163-539: Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary , near Southend-on-Sea , in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex , England. It has an area of 7.12 square miles (18.44 km) and a population of 38,170. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks. Lying only just above sea level, it is prone to flooding at exceptional tides and has been inhabited since
326-513: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with
489-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of
652-481: A baron's possessions; and it also showed to what extent he had under-tenants and the identities of the under-tenants. This was of great importance to William, not only for military reasons but also because of his resolve to command the personal loyalty of the under-tenants (though the "men" of their lords) by making them swear allegiance to him. As Domesday Book normally records only the Christian name of an under-tenant, it
815-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed
978-472: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of
1141-456: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have
1304-548: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in
1467-440: A civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if the parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under
1630-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as
1793-444: A clean-up operation, and the site was renamed as Canvey Wick and opened as a nature reserve. In September 1997, the celebrity steeplejack Fred Dibnah was hired by Safeway supermarkets to demolish the unused 450-foot (140 m) concrete chimney that was part of the abandoned oil refinery. Safeway had planned for the 2,500-ton chimney to be demolished on 18 September in front of a large crowd of invited guests. This would have been
SECTION 10
#17330845255711956-568: A common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in the way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by
2119-415: A definitive reference point as to property holdings across the nation, in case such evidence was needed in disputes over Crown ownership. The Domesday survey, therefore, recorded the names of the new holders of lands and the assessments on which their tax was to be paid. But it did more than this; by the king's instructions, it endeavoured to make a national valuation list, estimating the annual value of all
2282-525: A gas terminal with two 1000-tonne storage tanks was constructed at the site alongside the oil terminal. The gas terminal built by the British Gas Council was designed to store and distribute imported gas to the whole of Britain via the facilities at Thames Haven and the local refinery at Shellhaven in Coryton . The first delivery of 2,020 tonnes arrived on 20 February 1959 from Lake Charles, Louisiana , by
2445-512: A great political convulsion such as the Norman Conquest, and the following wholesale confiscation of landed estates, William needed to reassert that the rights of the Crown, which he claimed to have inherited, had not suffered in the process. His Norman followers tended to evade the liabilities of their English predecessors. Historians believe the survey was to aid William in establishing certainty and
2608-569: A great seaside resort for Londoners, and so built the first promenade, a pier and a magnificent winter garden and palace, which he planned to cover six miles (but only covered a mile), as well as a monorail system (initially horse-drawn then later electric). Hester marketed Canvey as "Ye Old Dutch Island", giving many of the new roads Dutch-sounding names and enticing potential buyers with free rail tickets. The project started well with thousands of plots sold, but by 1905 had fallen apart due to materials not being delivered and issues with land ownership with
2771-565: A mill for every forty-six peasant households and implies a great increase in the consumption of baked bread in place of boiled and unground porridge . The book also lists 28,000 slaves , a smaller number than had been enumerated in 1066. In the Domesday Book, scribes' orthography was heavily geared towards French, most lacking k and w, regulated forms for sounds / ð / and / θ / and ending many hard consonant words with e as they were accustomed to do with most dialects of French at
2934-469: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving
3097-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until
3260-733: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Domesday Book Domesday Book ( / ˈ d uː m z d eɪ / DOOMZ -day ;
3423-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself
SECTION 20
#17330845255713586-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by
3749-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have
3912-532: A relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of the English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007
4075-458: A river jetty and a concrete chimney were constructed, but work was halted in 1975 pending a major design study review following the oil crisis of 1973–4 and OPEC 's increase of oil prices. On 28 March 1973 planning permission was granted to United Refineries Ltd to develop a site to the north of the Occidental refinery site for the construction of another oil refinery. An exploratory public inquiry
4238-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it
4401-589: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below
4564-495: A seventh circuit for the Little Domesday shires). Three sources discuss the goal of the survey : After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land; how it was occupied, and by what sort of men. Then sent he his men over all England into each shire; commissioning them to find out 'How many hundreds of hides were in the shire, what land the king himself had, and what stock upon
4727-938: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at
4890-511: A specially modified liberty ship Normarti renamed the Methane Pioneer . The success of seven further deliveries over the following 14 months established the international industry for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) by sea, but the discovery of oil and gas in North Sea limited further British development. Canvey continued to receive 50 shipments of LNG per year from Arzew Algeria in
5053-514: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there
Canvey Island - Misplaced Pages Continue
