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Local History

Tom Sawkins (1876 – 1933)

Tom lived and worked at Lodge Farm all his life.  The family still remain in the village.

 

Frank Pertwee (1874 – 1964)

He left Langenhoe Lodge Farm, where his family had been for 150 years, in 1907 to found a firm of corn merchants in Colchester.  His father continued farming at the Lodge until 1918 and Frank kept a farming interest in Langenhoe until 1924.  He married Ada Beatrice Gunter, daughter of the rector of Abberton in 1906.

 

James Kent May (1852 – 1937)

James May founded the builders business still operating from Langenhoe.  His maternal grandfather Jame Kent Finch was a carpenter at Abberton in 1838.

 

Edward May (1887 – 1959)

The son of James May and father of Robin May, Chairman of the parish Council from 1972 to 2002.  Edward May died helping to cut down the overgrowth in Langenhoe churchyard only two years before the church was demolished.

  

Notable buildings in the village:

 

Pete Tye House

A Grade 2 Listed Building, one of the oldest surviving houses in the village, has origins dating back to early 1600’s.

 

White House 

White House faced the Waver Pond.  The pond was filled up and grassed over  in the 1960’s.  There was a brick lean-to on the left of the house which was the butchers shop until after 1900.

 

The Maltings

located in Mersea Road, Abberton a private house since the late 19th Century, parts are late 16th Century, making it one of the oldest houses in the village.  Once a thriving brewery run by the Luffe, Stammers, Cliffe and Cuddon families from before 1700.  There was an oast house with its Kentish design here until after the earthquake in 1884.  It was bought by Col. Hildreth in 1931 for one thousand pounds.

 

Layer Road (formerly Abberton Street) – There were five shops in Abberton Street.  The bakery was run by the Smith family for nearly one hundred years.