RIDGWELL, a parish in the hundred of HINCKFORD,
county of ESSEX, 5 miles (N. W.) from Castle-
Hedingham, containing 551 inhabitants. The living is
a discharged vicarage, in the jurisdiction of the Commissary
of Essex and Herts, concurrently with the Consistorial
Court of the Bishop of London, rated in the
king's books at £ 10, endowed with £ 1400 private benefaction,
£ 1000 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Master and
Fellows of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. The church is
dedicated to St. Lawrence. There are places of worship
for Baptists and Independents.