Latchingdon

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	Maldon
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
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	Maldon and East Chelmsford
List of places UK England Essex 51°40′17″N 0°43′34″E / 51.671278°N 0.726128°E / 51.671278; 0.726128

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]