5216-402: A subject of historical debate. Sir Michael Postan , for instance, contends that these may not represent all rural households, but only full peasant tenancies, thus excluding landless men and some subtenants (potentially a third of the country's population). H. C. Darby , when factoring in the excluded households and using various different criteria for those excluded (as well as varying sizes for
5379-534: A time after the Great Fire of London . From the 1740s onwards, they were held, with other Exchequer records, in the chapter house of Westminster Abbey . In 1859, they were transferred to the new Public Record Office , London. They are now held at the National Archives at Kew. The chest in which they were stowed in the 17th and 18th centuries is also at Kew. In modern times, the books have been removed from
5542-536: A town, where separately-recorded properties had been demolished to make way for a castle. Early British authors thought that the motivation behind the Survey was to put into William's power the lands, so that all private property in land came only from the grant of King William, by lawful forfeiture. The use of the word antecessor in the Domesday Book is used for the former holders of the lands under Edward , and who had been dispossessed by their new owners. Domesday Book
5705-491: Is also notable for its relationship to the petrochemical industry . The island was the site of the first delivery in the world of liquefied natural gas by container ship and later became the subject of an influential assessment on the risks to a population living within the vicinity of petrochemical shipping and storage facilities. In 2019, the Conservative Party won 76.7% of the vote in the Castle Point constituency,
5868-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been
6031-510: Is believed that the peril of the mudflats below such shallow waters off the Canvey Island coast prompted the Romans to devise some form of beacon as a warning in the area. In 1851 a hexagonal lighthouse was constructed by the engineer James Walker , a consultant lighthouse engineer at Trinity House at the time. This all-iron lighthouse replaced a lightship which had been moored in the area for
6194-401: Is devoted to the somewhat arid details of the assessment and valuation of rural estates, which were as yet the only important source of national wealth. After stating the assessment of the manor , the record sets forth the amount of arable land , and the number of plough teams (each reckoned at eight oxen) available for working it, with the additional number (if any) that might be employed; then
6357-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have
6520-458: Is examined more closely, perplexities and difficulties arise." One problem is that the clerks who compiled this document "were but human; they were frequently forgetful or confused." The use of Roman numerals also led to countless mistakes. Darby states, "Anyone who attempts an arithmetical exercise in Roman numerals soon sees something of the difficulties that faced the clerks." But more important are
6683-543: Is extremely flat, lying 10 feet (3 m) below mean high water level and consequently is at risk of flooding. Before reclamation, the surrounding area contained a number of islands separated by tidal creeks. Flood defences have been constructed since the Middle Ages, and the first sea wall to completely surround the island was built as part of the island's reclamation in 1622. The island suffered extensive flooding in 1731, 1736, 1791, 1881 and 1897, and substantial loss of life in
Canvey Island - Misplaced Pages Continue
6846-548: Is not possible to search for the surnames of families claiming a Norman origin. Scholars, however, have worked to identify the under-tenants, most of whom have foreign Christian names. The survey provided the King with information on potential sources of funds when he needed to raise money. It includes sources of income but not expenses, such as castles, unless they needed to be included to explain discrepancies between pre-and post-Conquest holdings of individuals. Typically, this happened in
7009-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In
7172-506: Is of great illustrative importance. The Inquisitio Eliensis is a record of the lands of Ely Abbey . The Exon Domesday (named because the volume was held at Exeter ) covers Cornwall , Devon, Dorset , Somerset, and one manor of Wiltshire . Parts of Devon, Dorset, and Somerset are also missing. Otherwise, this contains the full details supplied by the original returns. Through comparison of what details are recorded in which counties, six Great Domesday "circuits" can be determined (plus
7335-428: Is proposed that the western side of Canvey is developed as a site which is either temporarily flooded at times of risk, or transformed into a permanent wetland . Developments in the 20th century have produced a marked contrast between the environments in the east and west of the island. The eastern half of the island is allocated to residential areas, the main public amenities and a small holiday camp and seafront, while
7498-472: Is the highest land on the island and thus has wide views across the creeks and marshes and along the Thames. The environment supports an array of birds including skylarks , dark-bellied brent geese and grey plover . Canvey Island coalesced into a separate civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in 1881. These with separate remits replaced the 17 divisions of the land split largely into grazing meadowland since
7661-470: Is the oldest 'public record' in England and probably the most remarkable statistical document in the history of Europe. The continent has no document to compare with this detailed description covering so great a stretch of territory. And the geographer, as he turns over the folios, with their details of population and of arable, woodland, meadow and other resources, cannot but be excited at the vast amount of information that passes before his eyes. The author of
7824-576: The Methane Princess and the Methane Progress , until about 1982, British Gas closed the site in 1994. In 1964 the Italian company Agip Ltd were given an industrial development certificate to build a £15 million oil refinery in the north west of the island. The refinery was never built. In 1972 Occidental Petroleum began construction of an oil refinery . Access roads, about 20 oil-storage tanks,
7987-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt
