Stories giving villages their own identities make fascinating reading.

Histories, people, events, legends and ghosts all add up to shed new light on familiar surroundings.

And while the stories in a new book have been compiled by individual members of Women's Institutes across the county, their industry and research has resulted in a volume to treasure.

The Essex Village Book by the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes was launched at the federation's annual council meeting on Friday at Charter Hall, Colchester.

In the meantime, the soft-back tome, co-ordinated by Brenda Scraggs and with illustrations by Joan Bill, covers 220 villages, 70 more than before, and is likely to sell as fast as the infamous charity calendar by their northern counterparts.

Thirteen years ago, more than 150 members from every corner of the county submitted entries about their villages for the first edition of the book.

The project took about a year and involved members in a good deal of research.

So successful was the book that the first edition was sold out in three months.

The second edition lasted longer, three years, and the third about the same time.

But then it was felt a complete new expanded and up dated edition was needed for the 21st century.

Members set to work and the result is a publication which shows the true flavour of the county is to be found in its villages retaining their character and charm.

They are a source of pride and delight to both local people and visitors and from Abbess Roding and Aldham to Wrabness and Writtle, the stories abound.

At West Mersea, for example, the village seems to have had more than its share of hauntings.

By Barrow Hill, the sound of heavy wheels and horses have been heard for generations and a retired schoolmaster recalls the time when, with a car full of children, the apparition of a Roman chariot and horses appeared across the bonnet.

In the Lane, the oldest part of Mersea, ghostly footsteps are heard in the bedroom of the cottage where the rector, hundreds of years ago, murdered his ne'er-do-well son and then hanged himself in remorse.

And the happy laughter of a Roman lady friend of Claudius, with whom she spent weekends but who was drowned during a midnight swim, is still heard at West Mersea Hall, which is built on the site of a Roman villa.

Just over 100 years ago at Stisted, just outside Braintree, records show 174 houses, ten of which were unoccupied, containing a population of 381 men and 364 women.

The village was almost self-sufficient and for many there would have been no need to go into Braintree for necessities.

It had a miller to grind the corn, no baker as housewives made their own bread and cakes, a wheelwright, two blacksmiths, a grocer, butcher, publican, post mistress, cooper, six boot and shoe makers, a builder, two painters, a bricklayer and two carpenters.

The innkeeper was also a blacksmith and a beerhouse keeper.

There was no undertaker as this service was probably provided by the builder and no greengrocer as much of the fresh produce was grown on the allotments or large vegetable gardens.

Travelling salesmen and pedlars would also provide many of the miscellaneous household items which might be needed.

Although now the village appearance has not changed much, it is no longer self-sufficient with nearly all residents going out of the village to work.

Stanway got its name from the old Roman road Stane Street running through the centre of the road, which is now London Road.

About 300 years ago, St Osyth village was notorious because of the number of witches reputed to live there while many of the houses in Rowhedge had a cellar or smugglers hole which goods could be stored until they could be sold.

And there was a church at Peldon, or Peltendun as mentioned in the Domesday Book, in 1086.

The Essex Village Book is published by Countryside Books in their Villages of Britain series and costs £9.95.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.