Bradwell-on-Sea

“BRADWELL-near-the-SEA, a parish in the hundred of DENGIE, county of ESSEX, 12 miles (E.) from Maldon, containing 904 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £48, and in the patronage of the Rev. T. Schreiber. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle, has a tower surmounted by a lofty spire. The parish lies at the mouth of the Blackwater river, which forms its northern boundary; the North sea is on the east, near which stand the remains of an ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Peter, now converted into a barn. Camden considers the Saxon city Ithancestre to have stood at or near this place, and identifies it also with the Roman station Othona, where the Numerus Fortendum, under a commander styled Count of the Saxon shore, was stationed, in the decline of the Roman empire. Upwards of £100, half of it arising from land given by Dr. Buckeridge, is applied annually toward the support of schools in this parish.” [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]