8150-586: The 2010 General Election , the Member of Parliament representing the parliamentary constituency of Castle Point has been Rebecca Harris of the Conservative Party . Canvey holds two seats on Essex County Council . Civil parishes in England In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government . It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to
8313-511: The Isle of Sheppey ), so any similarity between the names is mere coincidence. Without any suitable island matching Ptolemy's Counus Island, 20th-century historians White and Yearsley posit the documented island to have been lost or reduced to an insignificant sandbank by subsidence and the constant effects of the sea. The settlement and agricultural development of Essex by the Saxons from the 5th century saw
SECTION 50
#17330845255718476-742: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were
8639-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with
8802-622: The Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of King William the Conqueror . The manuscript was originally known by the Latin name Liber de Wintonia , meaning "Book of Winchester ", where it was originally kept in the royal treasury. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that in 1085
8965-467: The North Sea Flood of 1953 . The extensive sea wall, completed in 1982, is 15 miles (24 km) long and surrounds 75% of the island's perimeter terminating with flood barriers spanning Benfleet Creek to the north and East Haven Creek in the west. The drainage system consists of sewers, culverts, natural and artificial dykes and lakes which feed seven pumping stations and gravity sluices that discharge
9128-541: The River Thames and material entering the estuary on the tides of the North Sea from the coast of Norfolk . An unsuccessful search for coal beneath the island in 1953 revealed that the alluvium rests upon layers of London Clay , Lower London Tertiaries, Chalk, Lower Greensand and Gault Clay , with the basement rocks at a depth of 1,300 feet (400 m) consisting of hard Old Red Sandstone of Devonian age. The island
9291-546: The Roman conquest of Britain . The island was mainly agricultural land until the 20th century, when it became the fastest-growing seaside resort in Britain between 1911 and 1951. The North Sea flood of 1953 devastated the island, killing 58 islanders and leading to the temporary evacuation of the 13,000 residents. Canvey is consequently protected by modern sea defences comprising 2 miles (3.2 km) of concrete sea walls. Canvey Island
9454-519: The Thames . The structure is the last intact degaussing station on the north side of the river, and was still operating in 1974. Known as the Canvey loop, the building was occupied by the Women's Royal Naval Service and used for monitoring merchant ships. The building has since been re-opened as a museum dubbed the "Bay Museum" and has First World War exhibits on the ground floor and Second World War exhibits on
9617-571: The United Kingdom . Domesday Book encompasses two independent works (originally in two physical volumes): "Little Domesday" (covering Norfolk , Suffolk , and Essex ), and "Great Domesday" (covering much of the remainder of England – except for lands in the north that later became Westmorland , Cumberland , Northumberland , and the County Palatine of Durham – and parts of Wales bordering and included within English counties). Space
9780-438: The ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on
9943-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or
SECTION 60
#173308452557110106-472: The geld , and the framework for Domesday Book was geld assessment lists. "Little Domesday", so named because its format is physically smaller than its companion's, is more detailed than Great Domesday. In particular, it includes the numbers of livestock on the home farms ( demesnes ) of lords, but not peasant livestock. It represents an earlier stage in processing the results of the Domesday Survey before
10269-420: The hundred or wapentake in which they lay, hundreds (wapentakes in eastern England) being the second tier of local government within the counties. Each county's list opened with the king's demesne, which had possibly been the subject of separate inquiry. Under the feudal system, the king was the only true "owner" of land in England by virtue of his allodial title . He was thus the ultimate overlord, and even
10432-450: The military service due, markets, mints , and so forth. From the towns, from the counties as wholes, and from many of its ancient lordships, the crown was entitled to archaic dues in kind, such as honey . The Domesday Book lists 5,624 mills in the country, which is considered a low estimate since the book is incomplete. For comparison, fewer than 100 mills were recorded in the country a century earlier. Georges Duby indicates this means
10595-577: The red hills of the Roman saltmaking industry, or the early makeshift sea defences constructed by some of the landowners around their farms. In 1622, Sir Henry Appleton (a descendant of John de Apeton) and Canvey's other landowners instigated a project to reclaim the land and wall the island from the Thames . The scheme was managed by an acquaintance of Appleton's – Joas Croppenburg , a Dutch Haberdasher of Cheapside in London . An agreement reached in 1623 stipulated that in return for inning and recovering
10758-496: The ' Isle ' of Grain rather than a Latinised "Sheppey insula" to the southeast, is a close eastern division which is perhaps the part that later almost wholly merged into the present island, with a ditch being the current boundary, having the same far eastern points as the Canvey Point and Leighbeck Point marshes. Two Tree Island to the north is also recognisable, if halved in length. The third eastern island or mudflat could well be
10921-463: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of
11084-412: The 12th century, Essex and subsequently Canvey were in the possession of Henry de Essex who inherited the land from his grandfather, Swein, son of Robert fitz Wymarch. During the reign of Henry II (1154–1189) the land was confiscated from de Essex and redistributed among the King's favoured nobles. Shown on John Norden's 1594 map with the second word insula (with the traditional medial "ſ" ), facing
11247-512: The 1970s and 1980s, which was formerly opened by Princess Margaret in April 1984. The southern area of the Canvey Island West ward at Hole Haven has predominantly existed as petrochemical site since the first construction of an oil terminal there in 1936. In 1959, as part of a pioneering Anglo-American project designed to assess the viability of transporting liquefied natural gas overseas,
