Nayland-with-Wissington

Wissington or Wiston is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Nayland-with-Wissington, in the Babergh district, in south Suffolk, England. In 1881 the civil parish had a population of 191. On 1 April 1844 the parish was abolished and merged with Nayland to form "Nayland with Wissington".

Nayland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Nayland-with-Wissington, in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between Suffolk and Essex. In 2011 the built-up area had a population of 938.

Little Horkesley is a civil parish in the City of Colchester district of 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 Stafford, and then passed by inheritance to a branch of the St. Lawrence family who had the title Baron and later Earl of Howth.

Little Horkesley Priory was a priory of Cluniac monks in Essex, England. It was an alien priory, a daughter house of Thetford, Norfolk and dependent on Lewes, Sussex. It was founded before 1127 by Robert Fitz Godebald (Robert of Horkesley) and his wife Beatrice. It became independent from 1376 but was finally dissolved in 1525. The priory church was destroyed by bombing in 1940

Leavenheath is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, close to the Essex border. Located on the A134 between Sudbury and Colchester, it is part of Babergh district. The parish also contains the hamlets of Cock Street and Honey Tye, and in 2001 had a population of 1,373, falling slightly to 1,370 at the 2011 Census.The village was named after the Leaven Heath, an area of open land between Boxford, Bures, Nayland and Polstead. It does not have a village centre, but is separated into two parts around half a mile apart by Leaden Hall. The northern section is to the east of the A134, the southern section to the west. Such is the dispersed nature of the village, that it did not even have a church until St Matthew's was built, originally as a chapel of ease, in 1836, and was not designated as a parish until 1952; prior to that it was part of Stoke by Nayland Parish. The south-eastern part of the parish is covered by the Dedham Vale AONB, whilst the south-west contains a section of the Arger Fen SSSI. In the east of the parish are The Carrs, a set of four ponds that feed the River Stour. Breach Grove and Leadenhall Woods are both designated nature reserves.

Stoke-by-Nayland is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England, close to the border with Essex. The parish includes the village of Withermarsh Green and the hamlets of Thorington Street and Scotland Street. The village has many cottages and timber-framed houses and all surround a recreation field. Possibly once the site of a monastery, the population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 703, falling to 682 at the Census 2011.

St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Stoke-by-Nayland.

Wormingford is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of 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 (13 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 (61,000 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 sands and gravels. 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. 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, killed his dragon; a mound in the village is said to cover the body of the legendary dragon. The second, also 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; a stained-glass window in St Andrew's Church depicts this legend. 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 (see below); 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 who lived at the Elizabethan yeoman's house, Bottengoms, painted in and around the village from 1929 until 1977. The author Ronald Blythe inherited Bottengoms from Nash, who had bought the house in 1944. Blythe wrote a column, "Word from Wormingford", in the Church Times from 1993 to 2017.

Arger Fen is a 49.7-hectare (123-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) south-east of Sudbury in Suffolk, England. The site occupies two separate areas. The 17.6-hectare (43-acre) Arger Fen Local Nature Reserve is part of the larger eastern block, and contains part of the 21-hectare (52-acre) Tiger Hill Local Nature Reserve, along with part of the 110-hectare (270-acre) Arger Fen and Spouse's Vale, a nature reserve managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. The site lies in the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,The site is made up of a mix of woodland and meadow habitats with much of the woodland believed to be ancient in origin. The underlying geology is a mixture of sand and gravel banks and clay soils, producing a mix of habitat types, including wet fen type habitats at lower levels and dry grasslands on acidic soils on hill tops. It is one of only two known areas of ancient woodland in Eastern England which feature wild cherry (Prunus avium).Badgers are found on the reserve in a number of active setts. Other rare fauna include the hazel dormouse and barbastelle bat. In 2012 the reserve, which has ash trees at least 300 years old, was identified as a site of ash dieback and in 2013 it became a research site for Forestry Commission scientists studying genetic resistance to the Chalara fungus which causes the disease.There are onsite car parking facilities as well as two-way marked trails, including areas of board walk. The trust has attempted to encourage the growth of the dormouse population, partly by expanding the area of land it owns at Arger Fen.

