Great Bardfield, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Great Bardfield St Mary the Virgin is an Ancient parish in Essex.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

BARDFIELD, GREAT (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Dunmow, hundred of Freshwell, N. division of Essex, 4½ miles (E. by S.) from Thaxted; containing 1120 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises 3670 acres, is separated on the north from the hundred of Hinckford by the river Pant, or Blackwater. The manor was granted by Henry VIII. to his queen, Anne of Cleves, and after her decease became the property of the family of Lumley, from whom it passed to others; it was finally sold to the governors of Guy's Hospital, London. The village, which was formerly a markettown, and is still of considerable extent, is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, rising from the bank of a stream tributary to the Blackwater. A fair is held on the 22nd of June; and the petty-sessions for the hundred are held here on alternate Mondays. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £11, and in the gift of devisees in trust of the late W. C. Key, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for rent-charges of £262. 11. and £445, the former payable to the incumbent, and the latter to the governors of Guy's Hospital. The church is an ancient structure of stone, with a square tower surmounted by a lofty spire of wood covered with lead, and consists of a nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel. A chantry was founded in it by William Bendlow, serjeant-at-law, in 1556.

From: 'Bampton - Bardsea', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 136-141. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50776 Date accessed: 17 February 2011.

The village and civil parish is for local government purposesin the Braintree District of Essex County Council.

Bardfield is the home of many important twentieth century English artists who hosted a series of important 'open house' exhibitions in the village during the 1950s. These exhibitions garnered national press attention and attracted thousands of visitors. The Great Bardfield Artists of the 1940s and 1950s were: John Aldridge, Edward Bawden, George Chapman, Stanley Clifford-Smith, Audrey Cruddas, Walter Hoyle, Michael Rothenstein, Eric Ravilious (who lodged with Bawden at Brick House), Sheila Robinson and Marianne Straub. Other artists linked to the art community include Joan Glass, Duffy Ayers, Laurence Scarfe and the political cartoonist David Low. Down the road from Great Bardfield is Little Bardfield.

Another notable son of Great Bardfield is the early 20th century Liberal candidate in several local constituencies, Ernest William Tanner.

Great Bardfield is home to the Bardfield Cage and the Bardfield Museum. The cage is a 19th century village lock-up. Great Bardfield has a windmill which has been converted to a house.

Great Bardfield played an important role in the history of the Oxlip which, in the UK, is a rare plant only found where Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire meet. Originally it was thought that Oxlips were cowslip-primrose hybrids but in 1842 Henry Doubleday and Charles Darwin conducted tests on plants collected from Great Bardfield and concluded that this was not so. For a while the plant was known as the Bardfield Oxlip. The common cowslip-primrose hybrid is known as the False Oxlip.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, non conformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office St Mary the Virgin See Also Great Bardfield meeting Society of Friends

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Dunmow Poor Law Union,Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.