11410-721: The 1970s by laying thousands of tonnes of silt dredged from the Thames; the abandoned and undisturbed area has flourished as a haven for around 1,300 species of wildlife, some of which are endangered or were thought to be extinct in the UK, including the Shrill carder bee , the Beewolf wasp and the Bombardier beetle . It has been said that the site may have one of the highest levels of biodiversity in Western Europe . Other areas of natural interest include
11573-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until
11736-776: The 19th century. They were held originally in various offices of the Exchequer : the Chapel of the Pyx of Westminster Abbey ; the Treasury of Receipts; and the Tally Court. However, on several occasions they were taken around the country with the Chancellor of the Exchequer: to York and Lincoln in 1300, to York in 1303 and 1319, to Hertford in the 1580s or 1590s, and to Nonsuch Palace , Surrey, in 1666 for
11899-487: The 20 acres (8 ha) of Canvey Lake Local Nature Reserve owned by Castle Point Borough Council. The lake was used for salt-making during the Roman settlement of the island, and is also thought to have functioned as an oyster bed. At the eastern point of the island is the 36-acre (150,000 m) Canvey Heights Country Park which was reclaimed from the Newlands landfill site that operated there between 1954 and 1989. The park
12062-584: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from
12225-505: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In
12388-448: The 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book. In August 2006, the contents of Domesday went online, with an English translation of the book's Latin. Visitors to the website are able to look up a place name and see the index entry made for the manor, town, city or village. They can also, for a fee, download the relevant page. In the Middle Ages, the Book's evidence was frequently invoked in
12551-724: The Counus (i.e. " council ") Island, where the Trinovantes, Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni counselled with the Iceni, shortly before staging Boudicca 's rebellion against the Romans. If so, Counus occupied an area from the Canvey Point Sand Bank until just before Shoeburyness , the eastern point of the relatively straight estuary stretched the whole length of Southend on Sea , giving a reason for
12714-578: The Goldmine were built. Canvey Island remained a popular holiday and weekend destination until the cheap foreign package holiday became popular in the 1970s. During the Second World War the island was a part of the GHQ Line , a line of 11 concrete pillboxes constructed as a part of the defence against the expected German invasion . Only one of the old pillboxes still can be seen, just off Haven Road, with
12877-583: The London area only rarely. In 1861–1863, they were sent to Southampton for photozincographic reproduction . In 1918–19, prompted by the threat of German bombing during the First World War , they were evacuated (with other Public Record Office documents) to Bodmin Prison , Cornwall. Likewise, in 1939–1945, during the Second World War , they were evacuated to Shepton Mallet Prison , Somerset. The volumes have been rebound on several occasions. Little Domesday
13040-601: The Norman era by the neighbouring parishes of North Benfleet , South Benfleet , Bowers Gifford , Prittlewell , Southchurch , Hadleigh , Laindon , Pitsea and Vange . In 1926, the parish was converted to the Canvey Island Urban District , then dissolved along with the Benfleet Urban District in the Local Government Act 1972 to form the local government district and borough of Castle Point . Since
13203-486: The Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is an invaluable primary source for modern historians and historical economists . No survey approaching the scope and extent of Domesday Book was attempted again in Britain until the 1873 Return of Owners of Land (sometimes termed the "Modern Domesday") which presented the first complete, post-Domesday picture of the distribution of landed property in
13366-548: The Secretary of State "to revoke the planning permission granted to United Refineries Ltd in accordance with his Inspector's recommendation at the exploratory inquiry in 1975". The issue of risk was again highlighted in an attack by the IRA in January 1979 on a storage tank at the island's Texaco oil terminal. A bomb was detonated at a tank containing aviation fuel, but failed to ignite with
13529-550: The Sheriff had one hundred and seventy-six manors in Devon and four nearby in Somerset and Dorset . Tenants-in-chief held variable proportions of their manors in demesne , and had subinfeudated to others, whether their own knights (often tenants from Normandy), other tenants-in-chief of their own rank, or members of local English families. Manors were generally listed within each chapter by
13692-724: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from
13855-421: The alternative spelling "Domesdei" became popular for a while. The usual modern scholarly convention is to refer to the work as "Domesday Book" (or simply as "Domesday"), without a definite article. However, the form "the Domesday Book" is also found in both academic and non-academic contexts. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that planning for the survey was conducted in 1085, and the book's colophon states
14018-466: The article on the book in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica noted, "To the topographer, as to the genealogist, its evidence is of primary importance, as it not only contains the earliest survey of each township or manor, but affords, in the majority of cases, a clue to its subsequent descent." Darby also notes the inconsistencies, saying that "when this great wealth of data
14181-489: The average household), concludes that the 268,984 households listed most likely indicate a total English population between 1.2 and 1.6 million. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places. Apart from the wholly rural portions, which constitute its bulk, Domesday contains entries of interest concerning most towns, which were probably made because of their bearing on the fiscal rights of the crown therein. These include fragments of custumals (older customary agreements), records of
