ECONOMIC HISTORY
The early agricul-
tural history of Chappel was similar to that of
neighbouring parishes, scattered acres and half-
acres of land being consolidated and inclosed in
the 12th and 13th centuries. The Hospitallers
received 3 a. lying together in Pilecroft field
c. 1225. (fn. 31) By 1482 Bridgehall field (then c. 12 a.,
but 16 a. in 1530), near the Colne on the east of
the Tey road, had been divided and inclosed. (fn. 32)
In 1483 a total of 6 a. lying in parcels was con-
trasted with a 4-a. close, part of the same hold-
ing, although all the land was apparently
inclosed; another holding was made up of 10
parcels in 1593. (fn. 33) Early holdings of c. 40 a. and
c. 25 a., like the freehold Flemings on Great Tey
manor and the customary Paynters (later
Spendpenny farm) on Crepping manor, may
have been yardlands or half yardlands. Flemings
had been split by 1388-9 when a field called
Flemings Netherfield was held separately; it was
further divided in 1418-19. (fn. 34)
Many of the sheep and cows recorded on
Crepping manor in the Middle Ages presum-
ably grazed on the extensive meadow along the
Colne in Chappel; (fn. 35) 18 bullocks trespassed in
the lord of Great Tey's meadow in 1412. (fn. 36) The
lord of Crepping's Hollemeadow, recorded in
1482, seems to have been the later Chappel
meadow. (fn. 37) Swartepool meadow, recorded in
1483, was on the north bank of the Colne, near
the later Broom House. (fn. 38) In 1810 there were
four common meadows: Reymead (recorded in
1413), Chappel common meadow which was still
divided into strips in 1840, Quarter or Squatter
meadow, and Colne mead. (fn. 39) The Great Tey
manor court distributed 1-a. and 2-a. parcels of
Colne meadow in 1522, and in 1523 assigned
a day to 'have the division' of Bridgehall
meadow. (fn. 40)
Bots tye on the Colchester road, recorded
from the late 13th century, was common pasture
for Crepping manor. (fn. 41) Cocks tye or green, in
Oak Lane near the modern Observatory cot-
tages, recorded from 1307, was presumably also
permanent grass. (fn. 42) It had been encroached on
by 1650 and inclosed by 1774. (fn. 43)
In the 16th century, cattle, sheep, and swine
were kept, but arable farming probably pre-
dominated, the crops including wheat and white
peas. (fn. 44) By 1695 an 8-a. close had become a hop
ground, and there was a 2-a. hop ground on Oak
farm c. 1810. (fn. 45)
Britricswood, recorded c. 1148, was presum-
ably the later Brightwood or Brickeswood field
(4 a.), south of the Colne on the western parish
boundary. (fn. 46) The wood had probably been
cleared by 1402. (fn. 47) There was wood on the
Bacons estate in 1374. (fn. 48) Hickmore Fen (22 a.)
was wood or alder carr in 1593 and wood in
1810; (fn. 49) it survived in 1999. Wick grove, near the
eastern parish boundary by 1810, also survived
in 1999; in 1948 it contained a 1-a. willow
plantation. (fn. 50)
In 1810 the parish contained c. 802 a. of
arable, c. 86 a. of meadow, c. 59 a. of pasture,
and c. 33 a. of wood. (fn. 51) The proportions of arable
to grass and wood were similar in 1841 when
the arable was measured as 838 a., the meadow
and pasture as 152 a., and the wood as 34 a. (fn. 52)
In 1832 Pattocks farm (64½1/2; a.) was cultivated
on a four-course system of (1) fallow or summer
tilled, part sown with turnips or coleseed
(oilseed rape), (2) barley or oats laid down with
good clover, (3) clover ley or peas or beans, and
(4) wheat. A similar rotation had apparently
been followed in 1818; then tares were allowed
on the fallow, but rape (presumably wild rape
or charlock), mustard, and other pernicious
seeds were forbidden. (fn. 53)
In 1841 there were 14 farmers and 90 farm
labourers in Chappel; their numbers declined
steadily throughout the century as farms were
consolidated and machinery, some of it probably
hired from a business at Bots Tye, came into
use. In 1851 the 9 farmers employed only 59 of
the 77 labourers in the parish; by 1871, when
the 7 farms employed 69 men, only 59 labourers
lived in the parish. In 1891 there were only 48.
Women worked chiefly as tambour lace-makers,
17 in 1861, 23 in 1871, and 19 in 1891; others
were dressmakers, tailoresses, and straw-
plaiters, and one, in 1871, was a crepe weaver.
Farmers employed 13 of the 21 domestic ser-
vants in 1841, but by 1891 most of the 21 servants
worked for the retired and other independent
people who had moved into the parish. (fn. 54)
Until the mid 19th century Chappel was culti-
vated in 20-30 small farms, many of which
extended outside the parish. The largest in 1841
were Popes (127 a.) and Bacons (117 a.), (fn. 55) in
1851 Blowers (280 a.). In 1861 Broom House,
farmed by Golden Goodey, covered 320 a.,
Blowers 226 a. By 1871 Goodey's Broom House
farm had grown to 513 a., and another Golden
Goodey held Pattocks (130 a.). In 1881 Broom
House (950 a.) and Pattocks (400 a.), both still
farmed by the two Golden Goodeys, dominated
the parish, and they probably continued to do
so in 1891. (fn. 56) The Goodeys died in 1892 and
1899, and their farms were broken up. (fn. 57) By
1914 W. H. Partridge had built up an estate of
286 a., including Vernons and Bacons farms. It
was sold in 1915, and in 1929 was still the only
farm in the parish over 150 a. In 1933 George
Percival, who had farmed at Pattocks from
c. 1902, farmed over 150 a., probably including
land in Great Tey, but he had retired by 1937. (fn. 58)
By 1905 there were 226 a. of permanent grass
and a further 40 a. of clover, sainfoin, and grass
in rotation, compared with c. 450 a. of arable.
