Great Yeldham, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Great Yeldham St Andrew is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

Surrounding villages and towns include Little Yeldham, Tilbury Juxta Clare, Toppesfield, Stambourne, Ridgewell, Sible Hedingham, Castle Hedingham, Halstead and Sudbury (Suffolk). Great Yeldham is situated along the busy main A1017 road between Braintree and Haverhill.

Great Yeldham contains the "Great Oak", an old preserved oak tree in the centre of the village, which was recorded in William the Conqueror's Doomesday Book.

From the 1950s to the 1970s Great Yelham was home to the Whitlock Bros, manufacturers and exporters of Dinkum Diggers (tractors with backhoes and fronthoes, often known these days as 'JCB's). In 1972 Whitlock Bros. was taken over by Hymac, and production subsequently moved to Rymmny in Wales. The Great Yeldham plant closed, resulting in many job losses for the region.

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.

YELDHAM, GREAT (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Halsted, hundred of Hinckford, N. division of Essex, 7 miles (N. W. by N.) from Halsted; containing 726 inhabitants. The village is pleasantly situated in a retired part of the parish. Many of the women and children are employed in the straw-plat manufacture. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20, and in the gift of the Cripps family: the tithes have been commuted for £500, and the glebe comprises 41 acres. The church is a small ancient edifice with a very handsome tower; the burialground is planted with avenues of fir-trees. A national school is partly supported by an endowment assigned by John Symonds, in 1691. The gravelly soils are replete with fossils.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 716-719. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51437&amp;amp;strquery=great yeldham Date accessed: 16 February 2011.

Great Yeldham is a village and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex County Council.

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 Andrew

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
Halstead 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.