14344-523: The bout and because, it is said, of his sportsmanship Caunt agreed to settle their differences with a handshake. Historian Philip Benton reported about Canvey Chapel in 1867: "The seats are open and unappropriated, except one, which is set apart for the officer and the men under him of the Preventive Service; there being a station on the island for nine men, an officer and a chief boatman." The Preventive Men had their own special row of cottages close to
14507-512: The broad ditch and then been discharged into the river by the means of seven sluices (later known as Commissioners Dykes). The completion of the work saw a considerable number of the Dutch engineers take land as payment for their work, and consequently settle on the island. The Chapman Lighthouse, briefly described in Joseph Conrad 's novel Heart of Darkness , was on the coast of Canvey Island. It
14670-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such
14833-404: The chimney) stamped "The Great Canvey Island Chimney Disaster 1997". Calor Gas Ltd now operate the former British Gas site. The site imports, stores, bottles and exports liquified petroleum gases (LPG), propane and butane. There were plans in 2005–7 to convert the plant back to the import of liquified natural gas (LNG) but the planning application was rejected. Oikos Storage Limited now operate
14996-529: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to
15159-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had
15322-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced
15485-453: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London
15648-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been
15811-600: The drastic abbreviation and rearrangement undertaken by the scribe of Great Domesday Book. Both volumes are organised into a series of chapters (literally "headings", from Latin caput , "a head") listing the manors held by each named tenant-in-chief directly from the king. Tenants-in-chief included bishops, abbots and abbesses , barons from Normandy , Brittany , and Flanders , minor French serjeants , and English thegns . The richest magnates held several hundred manors typically spread across England, though some large estates were highly concentrated. For example, Baldwin
15974-666: The early Saxon culture. Historian Ian Yearsley states that the name of the island is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Caningaege , meaning "the Island of Cana's People". Developments in the English language yielded the more familiar form Caneveye found in manorial records of 1254. The period of transition from Old to Early Middle English often give rise to confusions of orthography , leading, in this instance, to such variant spellings as Canefe , Kaneweye , Kaneveye and Koneveye . By
16137-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In
16300-521: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and
16463-476: The first attempts were made at managing the effects of the sea with rudimentary defences, but periodical flooding continued to blight the small population of mostly shepherds and their fat-tailed variety of sheep for a further 300 years. William Camden wrote of the island in 1607 that it was so low that it was often quite flooded, except the hills, upon which the sheep had a place of safe refuge. The uniform flatness of Canvey suggests that these hills are likely to be
16626-449: The first floor. An anti-aircraft battery was located at Little Gypps, called "TN7 Furtherwick" with had six gun emplacements. The site, known as the Gunny by locals, was designated a scheduled monument in January 2001. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records four civilian residents of Canvey Island Urban District died as a result of enemy action during the war. On 1 February 1953,
16789-424: The first settlement of Canvey occurred between AD 50 and 250. The remains point to a community existing with a farmstead, a garrison, a burial ground, and the operation of a large salt-making industry (revealed by the existence of several red hills ). The discovery of a Roman road found to terminate 109 yards (100 m) across the creek in neighbouring Benfleet suggests a means may have existed to facilitate
16952-606: The first time Dibnah's demolition technique of pit props and fire (without explosives) had been attempted on a concrete chimney and it was also the tallest chimney he had ever attempted to fell. However the chimney unexpectedly collapsed the previous day whilst Dibnah and his team were making the final preparations for the controlled demolition, fortunately without injury. The incident is described in detail in various biographies and by Dibnah himself in his public speaking events afterwards. Dibnah later presented Safeway head office staff with brass paperweights (made from material salvaged from
17115-478: The former London & Coastal Wharves Ltd. The site offers a bulk liquid storage facility for refined petroleum products. Neither of the refineries proposed in the 1970s were completed or commissioned. The Occidental site was demolished and the tanks removed, though the former river jetty is still extant, and was nominated for the Design Museum's "Lesser Known Architecture" display in 2013. Canvey Island lies off
17278-404: The fuel escaping into a safety moat. The Occidental site was abandoned in 1975 leaving a half-built oil refinery, storage tanks, and an unused mile-long jetty that cost around £10 million of the approximate total of £60 million spent on the project. However, in the following years the disused and undisturbed site flourished as a haven for wildlife, and in 2003, the final storage tanks were removed in
17441-638: The gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of the lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making
17604-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from
17767-449: The greatest magnate could do no more than "hold" land from him as a tenant (from the Latin verb tenere , "to hold") under one of the various contracts of feudal land tenure . Holdings of bishops followed, then of abbeys and religious houses , then of lay tenants-in-chief , and lastly the king's serjeants ( servientes ) and thegns. In some counties, one or more principal boroughs formed
17930-596: The highest vote share of the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election tied with Boston and Skegness . Canvey Island has been dubbed the "most Tory place in Britain" by The Economist . Excavations on Canvey have unearthed a collection of early man-made objects comprising axes from the Neolithic era, a bracelet dating from the Bronze Age , and Iron Age pottery. However, the remains of Roman structures and objects suggests
