Update (2026)
New photographic evidence has allowed the position of St Osyth’s medieval lock-up to be refined beyond the estimates presented in this article.
Read the updated analysis here: Update
Following the publication of recent research article revealing the location of St Osyth’s medieval lock-up, available Here, we been both delighted and, a little surprised by the overwhelmingly positive feedback it received, both publicly and privately. Much of this came from the more academically inclined side of the paranormal community, which is particularly gratifying given how our findings challenge long held assumptions surrounding 14 Colchester Road.
This led to discussions requesting further details of my research, especially following one social media post we made where I revealed I hadn’t included my full findings in the research article. Therefore, in the interests of further clarity, both Laura and I thought it would be worthwhile providing a couple of follow up notes, which cover some of the questions we were asked.
1. Was Ursula Kempe and the others accused of Witchcraft detained at the lock up?
I guess this query came about as most sources (online or documents), advise there is no record of the accused being held at the lock-up and people were curious as to whether I’d uncovered anything new.
Sadly, I have to advise, nothing new came to light and we still don’t know where the accused were held. The only facts I was able to establish were that their questioning took place at nearby St Clere’s Hall, over a couple of days, before they were transferred to Colchester Gaol, pre-trial at Chelmsford Assizes. From this, it is natural to assume, following the initial questioning at St Clere’s Hall, they were transferred to the lock-up pending questioning again the following day.
Therefore, at this point, it’s only an assumption, albeit a very reasonable one. However, as an absolute fact, I just cannot verify with the research material I’ve so far uncovered. It may be the case we will just never know for sure.
In the interests of transparency, I’ve also considered, during the research process, the utilisation of out-buildings at St Clere’s Hall, almost a mile away from the lock-up, to save time and costs transporting the accused or, even that the accused were held at the former cells at St Osyth Priory, which was also in the ownership of the D’Arcy family.
With the question of the prisoners’ whereabouts addressed, another line of enquiry arose. Why was 14 Colchester Road never formally listed as a historic lock-up?
2. Could it simply just be an oversight that ‘The Cage’, at 14 Colchester Road, has never been listed?
Of course it’s entirely possible and, this was one of the questions I needed to give the most consideration to.
Fortunately, Essex has a decent number of surviving lock-ups for us still to make a comparison, along with a record of former structures no longer with us. However, I also had to take in consideration the whole process of a building obtaining a listing.
The current process of listing is heavily leant to members of the public or, public organisations, such as parish councils, local museums or even local history societies making an application to Historic England. This also applied in the past, historically, before Historic England came into being but its predecessors, originally the Ministry of Works, followed by English Heritage, were a little more proactive and had survey programmes, which is why we see clusters of properties registered around 1951, 1972 or, 1986.
The impact of such a programme can still be seen today, in the early registrations of the Bradwell on Sea (1953), Canewdon (1959) and Tollesbury (1959) lock ups in the 1950s and the later listings at Braintree (1977) and Great Bardfield (1985), both in Braintree District which, along with later listings of for other neighbouring buildings of the latter two, could possibly indicate a less proactive approach in Braintree District.
Turning my attention to St Osyth itself, I observed a similar pattern again – the obvious ‘targets’, such as St Osyth Priory and St Clere’s Hall in the very early 1950’s (obvious initial target locations), with the rest of significant buildings in St Osyth following in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s.
Indeed, the Kings Head, a couple of footsteps away on the opposite side of the pathway was listed in 1977.
However, how on earth did the assessors forget to list ‘The Cage’ a matter of feet away, complete with signage in full view, announcing it was a Medieval Prison, which held the famous witch Ursula Kempe in 1572?
This evaluation exercise also led me to consider another point never really discussed.
A few of the early Essex Cages were constructed of timber, not stone or brick. Whilst, at first glance, may seem strange, it must be remembered that Essex has no naturally occurring stone, due to a gift of geology, with only pudding stone (a conglomerate of rounded pebbles naturally cemented together or flint pebbles). Only the rich and wealthy could afford to display their wealth by constructing their homes of bricks or stone.
A great illustration of this involves the wealthy family of the instigator of the 1572 Witch Trials, Brian D’Arcy. In the nearby Essex Town of Maldon, there stands the 14th Century brick Moot Hall, replacing the previous medieval wooden Moot Hall, which originally stood nearby in the High Street, in the middle of the main road through the town.
As an aside, we cannot help but note the High Street in Maldon is still a lot wider where the original Moot Hall stood, reflecting the situation where the road way used to pass either side of the original Moot Hall, a situation that also applies to St Osyth’s true medieval lock up, which was positioned in the middle of Colchester Road.
Returning to Maldon’s Moot Hall, today it is just a tower. However, a Moot Hall was not it’s original purpose, it was originally the tower for Sir Robert D’Arcy’s large town house, which continued southward along the High Street. Due to the great cost required to build his entire town house of brick or stone, D’Arcy decided to only construct his statement tower of brick and stone, with the remainder of his house being constructed of timber.
Following D’Arcy’s death, his town house fell into disrepair due to the financial draw on his descendents to maintain it, so they cast their eyes upon the newly available St Osyth’s Priory, now vacant following the Dissolution, upped sticks and off to St Osyth they went. With a now vacant building, the local Town Bailiff, then the town council, decided to purchase what was salvageable of the Town House, namely the brick tower and use it as the new Moot Hall.
So, this begged the question, was St Osyth’s lock up also constructed of wood? This would explain why nothing of the structure remains exists today and, the road works that removed the final traces of the lock up in the 1930s didn’t removing stonework but, perished wooden piles beneath the road surface?
