The History of Chappel and Wakes Colne

The History of Chappel and Wakes Colne. . , Chappel , The present name of Chappel derives from the construction of a small chapel of ease, noted in 1285 AD as standing at the northern boundary of the parish of Great Tey. During the 16th century because of concerns from Chappel residents about the distance to Great Tey's own church at festival time, this area was split from the parish and become a separate entity known as Pontisbright (lit."Britric's bridge") that would eventually become known as Chappel., In 1433, the vicar of Great Tey agreed that the inhabitants of Chappel could find and elect their own chaplain. The benefice itself was united with that of the neighbouring village of Wakes Colne in 1938. The chapel itself, now the parish church of St Barnabas, is a grade listed building. It is approximately seven miles west of Colchester. As with the name of the railway station, Chappel was part of both Wakes Colne and Mount Bures until 1889. Even today, it shares boundaries, as well as the post office, pub and viaduct with its neighbour, Wakes Colne., Wakes Colne , Wakes Cole is a village in Essex, which sits on the River Colne. It is situated next to the village of Chappel, with which it shares Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station. A site overlooking the brook on the western boundary of the parish was occupied from the Roman to the later medieval period. Several substantial late medieval, timber-framed houses survive even today., Chappel Viaduct , Sitting just to the south of the station is the outstanding feature on the line, the 1,066-foot (325 m) long viaduct consisting of 32 arches each having a 30-foot span and standing 75 feet above the valley floor. Built at a cost of £32,000 it contains seven million bricks. The 1851 census records that a foreman bricklayer and several labourers were living in huts adjacent to the viaduct. The vast majority of the bricks had been manufactured on-site using local clay., The dramatic hollow arches were designed to keep the numbers of bricks needed down. The viaduct became a listed monument in 1967, and is reputed to be the second-largest brick-built structure in England after Battersea Power Station., The Railway , The Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury, and Halstead Railway company completed its line from Marks Tey to Sudbury through Wakes Colne in 1849 and the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway company completed their line from Chappel station to Halstead in 1860. The Sudbury line is still open but the Halstead line closed to passenger traffic in 1961 and to goods traffic in 1965. Chappel station, which is actually in Wakes Colne, was opened in 1849 and rebuilt in 1891. In 1969, when closure of the line seemed imminent the buildings were acquired by the Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society which in 1986 became the East Anglian Railway Museum. In 1996 the Museum owned the whole site except the track and platform for the Marks Tey-Sudbury trains. It was renamed Chappel and Wakes Colne on 1 October 1914., East Anglian Railway Museum , The East Anglian Railway Museum, a real steam railway museum, is located on Platform 1 of the railway station. It has the former London-bound platform, a running line, the original station buildings and all of the land and facilities on the east side of the line. Its atmospheric Victorian buildings, restored trains and working signal boxes tell a unique story of a time when the railway was the largest employer in the region A lease from British Roil was secured for the derelict goods yard, goods shed, signal box and station buildings in 1968. Members were faced with a daunting task - the site was without electricity and the track had been dismantled in preparation for removal., Despite this, the first public "steaming" took place just three months later, when the only operational locomotive carried passengers along a short stretch of re-laid track. Since then the museum has gone from strength to strength organising events as diverse as the Thomas the Tank engine days and the ever popular Chappel Summer and Winter Beer Festivals., Road network , Of course, the road network is also significant. The road from Colchester to Cambridge through Earls Colne and Halstead, turnpiked in 1765 runs along the southern edge of the parish. A network of minor roads and tracks, chief among them that running from Great Tey to Mount Bures, connects the scattered farmsteads to each other and to Wakes Colne. Green Carriers and a horse-drawn omnibus ran along the Colchester road from Earls Colne to Colchester in 1848, presumably stopping in Wakes Colne. Arthur Hutley started a motor bus service from Coggeshall to Colchester through the Colnes c.1915; by the 1930s Eastern National and Blackwell and Sons ran an hourly service. Blackwells was acquired by Hedingham and District Omnibus in 1965. The Hedingham and Eastern National services were still running in 1984., Chappel's Millennium Green , Choppel's Millennium Green is the most wonderful piece of green space at the centre of the village, opened in celebration of the Millennium. It has two areas a nature reserve with a board walk and a mown grass area for general recreation is bordered by a gravel path., To this day Willow Trees are grown along the edge of the River Colne to provide cricket bats.