18093-460: The infamous North Sea Flood hit the island during the night and caused the deaths of 58 people. Many of the victims were in the holiday bungalows of the eastern Newlands estate and perished as the water reached ceiling level. The small village area of the island is approximately two feet (60 cm) above sea level and consequently escaped the effects of the flood. This included the Red Cow pub, which
18256-518: The introduction of sheep farming, which would dominate the island's industry until the 20th century. After the Norman conquest the area of Canvey was recorded in the Domesday Book as a sheep-farming pasture under the control of nine parishes across south inland and coastal Essex; some of these parishes were on the adjacent mainland, but others were as far afield as Laindon and Prittlewell . Apart from
18419-530: The island's children, was however not part of these defences and had been brought there by the Island Yacht Club, who have since demolished it as it was considered dangerous. Along with the Coalhouse Fort at nearby East Tilbury , Thorney Bay on the southern coast of the island was the site of a degaussing station built to monitor the effectiveness of the equipment on board the allied ships passing along
18582-450: The island, the landowners would grant a third of the land as payment for the work. The presence of the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden , a relation of Croppenburg's, in England at the time of the project on a commission to drain the Fens and involved in repairing the seawall at Dagenham , has led to speculation that Vermuyden oversaw the project, but proof appears to be vague; nevertheless,
18745-459: The king sent his agents to survey every shire in England, to list his holdings and dues owed to him. Written in Medieval Latin , it was highly abbreviated and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The survey's main purpose was to record the annual value of every piece of landed property to its lord, and the resources in land, labour force, and livestock from which
18908-535: The king's brevia ((short) writings). From about 1100, references appear to the liber (book) or carta (charter) of Winchester, its usual place of custody; and from the mid-12th to early 13th centuries to the Winchester or king's rotulus ( roll ). To the English, who held the book in awe, it became known as "Domesday Book", in allusion to the Last Judgment and in specific reference to the definitive character of
19071-590: The kingdom concerning the matters contained in the book, and recourse is made to the book, its word cannot be denied or set aside without penalty. For this reason we call this book the "book of judgements", not because it contains decisions made in controversial cases, but because from it, as from the Last Judgement, there is no further appeal. The name "Domesday" was subsequently adopted by the book's custodians, being first found in an official document in 1221. Either through false etymology or deliberate word play ,
19234-562: The land in the country, (1) at the time of Edward the Confessor 's death, (2) when the new owners received it, (3) at the time of the survey, and further, it reckoned, by command, the potential value as well. It is evident that William desired to know the financial resources of his kingdom, and it is probable that he wished to compare them with the existing assessment, which was one of considerable antiquity, though there are traces that it had been occasionally modified. The great bulk of Domesday Book
19397-464: The land; or, what dues he ought to have by the year from the shire.' Also he commissioned them to record in writing, 'How much land his archbishops had, and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls;' and though I may be prolix and tedious, 'What, or how much, each man had, who was an occupier of land in England, either in land or in stock, and how much money it was worth.' So very narrowly, indeed, did he commission them to trace it out, that there
19560-471: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by
19723-448: The latter was completed, if not started, by William II following his accession to the English throne; William II quashed a rebellion that followed and was based on, though not consequence of, the findings of the inquest. Most shires were visited by a group of royal officers ( legati ) who held a public inquiry, probably in the great assembly known as the shire court. These were attended by representatives of every township as well as of
19886-439: The law courts. In 1960, it was among citations for a real manor which helps to evidence legal use rights on and anchorage into the Crown's foreshore; in 2010, as to proving a manor, adding weight of years to sporting rights (deer and foxhunting); and a market in 2019. Domesday Book is critical to understanding the period in which it was written. As H. C. Darby noted, anyone who uses it can have nothing but admiration for what
20049-450: The laying of the monorail. Hester was declared bankrupt and everything was sold off at an auction held at Chimney's Farm. A new seafront was developed in the 1930s, with Canvey Casino – an amusement arcade and park – opening as the first building on what would become Eastern Esplanade. Since then further amusements, a cinema, the pioneering Labworth Cafe , the Monico pub and nightclubs such as
20212-587: The local lords. The unit of inquiry was the Hundred (a subdivision of the county, which then was an administrative entity). The return for each Hundred was sworn to by 12 local jurors, half of them English and half of them Norman. What is believed to be a full transcript of these original returns is preserved for several of the Cambridgeshire Hundreds ;– the Cambridge Inquisition – and
20375-415: The meat and wool produced from the sheep, the milk from the ewes was used for cheese-making. The abundance in later centuries would see the cheeses become a commodity taken for sale at the London markets, and at one stage exported via Calais to the continent. The existence of several place names on modern Canvey using the wick suffix (denoting the sheds in which the cheese was made) shows the influence of
20538-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of
