THE STORY OF WIVENHOE, written by Nicholas Butler,
published by the Quentin Press in 1989 (ISBN 0 949614 01 X)
is the current definitive work on the history of the Town and the lives of its inhabitants. Nicholas Butler, local historian, journalist and tutor, was born in 1936 and educated at Westminster and New College, Oxford where he read law. Having worked in the theatre he became a freelance journalist and became very active in community affairs, particularly in the Wivenhoe Society.

ROMAN BRITAIN:
although strongly in evidence up river at Colchester, the Roman City of Camulodunum, no sign of Roman or earlier settlement at Wivenhoe has yet been found.

SAXON:
the name of the Town is believed to be derived from a Saxon landowner with the name of Wifa combined with the Anglo-Saxon ending "hoh" - meaning a ridge. Wifa's ridge becoming Wivenhoe. Later in the period the land belonged to Aluric and two freemen.

DOOMSDAY BOOK:
by 1086 the Manor was held by Nigel a subtenant of Robert Gernon a follower of William I in his conquest of England. The Town is listed as having 12 acres of meadow, pasture for 60 sheep, woodland for 100 pigs and a mill. The Town was inhabited by 5 villeins, 20 bordars and 2 slaves.

MEDIEAVAL AND TUDOR TIMES: the Manor passed through a number of families often at the gift of the monarch.