Battlesbridge may not appear to be a very large place, but it is historic. It sits on the River Crouch where it narrows and heads towards its source. The small bridge over the river is where the village gets its name from. The original timber bridge stood for a long while since c.1351 when the Reginald Battaille family had links with the settlement. The name ‘Battlesbridge’ could alternatively come from the nearby Battle of Assandun in 1016, fought between Saxon king Edmund Ironside and the Dane Canute. The timber bridge was replaced in 1769 and again by an iron structure in 1856, but it was struck by a steam traction engine and was replaced again in 1872 as it stands today. This document from Rochford District Council contains a great deal of information about the village and its historic remnants. The antiques centre which dominates the settlement today was an old tide mill from the 1830s. It is a three-storey building with a loft, made of yellow stock brick and a clay pantile roof, with a weatherboarded range. Despite being visually well-kept, the building is said to be in poor state of repair structural and is on the County Council’s Historic Buildings at Risk Register. Other nearby Grade II structures include the flood barrier attached to the mill, the weatherboarded Barge Inn dating from the 17th or 18th Centuries, Mudderidge Farm dovecote, Great Cooper’s farmhouse, and the road bridge.
Sources: Wikipedia, Rochford District Council: Battlesbridge Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan (2007)
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