Sturmer, Essex

infobox UK place

country = England
latitude= 52.067
longitude= 0.478
official_name= Sturmer
population = 340
shire_district= Braintree
shire_county = Essex
region= East of England

constituency_westminster= Saffron Walden
post_town= Haverhill
postcode_district= CB9
postcode_area=CB
dial_code= 01440
os_grid_reference= TL698439

Sturmer is a village in the county of Essex, England, United Kingdom, close to the county border with Suffolk.

The church of St Mary's was built in the eleventh century. The village also gives its name to the Sturmer Pippin apple which was bred in the orchards of the village.

Like most English villages Sturmer once had industry of its own including shops, maltings, farming, orchards (for both apples and willow for basket making & cricket bats). Today, in common with many other villages, there is little of this local industry left. It is home to a golf course, cement works and most of the village area is still covered with worked arable land although it takes many fewer people to run an arable farm than it did in the 1800s.

The village was once host to a railway station and hotel on Water Lane but both are now private dwellings. The Stour Valley Railway once connected Sturmer to Colchester, Cambridge, Sudbury and many other important towns but was eventually closed as part of the Beeching Axe which shut many branch lines.

Famous Inhabitants

One of its previous incumbents of Sturmer was the father of actress Charlotte Rampling, who was born in Sturmer.

External links

* [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=13277 Megalithic Portal - Pictures of St Mary's and some of its features]
* [http://www.btinternet.com/~gb.associates/sturmer/ Semi-official Sturmer homepage (not updated for a longtime)]