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Bradwell on Sea
Excursions in the County of Essex by Thomas Kitson Cromwell 1818
Bradwell, bounded
on the north-east by the German Ocean, and on the north by Blackwater
Bay, or Fluvius Indumanus, has, in order to distinguish it from
Bradwell near Coggeshall, the addition of Juxta Mare, and Juxta Tillingham, viz. near Tillingham and the sea.
We do not meet with the name of this parish in Domesday book, but have Effescestre, formed from Eth or Effe, a contraction of the word Othonu, with the addition of Cestre, which the Saxons generally affixed to places where there had been Roman castra, camps or stations. That Othona stood
here, we have the authority of the best historians, particularly Mr.
Camden. " Higher up, (than Tillingham) toward the northern shore, stood
once a flourishing city, called by our ancestors Ithancester. For thus
Bede and Ralph Niger, monk of Coggeshall, tell us; ' Cedda
built churches in several places, ordaining priests and deacons to
assist him in the word of faith and ministry of baptizing, especially
in the city which in the language of the Saxons is called Ithancester,
which stood upon the bank of the river Pant, that runs near Maldon, in
the province of Dengey; but that city hath since been swallowed up in
the river Pant.' I cannot, adds
Mr. Camden, exactly point out the place, but that the river Froshicell was heretofore called Pant, I
am pretty confident, because one of its springs still keeps the name of
Pant's Well, and the monk of Coggeshall, speaking of it, uses the same
appellation. Some think this Ithancester to have been seated in the
utmost point of Dengey hundred, where stands at present St. Peter's on
the Wall. I am inclined to believe that this Ithancester was the same
as Othonn, the station of the band of the Fortenses, with
their provost, in the declension of the Roman empire, who were placed
here under the Count of the Saxon Shore, to secure the coast; for Othona might very easily press into Ithana, and
the situation, in a creek at the mouth of many rivers, was very
convenient for such a design. Pile- man Holland informs us, that here
were the remains of a huge ruin of a thick wall, near which many Roman
coins had been found. Upon good grounds, therefore, this is concluded
to have been Effeciotre."
The
rectory-house, or Bradwell Lodge, was erected by the Rev. Sir H. B.
Dudley, and stands near the brook of Tillingham, a mile and a half from
the church. The manor of Battails was so called from its owner, Emeric
Battaile, who died in 1252.
Dounhall, another manor-house, gave
its name to John de la Dune, about the year 1254.
East Hall, in this
parish, belongs to New College, Oxford. Bradwell church has a lofty
spire, which is shingled, and from it is a fine sea prospect. The tower
contains eight bells.
On the spot which is now the north-east point of
this hundred of Dengey stood a chapel, anciently called Capella de la Vnl, or St. Peter ad Murum. It has been long in ruins, and its remains converted into a barn.
A topical Dictionary of the United Kingdom by Benjamin Pitts Caper and Richard Cooper 1813
Bradwell is a parish in the hundred of Dengie, situated on the seashore, 11 miles from Maldon and 48 miles from London.
It contains 107 houses and 720 inhabitants, near the River Crouch.
It has a Rectory value £48.
Essex by J Charles Cox 1909
Bradwell on Sea (7 m. from Southminster) is a
large village and parish on a promontory at the
southern entrance of the Blackwater estuary.
The church (St Thomas the Apostle), largely
rebuilt in 1706 and restored in 1884, has late
1 4th -cent, work in nave and chancel. Brick
tower with round-headed windows and wooden
casements, 1706; good octagonal font; 16th-
cent. brass, with small figure, to Margaret
Wyatt, 1526.
At the extreme point of the
promontory the Romans built their chief fort,
called Othona, on the flat eastern shores north of
the Thames, where it commanded the entrance of
the estuary leading up to Maldon. Excavations of
1864- 1865 brought to light the foundations of walls
14 ft. thick, enclosing an area of nearly 4 acres,
together with a vast quantity of fragments of pottery
and other relics.
It was at the ruined Othona,
then known as Ythancestir, that St Cedd, Bishop
of the East Saxons, gathered round him, in 654, a
number of priests and deacons to form the nucleus
of a native Church. Across the western wall of
the old fortress St Cedd built a small church or
chapel, still standing, though used as a barn, and
known as St Peter-on-thc-Wall.
This ancient place
of worship, one of the earliest and most interesting
in the whole kingdom, is beyond doubt the actual
fabric erected here in the 7th cent, by St Cedd ;
it is built out of small squared stones and tiles,
with a few larger stones from a gateway, all of
Roman origin.
The eastern apse has gone, together
with the western porch, surmounted by a tower.
The main portion or nave of the building now
standing is 54 ft. 8 in. by 26 ft. 7 in., and the
height to the spring of the gables 25 ft.
A new and comprehensive gazeeter of England and Wales 1836
BRADWELL-NEAR-THE-SEA, a parish in the hundred of Dengey, county of
Essex.
It is bounded on the north by the estuary of the Blackwater
river, and on the east by the North Sea.
The living is a rectory in the
archdeaconry of Essex and diocese of London, valued in the king's books
at £48, and, in 1829, in the patronage of the Rev. T. Schreiber.
The
church is dedicated to St Thomas the apostle.
Here is an ancient
chapel, dedicated to St Peter, now used as a barn.
Here is a fund of
£100 per annum, applied to the support of schools within the parish.
Camden considers this to have been the site of the ancient Saxon city
Iiliunccslie, and of the Roman station Olhona.
Distance from Maldon, 12 m. E.
Population, in 1801, 720; in 1831, 956.
Assessed property, £7,528.
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