A brief history of Takeley

That question has been asked many times. So after many years of research and conversations with other interested people I believe that I can divulge the origins of TAKELEY.

This might come as a surprise to the reader when they find that TAKELEY is far older than previously thought.

It is a known fact that TAKELEY has had Roman connections. The actual sites of the Roman villas and settlements within the Parish are, as yet, open to conjecture.

On a close inspection of Holy Trinity Church one will find many Roman tiles (bricks) incorporated in its walls.

It was always believed, and often argued locally, that the history of TAKELEY is much older than its Roman connections. The evidence of this was unearthed during the redevelopment of Stansted Airport’s new location in 1986.

British Airports Authority, Essex County Council and English Heritage Trust jointly financed an archaeological dig(Takeley Parish Council also contributed £1000 towards the project). The dig was originally situated on two sites on the northern boundaries of the Parish.

Colchester Hall and Bassingbourne Hall, being two of the three sites mentioned in the Domesday records of1086/7, (the other is Warish Hall or St. Valery which will be covered later).

It was generally known that these sites had at least Saxon and Norman connections, so it was hoped that an archaeological investigation would unearth evidence of earlier habitation.

After an initial disappointment, the archaeology team, which was directed by Mr Howard Brooks from English Heritage, made what can only be described as a stupendous find. It happened, like so many important discoveries, by complete accident and turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in Essex for many years!

But let us start at the beginning.

TAKELEY is a ancient village. Its boundaries were approximately 8 miles in length with a total of 3,000 acres.

The Parish of Takeley had remained unchanged since it was first registered by the Normans in 1086/87, but now with the development of Stansted Airport it has lost nearly a third of its acreage.

Its northern boundaries abut the Parishes of Stansted, Elsenham and Broxted. The eastern boundary is the River Roding, containing the parishes of Broxted, Little Easton & Little Canfield. The southern boundary is the Roman Road, Stane Street East, more familiarly known as the B1256, this being also the parish boundaries of Little and Great Canfield and Hatfield Broad Oak. The Street, Brewers End, and the other properties to the east of the crossroads at Takeley Four Ashes were built along the northern side of Stane Street and were once referred to as – TAKELEY ALL ONE SIDE- .

Essex, like most of ancient Britain, was covered by forest and before this by a shallow sea where molluscs and other bottom dwellers thrived. Walking along Pincey Brook or in the fields one can find fossils dating back to the Palaeolithic Age, when the sea was replaced by forest. Larger animals roamed the land, among which were many mammoths, woolly elephants and giant deer. Bone and teeth remains of these animals have been discovered in Stansted and Saffron Walden and are on display at Saffron Walden Museum.

Artefacts such as flint arrow heads and deer antlers used as tools show us that ancient man roamed these lands.

Pottery from the Roman occupation has been unearthed occasionally. There is a glass pot in Saffron Museum said to have been found locally in 1860. This was just part of a larger find, most of which has now been lost.

It was not until 1986 that Takeley was put on the map, and this only came about through the development of Stansted Airport. A small piece of pottery, which almost went unnoticed, was picked up during a routine field walk.

Since that first – find – many other artefacts have been unearthed. Two Bronze Age arrow heads with even older Stone Age tools and an arrow head prove once again that ancient man walked and hunted these parts many centuries ago.

The earliest known evidence of ancient man settling locally (before the archaeological excavations in 1986) is in nearby Hatfield Forest. This was recognised by an eighteenth century historian who wrote in 1740,

– In Beggars Hall Coppice on the forest, on the way to Stane Street is a small spot of ground called Porting Hills and Portingbury Hills- .

This earth mound is all that remains of the defensive enclosure that surrounded the settlement of some long forgotten prehistoricman. It is not known whether they were Iron Age or even earlier Stone Age man.

Portingbury Hills were, up to then, the only known local site of prehistoric man, so the discovery of a settlement which predates 2000 BC, actually in the Parish of Takeley, was greeted with great excitement by all who were interested in the history of Takeley. That one small piece of pottery which almost went unnoticed changed the whole previously known history of Takeley

So who were these first inhabitants?

Man first arrived from the east, crossing the land bridge that once connected the British Isles to the Continent. When this was submerged, men still crossed the North Sea and settled the land, either mixing with the established inhabitants or conquering them by force.

