Great Bentley railway station

Great Bentley is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Tendring district of north Essex, England, located seven miles east of Colchester. The parish includes the hamlets of Aingers Green and South Heath. It is home to the second largest village green in the country, at a size of 43 acres (170,000 m2), behind Duncan Down and has won 'Essex Village of the Year' and 'Daily Telegraph/Calor Gas Village of the Year' awards. Great Bentley railway station provides the village with frequent rail services along the Sunshine Coast Line to London Liverpool Street, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze. Great Bentley is scattered round an extensive level or common, of 43 acres (170,000 m2), on the eastern side of the vale of a rivulet, seven miles (11 km) east-south-east of Colchester. The parish contains 2500 inhabitants, and 3,188 acres (12.90 km2) of fertile land, including hills and valleys, and extending southward to the Flag Creek, a tidal creek which connects with the Colne, near Brightlingsea. The population of the civil parish reduced to 2,253 at the census 2011.Great Bentley is the second largest village in the Tendring district, with a population of 2,381. The village has road, rail and bus links. Contenders for the title of largest village green in England include West Auckland and Old Buckenham. Frampton on Severn has also been cited, but at 22 acres (89,000 m2) it does not match Great Bentley..

Frating Abbey was reputedly an abbey in the village of Frating, in Essex, England. There is no evidence however that there was more than a farm here belonging to either St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, or to Wix Priory from around 1125. The current house, and first to be named Frating Abbey Farmhouse, dates from the mid-nineteenth century, built by Mr Boghurst. It replaced a manor house called Wheelers, mentioned twice in Feet of Fines in 1547 and 1564. Deeds for the Manor of Kirby Hall in 1814 included the Manor of Wheelers with mansion and 200 acres in Great Bentley, Frating and Thorrington. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey map showed the location as Wheelers from 1805. The first mention of Frating Abbey as an address is from 1853 in a letter written to the editor of the Essex Standard and General Advertiser.

Thorrington is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It lies 3 miles (5 km) east of Wivenhoe and 1.9 miles (3 km) north of Brightlingsea. The striking medieval flint church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene, and the patrons of the church are St John's College, Cambridge. Thorrington is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Torinduna. From handwritten sources held by the Church, Thorrington has also been known as Turituna (1152–71); Torritona (1202), Thurituna (1237), Thurington (1248), Thurinton (1253). Thorinton (1255), Tornidune (1272), Tyriton (1274), Thornton (1285), Thoriton (1295), Thoweryngton (1476), Thurrington (1594).

Thorington railway station (also Thorrington railway station) was a station in Thorrington, Essex on the line (now called the Sunshine Coast Line) from Colchester to Walton on the Naze and Clacton, opened in 1866 and closed in 1957. The station was situated in between Alresford and Great Bentley. It was closed due to its close proximity to the much busier station at Great Bentley, just half a mile down the track.

Little Bentley is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It sits on rising ground just to the west of the Holland Brook. In the Second World War troops and Commandoes sometimes encamped locally, and there was a control post for the anti-aircraft guns around the nearby Gt Bromley radar station. A number of Allied aircraft force-landed in the large field south of the Church, including an American B17 bomber. Several V1 flying bombs also hit the parish.The Hall, south west of the Church, was once a larger building. It has a large game wood, made up mainly of coppiced chestnut trees. The Hall is nowadays noted for its annual garden show, making use of water features fed by streams from the wood.In the hamlet of Ravens' Green, 2 miles from the village centre, is a large house formerly known as "the Gamekeepers", for many decades a pub.Little Bentley is also the home of the Little Bentley Park Polo Club.

Hare Green is a hamlet on Harwich Road, in the Tendring district, in the English county of Essex. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 707. Hare Green is located within the civil parish of Great Bromley. There are several listed buildings including Hill House and Fleece House, both a Grade II listed 17th century properties.

Howlands Marsh is a 29.9-hectare (74-acre) nature reserve north-east of St Osyth in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Colne Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest Special Protection Area and Ramsar site, and the Blackwater Flats and Marshes Nature Conservation Review site.This site is marshy grassland, which is low lying and hummocky, and divided by water channels. There are also areas of saltmarsh, which has sea wormwood and golden samphire. Breeding birds include reed warblers, skylarks, lapwings and reed buntings.There is access by a footpath from the B1027 road.

Riddles Wood is a 37.3-hectare (92-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Brightlingsea and Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.The site has varied ancient pedunculate oak and hazel in some areas and oak and hornbeam in others, as well as chestnut coppice. The soils are glacial gravels in the west and London clay in the east. The ground flora rich and varied, although dominated by bramble, and there are also rides and a small pond. A rare flower on the site is orpine.The site is private land.

St Osyth Pit is a 0.1-hectare (0.25-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of St Osyth in Essex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.The site has a succession of deposits which throw light of the diversion of the River Thames south to its present course during the Anglian Ice Age around 450,000 years ago. The lower level has gravel deposited by the Thames when it flowed through the area before the ice age. This is overlain by sand and very fine gravel deposited by outwash during a brief period when the Thames was blocked by ice.The site is private land with no public access.

Frating is a village and small civil parish of the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is about 8 kilometres (5 mi) east of Colchester and 15 kilometres (9 mi) northwest of Clacton-on-Sea. The parish includes the settlements of Frating Green and Hockley. The parish church (dedication not recorded) is now a private house. The living was a rectory shared with Thorrington. The village hall is the Frating War Memorial Hall and Institute which celebrated its 100th anniversary in September 2022.Great Bentley rail station is two miles away and is served by Abellio Greater Anglia services to Colchester, Walton-on-the-Naze, London Liverpool Street and Clacton-on-Sea. There is one public house; The Kings Arms.

St Osyth Heath is a hamlet in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. Until the mid-1900s, The Heath was a thriving community with shops, various self-employed tradesman and The Beehive Public House. Today all this has disappeared, with the pub now converted into an Indian Restaurant. The Bareham family were the local butchers, whilst the Beales were hurdle and broom makers. The Methodist Chapel at St Osyth Heath, was erected in 1898 by the Beales family at cost of £155, a wooden building and affords sittings for 60 persons. Both families like the rest of the community eventually moved into the main village of St Osyth.

Weeley railway station is on the Sunshine Coast Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the village of Weeley, Essex. It is 62 miles 78 chains (101.3 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Great Bentley to the west and Thorpe-le-Soken to the east. Its three-letter station code is WEE. The station was opened by the Tendring Hundred Railway, a subsidiary of the Great Eastern Railway, in 1866. It is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station.