England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Osyth St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of St Osyth lies in the extreme east of Essex forming a substantial run of the county's eastern North Sea coastline. St Osyth is located roughly 11 miles south east of the town of Colchester and sits on and mostly south of the B1027 road which links Colchester with Clacton on Sea. St Osyth is a substantial village, almost market town in size, which has properties lining the southern side of the B1027 for almost 3/4s of a mile whilst a pair of lanes head south of it enclosing most of the village and running to their apex close to St Osyth Creek. St Osyth has a long history, legend has it that the site was granted to St Osyth, the wife of an East Anglian King, who vowed a life of celibacy and was granted the manor to found her nunnery. Her fate was allegedly sealed by Danish pirates who beheaded her for failing to convert to their paganism. By the 12th century the site had become an Augustinian site and despite Henry VIII's dissolution the buildings remain as a tourist attraction today. Like most Essex parishes farming underpinned the local economy, early gazetteers estimate that arable was 3 parts to 1 part pastoral as a usage for the land. As St Osyth was coastal, however, its role as a coastal-trade port was also significant but ever beset by silting whilst the local fish and shell-fisheries were also very important, this coast is still famous for its oysters. St Osyth Creek drains the parish westwards to meet Brightlingsea Creek and the nearby North Sea. St Osyth is sited at just over 10 metres above the sea in gentle terrain, heights of over 30 metres are a rarity in this district. St Osyth parish was one of the largest in extent in its county, covering over 8,500 acres it would have supported a population of close to 1,700 parishioners. Its importance as an early monastic site is also indicated by its size as recorded in Domesday Book when St Osyth was one of the largest 20% of settlement recorded by population, held between 3 landholders, the Bishop of London, Count Eustace of Boulogne and Ranulf Peverel it had a formidable roll call of assets, 21 ploughs, extensive meadows, pasture & woodland (occupied by over 1,200 recorded pigs) and also had a mill.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church lies just outside the abbey grounds and at the southern apex of the main triangle of lanes forming the heart of the village. It's design of , in particular the nave, caused Pevsner to muse that it resembled more a Northern German church than one of Essex. That nave is constructed at an unusual time for church-building in Britain, during the turbulent Tudor period. The nave is, however, attached to a chancel from more typical medieval periods being mainly 13th century and Early English Gothic in style. Unusually the chancel comes with transepts but these were shortened from their original length during those Tudor times. Modifications to original fabric are a characteristic of the church in general, the 13th century chancel having a Perpendicular east window for example. To return to the nave and the 16th century one finds unusual brick piers and arches rather than the typical stone, a very odd feature indeed. The western end of the church carries a tower as one would expect, this one Pevsner estimates was original conjoined to the 14th century nave that preceded today's Tudor version. Like most churches the Victorians made their changes too, here two phases are recorded, the first of 1882 targeted the chancel whilst a further phase in 1899 tackled the nave. The church sits in the apex of the junction formed by Spring Road and Church Square but is largely hidden behind fronting properties, parking for a few cars can be found at the western end of Church Square. The churchyard is fenced toward that road and from the north appears to be a difficult subject, on passing to the south one finds, however, that decent views can be had making for a straightforward church for the photographer.