Danbury, Essex

Danbury
Population	6,500
OS grid reference	TL783050
District	Chelmsford
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CHELMSFORD
Postcode district	CM3
Dialling code	01245
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	Maldon and East Chelmsford

Danbury is a village in Essex, England. It is 45 miles (72 km) northeast of London and has a population of 6,500. It is perched on a hill 112 metres above sea level.

The village was built on the site of a megalithic hill fort noted for its oval shape. This shape is formed by placing two 3-4-5 right triangles together to form an isosceles triangle with altitudes of 3. The chancel of the St John the Baptist church is at the centre of the small arc and the axis of the church lies along the hypotenuse of one triangle. The church of St John the Baptist is the oldest building in the village, dating from the 13th century.

According to the official parish publication Danbury Parish Plan 2003, first Iron Age settlers, then the Romans followed by Saxon tribe the Dæningas, originally occupied the Danbury area. They built a hill fort. It was known as Danengeberiam in the Domesday Book of 1086, a name meaning 'stronghold of the family or followers of a man called Dene'. After the Norman Conquest, King William took the lands and settlement and granted it to Geoffrey de Mandeville who was made Earl of Essex.

In medieval times Danbury developed from two manors: St Cleres/Herons and Runsell. Traces of both exist. There was also a small part of a third, now extinct, manor of Gibcracks.

The village has a long connection with the Sinclair family, known locally as St Clere. There are three wooden effigies in the church which date back to the thirteenth and fourteenth century. One has been identified as being that of William St Clere. In 1968 it was taken to be exhibited at the Louvre in Paris.

In 1779 the tomb of a knight was disturbed, and the body therein was discovered to be perfectly preserved in what was described as pickle. Some people suggested that the body was that of a Knight Templar, but this was contested by Joseph Strutt, MP for Maldon. Strutt also attempted to write a romance with a book called Queenhoo Hall. In 1808, Walter Scott was asked to complete the book by his publisher John Murray. Scott visited the village and stayed at the Griffin to make his first stab at romantic fiction.

The church also contains some memorial slabs to the Mildmays. Sir Walter Mildmay was the founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and built Danbury Place locally in 1589. The original building has long since disappeared but another was built to succeed it in 1832. This is in a Tudor style in red brick. It was acquired by the Church of England in 1845 and became the residence of the Bishop of Rochester. From then on it became known as Danbury Palace.

The village is at the centre of extensive areas of woodland and heath owned by the National Trust and other preservation organizations. However the quietude of the surrounding countryside contrasts with the A414 - the main road that runs through the centre of the village linking it with Maldon to the east and Chelmsford to the west. Several bus services running from Chelmsford link Danbury with Maldon, Great Baddow, Little Baddow, South Woodham Ferrers, Sandon and various villages around Maldon.

Climate

Due to both altitude and close proximity to the Essex coast, summer temperatures are often several degrees lower than the towns to the West, Chelmsford and South Woodham Ferrers for example, due to afternoon sea breezes from the Essex coast. Whereas in winter, Danbury is often 1 or 2 degrees colder than the towns to the East such as Maldon and Southend-on-Sea.

Often in winter months, an temperature inversion actually makes the temperature rise across the village whereas temperatures plummet elsewhere in the county. An example of this was during December 2007, when temperatures fell to -7 degrees Celsius in the west of the county, -3 degrees in Burnham-on-Crouch but in Danbury the temperature steadily rose to +2 degrees Celsius.

The average temperature in January is 7 degrees Celsius by day, and 2 degrees Celsius by night. Mid summer temperatures reach 22 degrees Celsius on average in July and August. The all time record high temperature in Danbury of 34.4 degrees Celsius was reached on 10 August 2003. The record low temperature was -17 degrees Celsius in the cold winter of 1982.

The average annual rainfall is 580mm.

Nearby places

• Bicknacre
• Great Baddow
• Little Baddow
• Maldon
• Sandon
• South Woodham Ferrers

Resources

• Wendy Moore, David Moore (1997) Danbury Walks: Six Circular Walks Around the Danbury Countryside , published by Essex County Council, ISBN 1-85281-150-1
• Andrew Collins (1985) Knights of Danbury: The Story of Danbury and Its Mysterious Knights of St. Clere, Earthquest Books, ISBN 0-9508024-1-7
• A. D. Mills, Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names OUP, 1998 ISBN 0-19-280074-4
• Danbury Parish Plan 2003, published by Danbury Parish Council, 2004, no ISBN
• Climate information extracted from the local climate records of Tom Defty, a resident of the village

External links

• Danbury Village website{{Dead link|date=January 2009url=http://www.btinternet.com/~danbury_essex/mainframe.html |}