East Mersea

East Mersea is a scattered village and civil parish on Mersea Island in the English county of Essex.

East Mersea

St Edmund's church, East Mersea
East Mersea
Location within Essex
Population266 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceTM060150
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townColchester
Postcode districtCO5
Dialling code01206
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

Grave of Sarah Wrench

The grave of Sarah Wrench (1833–1848), by the North wall of the chancel at St. Edmund's Church in East Mersea is unusual for an English grave because it is covered by a mortsafe,[2] a protective cage used at the time in Scotland to protect corpses from graverobbers.

Richard Jones, in Myths of Britain and Ireland, refers to popular speculation that Sarah Wrench was a witch, and that the cage was designed to keep her from escaping her grave after death.[3] Although East Anglia was at one time known for witch trials, this was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, not the mid-nineteenth.

Notes
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  2. Bettley 2007, p. 338
  3. Mason 2006

References
  • Bettley, James (2007), Pevsner, Nikolaus (ed.), Essex, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0300116144
  • Mason, John (2006), Myths & Legends of Britain & Ireland, Photography by John Mason, London: New Holland, ISBN 1845375947


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