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St Osyth
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St Osyth
St Osyth is an English village and civil parish in the Tendring District of north-east Essex, about five miles (eight kilometres) west of Clacton-on-Sea and 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Colchester. It lies on the B1027, Colchester–Clacton road. The village is named after Osgyth, a seventh-century saint and princess. Locally, the name is sometimes pronounced "Toosey". It is claimed to be the driest recorded place in the United Kingdom. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 5,157.
Before being renamed after the Abbey of St Osgyth built there in the 12th century, the village was called Chich (also spelt Chiche or Chick), from an Old English word cic meaning "bend", a reference to St Osyth Creek. Under King Canute/Cnut (reigned 1018–1035), Chich was assumed as part of the royal demesne and granted to Earl Godwin. By him it was given to Christ Church, Canterbury. After the Norman Conquest in 1066 it was transferred to the See of London.
The village is the location of an important medieval abbey, St Osyth's Priory, named after Osgyth, a semi-legendary Saxon princess and martyr. The village was an important mediaeval pilgrimage centre, based on the cult of the saint, and was for a time very wealthy. It has an impressive parish church, St Peter and St Paul, which is a landmark building of the rediscovery of brick as a material in English architecture – its interior is almost entirely built of this material, but to a design resembling earlier stone-built churches.
Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche (1506-1558) is buried in the parish church.
For other historic buildings in St Osyth, see Historic England Archive.
St Osyth village was created by Joseph Woolf, described as an evil overlord by Channel 4's Time Team programme, "Lost Centuries of St Osyth", (series 12 episode 9, first broadcast in February 2005). The programme sought to uncover the early origins of the village, which is now concentrated around the Priory, the surviving parts of which date from its establishment as an Augustinian ('Austin') monastery in the 12th century. But digging in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul close to The Bury – the old marketplace – in the current village centre found no evidence of much settlement there before the 14th century, whereas fieldwalking and digging revealed a mass of earlier material along the north bank of St Osyth Creek, about one-half mile (one kilometre) south. The earlier name of the village (Chich – see above) always suggested this might be the case - information the programme failed to give. The programme found evidence that a massive high tide in the 1600s might have ended industrial activity in the original village site along the creek.
The village was a focus for the St Osyth witch persecutions in the 16th and 17th centuries. Fourteen women were tried and ten local women were hanged. In 1921 the skeletons of two women, one in chains, were discovered in the garden of a house in the village. One was claimed to be the witch Ursley Kempe, who was the first to be prosecuted. The skeletons became a local tourist attraction. In the Napoleonic Wars two Martello Towers were built on the peninsula between the Colne Estuary and Brightlingsea Creek. One survives at Stone Point and is now the East Essex Aviation Museum.
The peninsula was cordoned off and used by the Navy and Army in both world wars. Between 1942 and 1944 it was a landing-craft training base called HMS Helder. No 1 Martello Tower was a signal station and minefield control point, linked to the Navy at Brightlingsea.
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St Osyth
St Osyth is an English village and civil parish in the Tendring District of north-east Essex, about five miles (eight kilometres) west of Clacton-on-Sea and 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Colchester. It lies on the B1027, Colchester–Clacton road. The village is named after Osgyth, a seventh-century saint and princess. Locally, the name is sometimes pronounced "Toosey". It is claimed to be the driest recorded place in the United Kingdom. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 5,157.
Before being renamed after the Abbey of St Osgyth built there in the 12th century, the village was called Chich (also spelt Chiche or Chick), from an Old English word cic meaning "bend", a reference to St Osyth Creek. Under King Canute/Cnut (reigned 1018–1035), Chich was assumed as part of the royal demesne and granted to Earl Godwin. By him it was given to Christ Church, Canterbury. After the Norman Conquest in 1066 it was transferred to the See of London.
The village is the location of an important medieval abbey, St Osyth's Priory, named after Osgyth, a semi-legendary Saxon princess and martyr. The village was an important mediaeval pilgrimage centre, based on the cult of the saint, and was for a time very wealthy. It has an impressive parish church, St Peter and St Paul, which is a landmark building of the rediscovery of brick as a material in English architecture – its interior is almost entirely built of this material, but to a design resembling earlier stone-built churches.
Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche (1506-1558) is buried in the parish church.
For other historic buildings in St Osyth, see Historic England Archive.
St Osyth village was created by Joseph Woolf, described as an evil overlord by Channel 4's Time Team programme, "Lost Centuries of St Osyth", (series 12 episode 9, first broadcast in February 2005). The programme sought to uncover the early origins of the village, which is now concentrated around the Priory, the surviving parts of which date from its establishment as an Augustinian ('Austin') monastery in the 12th century. But digging in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul close to The Bury – the old marketplace – in the current village centre found no evidence of much settlement there before the 14th century, whereas fieldwalking and digging revealed a mass of earlier material along the north bank of St Osyth Creek, about one-half mile (one kilometre) south. The earlier name of the village (Chich – see above) always suggested this might be the case - information the programme failed to give. The programme found evidence that a massive high tide in the 1600s might have ended industrial activity in the original village site along the creek.
The village was a focus for the St Osyth witch persecutions in the 16th and 17th centuries. Fourteen women were tried and ten local women were hanged. In 1921 the skeletons of two women, one in chains, were discovered in the garden of a house in the village. One was claimed to be the witch Ursley Kempe, who was the first to be prosecuted. The skeletons became a local tourist attraction. In the Napoleonic Wars two Martello Towers were built on the peninsula between the Colne Estuary and Brightlingsea Creek. One survives at Stone Point and is now the East Essex Aviation Museum.
The peninsula was cordoned off and used by the Navy and Army in both world wars. Between 1942 and 1944 it was a landing-craft training base called HMS Helder. No 1 Martello Tower was a signal station and minefield control point, linked to the Navy at Brightlingsea.
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