Peldon 1899 Kelly's Directory of Essex

Peldon (or Peltington) is a parish on the road from Colchester to Mersea Island, 5 miles south-west from Wivenhoe station on the Tendring Hundred branch of the Great Eastern Railway, 7½ south from Colchester, and 56 from London, in the North Eastern division of the county, Winstree hundred, Lexden and Winstree union and petty sessional division, Colchester county court district, rural deanery of Mersea, archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese of St. Albans. The church of St. Mary the Virgin, erected in the 15th century, stands on a hill and occupies the site of an ancient church recorded in Domesday Book: it is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 2 bells: the church was thorough restored in 1859 by subscriptions at a cost of about £908, in the course of which several remains of an Early Norman church were discovered: there are 150 sittings. The register of baptism dates from 1725; burials, 1728; marriages, 1776. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £352, with 24 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of and held since 1895 by the Rev. David Lindsay Johnson M.A. of Worcester College Oxford. Henry Thomas Tiddleman esq. who is lord of the manor and the rector of the rectorial manor, Mrs Gibson, James Leigh Aspinall, Thomas Escott and Gaius Foskett esqrs. are the principal landowners. The soil is heavy loam; subsoil, loam. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and beans. The area is 2, 241 acres of land, 11 of water, 3 of tidal water and 26 of foreshore; rateable value, £1,423; the population in 1891 was 437.

Parish Clerk, James Talbot.

Post Office - George Smallwood, Sub-postmaster.

Letters arrive through Colchester at 4:40 a.m.; dispatched at 7:40 p.m. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at West Mersea, 4 miles distant.

National School (mixed), built in 1836 & enlarged in 1881, for 110 children; average, 75; John Hunt, master.

Carrier to Colchester - William Christmas & George Reeves, to the 'Plough', Mon, Thurs & Sat.

Johnson Rev. David Lindsay M.A., The Rectory.

Commercial
Appleby Nathaniel, farmer
Christmas George, farmer, Malting farm
Christmas William, carrier
Clarke William Benjamin, farmer, Tye Farm
Eagle Mrs. Farmer, Peet Hall
Fairhead William, farmer, Brick House Farm
Foskett Gaius, farmer, Peldon Hall
Harrison Henry, blacksmith
Hedley Francis, grocer
Hyham Samuel, grocer
Mason George, farmer
Nice Sarah Ann (Mrs) Plough P.H.
Pullen George, Rose P.H.
Reeve Elijah, farmer, Haxcell's farm
Reeves George, carrier
Simpson George, builder
Smallwood George, baker, Post office
Smith George Frederick, miller (steam & wind); at West Mersea
Smith William, farmer
White Samuel Cant & Co. grocers and drapers
Wilsmer George, farm bailiff to Mrs Gibson James Leigh Aspinwall.

Date: 1899