I’ve found no mention of a wooden structure but, this could explain the position we find ourselves in today.
Finally, the question of mapping arose. Could the earliest maps shed any light on the buildings’ true origins?
3. Maps, maps and more maps.
Although we take maps today for granted, especially with the advent of satellite navigation, cartography is actually a dark art. Not all maps are created equal and, not everyone understands what they are viewing, beyond a superficial level.
When collating the maps for this research, I needed to consider who were the surveyors, what were their reputations for accuracy and detail, and what type of map was I looking at.
Fortunately, for the research, I found that St Osyth was covered by a reasonable back catalogue of maps, considering the rural and remote nature of the village and that part of Essex.
As I discussed in the original article, Ordinance Survey Maps had been around since 1801 and Essex was the second county surveyed after Kent. However, the mapping at this point was only at a superficial level, with the detail I required only developed in the late 1800s.
My fears were subsequently proven, as the improvement came too late to indicate the position of the medieval lock up.
The 1777 Chapman /Andre Map
Extending my search, I located the John Chapman / Peter Andre Map of 1777, often referred to as ‘Chapman’s Survey’.
This map is often incorrectly described as the 1772 map, a grave error, presumably due to the survey having taken place over three years, 1772 to 1774. However, the portfolio wasn’t ready for publishing until three years later, due to the subsequent editing and printing process, hence the correct 1777 attribution.
In addition, I was also very kindly provided with the relevant section of an 1816 Estate Plan, from Nigel Jeskins of the St Osyth Museum and, I was able to track down a Tithe Map of St Osyth, from 1839.
It would be natural assumption to believe that the Chapman / Andre Map of 1777 would be the one of most use for my research, being the oldest map I sourced. However, I must refer you back to my opening two paragraphs – Cartography is a dark art and, not all maps are created equal.
As so this proved to be the case in this instance.
Digging deep into the background of the map, I found that it was produced to a 2 inches to 1 mile (1:31,680) scale. Decent enough for the time but not detailed enough for our purposes, it did not depict the level of detail I was looking for, such as lock ups or other small structures such as small chapels.
The Chapman and Andre’s 1777 map is often mistakenly described as ‘including every house and cottage’, but this is an error related to the map, the full and correct statement used at the time of publishing was ‘including every COUNTRY house and cottage’ (my emphasis).
The scale used did not allow for indicating such a small structure as a single cell, medieval lock up on the map and this is a recognised limitation cited in County Cartography studies. In reality the 1777 maps are topographically good at the parish or estate level, but never reliable for individual buildings smaller that the average farmhouse.
To illustrate this point perfectly, the Tollesbury village lock up was constructed in 1700 and still in existence today, next to the village church. However, look at the map and there’s nothing to be seen. It is not marked. The same for the Witham lock up, constructed pre-1640 and demolished in the 1920s, again, no trace of it on the 1777 map. I found many other examples that I could use too.
So clearly, in the scheme of things, the 1777 map was not capable of being used to establish the position of St Osyth’s medieval lock up.
However, it wasn’t entirely redundant, the map clearly showed 14 Colchester Road and, it’s twin at 20 Colchester Road, next to it, thus supporting my assertion that 14 (and 20) Colchester Road was constructed in the late 1700s.
The 1816 Estate Plan and 1839 Tithe Map
Fortunately, as I suspected, the 18th Century Estate and Tithe Maps were to prove much more relevant to my research.
To most people, Estate plans and Tithe Maps are a nod back in time to rough sketches scribbled on a piece of parchment, by a talented landowner or farm hand. In reality, they provided superior mapping at that time as they were large scale cadastral surveys undertaken for taxation and ownership purposes. There is nothing better for focusing the mind of officialdom than than taxation, fees and levies I guess. As true back then as it is today.
As a comparison, The 1777 Chapman Survey was drafted at a 2inches to the mile (1:31,680) scale, whilst Estate Plans and Tithe Maps at the time were drawn at approx. 1:792 to 1:250 scale, which allowed a far greater depth of detail. In practical terms, this meant that the 1777 Chapman Survey was only gave accuracy of approx. +/- 50 to 100m, whilst for Estate /Tithe plans the accuracy was down to +/- 2m – far superior products and, so it proved to be.
Examining the 1816 Estate Plan, it clearly showed a very small structure in the middle of the road, a short distance south of 14 Colchester Road (which was obviously also shown), ultimately the final confirmation I had finally re-discovered the correct location of the St Osyth medieval lock up.
Turning my attention to the 1839 Tithe Map, of equal scale and accuracy, the lock up was no longer shown, whilst the other properties around it still in situ. This made sense in relation to lock ups becoming redundant (for their original purpose), with the impending introduction of the County Police Act (1839), especially if St Osyth’s lock-up had been constructed in timber and would now be approaching 300 years old.
So, in conclusion, whilst Chapman’s 1777 Survey is undoubtedly a beautiful, historical artefact, it is not decisive proof of a specific buildings’ identity, so I could not use it as definitive proof as to a small buildings existence (or lack).
For me to use it in this way would have been methodologically weak. The slightly later Estate Plan and Tithe Map documents provided the first reliable record of the medieval lock-up’s true position and, subsequent demolition and were the only primary sources of this nature I could find that I could use to help formulate and support my evidence.
I hope this overview of my research path clarifies how the true position of St Osyth’s medieval lock up was established. It’s a reminder of how local history, when examined through original sources rather than inherited tradition, can still surprise us.
And, there’s more yet to uncover.