Not until ‘man- begins to develop into tribes or family clans for joint protection and mutual survival is it safe to name these tribes. For instance, it is certainly true that the first named peoples that inhabited these shores were the Belgaefrom Northern Europe who settled in Eastern and Southern England.

The Belgae were also from different clans. One of these, the Trivovante settled in Essex. The Catavallauni in nearby Hertfordshire, with the Iceni, (of Boadicea fame), in Suffolk & Norfolk, (South folk & North folk). The alliances between these people were in most cases unfriendly to say the least, as the Catuvellauni were constantly at war with their neighbours and appeared to be the most dominant tribe for some decades. There was continuing friction between the Trivovante (their territories being divided only by the River Stort).

With Trivovante land being under frequent threat and long periods of occupation by their Catavallauni neighbours, the main town or – Opedium- , modern day Colchester, was the seat of rule to both peoples. Even the Romans recognised the town’s importance. (As a matter of interest, Colchester is the oldest known town in Britain).

The first settlement was established about 75 BC on a south facing slope to the North of the parish with a small brook nearby (Pincey Brook). The round houses were built in a regular pattern around a central building, which may have had some form of early religious shrine. There was evidence of huts being built upon other destroyed – houses’, suggesting continuous habitation over several centuries. It steadily grew until approximately 50 BC when the whole settlement was surrounded by a defensive ditch which again had been enlarged and altered during the existence of the settlement. Habitation continued until 25 BC when a quiet period seemed to descend on the settlement. This continued until 40 AD.

There was a suggestion that the settlement had met its end in fire as many of the round houses showed evidence of being burnt. It is a fact that this did happen from time to time, but the burnt remains appeared too similar. Whether this was the final end of the village is open for discussion as there is no evidence as to where the people who survived this episode settled.

Let us return to the site of “Neolithic” Takeley. It would not have been called Takeley but, maybe – the Settlement next to the open forest- – but this is open to conjecture.

The ‘finds’ that were discovered at this site were treasure-trove: brooches for holding together cloaks, as new as the day they were lost, small silver hair pins with fine tooled heads, everyday cooking pots and fine imported Samian pottery and a beautiful carved stone onyx ring, depicting a scene from the Trojan wars. The Greek hero Diomedes stealing the – palladium- from the Trojan camp (a palladium was a staff with a figure of Pallas-Athene, being the Trojan good luck symbol). To cap it all a hoard of buried ‘potin’ coins dated to the first century BC, which were in circulation in Kent and Essex before the Romans minted their own coinage in AD 43.

This was the situation until the arrival of the Romans under the command of Julius Caesar.

Stane Street East has all ready been noted as a Roman Road. This road run from Colchester (the county town of Essex) or as the Romans called it Camulodonum Colonia eastwards to St Albans and then on to the Westcountry. It was a major east-west route.

Again there is argument as to whether or not this is the true alignment of the road. When roadworks have taken place with trenches and holes being dug into its foundations, investigations of these trenches has not revealed evidence as to its origin. There is a train of thought that the original road may have passed further to the north.

Takeley consists of several Ends and Greens, namely Brewers End, (Briars End), The Street, Smiths Green, Bambers Green (Bambrose Green), Mole Hill Green (Morrells Green), Mill End and Coopers End. (Coopers End is now under the Stansted Airport Cargo area).

The Parish also supported three mobile home sites. These were removed when Stansted Airport was developed and re-sited at a purpose built site in the Parish of Hatfield Broad Oak. It was the wish of the residents and the Parish that the site, known as Takeley Park, be included within the Parish of Takeley. This is the second time that the Parish boundary has been re-drawn. The first time was in the late 1940’s when the strip of land between the B1256 (Stane Street) and the Railway line was included within the Parish boundary.

TAKELEY SCHOOL

The original Penny Village School was opened some time before 1869 (the old school book indicates this). It was closed in 1965 and a new school (a prefabricated building) was then built on a green field site in Roseacres, this was replaced with a permanent building in 1988.

Prior to the end of the Second World War the village did not see any change to its rural character in the way of development but this was about to change. Anew development at Wayletts Hill was started in 1948 to give local people modern housing. The roads were called North, South and East roads. This site has since been enlarged.

The Railway opened in 1863 and used to run from Bishop’s Stortford to Braintree. It was closed to passenger traffic in 1952. The airport was developed first by the Americans and then to its present level by BAA plc.