Pebmarsh.com is a living magazine for the village of Pebmarsh in Essex. Regularly updated with news, views, articles and a diary of forthcoming events in and around the village. According to the "Place names of Essex", Pebmarsh is derived from Pybba's erx or stubble field, the person Pybba being possibly the same man as gave his name to Pebehole which was in or near Stebbing. The parish of Pebmarsh is traversed by a brook, which after passing through a valley and close to the church, falls into the River Colne near Earls Colne. In several places this brook creates marshy land and it would seem therefore that the word "marsh" might be in some way connected with the origin of the name. The village has many Tudor farms and houses. Until 1845 the parish formed part of the extensive diocese of London.

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The Church of St. John the Baptist

The Church is said to be dedicated to St. John the Baptist, although The Rev. Bailey in his book about the church found evidence in wills that the church had in the 1500's been dedicated to The Virgin Mary. Evidence of the antiquity of this dedication was the holding of a fair in times gone by on June 24th (Saint's Day of St. John the Baptist).

The church stands on a mound just above the bottom of the valley, in the centre of the village. The Nave and the chancel date from the early part of the 14th century, but there is evidence on the east wall of the tower of the outline of a previous building, proving that a previous building stood on this site. According to the records, a Rector named Richard was here in 1254.

The nave and chancel were constructed as one sees them today, other than the fact that some time in the 14/1500's the East wall collapsed and the church was shortened when the present East wall was rebuilt. Evidence of this can be seen in that the sedilia has only two arches instead of the normal three and it disappears into the East wall. The tower is a solid piece of work and is a 50 ft high structure built in three stages, giving a somewhat squat appearance. The top being 6 ft above the ridge of the nave roof; extra height was added in the 16th century, when a 5ft castellated brick parapet was added, surmounted at each corner by beehive pinnacles. In the early 16th Century the Tudor brick porch was built.

services
1^st Sunday	11:00am	Family Service held in the Village Hall
2^nd Sunday	No Service	(Holy Communion at Little Maplestead Church at 9.30am)
3^rd Sunday	6:30pm	Evening Worship (April to October)
3^rd Sunday	4:00pm	Evening Worship (November to March)
4^th Sunday	8:15am	Holy Communion
5^th Sunday	10:00pm	Holy Communion (see Church notice board or Parish Magazine for venue)
Tursdays & Fridays	9:15am	Morning Office

On 22nd November 1940 an incendiary bomb fell through the roof but failed to ignite, the splinter of wood from the roof and the tail of the bomb are now used as a candle snuffer.

Famously, the church houses a brass of Sir William Fitzralph. The brass was last reported complete in the early 1800's. A reproduction of it can be seen on the Village Sign and on the school uniform.

St. John the Baptist, Pebmarsh, is part of the benefice of "Knights and Hospitallers": the other churches of the benefice being St Mary the Virgin, Gestingthorpe; St Giles, Great Maplestead; and St John the Baptist, Little Maplestead (The Round Church).

The parish is in the Diocese of Chelmsford.