Danbury, Essex
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Danbury is a village in Essex, England. It is thirty five miles East of London and has a population of 6,500. It is perched on a hill 112 metres above sea level.
The village was built on the site of a megalithic hill fort noted for its oval shape. This shape is formed by placing two 3-4-5 right triangles together to form an isoceles triangle with an altitudes of 3. The chancel of the St John the Baptist church is at the centre of the small arc and the axis of the church lies along the hypoteneuse of one triangle.
The village has a long connection with the Sinclair family, known locally as St Clere. There are three wooden effigies in the church which date back to the thirteenth and fourteenth century. One has been identified as being that of William St Clere. In 1968 it was taken to be exhibited at the Louvre in Paris.
In 1779 the tomb of a knight was disturbed, and the body therein was discovered to be perfectrly preserved in what was described as pickle. Some people suggested that the body was that of a Knight Templar, but this was contested by Joseph Strutt, MP for Maldon. Strutt also attempted to write a romance with a book called Queenhoo Hall. In 1808, Walter Scott was asked to complete the book by his publisher John Murray. Scott visited the village and stayed at the Griffin to make his first stab at romantic fiction.
The church also contains some memorial slabs to the Mildmays. Sir Walter Mildmay was the founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and built Danbury Place locally.