ABSTRACT
Each individual left an unequal signature in the early modern memory and Earls Colne landscape. Some of these signatures proved durable, while others were not. Even the graffiti written on the Jane and Mabel Harlakenden monument was a signature of now-unknown villager. The Harlakendens and their descendants, like the Cressener family, are immortalised in the early modern funeral monuments they erected in the parish church. The Priory Manor house of the Harlakendens has been demolished, but Chandlers, home to the Cressener family, still stands in Holt Street, although sharing a subdivided block with new signature in the form of a late twentieth-century dwelling. The landscape of Earls Colne also contains many durable physical signatures. The de Vere family signalled their wealth and status in the heraldic emblems they placed on the embattled parapet of the tower of St Andrew's Church, in the stained-glass windows of the old Priory Manor house, on their monuments to their forebears and in their pews.
