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Myland,
or Mile End?
To
trace the history of Myland Parish Church over the hundred years
since its foundations were laid is to look, for a little while,
upon the changing face of the Essex countryside to see the
village grow from a mere handful of houses and a few farms to a
residential district of some 5,000 persons; to visualise the
rutted lanes developing into macadam-surfaced, well-lighted
roads carrying a constant stream of motor traffic, and yet, at
the same time, to notice the village retaining its own character
as a community grouped around its Parish Church.
The
old church of St. Michael and All Angels, which the present
Church replaced, was situated about half-a-mile away, adjacent
to the Rectory. A stone showing the distance from Colchester (1
mile) stood at the roadside at this point, and this is thought
to be the reason why the townsfolk of Colchester called both
church and village by the name “ Mile End “. instead of the
more picturesque “ Myland “, which is used by the Church,
the Rectory, the Hospital and the Primary School at the present
time. The two names appear to have been used concurrently, in
one form or another, from 1130 onwards, and an article
contributed to the Parish Magazine by the Rev. M. C. Dickenson
in 1922 shows considerable research into various documents from
which the following variations were extracted.
Miland
or Milanda
1130
Mylond
1150
La
Mile Pride 1288
Myland
1334
Le
Milend
1347
La
Mileende
1441
La
Milaund
1444
Myle
ende 1555
He
also placed on the wall of the Church a copy of an extract from
the Cartulary of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist.
Colchester (1130-1236), which shows the name spelled in the
Latin text as “Milanda”.
Morant,
in his “History and Antiquities of the most ancient Town and
Borough of Colchester”, dated 1748, mentions an additional
form - “la Mylande” - but gives his opinion that the
variations in spelling were “ owing to the Ignorance of the
Times “.
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