Great Bentley is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of North East Essex, England, located seven miles east of Colchester. It is home to the largest village green in the country, at a size of 43 acres (170,000 m2) and has won 'Village of the Year' several times. Great Bentley railway station provides the village with frequent rail services along the Sunshine Coast Line to London Liverpool Street, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester and Walton-on-the-Naze.
Great Bentley is scattered round an extensive level or common, of 43 acres (170,000 m2), on the eastern side of the vale of a rivulet, seven miles (11 km) east-south-east of Colchester. The parish contains 2500 inhabitants, and 3,188 acres (13 km²) of fertile land, including hills and valleys, and extending southward to the Flag Creek, a tidal creek which connects with the Colne, near Brightlingsea. Pubs in the area include The Plough Inn beside the village green and the Royal Fusilier in Aingers Green. (grid reference TM116203). The village has yet again retained the title for 'Best Kept Village in Essex', winning in both 2009 and 2010.
Great Bentley is the second largest village in the Tendring district, with a population of 2,381. The village has road, rail and bus links.
Contenders for the title of largest village green in England include West Auckland and Old Buckenham. Frampton on Severn has also been cited, but at 22 acres (89,000 m2) it does not even match Great Bentley.
Read more about Great Bentley: History, Great Bentley Primary School, Great Bentley Football Club, Village Green, Location, Notable Residents, Public Houses, Climate, Saint Mary's Church, Historical References
Famous quotes containing the word bentley:
“Every living language, like the perspiring bodies of living creatures, is in perpetual motion and alteration; some words go off, and become obsolete; others are taken in, and by degrees grow into common use; or the same word is inverted to a new sense or notion, which in tract of time makes an observable change in the air and features of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face.”
—Richard Bentley (1662–1742)