20701-403: The name also came to be associated with the Latin phrase Domus Dei ("House of God"). Such a reference is found as early as the late 13th century, in the writings of Adam of Damerham ; and in the 16th and 17th centuries, antiquaries such as John Stow and Sir Richard Baker believed this was the name's origin, alluding to the church in Winchester in which the book had been kept. As a result,
20864-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays
21027-478: The numerous obvious omissions, and ambiguities in presentation. Darby first cites F. W. Maitland 's comment following his compilation of a table of statistics from material taken from the Domesday Book survey, "it will be remembered that, as matters now stand, two men not unskilled in Domesday might add up the number of hides in a county and arrive at very different results because they would hold different opinions as to
21190-640: The odds. Today they are surrounded by a small housing estate. During the Victorian era Canvey became a very fashionable place to visit, and its air was promoted as having healing properties. This started in 1899, after the Black Monday floods, when an entrepreneur called Frederick Hester bought Leigh Beck Farm, and started what was to be called Southview Park estate. The properties sold very quickly so Frederick bought more plots of land, selling them as dream homes for London's Eastenders. Hester wanted to create Canvey as
21353-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as
21516-414: The others believed to have been buried in the sea wall development of the 1970s. Also, concrete barges were used extensively just off the south coast of the island, partly as a sea-barrier and also as a mounting point for anti-aircraft guns. A concrete barge which had been beached on the east end of the island, remaining for many years as a point of interest for visitors and a play area for many generations of
21679-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally
21842-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of
22005-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As
22168-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in
22331-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on
22494-470: The preceding four years. The lighthouse was demolished in 1957–1958 because of its poor condition. The Lobster Smack Inn saw many bare-knuckle fights in the 1850s. Sometimes the bouts were between local families, the best known being that between champion Ben Caunt and Nat Langham. The fight arose from a family feud and Caunt took Langham to 60 rounds in September 1853. Langham was knocked down 59 times during
22657-577: The record. The word "doom" was the usual Old English term for a law or judgment; it did not carry the modern overtones of fatality or disaster . Richard FitzNeal , treasurer of England under Henry II , explained the name's connotations in detail in the Dialogus de Scaccario ( c. 1179): The natives call this book "Domesday", that is, the day of judgement. This is a metaphor: for just as no judgement of that final severe and terrible trial can be evaded by any subterfuge, so when any controversy arises in
22820-438: The right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by the monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of
22983-638: The risks to health and safety of various installations on Canvey and the neighbouring part of Thurrock. The Commission invited the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to carry out an investigation. From the Canvey Report (1978) the following hazardous installations were identified: In 1978 the HSE concluded that the residents of the island faced a risk more than five times higher than those in neighbouring South Benfleet. On 27 July 1978 Castle Point District Council asked
23146-406: The river-meadows, woodland, pasture, fisheries (i.e. fishing weirs ), water-mills , salt-pans (if by the sea), and other subsidiary sources of revenue; the peasants are enumerated in their several classes; and finally the annual value of the whole, past and present, is roughly estimated. The organisation of the returns on a feudal basis, enabled the Conqueror and his officers to see the extent of
23309-551: The salt's distribution to Chelmsford and Colchester , and the recovery of rich items of pottery and glassware of a variety only matched elsewhere by excavations of port facilities suggests the Romans may also have exploited Canvey's location in the Thames for shipping. In 1607 the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden noted in his work Britannia (a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland ) that Canvey Island (which he called Island Convennon )
23472-481: The seafront near the old Lobster Smack Inn. That ancient pub was itself described by Charles Dickens in Great Expectations . So out of the way (and therefore the haunt of smugglers) was the inn behind the sea wall, in the 18th century it was known as 'The World's End'. In the 19th century, the isolation made it an ideal point for the meetings of pugilists. The row of Preventive Men's Cottages has survived against
23635-450: The secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with a population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have
23798-533: The south coast of Essex 30 miles (48 km) east of London , and 15 miles (24 km) west of Southend-on-Sea . The island is separated from the mainland to the north and west by Benfleet , East Haven and Vange creeks, and faces the Thames Estuary to the east and south. Along with neighbouring Two Tree Island , Lower Horse and Upper Horse, Canvey is an alluvial island formed in the Holocene period from silt in
23961-403: The subject of a separate section. A few have separate lists of disputed titles to land called clamores (claims). The equivalent sections in Little Domesday are called Inuasiones (annexations). In total, 268,984 people are tallied in the Domesday Book, each of whom was the head of a household. Some households, such as urban dwellers, were excluded from the count, but the exact parameters remain
24124-412: The survey was completed in 1086. It is not known when exactly Domesday Book was compiled, but the entire copy of Great Domesday appears to have been copied out by one person on parchment (prepared sheepskin), although six scribes seem to have been used for Little Domesday. Writing in 2000, David Roffe argued that the inquest (survey) and the construction of the book were two distinct exercises. He believes
