| Latchingdon | |
|---|---|
 The village sign at Latchingdon. The street in the background is Buchanan Way. | |
  Latchingdon Location within Essex | |
| Population | 1,241 (2011)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TL885005 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Chelmsford |
| Postcode district | CM3 |
| Dialling code | 01621 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Latchingdon is a village situated in the Dengie Peninsula in Essex, England, south of the city of Chelmsford. The parish was at one time called Latchingdon-cum-Snoreham, and Snoreham Hall still exists to the south of Latchingdon.
The place-name 'Latchingdon' is first attested in 1065 in a charter later published in the Diplomatarium anglicum edited by Benjamin Thorpe, where it appears as Laecedune. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lacenduna, Lachenduna and Lessenduna. The name may derive from an unrecorded Old English word *læcce from the verb læccan to catch, meaning a trap, and related to the modern word 'latch'. The name would then mean 'hill with a trap', presumably to catch animals.[2]
- ^ "Parish population 2011". Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- ^ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.289.