Coggeshall dates back at least to an early
Saxon settlement, though the area has been settled since the
Mesolithic period. There is evidence of a
Roman villa or settlement (Noviomagus Icenorum) before then and the town lies on
Stane Street, which may have been built on a much earlier track. The drainage aqueducts of Stane Street are still visible in the cellar of the Chapel Inn today. Roman coins dating from 31 BC to AD 395 have been found in the area and Coggeshall has been considered the site of a Roman station mentioned in the
Itineraries of
Antoninus. Coggeshall is situated at a
ford of the River Blackwater, part of another path running from the Blackwater Valley to the
Colne Valley. Where these paths crossed a settlement started. The
vill of Coggeshall is mentioned as
Cogheshala in the
Domesday Book of 1086 within the
Witham hundred of Essex. The vill was subdivided into three
manors, each in different ownership, the most valuable of which was owned by
Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who had acquired that manor since the
Norman Conquest. At that time, Coggeshall had "a mill; about 60 men with ploughs and horses, oxen and sheep; woodland with swine and a swineherd, four stocks of bees and one priest". Around 1140,
King Stephen and his queen
Matilda, founded
Coggeshall Abbey on the south bank of the
River Blackwater. It was a large
Savigniac abbey with 12 monks from
Savigny in France. the last to be established before the order was absorbed by the
Cistercians in 1147. Matilda visited the abbey for the last time in 1151 and asked for the abbot's blessing, "If thou should never see my face again, pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Flint and rubble were the main materials used in the construction of the monastery, and the buildings were faced with stone punted up the Blackwater, and locally produced brick. Brick making had died out in Britain since the Romans left and the monks may have been instrumental in its re-establishment around this time. They built a
kiln in the north of the town at a place called Tile Kiln, an area now known as Tilkey. The bricks from Coggeshall are some of the earliest-known bricks in post-Roman Britain. Long Bridge, in the south of the village, was probably built in the 13th century using these bricks and the kiln in Tilkey continued to produce bricks until 1845. The
Black Death hit the abbey hard, with the number of monks and
conversi much reduced. Revenues across Essex fell to between one third to one half of pre-plague rates; the abbey suffered financially with tenanted and cultivated lands heavily decreased. By the early 15th century a new church was begun at the abbey called St Mary's; it was completed by the start of the 16th century but the
Dissolution of the Monasteries brought an end to the prosperity of monks. In 1530 Abbot Love was demoted with a list of complaints raised against him; though some of them may have been fabricated, it appears that standards at the monastery were dropping. The monks were sent back to their families or into the community, many becoming priests. Abbot Love became vicar of
Witham where he stayed until his death in 1559. They remained in his possession until 1541 when they were split up. Great Coggeshall became part of the
Lexden hundred, whilst Little Coggeshall remained in Witham hundred. Coggeshall remained a single parish for
ecclesiastical purposes, but Great Coggeshall and Little Coggeshall served as separate
civil parishes for the purposes of administering the
poor laws. The civil parishes of Great and Little Coggeshall were reunited in 1949, when they and the neighbouring parish of
Markshall to the north were merged into a new civil parish of Coggeshall, subject to some adjustments to the boundaries with neighbouring parishes.
Economy and industry After the decline of the wool trade, Coggeshall's economy centred around cloth, silk and
velvet, with over half of the population employed in its production. The cloth trade is first linked with the town in 1557 as a well-established industry but the onslaught of various trade laws brought about the decline of the trade. The last book order entry for cloth production is listed as 14 November 1800. The 1851 census showed Coggeshall to be one of the most industrialised places in Essex. However, the English silk industry was being artificially supported by a ban on imported silk goods; Continental silk was cheaper and of a higher quality. When Parliament repealed the ban in 1826 and later reduced and finally removed duties on French silk, English weavers were unable to compete and Coggeshall's economy was devastated. The town again found fame in
Tambour lace, a form of lace-making introduced to Coggeshall around 1812 by a Monsieur Drago and his daughters. The production of this lace continued through the 19th century before dying out after the Second World War. Examples of Coggeshall lace have been worn by
Queen Mary and
Queen Elizabeth II. The brewery buildings have undergone alternative use in recent years, with several now used a residential buildings and another used as the Coggeshall Village Hall. In 2008 the Red Fox Brewery was opened near Coggeshall. By the end of the 19th century
gelatine and
isinglass production was well established at a site on West Street, The seed growing industry is said to have originally started with the Cistercian monks at the abbey.
Nonconformist chapels The first independent place of worship in Coggeshall was a converted barn on East Street, put to use in 1672. In 1710 a permanent chapel was built on Stoneham Street for "Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England, commonly called Independents". By 1716 there were 700 hearers including some of the wealthiest and most influential people from the local area. In 1834 the chapel was enlarged and again in 1865. Today the building continues to be part of the
United Reformed Church in continuous succession from its Congregational and Independent past. The modern Christ Church which meets in the building is now a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP); a new single congregation coming together from a union of the three chapels in 1989 and uniting members from the Baptist Union, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church. The
Quakers were active in Coggeshall as early as 1655, with Fox stating "I came to Cogshall, and there was a meeting of about 2,000 people." That same year
James Parnell, a Quaker, caused a disturbance at the church and was sentenced to prison at
Colchester Castle where he died whilst imprisoned in 1656. A meeting house was purchased on Stoneham Street in 1673 with a new building constructed in 1878. A graveyard was purchased on Tilkey Road in 1856 but now forms part of a private garden attached to Quaker Cottage. The meeting house is now home to Coggeshall Library. Coggeshall has proved an important place in the local
Baptist Ministry. For many years congregations met in a house just off Hare Bridge, and in 1797 the first annual meeting of the Essex Baptist Association was held in the Independent Meeting House. A permanent meeting house was constructed in 1825 along Church Street. This building is now used as business offices. The
Methodists have been present in Coggeshall since 1811, worshipping first at a house on Stoneham Street, then a chapel on East Street. A permanent chapel was constructed in 1883 on Stoneham Street to seat 250 people and now hosts a local children's nursery.
Post reformation Catholics The Catholic parish established in Kelvedon provided for the small Coggeshall catholic community in the Victorian period. In 1914 eleven Catholics were recorded as living in Coggeshall village. A permanent oratory was established at White Barn in 1919, with a Mass held at Starling Leeze, the residence of Captain and Mrs Dixon, from 1922. In 1923 a Mass was held at the Hitcham School every third Sunday using a portable altar, with the closure of this venue the Assembly Room above the Co-operative store was used. In 1927 the congregation had grown to thirty. Captain Kenneth Dixon R.N. died in 1927 and a site for a permanent place of worship was bought in his memory on Stoneham Street, for £200. The chapel of ease, St Bernard's of Clairvaux, was opened on Sunday 19 February 1928 with
Bishop Doubleday blessing the building. By the 1930s there were seventy people in weekly attendance and by the 1960s the original building was considered to be too small for worship. ==Geography==