Boxted is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) north of Colchester and 24 miles (39 km) northeast of the county city of Chelmsford. The village is in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a Parish council. The village was the site of a series of skirmishes between Parliamentary and Royalist troops in July 1648, known as the Battle of Boxted Heath. Two historic manors are located in the parish: Boxted Hall and Rivers Hall, which are both mentioned in the Domesday records. Boxted was split into two settlements, "Boxted" and "Boxted Cross", during the plague when non-infected villagers moved across the valley from 'Old Boxted' to escape infection. A timber-framed cottage called Songers is reputedly the oldest private dwelling in Essex dating back to 1280. In 1630 the village vicar, George Phillips, and many other Boxted residents emigrated to America as part of the Great Migration. Phillips subsequently founded a church at Watertown on the Charles River in Massachusetts. Other Boxted residents went to Ipswich, Massachusetts. Today Boxted can be easily reached from Colchester along Boxted Straight Road, which is often mistaken for a Roman road, but is in fact a relatively modern road based upon an old heathland track; many other local roads are much older. Parts of the Boxted parish - such as Old Boxted - are within the Dedham Vale conservation area where development of buildings etc. is tightly controlled. Old Boxted is not developing as fast as Boxted Cross, which contains a broad mix of modern housing developments and has now extended considerably along Straight Road. Recently the school has moved from Old Boxted to Boxted Cross. At Boxted Cross is a village hall overlooking the George V playing fields where Boxted Lodgers football team and Boxted Cricket club play. In 2017 the Boxted Runners was founded by Vanessa Dolling, a local running group catering for all abilities. By 2018 they had grown to a membership of over 100. They held the first Boxted 10k event in 2018 raising over £6,000 for the local Primary School. Boxted Heath to the southern end of the parish is mostly divided into nearly 70 small holdings which were originally built by the Salvation Army in the early 20th century under an initiative to create a land settlement or colony. These small holdings replaced the Priory farm that was here in the 19th century, although the old farm house and some outbuildings still remain. No public houses are trading in the village since the Wig & Fidget closed in about 2005. The Cross Inn ceased trading in the mid-1980s and was converted into residential usage. The Queen's Head (Queen's Hd Rd/Ellis Rd corner) closed in 1972 and was demolished after several years as a retirement home. Most of the other pubs - such as the Fox (near the church) and Thatchers (Mill Rd) - closed much earlier.

Great Horkesley is a village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England, approximately 3 miles north of Colchester. Horkesley is located in what is known as "Horkesley Heath", which is a combination of two villages: Great Horkesley and, to the north, Little Horkesley which is an entirely different Parish. Horkesley is a modern name for the original Saxon name of "Horkaslay" which means "farm land for herds" (mainly sheep) though now it has many fields growing a variety of crops from corn to hemp. A few years ago an archaeological dig was made in woods on Coach Road, where a Bronze Age bronze smelting pit was found. Much Of Great Horkesley was a marsh, with very boggy ground, until it was drained by farmers. This is the reason why the main road is called "The Causeway" as it was a firm, and safe route of passage. Development in the north of Colchester threatens to encroach on Great Horkesley. Housing targets set by the East of England Regional Assembly have led Colchester Borough Council to plan more than 2,200 new homes on the remaining green space between town and village along the A134 by 2021. The Church of England has 2 churches in the parish. There is a thriving Residents Association in the parish. Great Horkesley Cricket Club was reformed in 1975 and played its home matches at The Chantry at the northern end of the village. Its origins can be traced back to at least 1861 when they were bowled out for 6 in the first innings against Layer Breton CC - home games then were played at Horkesley Park. Due to uncertainty over development plans for the area, the club has temporarily moved its games to Mile End Playing Fields just a short distance from the village. In 2014, Great Horkesley Cricket Club and Lexden Cricket Club merged to form a new club called Great Horkesley & Lexden Cricket Club and will have two teams playing in Division Two and Five of the North Essex Cricket League. They will play first team games at Mile End, and second team games at Spring Lane, Lexden. The village has good bus links into Colchester, with services every 30 minutes from both Arriva Colchester’s route 2 and First Essex’s route 87.

Workhouse Hill is a hamlet in the Colchester district, in the English county of Essex.