Wakes Colne, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
Wakes Colne All saints is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

The church of ALL SAINTS, of flint rubble with limestone dressings, comprises chancel with south vestry and nave with north porch and west bell turret. The 12th-century church comprised nave, central tower, and small chancel, of which the nave, with its south doorway and several windows, and the north and south tower walls survive. In the 14th century the upper part of the tower was demolished and the lower part was incorporated into a rebuilt chancel with a chancel arch in the old west wall of the tower. Two windows were inserted in the nave walls. The new nave roof, of scissor brace and collar construction, survives, underceiled as a barrel roof. Early in the 15th century the timber bell turret was built at the west end of the nave, and the timber north porch was added. Early in the 16th century a squareheaded, brick window was inserted into the south wall, and the surviving north door made. In 1684 the bell turret, chancel roof, and buttresses needed repair. The bell turret or 'steeple' was rebuilt and the porch repaired in 1807. A partition, complete with door and bell, was made in the church in 1815, perhaps to create a vestry. Before 1839 buttresses had been built or enlarged to support the east wall. (fn. 25) A west gallery was enlarged c. 1859. In 1862 the church was repaired and reseated. A vestry was built on the south side of the chancel, and a new doorway to it cut through the chancel wall; stairs in the north wall of the chancel, perhaps made for a Lenten veil screen, were blocked. The surviving brick east wall was probably built at the same time. About the 1890s the small window in the west wall was replaced. In 1902-3 the bell turret was heightened, the plaster removed from the outside walls, and perhaps the twolight window inserted into the enlarged opening of thewesternmost 12th-century window in the south wall of the nave. The late 12th-century font, given in 1846 by the rector Thomas Henderson, probably came from his other church at Messing. On the east wall of the nave is a fragment of 16th-century wallpainting, a diaper of black roses. The east wall of the chancel was painted c. 1911. The three bells, (i) Henry Pleasant 1707 (ii) Henry Jordan mid 15th century (iii) Miles Gray 1662, were rehung in 1987. The plate includes a cup of 1702 bought in 1703 to replace a stolen one; it was itself sold or lost in 1876 and bought back for the parish in 1912. The churchyard was enlarged in 1908 with land given by C. P. Wood of Wakes Hall.

From: 'Wakes Colne: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 126-128. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15197&amp;amp;strquery=wakes colne Date accessed: 14 February 2011.

Wakes Colne is a scattered village on the north side of the river Colne, 8 miles West North West of Colchester, and 5 miles East South East of Halstead. For adminsitrative purposes it is part of the Colchester District of Essex County Council.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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