Welcome to the homepage of Moreton, Bobbingworth and the Lavers Parish Council
Our Parish has circa 1151 inhabitants who live in some 487 dwellings. The Parish has 33 lanes within its 5 Wards containing 38 businesses, 3 pubs, 5 churches, 2 Village Halls, 1 Primary School and 17 Farms.
Two thousand years ago across the Parish’s Crispey Brook a Roman road connected Great Dunmow to London. Today the bridge that crosses the Cripsey is still a feature of Moreton, and though not two thousand years old, its construction nonetheless predates the advent of mass motorised transport. There is no modern road following the route of the Roman road out of the village, but the old road's route can be followed at Tawney Common a few miles to the south west.
Modern Moreton remains at the confluence of various minor roads, which link to Fyfield, to the east, Bobbingworth to the south, and High Laver to the north where John Locke the English philosopher and physician is buried. Locke was one of the most influential of thinkers and the "Father of Liberalism". To the west is Magdalen Laver where William Webb Ellis, the inventor of rugby football, was the Reverend.
The roads meet in Moreton, the centre of which is a conservation area, where several substantial village houses remain from the late Medieval / early modern period of English history, as well as a traditional English pub (The White Hart) and a restaurant (The Dog and Pickle).
Moreton features a primary school, which retains its small Victorian era main building, but in recent decades has grown in size and in excellence, as schools in neighbouring villages have been closed down.
The surrounding area is agricultural, and there is also a seed processing plant a short distance to the north of Moreton which processes cereal, pulse and oilseed rape seeds on the site an original windmill, the other mill being in Little Laver near the site of a Roman villa. That apart, commercial activity has largely disappeared, and today many residents commute to Harlow, Chelmsford or London. For many years after petrol and diesel engined tractors became mainstream in England, Moreton retained a depot housing steam tractors (traction engines).
The Parish has a healthy dog walking community who act as a ‘Land Watch’ for local farms, a well-supported Horticultural Society, large Nature Reserve, conservation area and 2 popular Parish Magazines.