West Bergholt, formerly known as Bergholt Sackville, is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England.Colchester Borough Council It lies north-west of the centre of Colchester. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 3,310.
Village The village lies in and around a triangle formed by Colchester Road, Chapel Road and Lexden Road.
Around the village lie numerous farms and large areas of woodland, including Hillhouse Wood, always known locally as Bluebell Wood, which was purchased by the Woodland Trust with the help of local people. Many walks exist through the wood, and a migrant population of various breeds of deer can sometimes be seen.
Elmer's was the butcher shop. Digby's was the name of the general store, which is now the East of England Co-operative Society. Mr Digby's son drove a local bus service to Colchester.
History
Prehistoric Prehistoric, Iron-Age, and Roman material from West Bergholt Hall, St. Mary's church, and nearby sites suggest that the area may have been continuously settled.our Ch. Excavations, 51, 61; Essex County Council, SMR 11741-6, 11748, 11795, 12730 Scattered finds in the parish include several Palaeolithic axes from the heath, Iron-Age and Roman pottery and coins.Victoria County House: Essex, iii. 48; E.C.C., SMR 9222, 11815-16, 11870, 11905, 11910, 12605, 12728-9, 12731 There are large areas of undated cropmarks to the south of Hill House farm.Essex County Council, SMR 11929, 11985, 12030
An archaeological dig carried out in 1977 found evidence of a Bronze Age cemetery just to the south of Chitts Hill Bridge. The dig found seven circular ditches, believed to be former central mounds, which contained cremation burials in urns, some upright. Ten cremations were found without urns and five were of children. Neolithic flints were discovered, representing scrapers, blades and cutting flakes. The pottery found dated the site to between 1500 and 1000 BC.Kemble; Prehistoric & Roman Essex (2001), Tempus p. 160
The Normans The Normans reached the village in 1067, Norman Conquest after their conquest of 1066. The village had already been named Bergholta by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning "wood on a hill" (the woodland in reference here is believed to be the modern Hillhouse Wood on the outskirts of the village).West Bergholt – Introduction The village also already had a church, in the form of a wooden single-celled building on the site of the current "Old Church",St. Mary's although was one of the least populous parishes in Lexden Hundred in the Middle Ages. The combined total of free tenants, unfree tenants, and slaves was 27 in 1066 and probably 32 in 1086.Victoria County House: Essex, i. 481, 551–2, 573 In 1377 only 105 inhabitants paid the poll tax.Poll Taxes 1377, 1379 and 1381, ed. C. C. Fenwick, pg 177
Until the arrival of the Normans the village was split between two landowners: Leofwin Croz, Lord of the Manor, and Alfays Goding. They were replaced by Norman barons, Roger de Poitou and Richard fitz Gilbert.Dr Ann Williams, Prof. G.H. Martin: Domesday Book, A Complete Translation, Penguin Classics (1992) p. 1037 Roger de Poitou rebelled against the King Henry I in 1102, was banished to Normandy and his lands were removed.I.McMaster & K.Evans: Mount Bures: Its Lands and Its People (1996) Richard fitz Gilbert was aligned with King Henry, and was allowed to retain his land.
Bergholt Sackville The village changed its name to Bergholt Sackville in 1119 after Robert Sackville,V.Brown, Eye Priory Cartulary and Charters: Part 2, Boydell & Brewer (1994), p. 31 son of Herband de Sackville,Henry Peacham: The compleat gentleman fashioning him absolute in the most necessary & commendable qualities concerning minde or bodie that may be required in a noble gentleman (1622) p 160 became Lord of the Manor. The Sackville family came to England during the time of the Norman ConquestSir William Dugdale: The baronage of England, or, an historical account of the lives and most memorable actions of our English nobility in the Saxon time to the Norman conquest, and from thence, of those who had their rise before the end of King Henry the Third's reign deduced from publick records, ancient historians, and other authorities (1675) p. 399 and Robert was a member of the Royal Court and close friend of King HenryBergholt Sackville, fighting for him at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106. He was a religious man who became the first official rector of St. Mary's Church and donated a estate in the village to St John's Abbey of Colchester.Weever, John Ancient funerall monuments within the vnited monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the islands adiacent (1631), p. 613 This estate was run by the Almery Priest, who gave the profits from the running of the Almery Farm to the poor of the village. Over the years there has been a confusion in the name of this farm and it has now become commonly known as Armoury Farm. After the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII the estate was sold to Richard DukeAlmoury Road in 1544, who was one of the civil servants responsible for administrating land seized by the King. However, the estate was finally brought back into the Sackville family by John Sackville in 1544.John Sackville 1523-1547/52
Bergholt has not always managed to maintain good relations with the Crown. During the Reign of King John, Jordon Sackville got on the wrong side of the King (Jordon was a rebel Baron and said to be an assistant to one of the twenty-five Peeres of the Reamle to see the Magna Carta signed) and had all of his land removed, including the Bergholt Manor, even though his father and previous Lord of the Manor, Geoffrey Sackville, was knighted by John. However, fortune landed on Jordon's side, as when King Henry III came to the throne in 1216 Jordon was granted all his land back. Although then his grandson, also called Jordon, assisted in the Barons' Revolt against King Henry III, claiming that he was not fit to rule the country in his 60s and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. However, as the King was a friend of his grandfather, he was pardoned after a year.West Bergholt – Manors and Other Estates Jordon's heir, Andrew Sackville whose sonne and heire, named Andrew Sackuill, was underage at the time of his father's death and was placed under the King's Ward, was likewise imprisoned in Dover Castle. Nevertheless, by the special command of the King, he married an Honourable Ladie of the household to Queen, whereby he not only gained the King's favour, but the greatest part of his inheritance, gaining the family's land in East Sussex. He died before 1291 and Bergholt Hall passed to his son, another Andrew de Sackville. The second Andrew held the manor until his death in 1316 and was succeeded by his son, a third Andrew de Sackville, who, in 1347, was given free warden in Bergholt by Edward III, allowing him to kill game in his manor. He died in 1370, and Bergholt Hall passed to his widow Maud.Farrer, Honors and Knight's Fees, i. 212-13; E.R.O., T/P 191/11; Morant, Essex, ii. 225; Genealogist, n.s. xvii. 251 During Andrew's reign as Lord of the Manor Bergholt had become one of the poorest parishes in the Lexden Hundred by 1327 with the highest individual taxpayer be assessed being 7s. ½d,The Medieval Essex Community: The Lay Subsidy of 1327, ed. J. C. Ward (Essex Record Office, 1983) p. 22 this was before the boom in the cloth industry which brought wealth to the village.
