Ealdorman Aelfgar between 946 and 951 devised land at Colne to his daughter Aelfflaed who between 1000 and 1002 devised it to the religious house at Stoke by Nayland (Suff.). About 1040, how- ever, Earls Colne belonged to a widow, Leofgifu, and in 1066 it was held by Wulfwine whose lands were granted to Aubrey de Vere after the Conquest. Aubrey and his descendants, the earls of Oxford, held EARLS COLNE until the execution and attainder of John de Vere in 1462. That John forfeited his lands in 1471, and Earls Colne was granted to the duke of Gloucester in 1471, to Edward IV's queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in 1475, and to Sir Thomas Montgomery in 1484. In 1485 John de Vere recovered his estates, and Earls Colne descended with the earldom of Oxford until 1584 when Edward de Vere sold it to Roger Harlakenden. The lands with which the de Veres endowed Colne priory became the separate manor of COLNE PRIORY, which was granted to John de Vere, earl of Oxford, at the Dissolution. Edward de Vere surrendered the reversion to Elizabeth I in 1588, but in 1592 he sold the manor to Roger Harlakenden and his son Richard.
ALDHAM lies on the south bank of the river Colne, c. 5 miles north-west of Colchester. Two gold staters of Cunobelin, the prehistoric settlement in the parish and an amount of Roman debris on the priory site and a possible Roman ditch beneath the priory church suggest a Roman building; there may have been another beside the Coggeshall road in the centre of the parish where mid 1st-century pottery has been found. The parish was part the centre of a large estate belonging to the ealdorman of Essex which broke up in the early 11th century. The village or town, which lies along the Colchester-Halstead road, seems to have devel- oped from several foci, called in the 14th century and the early 15th Colneford Hill, le Holt (later Holt Street), Herendale, and Church (later High) Street.
The village of Aldham was recorded in the Doomsday Survey, ordered by William the conqueror in 1087. the name Aldham incorporates two Saxon words meaning old village. In 1167 it was know as Aldenham, in 1259, as Aude of Dublin (e)ham, and in 1553, as Ealda's ham. The old parish church of St. Margaret and St. Catherine was built in the early 13th century and stook about three-quarters of a mile W.S.W. of the present church. There was anciently a chapel at the north side, but eing ruinous was pulled down many yeare ago. It was founded by the Tey family and dedicated to St. Ann. The Teys were for a long time of considerable importance in Essex. The manor of Marks Tey was owned by a family named Dianart, which took the surrname Tey, and resided at Marks Tey Hall. The arms of the Tey family can be seen on a piece of old glass in the head of the west window in Copford church. The Teys owned land in Aldham, Copford and Layer-de-la-Haye. Aldham was then in the diocese of Rochester and the application for the faculty was sent to Dr. Robertson, the Vicar General of the diocese. The resolution of February 16th 1853 was referred to and read. the Rector promised the rest of the funds requisite to removing and reconstructing the church on a new and central site which was given by Sir T.B. Western. Bart., together with a hansome subscription. It was expressly stated in the deed, that the monument in the chancel to the Rev. Philip Morant, who died in 1770, and the monument of Susannah and Robert Lay who died in 1795 and 1814 respectively, were to be carefully preserved and set up in the new church.
A 14th-century cross wing survives further east at Dynes Cottage on the corner of Tey Road and Lower Holt Street, and Nos. 26-32 Colneford Hill incorporates the cross wings of three adjacent houses. Several older houses were enlarged or partly rebuilt in the later 15th century and the early 16th, like No. 78 High Street, to which a jettied cross wing was added, and Nos. 31-5 where the west part was reconstructed with two storeys and a long-wall jetty. No. 37 is a high-quality building with moulded joists and beams. Herendale apparently included the later Church Hill, south of the church, and may have been the name of the small valley between Coggeshall Road and Park Lane. In 1086 there were 27 or more tenants and 10 servi in Earls Colne. The ancient parish (1,847 a.) was bounded by the Colne on almost all the north, by the road from Marks Tey on a small part of the south-west, and by field boundaries on most of the remain- ing sides; in the north-west, south-west, and south-east, however, the parish boundary ran across 17th-century and later fields. Most of Aldham lies on boulder clay, but the underlying London clay is exposed between the Colne and Old Bourchiers Hall, to the north of Aldham Hall, and to the west of Church House farm. Outcrops of glacial and other gravels occur mainly in the southern half of the parish and at Gallows green. There are narrow bands of alluv- ium along the Colne and along the Roman river, which runs through the southern tip of the parish. In the reigns of Edw. II and III.Springfield-Barnes manor was in Thamas, William, and John Pefe (w). Afterwards it came into the noble families of Bohun, and Bourchiers. For Robert Bourchier, who dyed in 1349, held in this farifh, and in Hatfeild-Peverell and Langeford, the moiety of one meffuage, 40 acres of arable, 5 of meadow, 10 of pafture, 4 of wood, and 7s. rent(z). The four other manors of Rivenhall, Dorewards Hall, Lanehams, Hoo Hall and Bourchiers, were all named after one-time owners. Bourchiers is a derivation from the name of the notable family so long associated with the earldom of Essex. In 1608 Bourchiers was in possession of Sir Ralph Wiseman. He must have been a close relative to the Sir Thomas Wiseman knighted in 1604, because he is recorded as being at one time owner of the capital manor.
