Kelvedon Hatch, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Kelvedon Hatch 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.

The name is recorded variously as Kelenduna, Kalenduna and Kelvenduna in the Domesday Book with the latter meaning Speckled Hill. From its early days in the Mediaeval period until the mid-20th century the main activity in Kelvedon Hatch was agriculture. Records from 1871 show 82 households of which showed only 3 ‘white collar’ households and 4 landowners or of independent means, with the majority of the rest engaged in a local agricultural economy. During the Vicorian years, however, many younger people gravitated towards the main towns, encouraged by railway links at Ongar and Brentwood and the decline in the local ‘agriconomy’ has its roots in that exodus.

The former parish church of ST. NICHOLAS stands in the grounds of Kelvedon Hall. There was a medieval church on this site, but a complete rebuilding took place between 1750 and 1753. The font and a 15th-century bell were preserved from the old church and many of the floor slabs appear to have been left in situ. Four bells were sold to help defray the cost of rebuilding. In 1873 the church was restored at a cost of £380, but twenty years later it was decided to build another church on a more convenient site near the centre of the parish. The new building, to which many of the fittings had been removed, was consecrated in 1895. The old church, dismantled and derelict, became overgrown with creeper and was further damaged by a German rocket bomb in 1945. The building is of red brick, plastered internally, and had a tiled roof, much of which has fallen down. It consists of nave and chancel with a small weatherboarded bell turret at the west end. Both Morant (1768) and Wright (1835) mention a south aisle, but it is probable that their information is out of date and that they are referring to the medieval church. The chancel arch is slightly pointed and the glazing of the windows has a gothic flavour, but in other respects the details are purely Georgian. At the east end is a threelight Venetian window, the other windows being round-headed or circular. The flat ceiling has a modillion cornice. Classical pilasters, formerly at one of the south entrances, are now missing. Some floor slabs remain, many from the medieval church. A slab having indents for a figure and for four shields of arms has no inscription but probably dates from the 15th century. An indented slab which formerly held brasses of a kneeling man and woman has an inscription to Francis [sic] Wright, formerly Waldegrave (d. 1656). The inscription was probably cut at this date on an older slab: the woman's figure, of which a drawing remains, is shown in the dress of about 1570. An epitaph mentioned by Morant to John Wright (1551) has now disappeared. An inscribed brass to another John Wright (1608) recorded in 1920 is also missing. Other slabs to the Wrights of Kelvedon Hall include those of Ann (Suliard, 1617) and two John Wrights (1654 and 1656). There are many 17th-century slabs to members of the Luther family, some with shields of arms. An inscribed brass plate to Richard Luther (who died 1638) and his brother Anthony is undated. Other slabs are to Robert Thurkettle (1679) and his wife and to Elizabeth Purca (1727) and Mrs. Ann Westwood (1742). No wall monuments survive from the medieval church. In the chancel is a handsome marble tablet to John Wright (1751) who rebuilt Kelvedon Hall. There is also a tablet to his son-in-law, Marrock Strickland. A white marble cartouche shield in the nave commemorates Charles Dolby of Brizes (1755) and a gothic tablet, now fallen, is to William Dolby (1819). On the south wall of the chancel are marble tablets to John Luther, M.P. (1786), and Rebecca and Amy Luther (1780 and 1782). A painted board giving a list of the parish charities hangs in the nave. Among the many headstones in the churchyard is one carved with an hour-glass, skull, and crossbones, inscribed to Jonathan Wingrue (1704). The present parish church, also dedicated to St. Nicholas, was built in 1895 at a cost of £2,000. The site had previously been acquired for burials. (fn. 79) Funds were raised by appeals and subscriptions and John Thomas Newman, F.R.I.B.A., of Kelvedon Hatch gave his services as architect. The building is of red brick, left exposed internally, and consists of chancel, nave, organ chamber, vestry, and south porch. Above the porch is a small bell tower with a louvred belfry and a shingled spire. The church was throughly restored in 1927 when the roof was partially renewed and the pipe organ, which had been damaged by rain, was taken away. The font, removed from the earlier church, is octagonal and probably of the 15th century. On one face is carved a mitre and on the adjoining faces are children's heads. The position of the carvings suggests that the font has been wrongly orientated. The seating, much of which came from the old church, is of the 19th century. The single bell, which also came from the old church, was cast about 1460-80 and was probably by John Kebyll; it is inscribed 'Sancte Andree Ora Pro Nobis' and has a shield of arms. The church plate consists of a silver cup and paten of 1674, with the arms of the Luther family and probably given by them. There is also a silvered copper paten, undated but fairly modern. At one time there was an electro-plated flagon, also modern, but this has been missing since at least 1926. The former Church Room, previously the nonconformist mission hall and now the village hall, was bought by the rector, D. W. Peregrine, who sold it in 1905 to certain parishioners who in 1912 made it over to the then rector, W. S. Mavor. The consideration of £100 was to be repaid and then the house would be handed over to the church. By 1930, however, the money was only partly repaid and the building was in disrepair. It was therefore sold for £115 and after the repayment of Dr. Mavor the balance was devoted to church work. The former Church House, now Reed's Stores, was built late in the 19th century. Early in the present century the house was used as a Working Men's Club and coffee house. From 1906 to 1909 the curate lived there.

