Blackmore Area Local History

Norton Mandeville (Essex)
"Its northern situation, and Mandeville, the owner"

Norton Mandeville in 1887

The following is taken from ‘Durrant’s Handbook For Essex’ written by Miller Christy (Durrant & Co., Chelmsford, 1887).   

Nor’ton Man’deville.  A. 757; P. 94; Vicarage, value £50; 3m. N.E. from Ongar.   

A small, ancient parish, taking its name from the great De Mandevilles, who once owned it.  The Church (All Saints), 1 m. W. from the village, is a very small, but ancient and interesting, one, built, of stone and rubble, and consisting simply of a nave and chancel, with a small wooden bell-turret and 1 bell.  The S. porch is of timber and plaster.  The building is probably Norman, as the N. door is round-headed, but the S. door is pointed E. Eng., and the windows are all insertions of a still later date.  The latter is remarkable as being all round-headed, though filled with 14^th cent. (late Decor.) tracery.  Those in the nave (two on each side) are double-light ones; also that at the E. end, which has wooden tracery.  The W. window has no tracery.  Presumably these were once round-headed Norman slits, which have been much enlarged, though their shape has been preserved.  Neither piscinae nor sedilia are visible.  The font is a massive square block, with pilasters at the corners.  The rood-screen is well preserved.  On either side of its doorway is perched a lion and a unicorn sejant.  The pulpit is of old carved oak.  Beside it remains the ancient iron support, used by the preacher for his hourglass.  The Register dates from 1538.

Norton Mandeville in 1861

The following is taken from ‘The People’s History of Essex’ written by D. W. Coller (Meggy & Chalk, Chelmsford, 1861)       

Below High Ongar, in the direction of Chelmsford, is the little parish of NORTON MANDEVILLE, with a village straggling around a heath a mile from the church – a small edifice, which in Roman Catholic times was appropriated to the nunnery of St. Leonard’s, at Bromley, and seems to have been a chapel of ease to High Ongar.  The manor of Norton Mandeville in 1181 belonged to the canons of St. Paul’s, but was purchased in 1480 by Merton College, Oxford, its present owners, with money given by Thomas Kempe, Bishop of London, to find the Fellows in liveries.  The other manor of Newarks Norton belongs to the Rev. J. B. Stane.


Norton Heath.