Little Wigborough

History

The place-name 'Wigborough' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Wicgebergha and Wigheberga. Little Wigborough is first referred to in the Valuation of Norwich of 1254, where it appears as Wigeberwe Parva. The name means 'Wicga's hill or barrow'.

In the early hours of 24 September 1916, the German Army Zeppelin L33 was returning from a bombing raid on London, when it hit by an anti-aircraft shell and further damaged by Royal Flying Corps aircraft. It made a forced landing in the village, close to New Hall farm. The crew tried to burn the wreckage but they were only partially successful. They were arrested by the local special constable as they walked away from the scene. A pen drawing with pencil of the Zeppelin by the Scottish artist Adam Bruce Thomson is on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Little Wigborough was an ancient parish in the Winstree or Winstred hundred of Essex. As well as the area around the village itself, the parish historically had an exclave to the west which included Maldon Road and streched to Salcott Creek to the south; this exclave was ceded to Great Wigborough in 1889. In 1953 the parish was merged with its neighbour Great Wigborough to form a new civil parish called Great and Little Wigborough. At the 1951 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Little Wigborough had a population of 45.

Great and Little Wigborough now shares a grouped parish council with the neighbouring parishes of Peldon, Salcott and Virley, called the Winstred Hundred Parish Council.

Church

The parish church is dedicated to St Nicholas. It is a Grade II* listed building dating from the 15th century but its list of rectors goes back to 1272.

The building was badly damaged in the 1884 Colchester earthquake but extensive repairs were made. Time has taken its toll however: it is currently closed and is unlikely to reopen without funding. There are cracks inside and out and the extreme weather of recent years has caused subsidence in the south-west buttress and walls. The floor has sunk in some places and raised up in others.

Geography

Copt Hall Marshes is a marshland and National Trust nature reserve to the south of the village.

References

References

1. [[Eilert Ekwall]], ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.517.
2. [http://colchestermetaldetectingclub.webs.com/membersarticles.htm Colchester Metal Detecting Club: Zeppelin L33 Crashes in Lt Wigborough]
3. National Portrait Gallery - Remembering the Great War [https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/remembering-the-great-war] Retrieved 1 December 2014
4. Boundary Map of Little Wigborough AP/CP [https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10248966/boundary] Retrieved 5 February 2023
5. "Relationships and changes Little Wigborough AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time.
6. "Population statistics Little Wigborough AP/CP through time". [[A Vision of Britain]].
7. "Home".
8. "Little Wigborough: St Nicholas".
9. {{NHLE
10. "Mersea MuseumL Little Wigborough".
11. "Little Wigborough: St Nicholas".
12. Copt Hall Marshes - Essex - National Trust [https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/essex-bedfordshire-hertfordshire/copt-hall-marshes#place-directions] Retrieved 5 February 2023