RIVENHALL, a parish, with a village, in Witham district, Essex; on an affluent of the river Blackwater, 1¾ mile N by E of Witham r. station. It has a post-office under Witham. Acres, 3, 589. Real property, £5, 755. Pop., 719. Houses, 158. R. manor belonged to Queen Editha; and passed to Eustace de Boulogne, the Scaleses, the Widvilles, the Eateses, and others. There are four other manors. R. Place belongs to the Western family, and is the residence of the Rev. Sir J. P. Wood, Bart. Dorwards Hall is the residence of H. Dixon, Esq. Remains of a Roman villa, with traces of a tesselated pavement 1, 200 feet long, were found near thechurch. The parish is a meet for the Essex and the Suffolk hounds. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £760.* Patron, T. B. Western, Esq. The church is good; has an E window with stainedglass of the time of Rufus; and contains a fine monument, of 1594, to Sir R. Wiseman. There are a free school, and charities £14. Tusser, author of £ Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, " was a native.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))