The Story of East Braintree

For the purposes of looking at its history,  we consider East Braintree is the area from Railway Street to the west, the bypass to the east, Coggeshall Road to the north and the River Brain to the south.

One of the first known settlements was an Iron Age settlement on the banks and slopes of the River Brain about 3.500 years ago. This was inhabited by a Celtic tribe known as the Trinovantes, who were part of the main tribe of the Iceni. They were farmers and would have farmed the land on the slopes of the valley and fished in the river. In those days trackways linked the various communities and one ran towards the area of Heybridge, part of which ran along the southern border of the school. Another route ran along Rayne Road and Coggeshall Road from Hertfordshire to the coast. As a result a smaller Iron Age settlement known as Banc Tre (the settlement on a hill ) was set up in the present town centre from which the name of Braintree is thought to derive.

protect the Iron Age settlement a defensive ditch (oppidum) was built and this ran from edge of Sainsbury’s car park, along the line of Coggeshall Road and then turned up Cressing Road . It may well have continued down Chapel Hill but we have no evidence of this.

In AD43 the Romans invaded Britain and built a settlement called Colonia Claudia Victrisensis (modern day Colchester ). The Iceni uprising in AD61 when local members of the Trinovantes would have joined Boudicca’s army burnt this to the ground. . One such town was at Braintree that is thought to date from about 90 – 100AD. Archaeological evidence suggests that the town covered an area from Sandpit Lane (or perhaps Bank Street ) to Grenville Road as far as the junction of Pierrefitte Way with London Road . Archaeological digs in that area have found evidence of shops and iron founding. There is, however, very little evidence of Roman occupation in our area some one must assume that it was mainly farmland. From Braintree the main roads ran East to Colchester - West to St Albans – North to Suffolk and South to Chelmsford .

With the establishment of Norman rule after 1066, Bocking came under the control of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Braintree, the Bishop of London. According to the Domesday Book, the present town centre (Branchetreu) covered 30 acres and that of Raines Magna (East Braintree) 500 acres. Landowners had to pay high taxes to the King and therefore they looked for opportunties to get more income from their holdings. From the middle of the 12th century market and fair charters were granted by the King and in 1199 the Bishop of London gained one for Braintree. This brought about the development of a new town in Branchetreu around the crossroads. As a result Raines Magna gradually diminished in importance and for the next 600 years became a very important agricultural community. This is borne out by the number of farms that were still in existence in the 19th century – Clockhouse – Stubbs – Parsonage – Chapel – Nicholls – Slough House – and a windmill was sited near the SGT DIY store. The Bishop of London had a country house (known rather grandly as a palace) not far from the Post Office sorting office in Lakes Road. The original parish church became a chapel and was where in the 20th century Lake & Elliot built their first foundry.

David Possee