on the east by Hadleigh ; and on the west by Bowers
Gifford. It is separated from Canvey Island by Had-
leigh Ray (from Old French rie or rive, a shore), and
Benfleet Creek, at the head of which the village first
came into being. The Parish has been known as
Benfleet since the acceptance of that spelling by the
railway authorities gave it official recognition.
Formerly it was frequently known as Bamfleet or
Bemfleet; both the "m" and "n" spellings occur
in the Parish Records, and even in judicial proceedings
as far back as the Thirteenth Century. The
termination fleet (as in the case of Gunfleet, Purfleet,
Byfleet, etc.) is derived from the Anglo-Saxon fleot,
a flowing stream. Morant, the great Essex historian
of the Eighteenth Century, derives "Bern" from
Anglo-Saxon beam, a tree, post or stock, and says :
"This village, standing near the creek, here might
be at first coining of the Saxons some beams, poles
or woodwork remaining; or some weares for fishing
which might occasion the name." The whole Parish
was certainly very thickly wooded in earlier days,
and the word Bemfleet may, therefore, mean the
"Wooded Creek."
There is nothing known of Benfleet, either in pre-
historic or Roman times, although Camden, the
Sixteenth Century topographer, in his "Britannia"
identified Canvey with the Counos alluded to by
Ptolemy in 161 A.D. It seems more than probable,
however, that men of the Stone Age, roaming beside
the Thames, must have halted here to take advantage
of the fishing facilities afforded by the creek, and
possibly the site was in this way occupied more or less
continuously. It may later have been a Romano-
British settlement, but there is no evidence at all
as to this ; no evidences of the Stone Age or Romano-
British period have been found here, although some
Roman pottery has been found on the eastern shore
of Canvey Island, and some of the ancient bricks
worked into the fabric of the Parish Church may be
Roman.
4