished and merged with South Hanningfield.
]
Geography
Downham has approximately 200 households.
See also
* Ramsden Heath
References
External links
Walking around Downham
{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Former civil parishes in Essex