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 “.
AAA=Myle ende - Myland
BBB=(Myle ende +La Milaund) - (Milanda + Mylond)
The cache can be found at:
N 51 54.AAA
E 00 53.BBB
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication
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