Writtle Church
The Domesday Book mentioning a church and priest in Writtle suggests that Christian worship in the village pre-dated the Norman Conquest; the early-13th-century nave and chancel seem to be extensions of an 11th-century construction, which itself replaced a Saxon church. During the mediaeval period, the church "changed hands" several times, revenues being received by the Prior of Bermondsey in the 12th century, and then by the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome from the early 13th; the turbulent reign of Richard II saw the church being seized by the king, eventually coming under the control of William of Wykeham's New College, Oxford in 1399.
The church has twice suffered arson attacks in recent history, the first in 1974, the second in 1991.
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