Writtle The village of Writtle lies in Essex, England, just two miles to the west of Chelmsford.It is home of Writtle College, one of the UK's oldest and largest land-based colleges and a partner institution of the University of Essex. Writtle has a traditional village green, complete with duck pond, and Norman church and has been described asRobert the Bruce (or perhaps his father Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale) is hotly contested; the importance of the village during the reign of the Plantagenet kings, however, is incontrovertible.