St Osyth

For more on the saint herself, see Osyth

St Osyth is a village and civil parish in northeast Essex. It is about five miles west of Clacton-on-Sea, and about twelve miles southeast of Colchester. It is located on the B1027 road.

Point Clear

Point Clear is a separate village within the parish, located at grid reference TM091151 southwest of St Osyth and on the other side of St Osyth Creek, a branch of the Colne Estuary. It is a relatively new settlement: on Template:GBvosi the area is uninhabited.

Local Sights

The most notable building in the village is undoubtedly its medieval Priory, a Grade I listed building. The village church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. The Martello tower at Point Clear has been converted into a war museum.

History

Before being renamed to commemorate Saint Osyth, the village was called Chich (alternate spellings include Chiche and Chick).

St Osyth was the subject of an episode of Channel 4's Time Team programme, first broadcast on 27 February 2005. This programme sought to uncover the early origins of the village, which was presumed to have grown up at around the same time as the Priory, in the twelfth century. Many of the investigations around the current village centre found little evidence of settlement earlier than the fourteenth century; it appeared that the early village centre lay some way off, between the Priory and the river.

Facts

St Osyth is known to the locals as "Toosey", which is apparently formed from a contraction of the village name.
In terms of annual average rainfall, St Osyth is the driest recorded place in the UK, with just 513 mm per year. [1]. By some definitions, this is low enough to classify St Osyth as a desert!
Although a significant part of the parish boundary is coast which does not need to be "beaten", St Osyth is one parish which maintains the tradition of beating the bounds. [2]

The Legend of Saint Osyth

Legend has it that Saint Osyth (or Ositha) was a young lady who was involved in various fantastical events during her lifetime. Tales include:

A young Osyth drowned in a stream, but was revived by nuns from the local convent praying for her for three days.
St Osyth was executed by beheading; where she fell a spring issued forth from the ground; she picked up her head and walked to the door of the nunnery where she knocked three times on the door before collapsing.
To this day, Osyth's ghost walks along the priory walls carrying her head one night each year.

External links

St Osyth (pronounced Ohzith) was a historical figure, an Anglian princess, granddaughter of Penda, King of Mercia (7th century AD). She was born near Aylesbury, and is the patron saint of that town. Her marriage to Sighebert, later King of the East Saxons, was arranged; she agreed on condition that it was not consummated and she could become a nun. Sighebert founded the nunnery for her at the Essex village called Chich (Saxon 'cic' = creek) on the site of a Roman villa overlooking Flag Creek. Until the 18th Century the village was still known as Chich. Locals call it 'Toosey'(and that is how it is officially pronounced - see Oxford Dictionary of Place Names). Osyth (Osgytha) is said to have been martyred by Danish pirates, by beheading, near a spring in what is now known as Nun's Wood (within the grounds - no public access). Following Osyth's death, and throughout the middle ages the site became an important place for pilgrimage, one of the richest religious sites in England. It became a Priory (ie of monks, not nuns) in the 1120s. One of its monks became Archbishop of Canterbury (see the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)The foundations was dissolved by Henry VIII. It became the home of various worthies including the Darcy family, the Earl of Rochford, and the Nassaus (18th century). Both Elizabeth I and George II stayed there. The current buildings are late Saxon/Norman onwards, with a fine mediaeval barn, the rest largely Tudor & Jacobean. The park was home to the first Lombardy Poplars ever planted in Britain, now a ubiquitous tree. It is still a private house with no public access. Archaeological excavations took place in the early C20th and results were published; Channel 4's Time Team investigated a mediaeval wharf and other features in 2004 (see Time Team website). SBB