A History of the County of Essex
Title Details

256 Pages

30.5 x 20.8 cm

Series: Victoria County History

Imprint: Victoria County History

A History of the County of Essex

XII: St Osyth to the Naze: North-East Essex Coastal Parishes. Part 2: The Soken: Kirby-le-Soken, Thorpe-le-Soken And Walton-le-Soken

Edited by Christopher C. Thornton

Assisted by Herbert Eiden

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
The book comprises the history of a major part of the Essex coastline in Tendring Hundred before the development of seaside resorts from the mid 19th century onwards (the resorts were covered in VCH Essex Volume XI, to which this is the second part of a companion volume).

It includes analyses of how the economy of the coastal communities from agriculture through fishing to smuggling was moulded by proximity to the sea.
It includes a major exploration of the history of the Soken, a significant area of special legal jurisdiction (a liberty or soke) and of administrative and social organization. The Soken was owned in the Middle Ages by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, London, and later passed to lay owners, notably the Catholic-leaning Darcy family of St Osyth priory, the Savage family, and the Earls of Rochford (Nassau de Zuylestein) and their descendants.
Additionally, it includes the first full modern accounts of the large parishes of Kirby-le-Soken, Thorpe-le-Soken and Walton-le-Soken (later the site of the seaside resort of Walton on the Naze). Before the Norman Conquest these had once formed a large 'multiple' estate owned by St Paul's Cathedral, and only gradually developed into separate parishes and manors over the course of the Middle Ages. All had coastlines to Hamford Water or the North Sea, and contain many important marshland nature reserves and SSSI. The London Clay cliffs on the open coast at Walton, especially the large promontory known as the Naze with its cap of Red Crag, form a unique coastal landscape of international geological and biological importance. It served as an important coastal landmark for sailors and a Trinity House navigation tower built in 1720 still stands.
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
List of Maps and Plans
List of Colour Plates
Editorial Note
The Victoria County History of Essex Trust
Key to Volumes Published and Forthcoming
Note on Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION: THE SOKEN
CHRISTOPHER C. THORNTON
Origins
Estate
Liberty
Customs
Ecclesiastical peculiar

KIRBY-LE-SOKEN
CHRISTOPHER C. THORNTON
architectural descriptions by JAMES BETTLEY and CAROL DAVIDSON-CRAGOE
Introduction
Landownership
Economic History
Social History
Religious History
Local Government

THORPE-LE-SOKEN
CHRISTOPHER C. THORNTON
architectural descriptions by JAMES BETTLEY and CAROL DAVIDSON-CRAGOE
Introduction
Landownership
Economic History
Social History
Religious History
Local Government

WALTON-LE-SOKEN
CHRISTOPHER C. THORNTON
architectural descriptions by JAMES BETTLEY and CAROL DAVIDSON-CRAGOE
Introduction
Landownership
Economic History
Social History
Religious History
Local Government

Glossary
Sources
Bibliography
Printed Primary Sources
Printed Secondary Sources
Guidebooks, Directories and Reports
Theses, Unpublished Reports and Papers
Index

Dr Christopher Thornton joined the Victoria County History of Essex in 1992. He became county editor since 2003 and has contributed to, or edited, five VCH Essex volumes (IX, X, XI, XII (part 1), XII (part 2)). His personal research interests focus on medieval economic history and landscape history. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, he is also Chairman of the Friends of Historic Essex and a Vice-President of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.

"Sections for each parish carefully and expertly describe settlement, landholding and the agricultural economy. Combined, the books present a valuable picture of an area which John Hunter, the county's well-known landscape historian, described as 'virtually unstudied'." MEDIEVAL SETTLEMAN RESEARCH GROUP
"Reviewing volume XI shortly after its publication in 2012 for The Local Historian, I concluded that the work was a first-class resource for historians and a fascinating reference work for a wider readership; and that it was meticulously researched and written in a detailed yet accessible manner. These observations apply equally to the work under review." Sean O'Dell, The Local Historian

Hardcover

9781904356554

July 2022

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Title Details

256 Pages

3.05 x 2.08 cm

Series: Victoria County History

Imprint: Victoria County History