Fingringhoe 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the City of Colchester district of

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. The centre of the village is classified as a conservation area, featuring a traditional village pond and red telephone box. The Roman River flows nearby before entering the River Colne. The name means "hill-spur of the ''Fingringas''", a tribal name denoting the "people who dwell on the finger of land". It has frequently appeared on lists of unusual place-names.

Geography

Fingringhoe Wick

Fingringhoe is locally known for its

salt marshes A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open Seawater, saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the ti ...

, which provide habitats for many birds and salt-water animals. These form part of the Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve managed by

Essex Wildlife Trust The Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) is one of 46 The Wildlife Trusts, wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the ...

History

Roman port

During the 1st Century AD Fingringhoe was home to a river port which serviced the nearby provincial capital of

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. Julius Caes ...

Camulodunum Camulodunum ( ; ), the Roman Empire, Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important Castra, castrum and city in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. A temporary "wikt:strapline, strapline" in the 1960s ...

(modern

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

). Given the lack of a known road between Fingringhoe and Colchester, it is likely that seagoing vessels stopped in Fingringhoe, where their cargo was transferred to smaller riverboats.

Middle Ages

A manor located at Fingringhoe was donated by

Henry I of England Henry I ( – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henr ...

to the Norman abbey of Saint-Ouen at Rouen.Véronique Gazeau, ''Normannia monastica: Prosopographie des abbés bénédictins (Xe siècle-XIIe siècle)'', Publications du CRAHM, Caen, 2007.

Monuments

St Andrew's Church

A prominent feature in the centre of the village, the north wall of St Andrew's Church dates back to the 12th century.

References

External links

Essex Wildlife Trust

Fingringhoe Primary School

Villages in Essex {{Essex-geo-stub