Borley

Borley is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located on the River Stour, approximately 3km northwest of Sudbury, Suffolk and is 39 km (24 miles) north-northeast from the city of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden. The parish is part of the Stour Valley South parish cluster. It consists of two hamlets, Borley around the church, and Borley Green, to the east. A smaller parish, Borley Parva, was joined with Foxearth in the Middle Ages. The name Borley is compounded of the Saxon words "Bap" and "Ley", that is "Boar's Pasture". The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Cavendish.LandmarksThere are several old buildings including Borley Hall, the fragment of a once much larger house, and Borley Place, at one time the rectory.The church (dedication unknown) is a small building of stone originally in the Romanesque/Early English style of the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Later renovations have resulted in the mainly perpendicular style of the mid-14th to 16th centuries. The church as it now stands consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a crenellated western tower containing bells. The chancel contains a brass monument to John Durham of Norfolk (died 1601). Several tombs of the Waldegrave family are found within the structure, including a monument 14 feet high with a cornice supported by six pillars of the Corinthian order, beneath which lie full-length figures of Sir Edward Waldegrave (knighted in 1553, at the coronation of Queen Mary, died in the Tower of London on 1 September 1561) and his wife Lady Frances Waldegrave née Neville (died 1599). Both tombs bear a marginal inscription in Latin and a record of other alliances of this family. The church contains memorials to two 19th-century rectors – William Herringham and his son John Philip Herringham.