Great Oakley, Essex

Description
Oakley, Great, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands a quarter of a mile E of Ramsey Creek, a feeder of the Stour, 4 S by E of Wrabness station on the Harwich and Manningtree branch of the G.E.R.,and 5 1/2 SW of Harwich. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Harwich, and formerly had a fair on 25 April. The parish comprises 3369 acres; population, 845. There is a parish council consisting of seven members and a chairman. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; gross value, £667 with residence. Patron, St John's College, Cambridge. The church is an ancient building of stone and brick, partly Norman, and consists of nave and chancel, with bell-chamber; it has a fine Norman font of Purbeck marble. There are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels in the village, and there are a mission room and a Primitive Methodist chapel at Stones Green.