Robert Leche of Hythe, Colchester

As in 1539, the aim of the bailiffs was to secure chantry property for the welfare of the town; there was apparently no concern that with the abolition of chantries some parish churches would be much poorer than before, and therefore still less able to attract well qualified and resident incumbents. Although the bailiffs failed to acquire the Harmanson chantry,they were granted most of the possessions of Haynes' and Barwyk's chantries in November, 1550, in return for a payment of £284.5., the purpose being the better maintenance of the port of Colchester, and the erection of a water-mill or mills on the River Colne at The Hythe.

The borough however could not meet its debt to the Crown, and it was particularly unfortunate that two of the men who had guaranteed payment died shortly after the purchase.

Therefore within two months, in January 1551, the property was sold for £120 to three wealthy Colchester men who all held office in the town-the mercers Robert Leche[1], bailiff in 1549-50, and John Byrde, chamberlain in 1551-2, and the draper Robert Middleton, chamberlain in 1550-1. In addition, these three men were to pay the original purchase price of £284. 5. to the Crown.

The Hythe The settlement at the Hythe or New Hythe, Colchester's port, was physically distinct from the town, being separated from it by arable fields, although it was legally and constitutionally part of the town. It presumably began about the 11th century when the port moved north from the old hythe or Old Heath. (fn. 81) The move at Colchester, as at other ports, was probably associated with the construction of quays and possibly with the first improvements to the river. A cut across the marshes in Wivenhoe parish opposite Old Heath was made after the parish boundary had been fixed but probably before the surviving borough records begin in the early 14th century. St. Leonard's church at the Hythe was founded before the mid 12th century, but its compact parish contrasts with the dispersed parishes of the intramural churches and suggests that it was relatively late. In the late 12th century and the early 13th the settlement was called Heia as well as Hythe, the former name presumably referring to inclosures, perhaps of meadow, made when the port was laid out. A tenement there was given to St. John's in 1160, and a rent from a house there in the later 12th century. St. Leonard's church stands half way up Hythe Hill, well back from the water front and probably on the edge of the 12th-century settlement; there was still arable land near it in the mid 13th century.

The Hythe was developed, both as a port and as a suburb, in the 14th century, the borough leasing land for quays and warehouses in the 1330s and 1340s. By the mid 14th century the quays and the road behind them may have extended some distance southwards from the bottom of Hythe Hill. Buildings were similar to those in the rest of the town, and there are indications of pressure on street frontages.

A shop with a solar above it had apparently been built on a tenement at the Hythe by 1384. A new building encroached on the road in 1392-3. (fn. 86) Most if not all houses stood along Hythe Hill or behind the quays, but by 1352 there was a back lane, North Lane or Church Lane, behind houses on the north side of Hythe Hill. South Lane, recorded in 1427, may have been the road behind the quays. A footbridge built across the river in 1407 was replaced by a cart bridge in 1473-4, but there was no building on the eastern bank of the river in the Middle Ages.

[1] Essex Archaeology and History