Maud married Edmund de la Pole, brother of Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who took control of the Manor during her lifetime,C.J. Phillips, Sackville Fam. i. 81–91; VCH Oxon. viii. pg 92–93 but after her death in 1393 the manor passed to Sir Thomas Sackville, the son, possibly illegitimate, of Andrew de Sackville (d. 1370),Genealogist, n.s. xvii. 251; Feud. Aids, vi. 438; E.R.O, D/DMa M29, rot. 1 as both of his legitimate half-brothers – Sir Andrew the younger (c. 1340–1366) and John – died in their father's lifetime. However, this only occurred after an eight-month dispute as to whether he or the Sackvilles of Fawley were the rightful heirs.
Sir Thomas led quite an eventful life, from preventing the Duke of Lancaster, a newcomer to the landed gentry, from holding courts, poaching in the duchy parks and burning a commission issued under the Duke's seal, to being temporarily imprisoned for abetting and harbouring murderers. He was luckily in good favour with the King's favourite Sir James Burners, who got him a royal pardon. He was the MP for Sussex. L. S. Woodger, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe.(1993) During his time as Lord of the Manor, the local MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, John Doreward waived 200 marks that were owed to him from Parliament in returned to be granted with several royal licenses, to found a chantry in Stanway church, to augment the income of the chaplain at Bergholt and to alienate his manor of Tendring to St John's Abbey in Colchester. L. S. Woodger, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe. (1993)
At the end of the 15th century the price of ale had become too high in the village and the Bergholt Sackville Manorial Court charged four brewers for charging too much for their beer, as it was an offence to charge above the fixed rate. The village ale tasters were also fined, as it was their responsibility to keep an eye on such matters.
Sir Thomas died in 1433 and the manor passed to his son Edward (d. 1450).P.R.O., C 139/14, no. 10 He was succeeded by his son Humphrey (d. 1488) who left the estate to his son Richard (d. 1523). He was followed by his son John Sackville, Esq.,Cal. Close, 1429–35, 235; Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, i, p. 180 Member of Parliament for East Grinstead and married to Margaret Boleyn, aunt of Anne Boleyn. R. J.W. Swales, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff (1982) John, unlike many of his ancestors, had lived in Essex, although it was most likely his other estate in Mount Bures, as he bequeathed sums to the poor there but not Bergholt. The manor then passed to John Sackville's son, Sir Richard "Fill-Sack" Sackville, MP for Chichester, nicknamed by reason of his great wealth and the vast patrimony which he left to his son,R. J.W. Swales, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 created Baron Buckhurst in 1557. It is believed that Richard's brother John Sackville (also MP for East Grinstead) intended to set up residence in the village, following in his father's footsteps by living in Essex, as he bought the ‘Almarye' in Bergholt from Richard Duke, a fellow MP. R. J.W. Swales, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
After his death in 1566 the manor was held in dower by his widow Winifred, who married Sir John Paulet, Marquess of Winchester (d. 1576).E.R.O., D/DMa M26; D/DC 5/124; Complete Peerage, xii (2), 762–4 Richard's son Thomas, who became Earl of Dorset, sold the reversion of the manor in 1571 to John Dister, who gained possession in 1575.Feet of F. Essex, v. 157, 169, 191; E.R.O., D/DC 5/124, rott. 4–5 This purchase was probably hoped by Dister to be a quite lucrative move with the village undergoing a population boom during this period, when baptisms were nearly double the burials,Essex Records Office, D/P 59/1/1; below, this par., Econ although some historians believe that many people most likely migrated to Colchester.
This was end of the Sackville family in the village, although they kept the right to appoint the Rectors of St Mary's. The village name was not changed to West Bergholt until 1910.Jon Lander, This village should be called Bergholt Sackville, Village Bulletin (2001), Issue 87, p. 5