Place:Rayne, Essex, England

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Rayne is a village of about 3,000 residents located since 1974 in the Braintree District of Essex in the eastern part of England. The parish was part of the Braintree Rural District from 1894 until 1974.

It lies on the Roman road called Stane Street, about two miles (3 km) to the west of Braintree, which is the nearest town. In Norman times it was a more important settlement than Braintree, but its importance has wained over the centuries.

Older houses include the old manor house of Rayne Hall, and Old Hall; a previous Rectory. Rayne Hall was for a long time the home of the Capel family, who became Earls of Essex. In mediaeval times the Church was known for healing miracles: it was said that infertile women visiting the church were later able to conceive.

A number of the churchyard memorials are made of cast iron: these were manufactured at the former foundry in The Street at around the end of the nineteenth century using a common mould into which individual letters were inserted to spell out the details.

The Church of All Saints consists of the Tudor tower, built in 1510, a nave (an 1840 construction, replacing a Norman building from 1199 and said to be unsafe) and a sanctuary and vestry, added in 1914. The earliest recorded Rector was Ralph de Fremingham, from 1260.

Research tips