In 1654 Wyseman’s Hall was described as ‘the now mansion house’, and in the late 17th century Hearth Tax Returns it was assessed at 20 hearths, more than twice the number of any other property in Rivenhall. A good deal of the Tudor house still survives behind the Georgian facade. Robert de Scales, lord of the manor, received a license in 1336 to alienate the advowson to the Benedictine nunnery at Stratford-le-Bow, but within 60 years the advowson had been returned to the de Scales family. The assignment of two plots of land next to the church, to the nunnery, was compatible with this act of alienation. The pasture field to the south and east of Riven-hall church has one of the oldest recorded field-names in the parish: in 1396 and 1416 it was called ‘le cowlase’, becoming Cow Leaves by 1716, and Cowell Eaves by 1839. This field too was specifically granted along with the advowson by de Scales in 1396, to a five-man consortium. Another pair of fields with an Anglo-Saxon or early medieval descriptive naming are the Womsteads. So much for the fields to the east of Rivenhall Hall; across the road to the west is a block of others with names that are also likely to be of medieval origin. Opposite the church are Great and Little Church Field, and opposite the Hall are Great and Little Hall Field. The latter were referred to in an abuttal of 1552 as ‘Holeshotes’. Rivenhall Hall is structurally the most complete and least altered of all the timber-framed buildings in Rivenhall. There are scarcely any references either to the hall or its occupants, and the earliest specific mention is in 1679, when Robert Everard, gentleman, lived in ‘my farme that I hold called Rivenhall Hall’. He appears in the 1662 and later Hearth Tax Returns as Robert Everett, with four hearths.
A manor in Aldham, later ALDHAM HALL, was held by Leveva in 1066; by Odo of Bayeux and from him by Beatrice wife of Aubrey de Vere in 1086. In 1066 the two manors had a recorded population of 12 and the 6 or more tenants of Aldham Hall who apparently died shortly before 1350 may have been victims of the Black Death.. On Odo's forfeiture the overlordship passed to Beatrice's descendants, later earls of Oxford, who were overlords until 1596 or later. Part of the manor was held of Robert Poer in 1319, and of James at Lee in 1358. A portion of the estate at Marks Tey held by Ulvric in 1066 and by Geoffrey de Mandeville in 1086 seems to have become part of Aldham. It was held of de Mandeville's successors the earls of Essex in 1373. In the 12th century the demesne lordship of both estates, each half a knight's fee, was held by a family surnamed Aldham which pre- sumably descended from Thiel of Aldham (fl. c. 1145).
The minster church at Earls Colne, served by two priests and a deacon c. 1040, was presumably at Earls Colne. Aubrey de Vere granted the church to Colne priory at its foun- dation, and the priory appropriated the rectory before 1254, retaining the advowson of the vicar- age until the Dissolution, when it was granted to the earl of Oxford. The advowson descended with Colne priory manor until c. 1886. EARLS COLNE, the largest of the four Colne parishes, was the site of a medieval market and a 19th-century engineering works. It lies c. 9 miles (c. 15 km.) west of Colchester and immedi- ately east of Halstead on the river Colne, from which, and from its medieval lords the earls of Oxford, it takes its name. The ancient parish (2,978 a. or 1,209 ha.) was bounded by the Colne on most of the north, by its tributary Bourne brook on the west, and by field boundaries and a lane from Markshall on the south and east. There was a detached part of Great Tey (9 a.) near the south-east corner of the parish by 1598, and two detached parts of Earls Colne (8 a. and 14 a.) in Great Tey by 1835. Between 1100 and 1107 Aubrey de Vere, ancestor of the earls of Oxford, founded a priory, a cell of the Benedictine Abingdon abbey (Oxon., formerly Berks.), which continued until the Dissolution. The earls of Oxford had a house at Earls Colne, although their chief seate was at Castle Hedingham, and between 1086 and 1141 created a park in the south-west quarter of the parish. It was enlarged in the late 12th century, and in 1264 was c. 5 miles in circumference and probably covered c. 747 a.
