Sible Hedingham
Sible Hedingham is a pretty village in Essex, 3 miles from Halstead.
It is on the Roman road that ran from Leicester to Colchester, usually known as the Via Devana, and on the River Colne.
St. Peter`s Church dates mainly from the 14th century, but some of the fabric may be Norman.
The timber framed White Horse Inn is 15th century.
Sir John Hawkwood was born in Sible Hedingham in about 1320. Perhaps the most celebrated of mercenary soldiers in the Middle Ages, he led the famed White Company. He fought alongside the Black Prince at Poitiers, before moving to Italy and serving a number of the city states.
Eventually, he became leader of the army of Florence, and when he died in 1394 was buried with much ceremony in that city`s cathedral, with a fresco by Paolo Uccello. However, local tradition holds that his widow secretly brought his body back for burial to Sible Hedingham, and the church has a monument to him.
Just outside the village is the Colne Valley Railway, where steam trains run for a few hundred yards. It is a fragment of one of two railways which ran between Colchestyer and Haverhill.