Messing, Essex

Description
Messing, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands 2 miles E of Blackwater river, 2: ENE of Kelvedon station on the G.E.R., and 6 SE of Coggeshall, is supposed to have got its name from Saxon words signifying " the field of trampling," in allusion to a battle between Queen Boadicea and the Romans, and has a fair on the first Tuesday of July, and a post office under Kelvedon; money order and telegraph office, Tiptree Heath. The parish comprises 2615 acres; population of the civil parish, 723 ; of the ecclesiastical, 626. The manor belonged formerly to the Luckyns, and belongs now to the Earl of Verulam. An ancient camp was on Har-borough Hall farm, and Roman pottery has been found. Hill House is a chief residence standing in a park of 70 acres. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £234. Patron, the Earl of Verulam. The church is an ancient building of flint and stone in mixed styles, founded by Sir William de Messing, has been modernised and considerably enlarged, includes two new transepts, and a red brick and compo tower, and contains oak-panelling of the time of James I., some ancient stained glass, a finely-carved font, a piscina, and two brasses.