Ingatestone

 ( Villages In Essex ) 

The village is built on boulder clay lands. The village stone, deposited by glacial action, is unusual for the area. A large Sarsen can still be seen, split into three, with one piece by the west door of the St Edmund and St Mary's parish church and one each side of the entrance to Fryerning Lane.

Ingatestone belonged to Barking Abbey from about 950 AD until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was purchased from the Crown by Sir William Petre. Petre, originally a lawyer from Devon, had risen to become the Secretary of State to Henry VIII. He built a large courtyard house, Ingatestone Hall, as his home in the village, along with which still exist today as private cottages in Stock Lane.

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Fryerning and Ingatestone ( Inga) were assigned to the Hundred of Chelmsford, as part of the land of St Mary of Barking with a value of 60 shillings (£3), held by Robert Gernon in demesne.

By the 18th century, Ingatestone had become a stagecoach centre; however, the advent of the railway saw its importance decrease, along with the traffic on the Essex Great Road. By 1881, the parish had a population of 926, and on 24 March 1889 the parishes of Ingatestone and Fryerning merged to form Ingatestone and Fryerning, encompassing an area of almost . Ingatestone grew further in the 20th century as commuters moved in, attracted to the surrounding countryside.

Plans to bypass the narrow Roman road through the village were first drawn up before the Second World War, but construction of a dual-carriageway bypass did not begin until 1958.Bypass opening 1959 Retrieved 30 August 2019. Further dual-carriageway sections of the A12 trunk road were added in the 1960s, to bypass Brentwood and Chelmsford.

The geology of the area is responsible for the landscape and the character of farming in surrounding area. Crop farming is the typical use of boulder clay lands. The sandy deposits to the north-east of Ingatestone are a contributory factor in the greater incidence of woodland and non-arable land in this area.

The hall is currently open as a tourist attraction. It largely retains its Tudor period appearance, following restoration carried out between 1915 and 1937, and is set in formal gardens surrounded by of grounds. Inside is a range of antique furniture, paintings and other historical artefacts. Queen Elizabeth I spent several nights at the hall on her Royal Entry of 1561. St. John Payne, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, resided at Ingatestone Hall in the late 16th century as chaplain and steward for Lady Petre. He was martyred at Chelmsford in 1582. The smallpox Inoculation, Daniel Sutton, made his base on Ingatestone High Street in Brandiston House and carried out much of his work here.

There are two in the High Street. The tiny Star Inn is the older, dating back to the 15th century. It features low-beamed ceilings and a large, open log fire. The Bell is a traditionally styled pub, with a substantial Elizabethan brick fireplace in the lounge bar. A third pub, The Crown, was shut after a police raid in 2011 discovered cannabis being grown there. It has now become the Crown Mews development.

The Rotary Club is active and sponsored a war memorial in 2005 to mark the movement's centenary. The memorial, in the village's Anglican churchyard, is dedicated to the memory of the men of Ingatestone who served and fell in the two .

There are two parks. Seymour Field was renamed after 'Skip' Seymour, a former headteacher of a local school, in 1977; it was known previously as Transport Meadow, having been donated to the village by the Ministry of Transport after the construction of the first A12 bypass in 1959. The other park is the Fairfield, a historic site of village fairs, which is privately owned by the Petre family and leased to the parish council.

There are four places of worship in Ingatestone: Anglican, Roman Catholic, Elim Pentecostal, and United Reformed.

The local community comes together for key annual events, including a Victorian-themed Christmas evening in the High Street and a free annual firework display on the Fairfield on New Year's Eve.

Ingatestone has a community magazine called the Ingatestone Journal, delivered to residents of Ingatestone, Stock and Margaretting; it covers local issues and events, and allows businesses to advertise their services.

Historically, the village lay within the administrative area of the Chelmsford Hundred.

Ingatestone has two conservation areas: one covering the railway station and Station Lane, with the other protecting the central shopping area of High Street.

• Ingatestone Infant School, teaching children between the ages of four and seven.
• Ingatestone and Fryerning Church Of England Voluntary Aided Junior School, teaching children between the ages of seven and eleven from years 3 to 6.
• The Anglo European School, a self-governing state school for children aged from eleven to nineteen, specialising in language study. It was the first state school in Britain to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the first to become a Language College.

The village also has two football teams: Redstones Football Club and Stones Athletic Youth Football Club.

• The novelist and musician Alice Diehl lived in Ingatestone shortly before her death in 1912.
• sound poetry and musician Henri Chopin lived in an old house by the railway station in the 1970s and 1980s.
• The actress Sarah Miles and her director brother, Christopher Miles, were born in Ingatestone.
• The noted naturalist and entomologist Sheffield Airey Neave lived in the village following retirement.
• Historian and author Ian Yearsley was born in Ingatestone.
• The pioneer of radio and television Simeon Aisenstein lived here towards the end of his life.

Ingatestone railway station is a stop on the Great Eastern Main Line. It is served Monday to Saturday by an off-peak service of two Greater Anglia southbound trains an hour to London Liverpool Street, with one each to Clacton-on-Sea and Braintree northbound; rush-hour trains to London are more frequent. On Sundays, there are hourly trains to Liverpool Street and Ipswich.

The village is served by First Essex's route 351, which provides regular services to Chelmsford, Brentwood and Warley. School services are operated by First Essex and NIBS Buses.

• Ingatestone & Fryerning Community Association
• The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map Ingatestone Standing Stones
• Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council website
• Home of POP Telecom — website