The main crops were wheat (122 a.), barley (64
a.), and oats (58 a.). Mangolds were grown on
37 a., peas on 35 a., beans on 33 a.; small quantit-
ies of buckwheat, potatoes, turnips and swedes,
kohl rabi, rape, and rye were also grown. (fn. 59)
Chappel Oak farm specialized in seed-growing
in 1899. (fn. 60) In 1915 Vernons, Broom House, and
Bacons farms contained c. 125 a. of grass, and
Broom House was a potential stock or dairy
farm. In the mid 20th century Vernons farm was
a dairy farm with 120 a. of pasture and 40 a.
under barley. Old Hall (c. 96 a., mainly in
Chappel although the house is in Wakes Colne),
was also a dairy farm, with c. 88 a. of permanent
grass, in the 1970s. (fn. 61) Popes farm (90 a.) grew
sugar beet, potatoes, wheat, and barley in the
1960s. (fn. 62) Viaduct farm (230 a.) was farmed on a
rotation of wheat, barley, and pulses. (fn. 63) In 1999
the parish was still mainly agricultural, under
arable and grass. The main crops were wheat,
barley, rape, and linseed, with small quantities
of borage and echium. (fn. 64)
There was a tenter croft in Chappel Street
c. 1480. (fn. 65) Weavers were recorded in 1539 and
1576, and spinsters in 1574, 1591, and 1603. (fn. 66) A
shop in the parish in 1589 may have been a
workshop for a weaver or the glover recorded in
1603, but in 1639 a spinster traded illegally as a
grocer, and in 1663 a tailor sold linen, woollen,
grocery, and small wares. (fn. 67) There were usually
one or two butchers, grocers, chandlers, or
shopkeepers in the parish in the 17th, 18th, and
19th centuries, and there were wheelwright's
and shoemaker's shops in the Street in 1810. (fn. 68)
Two butchers' shops in the Colchester road,
with slaughter houses, worked into the earlier
20th century. (fn. 69)
In 1753 the lord, presumably of Crepping
manor, ordered a free cattle fair to be held at
Bots tye on its usual day, the Tuesday after
21 June, (fn. 70) but by the later 18th century the fair
had moved to the Tuesday after 11 June. (fn. 71) By
c. 1830 it was a toy fair. (fn. 72) Nineteenth-century
fairs were held in Chappel Street or on Play
Place. Although the fair was formally abolished
in 1872, it continued as a pleasure fair until 1901
or later. (fn. 73)
A house called the Tilekill or Tilekiln in 1657
was occupied by a joiner in 1713. (fn. 74) The contrac-
tors opened a new brickfield to make bricks for
the viaduct in 1847. It was within a mile of the
viaduct, presumably at Ryelands (near the west-
ern parish boundary) or Bots tye, where brick-
makers worked in 1851. (fn. 75) In 1871 Joseph Beard
at Bots tye was a builder, his son Joseph a brick-
layer. In 1891 there were 2 builders (one of them
the younger Joseph Beard) at Rose Green, and
2 bricklayers and 3 carpenters elsewhere in the
parish. In 1898 Beard's buildings included a
sawmill. In 1851 five labourers and a porter
worked on the railway; in 1891, three labourers,
3 porters, and a signalman. (fn. 76) A light engineer-
ing or furniture factory built on the north side
of Colchester Road c. 1978 closed in 1998. (fn. 77)
Tatams agricultural and general engineers were
established at Spendpenny farm, Swan Street,
by 1978, (fn. 78) and were still in business in 1999.
The half mill in Crepping in 1066 and the mill
held by five sokemen in 1066 and by Richard
son of Gilbert de Clare in 1086 may both have
been in Chappel. (fn. 79) About 1200 Walter of
Crepping bought a moiety of Scuttede mill from
Gilbert of Fordham. (fn. 80) If that mill was on Little
Fordham manor in Aldham, it may have been
the one on the Aldham boundary whose mill
stream survived c. 1810 and which had given its
name to Mill field by 1436. (fn. 81) The mill stream
was directly south of Vernons, which suggests
that the mill may also have been that which John
son of John Vernon held in 1335. (fn. 82) Vernon's mill
was not certainly recorded after 1335, and may
have been the old mill, east of Chappel bridge,
which had been demolished by 1427. (fn. 83)
The other mill may have been the mill, then
owing a rent to Bury St. Edmunds abbey, which
Alan of Crepping gave to his son Walter in
1232. (fn. 84) It was probably beside Chappel bridge,
where John at mill diverted a watercourse in the
1340s. (fn. 85) A mill there was leased to a tenant in
1409, (fn. 86) and was presumably the Crepping mill
repaired in 1447, and farmed for 15s. in 1456-7
and for 13s. 4d. in 1457-8. (fn. 87) It seems to have
been demolished before 1506. (fn. 88)
There was a Windmill croft in the 1530s,
presumably the one east of Bots tye called
Windmill Hill in 1573 and 1839, (fn. 89) but there is
no record of the windmill itself.