Latchingdon is a village situated in the

Dengie Peninsula __NOTOC__ Dengie is a peninsula in Essex, England, that once formed a hundred of the same name (sometimes spelled Dengy). The peninsula is formed by the River Crouch to the south, the Blackwater to the north, both of which are tidal, and the No ...

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 the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England, south of the city 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 Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of Lond ...

. The parish was at one time called Latchingdon-cum-Snoreham, and Snoreham Hall still exists to the south of Latchingdon. The place-name 'Latchingdon' is first attested in 1065 in a charter later published in the ''Diplomatarium anglicum'' edited by

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis. ...

, where it appears as ''Laecedune''. It appears 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 as ''Lacenduna'', ''Lachenduna'' and ''Lessenduna''. The name may derive from an unrecorded Old English word *''læcce'' from the verb ''læccan'' to catch, meaning a trap, and related to the modern word '

latch A latch or catch (called sneck in Northern England and Scotland) is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two (or more) objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on ...

'. The name would then mean 'hill with a trap', presumably to catch animals.

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.289.

Churches

The village's Christ Church, built in 1857, features an Essex

bell-cote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

. St Michael's Church was built in late 13th Century, but its use was limited once Christ Church was built in the centre of the village due to increasing population, being kept as a mortuary chapel until it was

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to b ...

in the late 1950s. In 1968 it was named as the first of 100 Essex churches to be disposed of by the Church of England. In 1976 it was converted to a private house. A Congregational Church was also built in the village, but it closed and is now a private house.

Latchingdon and Snoreham Poor

Under the Poor Law of 1834, Latchingdon and Snoreham became part of the

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced i ...

Union.

Parish Council

Latchingdon Parish Council meets monthly at Latchingdon village hall.

References

External links

Latchingdon Residents Association
{{authority control Villages in Essex Maldon District