24287-432: The survey's ninth centenary. On this last occasion Great Domesday was divided into two physical volumes, and Little Domesday into three volumes. The project to publish Domesday was begun by the government in 1773, and the book appeared in two volumes in 1783, set in " record type " to produce a partial- facsimile of the manuscript. In 1811, a volume of indexes was added. In 1816, a supplementary volume, separately indexed,
24450-450: The tidal flats along this shore being so shallow . Cana's People were descendants of both Cantiaci and the Catuvellauni. A boundary point, Counus, would then in tribal terms be placed at the southern border of the Trinovantes on the eastern extent of the loose tribes also seen as the Tames (Thames). During Edward II's reign (1307–1327) the land was under the possession of John de Apeton and
24613-462: The time. In a parallel development, around 1100, the Normans in southern Italy completed their Catalogus Baronum based on Domesday Book. The original manuscript was destroyed in the Second World War , but the text survives in printed editions. The manuscripts do not carry a formal title. The work is referred to internally as a descriptio (enrolling), and in other early administrative contexts as
24776-480: The value derived. The name "Domesday Book" came into use in the 12th century. Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario ( c. 1179) that the book was so called because its decisions were unalterable, like those of the Last Judgment , and its sentence could not be quashed. The manuscript is held at the National Archives at Kew , London. Domesday was first printed in full in 1783, and in 2011
24939-426: The water into the Thames and creeks. Four of the discharge sites are "high flow" stations capable of discharging 600 litres of water per second at any tide level. The levels within the system are managed by a further five "low flow" pumping stations. The Environment Agency 's Thames Estuary 2100 flood defence plan includes Canvey Island as one site for alleviating the flood risks to London and the Thames estuary area. It
25102-528: The western half of the island is mainly farmland, marshes and industrial areas. The marshes in the west include the 30 hectares known as West Canvey marshes, acquired by the RSPB in 2007, and the Canvey Wick nature reserve. Canvey Wick is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at the site of the abandoned and incomplete oil refinery. The foundations of the 100-hectare (0.4 sq mile) site were prepared in
25265-479: The work was completed by around 300 Dutch workers skilled in the construction of dykes and other sea defences. The engineers successfully reclaimed 3,600 acres (15 km) by walling the island with local chalk , limestone and the heavy clay of the marshes, with the main length along the Thames faced with Kentish ragstone . A broad drainage ditch was dug inland off the area facing the river while smaller inlets were filled in. Excess water would have collected in
25428-723: Was documented in the 2nd century by the Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy . In his work Geographia , Ptolemy mentions a headland in the mouth of the Thames to the east of the Trinovantes region called Counus Island . However, the difficulties faced in determining the location of land areas in Ptolemy's ancient work have led modern researchers to question the correlation between Ptolemy's island and contemporary Canvey. MacBean and Johnson, 18th-century historians, contend that Counus Island would have existed much further out to sea (or may even have been
25591-633: Was held in February/March 1975 into the possible revocation of the planning permission for the United Refineries development. The report of 30 April 1975 recommended revocation and further expert evaluation of the totality of risks facing people who lived in and around Canvey. In March 1976 the Secretaries of State for the Environment and Employment asked the Health and Safety Commission to investigate
25754-521: Was later renamed the King Canute in reference to the legend of the 11th-century Danish king of England commanding the tide to halt with the sea lapping at his feet. The King Canute pub was closed in May 2014. In 2016 a scheme to convert the building into retail space and apartments was proposed. After the flooding of 1953, a new seawall was built, which was then replaced with a significantly larger construction in
25917-593: Was left in Great Domesday for a record of the City of London and Winchester , but they were never written up. Other areas of modern London were then in Middlesex , Surrey , Kent , and Essex and have their place in Domesday Book's treatment of those counties. Most of Cumberland, Westmorland, and the entirety of the County Palatine of Durham and Northumberland were omitted. They did not pay the national land tax called
26080-400: Was not one single hide, nor a yard of land, nay, moreover (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do it), not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was there left, that was not set down in his writ. And all the recorded particulars were afterwards brought to him. The primary purpose of the survey was to ascertain and record the fiscal rights of the king. These were mainly: After
26243-527: Was preserved from the late 11th to the beginning of the 13th centuries in the royal Treasury at Winchester (the Norman kings' capital). It was often referred to as the "Book" or "Roll" of Winchester. When the Treasury moved to the Palace of Westminster , probably under King John , the book went with it. The two volumes (Great Domesday and Little Domesday) remained in Westminster, save for temporary releases, until
26406-505: Was published containing Photographic facsimiles of Domesday Book, for each county separately, were published in 1861–1863, also by the government. Today, Domesday Book is available in numerous editions, usually separated by county and available with other local history resources. In 1986, the BBC released the BBC Domesday Project , the results of a project to create a survey to mark
26569-424: Was rebound in 1320, its older oak boards being re-used. At a later date (probably in the Tudor period ) both volumes were given new covers. They were rebound twice in the 19th century, in 1819 and 1869 – on the second occasion, by the binder Robert Riviere and his assistant, James Kew. In the 20th century, they were rebound in 1952, when their physical makeup was examined in greater detail; and yet again in 1986, for
#570429