EARLS COLNE
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
COLNE (EARLS or GREAT), a village and a parish in Halstead district, Essex. The village stands on the river Colne, adjacent to the Colne Valley and Halstead railway, ¾ of a mile SW of Colne r. station, and 3 and ¼ SE by E of Halstead; and it has a post-office, of the name of Earls-Colne, under Halstead, and a fair on 25 March. The parish comprises 2,959 acres. Real property, £6,048. Pop., 1,540. Houses, 334. The property is subdivided. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Abingdon, was founded here, in the time of Henry I., by Aubrey de Vere; and given, at the dissolution, to the Earl of Oxford. A seat of the Earls of Oxford, called Halls Place, with a park of 700 acres, was also here. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £494. Patron, H.H. Carwardine, Esq. The church was built in 1532; has a tower, partly of flint; and contains monuments of the De Veres, removed to it from the priory. There are chapels for Baptists and Quakers. A grammar school has £188 from endowment; and other charities, £38. Lord Chancellor Audley was a native.
Transcribed by Noel Clark