Elmstead

Elmstead, a pleasant village, 4½ miles East by North of Colchester. It is sometimes called Elmstead Market, owing to a market being held in the village during one of the visitations of the plague in Colchester. The Church of St. Anne and St. Lawrence to the north of the village has a rare carved oak recumbent effigy of a knight in armour.

Elmstead is also home to the Beth Chatto Gardens which began in 1960. From an overgrown wasteland with poor gravel soil and boggy hollows it has been transformed into an informal garden harmonising with the surrounding countryside.