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Woodham Mortimer is a village on the Dengie peninsula about three miles west-south-west of Maldon in the English county of Essex. The village is part of the Wickham Bishops and Woodham ward of the Maldon district. As of 2009 the population was estimated as 463.

History

The village was first recorded as "Wudeham" in c. 975. The name, which means "village in the wood", is derived from the old English words "wudu" (wood in modern English) and "ham" (home, or homestead). At the time of the Norman Conquest the parish belonged to Ralph Peverell and was known as Little Woodham. Henry II gave the parish to Robert de Mortimer, leading to the change in name.

During the First World War a new aerodrome was opened in nearby Stow Maries to provide air cover for the London area. 37 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps occupied the base from September 1916 taking over The Grange in Woodham Mortimer as its headquarters. The Grange was once the property of Beeleigh Abbey and is a Grade II listed building.

Governance

Woodham Mortimer has a parish council and is part of the Wickham Bishops and Woodham ward of the Maldon district. The district forms part of the Witham constituency for parliamentary elections. The local MP is Priti Patel.

Geography

Woodham Mortimer has an average elevation of 51 metres (167 ft) above sea level and lies just south of the Danbury-Tiptree ridge that marks the furthest extent of the Anglian ice sheet during the last ice age approximately 450,000 years ago. The geology of the area is rock, sand and gravels that were deposited by the retreating ice. Gravel is commercially extracted from the Royal Oak Quarry with a proposed additional site at Tynedales Farm of 47.5 hectares (117 acres). The National Soil Resources Institute at Cranfield University describes the main soil type as "slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils."

Climate

Woodham Mortimer is considered by the Met Office to be part of the Eastern England region, however, for the purposes of historical climate data it is consolidated into the East Anglia region. Climate information for the period 1981 - 2010 is detailed below.

Economy

There are two public houses, the Royal Oak on the A414 and the Hurdlemakers Arms on Post Office Road. Its name refers to the hurdles which used to be made from materials cut in the nearby woods. There is a golf driving range with 9-hole pitch and putt that was opened in 1967 on Burnham Road.

Crime

Woodham Mortimer is policed by Essex Police and is part of the Purleigh Neighbourhood Policing Team which covers a number of areas with a total population of 10,936. In 2011, there were 516 reported crimes in the NPT. There is no local police station.

Education

The village has a pre-school based in the village hall on Post Office Road. It was established in 1972. Next to the village hall is a 0.4 hectares (4,000 m) playing field with swings and a small football pitch.

Culture

Religious sites

The parish church is St Margaret's. The original church on the site may date from the 16th century, however, it was rebuilt in the 19th century leaving little evidence of the older church with only the south wall and east end remaining.

Evidence for the age of the church includes the 13th century font (although the base is newer) and the 17th century carvings on the pulpit. The church has a small window commemorating Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. The graveyard includes the grave of Peter Chamberlen.

Landmarks

Woodham Mortimer Hall is a 17th century gabled house that Hugh and Peter Chamberlen lived in. There is a blue plaque fixed to the hall noting them as pioneering obstetricians who invented the forceps. The hall passed out of the Chamberlen family in 1715 when the family home was sold. The forceps were found in 1813 under a trap door in the loft of the hall and given to the Medical and Chirurgical Society which passed them to the Royal Society of Medicine in 1818. The find was described by R. Lee in Observations on the Discovery of the Original Obstetric Instruments of the Chamberlens (1862) as:

The contained some boxes in which were two or three pairs of midwifery forceps, several coins, a medallion of Charles I, or II, a miniature of the Doctor damaged by time, a tooth wrapped in paper, written on, "My husband's last tooth"; some little antique plate; a pair of ladys long yellow kid gloves, in excellent preservation; a small testament date 1645.

There is a war memorial commemorating the nine people from the village who died during the World Wars. There is also a Grade II listed memorial erected in 1825 to William Alexander, who left his lands to the Worshipful Company of Coopers for the benefit of the poor.

Woodham Mortimer Lodge is a Grade II listed building.

References

1. ^ "Maldon District Council". Retrieved 2008-11-03.
2. "Mid 2009 Civil Parish Broad Age Estimates". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
3. Reaney, P.H. and Wilson, R.M. (1958). A Dictionary of English Surnames. Routledge. p. 3480. ISBN 0-415-05737-X. Retrieved 2012-10-22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Jones, Graham and Langton, John. "Woodland Terms in Place Names". St Johns College Research Centre, University of Oxford. Retrieved 2012-10-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
5. Mills, A.D. (1991). Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198527586.
6. Directory of the County of Essex. White's. 1848.
7. Ivor Dallinger. "Stow Maries Aerodrome". Retrieved 2012-10-23.
8. "37 Squadron RFC". The South East Echo. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
9. English Heritage. "Woodham Mortimer Grange Woodham Mortimer". British Listed Building. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
10. "Parish and Town Councils". Maldon District Council. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
11. "Find Your MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
12. "Geology of Essex". Essex Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
13. "Geology of Essex". Essex Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
14. Adam Cornell (1 April 2009). "Asheldham pit closes". Maldon and Burnham Standard. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
15. "Land Information System". Cranfield University, National Soil Resources Institute. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
16. "Met Office Climate Averages 1981-2010". Met Office. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
17. Rothwell, David. Dictionary of Pub Names. Wordsworth. p. 197. ISBN 1-84022-266-2.
18. "Woodham Mortimer Golf Range". Retrieved 2008-11-03.
19. ^ "UK Crime Statistics for Purleigh, Essex". UK Crime Statistics. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
20. "Woodham Mortimer Pre-school Nursery Education Inspection Report". Retrieved 2008-11-03.
21. "Woodham Mortimer Parish Field". Maldon District Council. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
22. ^ "Chamberlen Essex Family History". Retrieved 2012-10-24.
23. ^ Hibbard, Bryan M. (2000). The Obstetrician's Armamentarium: Historical Obstetric Instruments and their Inventors. p. 14.
24. Christie, Damian (September 2004). "The Surgeon returns to Melbourne; Chamberlen's forceps find a home at the College" (PDF). O&G. 6 (3). Victoria, Australia: The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: 246–247. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
25. English Heritage. "Obelisk on Opposite Side of Road and Approximately 70 Metres South of Woodham Mortimer Hall, Woodham Mortimer". British Listed Building. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
26. English Heritage. "Woodham Mortimer Lodge, Woodham Mortimer". British Listed Building. Retrieved 2012-10-24.

Media related to Woodham Mortimer at Wikimedia Commons

v t e The towns and villages of the Maldon district, Essex, England
Towns	Maldon Burnham-on-Crouch
Villages	Althorne Asheldham Bradwell Waterside Bradwell-on-Sea Cold Norton Creeksea Dengie Goldhanger Great Braxted Great Totham Hazeleigh Heybridge Heybridge Basin Langford Latchingdon Little Braxted Little Totham Mayland Maylandsea Mundon North Fambridge Purleigh Snoreham Southminster Steeple Stow Maries St Lawrence Tillingham Tollesbury Tolleshunt D'Arcy Tolleshunt Major Ulting Wickham Bishops Woodham Mortimer Woodham Walter
Maldon is the seat of the Maldon district List of places in Essex

• Maldon District
• Villages in Essex