Wormingford
Encyclopedia
Wormingford is a parish
in Essex
, England
.
The ancient parish of Wormingford on the south bank of the River Stour
, 6 miles (9.7 km) north- west of Colchester
and 8 miles (12.9 km) south-east of Sudbury
, Suffolk
, covered 2,322 acres (929 hectares). The Stour forms the northern boundary, and the eastern, southern, and western ones follow mainly field boundaries, but sometimes cut through fields. Detached fields totalling 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) in Little Horkesley
, were transferred to that parish in 1889.
Wormingford has a post office and a public house
and restaurant called The Crown.
Most of the parish lies on a relatively high plain which drains northwards to the River Stour
and southwards to the River Colne
. From the Stour the ground rises southwards to reach a height of more than 225 ft (70 m) in the south-west. A band of alluvium
runs beside the Stour and there are river terrace deposits south of that, then, as the ground rises, bands of London clay
, and sand
s and gravel
s. Most of the higher south part of the parish is boulder clay
, good farming land, with a small pocket of sands and gravels running south-east from Wood Hall. Wormingford Mere of 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) is a natural feature formed by the Stour.
The main road from Colchester to Bures
and Sudbury (B1508) runs from south-east to north-west across the parish. Minor roads connected the parish with Assington
(Suffolk) across Wormingford bridge, with Fordham
, and with Little Horkesley
and Nayland
(Suffolk). Other minor roads and tracks and a network of footpaths link the scattered farms and houses.
The ford from which the parish takes its name (originally Withermund's ford) was probably that in the river Stour by the watermill, at the bottom of Church Road, where there is a sand bank in the middle of the river. A ford further east near Garnons has also been suggested, but seems less likely. The Church Road ford was replaced before 1802 by a bridge, called a horse-bridge in 1812. About 1821 Messrs. Jones, who leased the river tolls, built a new bridge, apparently a narrow wooden footbridge. It collapsed in the winter of 1895-6 and was replaced by an iron bridge in 1898.
The modern form of the place name, recorded from 1254, gave rise to three stories of dragons, (worm meaning serpent or dragon). The first story says the village is the location where the patron saint of England, St. George, famously killed his dragon. A mound in the village is said to cover the body of the legendary dragon.
The second, apparently unsubstantiated, is that a crocodile escaped from Richard I of England
's menagerie in the Tower of London
and caused much damage in Wormingford before being killed by Sir George Marney. There is a stained glass window in the local parish church (St Andrew's) which depicts this event.
The third, written in 1405 by John de Trokelowe, a monk, told of a dragon who threatened Richard Waldegrave
's territory near Sudbury but fled into the Mere when pursued.
A large number of scattered archaeological finds from all periods from the Neolithic suggest that settlement was first on the flood plain, alongside the Stour, before woodland on the higher ground further south was gradually cleared. Prehistoric tools were found in the complex of ring ditches and other crop marks near the Mere in the north-west of the parish; when a Bronze Age
barrow
nearby was destroyed in 1836 'hundreds of urns in rows' were found.
The artist John Constable
of East Bergholt
(1776–1837), had Wormingford associations, his relatives farming at Wormingford Hall and Gernons. John Nash
R.A., who lived at Bottengoms, painted in and around the village from 1929 until 1977.
for use by one of its Fighter Groups. On the 30 November, the 362nd Fighter Group arrived at Wormingford.
The Group was assigned to the 70th Fighter Wing. It did not fly its first mission until 8 February 1944. Its operational status at Wormingford was a short one and they left on 8 April 1944. During its stay, the 362nd mounted over 30 missions, losing five aircraft.
The next group to move in was the 55th Fighter Group with its P-38 Lightning
s from Nuthampstead
in Hertfordshire
. The 55th's role as a fighter group was to be a short one due to some of the disadvantages of the aircraft. However, the 55th later become renowned for ground strafing and ground attack bombing. On D-Day
, the P-38 groups were given the task of acting as convoy escorts for the armada of ships moving to and from Normandy.
The 55th was selected to serve with the occupation forces in Germany and in July 1945 it left Wormingford for Gielbelstadt airfield in Bavaria. The old airfield is now used by the Essex and Suffolk Gliding Club.
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
The ancient parish of Wormingford on the south bank of the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
, 6 miles (9.7 km) north- west of Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
and 8 miles (12.9 km) south-east of Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, covered 2,322 acres (929 hectares). The Stour forms the northern boundary, and the eastern, southern, and western ones follow mainly field boundaries, but sometimes cut through fields. Detached fields totalling 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) in Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley is a village in Essex, England. It is situated approximately 4 miles north of Colchester on the south bank of the River Stour.In the time of Elizabeth I, the manor of Little Horkesley belonged to the Wentworth family, a branch of the notable Yorkshire family who became Earl of...
, were transferred to that parish in 1889.
Wormingford has a post office and a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
and restaurant called The Crown.
Most of the parish lies on a relatively high plain which drains northwards to the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
and southwards to the River Colne
River Colne, Essex
The River Colne is a small river that runs through Colchester, England. It is not a tributary of any other river, instead having an estuary that joins the sea near Brightlingsea.-Source:...
. From the Stour the ground rises southwards to reach a height of more than 225 ft (70 m) in the south-west. A band of alluvium
Alluvium
Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, eroded, deposited, and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel...
runs beside the Stour and there are river terrace deposits south of that, then, as the ground rises, bands of London clay
London Clay
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for the fossils it contains. The fossils from the Lower Eocene indicate a moderately warm climate, the flora being tropical or subtropical...
