East Mersea

East Mersea

St Edmund's church, East Mersea
East Mersea
East Mersea shown within Essex
Population 266 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid reference TM060150
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Colchester
Postcode district CO5 8
Dialling code 01206
Police Essex
Fire Essex
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
UK Parliament

East Mersea is a scattered village and civil parish on Mersea Island in the English county of Essex.

Grave of Sarah Wrench

The grave of Sarah Wrench (1833-1848), by the North wall of the chancel at St. Edmund's Church in East Mersea is unusual for an English grave because it is covered by a mortsafe,[2] a protective cage used at the time in Scotland to protect corpses from graverobbers.

Richard Jones, in Myths of Britain and Ireland, refers to popular speculation that Sarah Wrench was a witch, and that the cage was designed to keep her from escaping her grave after death.[3] Although East Anglia was at one time known for witch trials, this was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, not the mid-nineteenth.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  2. ↑ Bettley 2007, p. 338
  3. ↑ Mason 2006

References

  • Bettley, James (2007), Pevsner, Nikolaus, ed., Essex, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0300116144
  • Mason, John (2006), Myths & Legends of Britain & Ireland, Photography by John Mason, London: New Holland, ISBN 1845375947
  • Mersea Island Web Portal, 2012


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