Blackmore is a village in
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 3 miles (5 km) east of
Chipping Ongar
Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 ...
and 4 miles (7 km) north of
Brentwood. The village is in the parish of
Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green in the
Brentwood district and the parliamentary constituency of
Brentwood & Ongar. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 826.
History
It is thought that the name Blackmore was introduced in the Middle Ages as a reference to 'Black Marsh' or 'Black Swamp'.
The origins of the
Priory Church of St Laurence date back to 1114 and marks the site of a former Augustinian Priory,
dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII in 1525. The church is the original building (but without the chancel, which was destroyed at the time of dissolution) and is now the parish church. It has one of the last remaining all-wooden
steeples
In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religio ...
in England which was added around 1400. The site still shows signs of the original moat.
[Brentwood Guide] The village itself is believed to have migrated to a location closer to the chapel of the Priory from around Fingrith Hall during
the mediaeval period.
Jericho Priory, on the site adjacent to the church and still within the moated area, was built in the 18th century on the site of an earlier 16th-century building which was believed to be the country retreat of Henry VIII and where, in 1520, his 'natural son',
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, was born.
Other old buildings in the village include the 15th- 16th-century Bull Inn, a traditional Essex timber-framed house, and Fingreth Hall, in the north of the parish, where
Sir Walter Mildmay,
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
during the
Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...
era lived.
was recorded 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 ...
'' as 'Phingaria' which was a Latinised form of its original Anglo-Saxon name, Fingreth, meaning 'the stream of the people of Fin'.
Transport
The village is close to the Chelmsford Road, part of the
A414
The A414 is a major road in England, which connects the towns of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire and Maldon in Essex. The road commences at the A41, at a junction west of Hemel, and travels through the town to junction 8 of the M1 motorway a ...
, to the
A12 and the
M11 and
M25 motorway
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...
s; it has rail links from Brentwood—four miles away—to London.
[ The 261 bus route connects the village to Brentwood. The 32 bus route also goes through the village connecting it to Ongar and ]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 ...
. A 339 service operates from Blackmore to Ongar, Brentwood and Warley.
References
External links
Blackmore Players Amateur Theatre Group
Blackmore Sports and Social Club Website
Blackmore Primary School Website
Infield Football Club Website
{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Borough of Brentwood