, and sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
s and gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
s. Most of the higher south part of the parish is boulder clay
Boulder clay
Boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and North America...
, good farming land, with a small pocket of sands and gravels running south-east from Wood Hall. Wormingford Mere of 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) is a natural feature formed by the Stour.
The main road from Colchester to Bures
Bures, England
Bures is a village in eastern England. Because of its location straddling the Essex/Suffolk border, it is divided into two civil parishes: Bures Hamlet in Essex and Bures St. Mary in Suffolk. The village is thus served by two county councils, three district councils , two Members of Parliament and...
and Sudbury (B1508) runs from south-east to north-west across the parish. Minor roads connected the parish with Assington
Assington
Assington is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located near Sudbury, in 2005 it had a population of 380....
(Suffolk) across Wormingford bridge, with Fordham
Fordham, Essex
Fordham is a village and a civil parish in the Colchester District, in the English county of Essex. Fordham, near the town of Colchester, has a post office, a school, a place of worship and two pubs. The noted classical scholar Thomas Twining of the tea-merchant family held the curacy of the church...
, and with Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley
Little Horkesley is a village in Essex, England. It is situated approximately 4 miles north of Colchester on the south bank of the River Stour.In the time of Elizabeth I, the manor of Little Horkesley belonged to the Wentworth family, a branch of the notable Yorkshire family who became Earl of...
and Nayland
Nayland
Nayland is a village in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between Suffolk and Essex in England.-History:From an article by Rosemary Knox, Wissington...
(Suffolk). Other minor roads and tracks and a network of footpaths link the scattered farms and houses.
The ford from which the parish takes its name (originally Withermund's ford) was probably that in the river Stour by the watermill, at the bottom of Church Road, where there is a sand bank in the middle of the river. A ford further east near Garnons has also been suggested, but seems less likely. The Church Road ford was replaced before 1802 by a bridge, called a horse-bridge in 1812. About 1821 Messrs. Jones, who leased the river tolls, built a new bridge, apparently a narrow wooden footbridge. It collapsed in the winter of 1895-6 and was replaced by an iron bridge in 1898.
The modern form of the place name, recorded from 1254, gave rise to three stories of dragons, (worm meaning serpent or dragon). The first story says the village is the location where the patron saint of England, St. George, famously killed his dragon. A mound in the village is said to cover the body of the legendary dragon.
The second, apparently unsubstantiated, is that a crocodile escaped from Richard I of England
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
's menagerie in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
and caused much damage in Wormingford before being killed by Sir George Marney. There is a stained glass window in the local parish church (St Andrew's) which depicts this event.
The third, written in 1405 by John de Trokelowe, a monk, told of a dragon who threatened Richard Waldegrave
Richard Waldegrave
Richard Waldegrave may refer to:*Sir Richard Waldegrave , British politician, Speaker of the English House of Commons*Sir Richard Waldegrave , British military officer, son of the above...
's territory near Sudbury but fled into the Mere when pursued.
A large number of scattered archaeological finds from all periods from the Neolithic suggest that settlement was first on the flood plain, alongside the Stour, before woodland on the higher ground further south was gradually cleared. Prehistoric tools were found in the complex of ring ditches and other crop marks near the Mere in the north-west of the parish; when a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
nearby was destroyed in 1836 'hundreds of urns in rows' were found.
The artist John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
of East Bergholt
East Bergholt
East Bergholt is a village in the south of Suffolk, England, just north of the Essex border. It is "twinned" with the village of Barbizon, France....
(1776–1837), had Wormingford associations, his relatives farming at Wormingford Hall and Gernons. John Nash
John Nash (artist)
John Northcote Nash CBE RA was a British painter of landscape and still-life, wood-engraver and illustrator, particularly of botanic works.-Biography:...
R.A., who lived at Bottengoms, painted in and around the village from 1929 until 1977.
Wormingford Air Field
Originally a relief airfield for biplanes in the First World War, the airfield was expanded by Richard Costain Ltd and a number of sub-contractors during the period 1942/43. Earmarked for an Eighth Heavy Bomb Group, nothing ever came of this and at the end of November 1943 the yet to be completed station was handed to the Ninth Air ForceNinth Air Force
The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....
for use by one of its Fighter Groups. On the 30 November, the 362nd Fighter Group arrived at Wormingford.
The Group was assigned to the 70th Fighter Wing. It did not fly its first mission until 8 February 1944. Its operational status at Wormingford was a short one and they left on 8 April 1944. During its stay, the 362nd mounted over 30 missions, losing five aircraft.
The next group to move in was the 55th Fighter Group with its P-38 Lightning
P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
s from Nuthampstead
Nuthampstead
Nuthampstead is a small village and civil parish in North East Hertfordshire located a few miles south of the town of Royston. In the 2001 census the parish had 139 residents....
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
. The 55th's role as a fighter group was to be a short one due to some of the disadvantages of the aircraft. However, the 55th later become renowned for ground strafing and ground attack bombing. On D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, the P-38 groups were given the task of acting as convoy escorts for the armada of ships moving to and from Normandy.
The 55th was selected to serve with the occupation forces in Germany and in July 1945 it left Wormingford for Gielbelstadt airfield in Bavaria. The old airfield is now used by the Essex and Suffolk Gliding Club.