William of Aldham was succeeded by his son Saher before 1196. Roger of Aldham held in 1220. About 1230 another Saher of Aldham granted the half a knight's fee held of the Merk family to Odard of Wigton, otherwise Odard of Aldham, retaining a mesne lordship. In 1235 the other half fee was held by Robert son of Roger of Aldham who probably died before 1239. He was apparently succeeded by Roger son of Robert, presumably his son, and then by another Robert (fl. 1274, 1291). King Stephen visited Earls Colne, presumably the priory, in the 1140s or early 1150s, as did Henry III in 1235. In 1395 Richard II attended the funeral there of his favourite, Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland. Odard of Wigton (d. 1238) was succeeded in his half fee by his sons Adam (d. 1251) and Walter (d. 1286), and by Walter's son John. John seems to have alienated it between 1300 and his death in 1315, presumably to William Goldington who held it, with a third of the other half fee, at his death in 1319. Another Roger of Aldham died before 1312 and was suc- ceeded by his brother Ralph. The mesne tenancy passed with Marks Tey to the Merk family and their successors, being held in 1286 by Andrew de Merk, in 1319 by the heirs of Thomas Merk, in 1358 by Robert Tey, and in 1374 in dower by Joan, widow of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford. The market at Earls Colne was founded in 1250 probably attracted some tradesmen and craftsmen to the parish which in 1377 had 276 poll tax payers of the largest number except for those at Coggeshall, in Lexden hundred. A disputed election to the priorship in 1394 led, after protracted legal proceedings, to riots in 1400 and 1401 in which the supporters of Maud, countess of Oxford and patron of the priory, attacked the priory, and the prior's followers broke into the countess's manor house.
Aldham in 1593 there were three inns in the parish, all presumably in Fordstreet. One was probably the Bull, later the Maltings, which may have been one of two alehouses recorded in 1611. In 1620 the King's Head was licensed, and in 1622 the same licensee leased the George, prob- ably the modern Old House, which was called the Old George or the Old White Hart in the later 18th century. There may have been only one inn c. 1640 when 14 shopkeepers in Clare (Suff.), Stoke by Nayland (Suff.), and nearby villages petitioned the Essex Quarter Sessions to license an inn in Fordstreet, the most convenient stopping place on their journeys to Colchester.
In 1595 the cart bridge needed urgent repairs, but responsibility was disputed until 1598 when it was placed on the lord of Colne priory manor. Park lane, leading to the park of Earls Colne was recorded in 1529, and by 1598 had been extended to Markshall; another road then ran through the former park towards Greenstead Green in Halstead. A minor road ran from Holt Street to Great Tey. Along the Coggeshall road were Hope green near the parish boundary, Kings Gate green round the modern Broomfield farm, and Rushpit green, at the junction with Curds Road in the 1620s. The largest was probably Colne green on the western edge of the village, vestiges of which survived in 1998. green, on the corner of the Coggeshall and Colchester roads, was not recorded until the 19th century.
In 1598 settlement was concentrated in the village; elsewhere in the parish there were a few cottages on the roadside waste and farmhouses at Tilekiln and Peartree Hall or Earls Colne priory, Holt street, and Colneford Hill. In the village houses lined both sides of the main road from Colne green to the top of Colneford Hill, extending into White Colne. About 30 houses of between 1550 and 1700 have been identified. Among the most complete are two adjacent long-wall jettied houses close to the church, Nos. 94-100 High Street and Sonningwells, which bears the de Vere mullets but seems to be unconnected with that family. Both are probably of the later 16th century, Sonningwells being comparable in con- struction with Combe Hay, No. 7 Foundry Lane, which is later than 1598. Houses range from the simple Ranelegh Cottage of c. 1664 in Tey Road to the high-quality Boxteds of 1683 in Upper Holt Street opposite Dynes Cottage. The main range of Colneford House, built in 1685 by George and Elizabeth Toller, has fashionable interior fittings and the most important display of pargetting in Essex.
In the village houses lined both sides of the main road from Colne green to the top of Colneford Hill, extending into White Colne. Several outlying houses, such as the early 16th-century Pear Tree Hall. Procknutts was replaced by the two-storey Gatehouse Farm, later cased in brick, and its barn in the former park of Brick Kiln. The bridge from Colne Engaine to Earls Colne whose repair was ordered by Quarter Sessions in 1591 was presumably Stone bridge, first recorded by that name in 1557. The bridge was rebuilt in 1646. A footbridge, possibly Burrows bridge which carried a footpath over the Colne by 1612, was recorded c. 1380. Bridges, or causeways, at Holt pond and Hall pond, presumably on the Colchester-Halstead road, needed repair in 1402 and 1426, and Howell or Hol bridge from the church to the highway in 1598. The small house built before 1598 was extended south-westwards in brick in the mid 18th cent- ury, presumably by Edward Morley, its tenant in 1757, or by his successor Francis Nunn (c. 1758-89). Nunn may also have built the adjacent, late 18th-century, brick barn. The house, called Nightingale Hall by 1801, was later enlarged to a seven-bedroomed residence, probably by Bedo Hobbs after 1838. There was building on other outlying farms in the 18th century and the earlier 19th, notably at Tilekiln, rebuilt by John Eldred (d. 1738) or his widow Susannah; the farm buildings to the east date from the period of agricultural prosperity during the Napoleonic wars.