Ingatestone is a 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 ...

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, with a population of 5,409 inhabitants at the 2021 Census. Just north lies the village of

Fryerning Fryerning is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning, in the Brentwood district, in the county of Essex, England. It is situated approximately north of Ingatestone. The parish church of ''St. Ma ...

; the two now forming the parish of

Ingatestone and Fryerning Ingatestone and Fryerning is a civil parish in the Brentwood borough of Essex, England. The parish includes the villages of Ingatestone and Fryerning, and covers an area of . History The civil parish was formed on 24 March 1889 by the Local G ...

, in the

Borough of Brentwood The Borough of Brentwood is a local government district with borough status in Essex, England. The borough is named after its main town of Brentwood, where the council is based; it includes several villages and the surrounding rural area. T ...

. Ingatestone lies in the

Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...

north-east of London. Its built-up area straddles the A12 trunk road and the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

railway.

History

Ingatestone appeared in

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 ...

times on the Essex Great Road (now the A12) between the Roman towns of

Londinium Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. Most twenty-first century historians think that it was originally a settlement established shortly after the Roman conquest of Brit ...

(London) and

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 ...

(Colchester). The name means "Ing at the Stone", the suffix distinguishing it from nearby settlements that also formed part of the manor of Ing. It is first recorded in 1283 as ''Gynges atte Ston''. It appears as "Inge atte Stone" in 1433. The village is built on boulder clay lands. The village stone, deposited by glacial action, is unusual for the area. A large Sarsen stone can still be seen, split into three, with one piece by the west door of the St Edmund and St Mary's parish church and one each side of the entrance to Fryerning Lane. Ingatestone belonged to

Barking Abbey The Abbey of St Mary and St Ethelburga, founded in the 7th-century and commonly known as Barking Abbey, is a former Roman Catholic, royal monastery located in Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It has been described as havi ...

from about 950 CE until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was purchased from

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

by Sir

William Petre Sir William Petre (c. 1505 – 1572) (pronounced ''Peter'') was Secretary of State to three successive Tudor monarchs, namely Kings Henry VIII, Edward VI and Queen Mary I. He also deputised for the Secretary of State to Elizabeth I. Educated ...

. Petre, originally a lawyer from

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, had risen to become the Secretary of State to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. He built a large courtyard house,

Ingatestone Hall Ingatestone Hall is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Essex, England. It is located outside the village of Ingatestone, approximately south west of Chelmsford and north east of London. The house was built by Sir William Petre, a ...

, as his home in the village, along with

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

s which still exist today as private cottages in Stock Lane. By the time of 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 ...

in 1086, Fryerning and Ingatestone (''Inga'') were assigned to the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Chelmsford, as part of the land of St Mary of Barking with a value of 60

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

(£3), held by Robert Gernon in

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. ...

. By the 18th century, Ingatestone had become a

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

centre; however, the advent of the railway saw its importance decrease, along with the traffic on the Essex Great Road. By 1881, the parish had a population of 926, and on 24 March 1889 the parishes of Ingatestone and Fryerning merged to form Ingatestone and Fryerning, encompassing an area of almost . Ingatestone grew further in the 20th century as commuters moved in, attracted to the surrounding countryside. Plans to bypass the narrow

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

through the village were first drawn up before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, but construction of a dual-carriageway bypass did not begin until 1958. Further dual-carriageway sections of the A12 trunk road were added in the 1960s, to bypass Brentwood 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 ...

Geology

Ingatestone lies just to the north of the southernmost limit of

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. Surface deposits over much of the area consist of

boulder clay Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...

and it is only to the north-east that there are more sandy deposits. Geologist Ciara Lovatt conducted several rock mineral experiments on deposits within Ingatestone in the 1980s. The glacial deposits overlie

London clay The London Clay Formation is a Sediment#Shores and shallow seas, marine formation (geology), geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 54-50 million years ago) age which outcrop, crops out in the southeast of England. The London C ...

, which can be seen occasionally in the bed of the River Wid and its tributaries. The geology of the area is responsible for the landscape and the character of farming in surrounding area. Crop farming is the typical use of boulder clay lands. The sandy deposits to the north-east of Ingatestone are a contributory factor in the greater incidence of woodland and non-

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

in this area.

Places of interest

has been the home of the Petre family since the 16th century, who reside there to this day. There is a tomb monument to members of the family in the parish church of St Edmund and St Mary's. The hall is currently open as a tourist attraction. It largely retains its Tudor appearance, following restoration carried out between 1915 and 1937, and is set in formal gardens surrounded by of grounds. Inside is a range of antique furniture, paintings and other historical artefacts.

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

spent several nights at the hall on her

Royal Progress The ceremonies and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or their representative into a city in the Middle Ages and early modern period in Europe were known as the royal entry, triumphal entry, or Joyous Entry. The entry centred on ...

of 1561. St. John Payne, one of the

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic Church, Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under variou ...

, resided at Ingatestone Hall in the late 16th century as chaplain and steward for Lady Petre. He was martyred at

in 1582. The

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

inoculator, Daniel Sutton, made his base on Ingatestone

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

in Brandiston House and carried out much of his work here.

