Steeple

Excursions in the County of Essex by Thomas Kitson Cromwell 1818

Steeple with Stansgate, both to the east of Mundon, having on the north Maldon river; the adjacent isle of Ramsey is also in the parish of Steeple

From Domesday book it appears that the original name of this place was Ulfwine's Cherche, which being thought too long, was changed into that of Steeple, seeming to imply that the neighbouring churches were without this ornament.

Steeple Hall, the manor-house, is on the north side of the church.

The manor, some years since, became the property of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London.

Stansgate is in this parish, near the water.

A topical Dictionary of the United Kingdom by Benjamin Pitts Caper and Richard Cooper 1813

Steeple is a parish in the hundred of Dengie, Essex 5 miles from Maldon and 42 miles from London.

It contains 14 houses and 342 inhabitants.

It is on a creek of the Blackwater..

The Rectory is valued at £15 18sh 1d and is united with Stansgate.

Essex by J Charles Cox 1909

Steeple (3 m. from Southminster).

The old church (St Laurence and All Saints) was un-happily pulled down in 1882 and a new one erected in the centre of the village ; an old door- way and one window were reused, and the octagonal font bowl is an old one which had long lain in the former churchyard.

At Stansgate, in this parish, on the Blackwater, there was a small Cluniac priory, and cell of the great house of Lewes, founded early in the 12th cent.

It was dissolved in 1525 in favour of Wolsey's college scheme.

There were then a prior and seven monks in residence, and its annual value was £43, 8s. 6d.

Portions of the priory church still remain, and are used as a barn.

Durrants Handbook for Essex - 1887

A long village, near a considerable creek of the same name, and at the foot of a gentle slope overlooking the marshes beside the Blackwater estuary.

At Stansgate , now a hamlet of this parish, a Cluniac Priory was founded in 1175 as a cell to Lewes Priory.

History and Topography of the County of Essex - 1835

From Mundon, Steeple extends eastward, and to the Blackwater on the north,
Steeple,includes the Isle of Ramsey. 
Stansgate, a hamlet to this parish, is nearly on all sides surrounded by water.  

The church of Steeple, dedicated to St. Laurence, is an old building of mean appearance and the only remains of the chapel or church of Stansgate are to be found in the walls of a barn.

In 1821 the inhabitants of this parish amounted to five hundred and thirty-three;decreased to four hundred and ninety-seven in 1831.
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