History of Borley

Parish Church, Borley
©Robert Edwards
Photograph by kind permission of Robert Edwards,
contributor to the Geograph Project

History of Borley >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

BORLEY, a very small village, on the south-western acclivity of the Stour valley, 2½ miles North West of Sudbury, has in its parish only 188 souls and 776 acres of land, extending down to the river bank, where there is a water mill, near the Hall, a good house, occupied by a farmer. The fine old mansion, called Borley Place, is on the hill, near the church. The Dowager Countess Waldegrave is lady of the manor, patroness of the rectory, and owner of most of the soil; and the rest belongs chiefly to Lieut. Col. Meyrick.

The rectory, valued in K.B. at £9, and in 1831 at £249, is in the incumbency of the Rev. J.P. Herringham, M.A., who has a good modern residence, and lOA.2R. of glebe. The Church is a plain ancient structure, with a tower and two bells, and contains a splendid monument to the memory of several of the Waldegrave family. It is about 14 feet high, 9 long, and 5 broad, with a cornice of elegant workmanship, supported by six marble pillars of the Corinthian order. On the tomb, lie full-length marble statues of Sir Edward Waldegrave and his lady, who died in the 16th century. On the north wall, between two pillars, is a kneeling figure of Magdalen Waldegrave, who died in 1598. In 1628, Thomas Stevens, left to this parish two yearly rent-charges, out of Sayen's Farm, in Little Cornord, viz., 40s. for the poor, and 6s.8d. for the rector.