England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Little Tey St James the Less

The Parish

The parish of Little Tey lies in eastern central Essex roughly 6 miles west of the town of Colchester. Little Tey siys on and mostly north of the A120 road which links Colchester with Braintree and which follows the route of the ancient Roman Stane Street. Little Tey is a tiny place, a mere western extension of neighbouring Marks Tey with a short presence on the A-road and with further properties along the dead-end Church Lane which runs north from it. Little Tey is almost entirely devoted to arable farming, a monoculture these days of large cereal fields on rich & fertile soils, at the time of this transcript there would have been a more rotational system in place. Little Tey is drained southwards by a small brook, Domsey Brook, which feeds the River Blackwater at Kelvedon, the latter heads for the port of Maldon, its estuary and the North Sea.Little Tey is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in generally flattish terrain where a few spots to the northwest breach the 60 metres contour as the highest local ground. Little Tey parish is one of the smallest in its county covering merely 448 acres which would barely have supported 50 parishioners. In Domesday times Little Tey was combined with Great & Marks Teys as the lands of Geoffrey de Mandeville where the whole supported 8 ploughs, the entry declares a much broader agricultural base than present day with much references to animals and also a substantial bee honey business.

The Church

St James' church stands on the eastern side of the dead-end Church Lane just before it declines into a footpath crossing the fields to Little Tey House and Great Tey. Like many small rural churches St James has remained relatively untouched since the earliest times of stone-built churches, both the nave and apsidal chancel date from the Norman Romanesque period of the 12th century and show many small windows of that period. The southern doorway, too, is of a similar vintage with its tympanum decorated with Norman-styled lozenge diapering. The presence of Y-tracery in some windows indicates a 14th century attempt to improve internal lighting replacing the tiny Norman fenestration with larger Decorated styled replacements. The roof, originally thatch, was converted to clay tiling following 16th century storm damage, the timber belfry, complete with pyramidal roof, is left undated by Pevsner. 19th century work was limited to the construction of the timber southern porch with no major restoration recorded. If approaching from Colchester along the busy A120, a white sign indicates the turning that is Church Lane, the churchyard gates have a broad space for several vehicles to safely park with causing blockage, the churchyardhas few obstacles to concern the photographer.