Chignal St James

Chignal St James
Chignal St James Chignal St James shown within Essex
District	Chelmsford
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CHELMSFORD
Postcode district	CM1
Dialling code	01245
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
List of places UK England Essex

Coordinates: 51°45′42″N 0°25′03″E / 51.76173°N 0.41757°E / 51.76173; 0.41757

Chignal St James is a village in Essex, England. The village is part of the civil parish of Chignall, and is situated 3½ miles northwest by west from the county town of Chelmsford. Population of Chignal St James is about 250.

Former parish church of St James

Village pump and telephone box

The spelling of the village name is open to discussion. Sometimes it is spelt as "Chignall St James" at other times, as "Chignal St James" or "Chignal Saint James".

Businesses providing employment in the area include Ashdown Engineering, Gardening Express & Balance Life Magazine, and local farms.

The area once included a Roman villa, the site of which was discovered in the 1970s. Originally the village was a settlement for farmers and their labour force that worked the land, but as mechanisation took over the farming population left. The village is now partly a commuter settlement, and partly resident to remaining agricultural workers and retired people.

The village has a public house, The Three Elms, thought to be over 500 years old.

In 2009 there was a controversial planning proposal to create a quarry close by to the village, but this was turned down by the planning authorities.

Notable village landmarks include an old brick-built farm barn with a dove-cote thought to be the oldest and only example of its type in Essex, an old red brick school (now a dwelling), the church, and the Old Rectory.

Unsubstantiated sightings of big cats (thought to be black leopards or pumas), have been made by local farmers.

External links

Media related to Chignal St James at Wikimedia Commons

Towns, villages and hamlets of the City of Chelmsford

Contiguous with Chelmsford Broomfield Chelmer Village (Chancellor Park) Great Baddow Melbourne Moulsham Springfield Widford

Towns	South Woodham Ferrers

Villages and hamlets	Bicknacre Boyton Cross Boreham Chalk End (Pepper's Green) Chatham Green Chignal St James Chignall Smealy Cooksmill Green Danbury Downham East Hanningfield Fanner's Green Ford End Galleywood Galleyend Good Easter (Tye Green) Great Leighs Great Waltham Highwood Howe Green Howe Street Little Baddow Little Leighs Littley Green Little Waltham Margaretting (Margaretting Tye) Mashbury North End Pleshey Ramsden Heath Rettendon (Rettendon Common, Rettendon Place) Roxwell Runwell Sandon South Hanningfield Stock West Hanningfield Woodham Ferrers Writtle (Great Oxney Green, Newney Green)

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex List of places in Essex

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, May 03, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.