Economy

Ingatestone has over a hundred shops and businesses. Among the retail outlets, there are two small supermarkets ( Budgens and

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

) as well as many retail and industrial shops. There are two

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

s in the High Street. The tiny ''Star Inn'' is the older, dating back to the 15th century. It features low-beamed ceilings and a large, open log fire. ''The Bell'' is a traditionally styled pub, with a substantial Elizabethan brick fireplace in the lounge bar. A third pub, ''The Crown'', was shut after a police raid in 2011 discovered cannabis being grown there. It has now become the Crown Mews development.

Amenities

Ingatestone has over 40 clubs and societies, ranging from arts and sports clubs to charitable societies. They include the Ingatestone and Fryerning Dramatic Club, founded in 1947, the Ingatestone Musical and Operetta Group, founded in 1970, the Ingatestone Choral Society, established in 1948, and the Ingatestone and Horticultural Society formed in 1963, which is affiliated to the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

. There is also a Community Association, which meets at a large hall in High Street. Other amenities include a recreation ground, a sports field, and bowls and tennis clubs. The

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

is active and sponsored a war memorial in 2005 to mark the movement's centenary. The memorial, in the village's Anglican churchyard, is dedicated to the memory of the men of Ingatestone who served and fell in the two

world war A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s. There are two parks. ''Seymour Field'' was renamed after 'Skip' Seymour, a former headteacher of a local school, in 1977; it was known previously as ''Transport Meadow'', having been donated to the village by the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

after the construction of the first A12 bypass in 1959. The other park is the ''Fairfield'', a historic site of village fairs, which is privately owned by the Petre family and leased to the parish council. There are four places of worship in Ingatestone:

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, Elim Pentecostal, and United Reformed. The local community comes together for key annual events, including a Victorian-themed Christmas evening in the High Street and a free annual firework display on the Fairfield on New Year's Eve. Ingatestone has a community magazine called the ''Ingatestone Journal'', delivered to residents of Ingatestone,

Stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

and Margaretting; it covers local issues and events, and allows businesses to advertise their services.

Local government

The

for the area is Ingatestone and Fryerning Parish Council. Since 1974, the village has formed a part of the

, having previously been part of Chelmsford

Rural district A rural district was a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. I ...

, Chelmsford

Rural Sanitary District Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures: *Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies *Rural sanitary dis ...

and Chelmsford

Poor Law Union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to the Poor Law Amendment ...

. Historically, the village lay within the administrative area of the Chelmsford Hundred. Ingatestone has two

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

s: one covering the railway station and Station Lane, with the other protecting the central shopping area of High Street.

Education

Ingatestone has three schools: * Ingatestone Infant School, teaching children between the ages of four and seven. * Ingatestone and Fryerning Church Of England Voluntary Aided Junior School, teaching children between the ages of seven and eleven from years 3 to 6. * The

Anglo European School Anglo European School is a self-governing, co-educational international academy school situated in Ingatestone, Essex. It is a school for boys and girls of all abilities, with 1,306 pupils aged 11 to 19. It was the first state school in Britai ...

, a self-governing state school for children aged from eleven to nineteen, specialising in language study. It was the first state school in Britain to offer the

International Baccalaureate Diploma The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

and the first to become a Language College.

Sport

Ingatestone and Fryerning Cricket Club plays in Divisions 2 and 6 of the T Rippon Mid-Essex League and celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2018. The village also has two football teams: Redstones Football Club and Stones Athletic Youth Football Club.

Notable people

*The novelist and musician Alice Diehl lived in Ingatestone shortly before her death in 1912. * Sound poet and musician Henri Chopin lived in an old house by the railway station in the 1970s and 1980s. *The actress Sarah Miles and her director brother, Christopher Miles, were born in Ingatestone. *The noted naturalist and entomologist

Sheffield Airey Neave Sheffield Airey Neave CMG OBE (20 April 1879 – 31 December 1961) was a British naturalist and entomologist. Neave was the grandson of Sheffield Neave, a governor of the Bank of England and he was the father of Airey Neave. Early life Born in ...

lived in the village following retirement. *Historian and author Ian Yearsley was born in Ingatestone. *The pioneer of radio and television Simeon Aisenstein lived here towards the end of his life.

Transport

The route of the A12 trunk road once passed through the centre of the village, but has since been bypassed. It provides direct access to

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

, Chelmsford, Colchester,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

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. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

and

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

; it also connects to the

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 ...

away. Ingatestone railway station is a stop on the

. It is served Monday to Saturday by an off-peak service of two

Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

southbound trains an hour to London Liverpool Street, with one each to

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and seaside resort, resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, wi ...

and Braintree northbound; rush-hour trains to London are more frequent. On Sundays, there are hourly trains to Liverpool Street and

. The village is served by First Essex's route 351, which provides regular services to Chelmsford, Brentwood and Warley. School services are operated by First Essex and NIBS Buses.

References

External links

Ingatestone & Fryerning Community Association

The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map
Ingatestone Standing Stones
Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council website
* Home of POP Telecom �
website
{{Authority control Villages in Essex Former civil parishes in Essex Borough of Brentwood