Place:Kirby le Soken, Essex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Kirby le Soken is a small village in the Tendring District of northeast Essex, England, in an agricultural and increasingly residential corner of the county. Although the village has managed to stay distinct and separate from the growing conurbations of Frinton on Sea and Walton on the Naze (formerly Walton le Soken), it is a developed and working village, not a time capsule. The original village centre still boasts an engineering works and carpenter's workshop alongside the Red Lion public house, all opposite St. Michael's church.

Kirby-le-Soken today still has the feel of a traditional English village, it is situated in an area of land called the Le Sokens in Essex and is isolated from Kirby Cross [redirected here], Frinton on Sea and Walton on the Naze by fields and retains a village shop, two pubs and two churches. Kirby was originally a scattered farming community with an upper and lower road. Many people still refer to the village as "lower Kirby" with the upper road now known as "Kirby Cross". The village can be entered by three routes, from the west or east on the B1034 or from the south by coming down Halstead Road from Kirby Cross.

The parish was part of the Tendring Rural District from 1894 until 1934 when it joined the urban district of Frinton and Walton. Since 1974 it has been located in the Tendring District of Essex.

A nineteenth century description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Kirby le Soken from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"KIRBY-LE-SOKEN, a village and a parish in Tendring [registration] district, Essex. The village stands adjacent to the Colchester and Walton railway, 2 miles W by N of Walton steam boat pier, and 12 by road SSW of Harwich; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Colchester.

"The parish contains also the hamlets of Kirby-Cross, Sneating, and Upper-Street; and includes several islands and marshes on the N. Acres: 4,757. Real property: £5,880. Population: 879. Houses: 182. The property is divided among a few. There is a wharf on a creek. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £240. Patron: Three Trustees. The church was partly rebuilt in 1833, at a cost of £1,200; and it retains the original chancel and tower. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists, a parochial school, and charities £13."

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