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Newney Green Pit

Geological Conservation Review sitesSites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex
Newney Green Pit
Newney Green Pit

Newney Green Pit is a 0.07-hectare (0.17-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Writtle in Essex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.This former quarry exposed the Kesgrave (Thames) Gravel, first recognised in Suffolk, dating to the Cromerian interglacial around 500,000 years ago. This preceded the severe Anglian ice age, which is also seen, marking the transition to glacial conditions. The site is described by Natural England as "of prime importance for the correlation between Pleistocene stratigraphic sites in the Thames and East Anglian areas". Ice wedge polygons just below the Anglian layer reveal very cold conditions just before the advance of the ice sheet across East Anglia.The site has now been filled in and is part of a field.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Newney Green Pit (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Newney Green Pit
Newney Green, Chelmsford Writtle

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N 51.732 ° E 0.385 °
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Newney Green

Newney Green
CM1 3SQ Chelmsford, Writtle
England, United Kingdom
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Newney Green Pit
Newney Green Pit
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Forest of Essex
Forest of Essex

The Forest of Essex was a royal forest that existed from around 1100 and was disestablished in the 13th century. Forests were legal institutions introduced by the Normans to denote an area where the King or another magnate had the right to keep and hunt deer and make Forest Law. Initially there was a very weak correlation between the extent of the legal forest and what might be termed the 'physical forest', the often wooded common land areas where the deer lived. In later centuries there was a much stronger correlation, so much so that the word forest is now taken to mean the same as woodland. The Forest of Essex covered nearly all of the traditional extent of Essex, but that is not to say the majority of Essex was wooded. The naturalist Oliver Rackham carried out an analysis of Domesday returns for Essex and was able to estimate the county was 20% wooded in 1086. The area covered by Forest Law excluded the least wooded areas of the county along the Thames and North Sea coasts so the percentage for the Forest of Essex was a little higher. Over time parts of the country were disafforested, removed from Forest Law. In 1204 the men of Essex paid the King 500 marks and five palfreys for the 'forest of Essex which is beyond the Causeway between Colchester and Bishop's Stortford to be disafforested. In 1327 Edward III confirmed the Charter of the Forest (originally granted by Edward I in 1304) removing most of the rest of the rest of the County from Forest Law, ending the Forest of Essex. Forest Law now applied only to royal manors and the heavily wooded areas in the south-west Essex.This disestablishment of the Forest of Essex led to the creation of four new smaller Forests which concentrated on areas with a greater proportion of woodland cover, namely: Waltham Forest (which included the physical forest areas subsequently known as Epping Forest, Wintry Forest (north of Epping) and Hainault Forest), Hatfield Forest, Writtle Forest and the long lost Kingswood Forest near Colchester. Hatfield and Writtle were royal manors while Kingswood was attached to the borough of Colchester, but the king owned the trees and grazing there.

Chignall St James
Chignall St James

Chignall St James is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Chignall, in the Chelmsford district in Essex, England. The village is situated 3½ miles northwest by west from the county town of Chelmsford. In 1881 the parish had a population of 224. On 24 March 1888 the parish was abolished to form Chignall, parts also went to Broomfield and Writtle. The spelling of the village name is open to discussion. Sometimes it is spelt as "Chignall St James" at other times, as "Chignal St James" or "Chignal Saint James". Businesses providing employment in the area include Ashdown Engineering, Gardening Express and local farms. The area once included a Roman villa, the site of which was discovered in the 1970s. Originally the village was a settlement for farmers and their labour force that worked the land, but as mechanisation took over the farming population left. The village is now partly a commuter settlement, and partly resident to remaining agricultural workers and retired people.The village had a public house, The Three Elms, thought to be over 500 years old, which has passed through many hands over the years, but has proved to be unviable financially. The last incumbents took over in March 2019, but closed again in September 2019, after the premises had been closed for an extended period prior to this. The owners of the property have attempted to sell it on the open market since this time, but to date a new owner can not be found since demand and patronage of such premises has declined over the years. In 2009 there was a planning proposal to create a quarry close by to the village, but this was turned down by the planning authorities.Notable village landmarks include an old brick-built farm barn with a dove-cote thought to be the oldest and only example of its type in Essex, an old red brick school (now a dwelling), the former church, and the Old Rectory.