From: 'Kelvedon Hatch: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 68-69. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15561&amp;amp;strquery=kelvedon hatch Date accessed: 06 February 2011.

Kelvedon Hatch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Brentwood in south Essex, England. It is situated just north of Pilgrims Hatch, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) to the north of Brentwood and is surrounded by Metropolitan Green Belt. The village today is no longer a rural backwater with a large proportion of its population commuting to work elsewhere. It has a population of 2,563.[1]

It is home to the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, the largest and deepest cold war bunker open to the public in South East England.[2] Hidden in a wood off the A128 Ongar (now well sign-posted for the tourist trade), Brentwood Road, is a small bungalow well built which hides a three floored bunker complex 125 feet (38 m) underground, a long corridor leads down to a place in which 600 people would have been confined behind blast proof doors in the event of a nuclear war. The bunker was originally built in 1952/3 as part of ROTOR, an urgent government building programme to improve Britain's air defence network and became the Sector Operations Command for the RAF Fighter Command with responsibility for the London Sector. It subsequently became adopted as a potential ‘regional government bunker’ as the threat of nuclear war grew in the 1960s. The bunker was sold in the 1990s and is now a tourist attraction and film location.

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
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Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office

Census records
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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
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
Ongar Poor Law Union, Essex

Vestry minute-books for Kelvedon Hatch survive for the periods 1736-60 and 1835-81. During the period 1736-60 vestry meetings usually seem to have been held only at Easter in each year. In only one year during this period was more than one meeting recorded. The minutes were brief but were always signed. The Revd. C. Wragg, rector of the parish from 1731 until 1758, seems never to have attended the meetings. His successor, the Revd. N. Griffinhoeff (1758-60) attended the only Easter vestry held during his incumbency and was the first to sign the minutes. The number of parishioners who attended the meetings varied between 3 and 6. Members of the Wright family, lords of the manor of Kelvedon Hatch, always attended and usually signed first. The minutes rarely did more than record the ap-pointment of officers and the balances remaining in officers' hands at the end of each year. In the period 1736-60 there was only one office of churchwarden and one office of overseer. George Wright was churchwarden throughout the period. Until 1744 the overseers served for two years consecutively, but after that date they served for one year only. As late as 1835 there was an illiterate overseer. In 1614 there were two constables, but in the period 1736-60 there was only one office of constable. These officers usually served for several years consecutively. The appointment of surveyors was not recorded in the minute-book, but there appears to have been one office of surveyor. The rateable value of the parish was £700 in 1738 and £1,676 in 1835. Until 1751 the overseers, churchwarden, and constables were each granted separate rates for which they were directly responsible to the parish. Occasionally one officer was ordered to pay another officer's deficit out of his surplus. In April 1751 it was decided that the constable's charges for the ensuing year should be paid by the churchwarden. In March 1752 the same constable was reappointed, but on this occasion it was resolved that his charges should be paid by the overseer. No further resolutions were recorded on this matter and it is not clear how the charges of either the constable or the churchwarden were met in the years after 1753. By 1833, however, their expenditure was evidently met by the overseers who included it in their account. It is not clear what the practice was in regard to the surveyors' accounts. There was a poorhouse in Kelvedon Hatch, situated on Kelvedon Common, and in 1835 there were at least two male paupers in it. In most cases, however, poor relief was given outside the poorhouse. In each of the years 1813-15 there were thirteen adults on 'permanent' outdoor relief. Provision for the poor included the payment of weekly doles. In 1776 the cost of poor relief was £90. In 1783-5 it averaged £104 a year. (fn. 12) It reached £501 in 1800-1 and £538 in 1801-2, but in the next six years it was always between £300 and £400 a year. In the years 1808-17 the cost was usually above £400 and reached a maximum of £567 in 1812-13. In each of the years 1833 and 1834 it was £275 and in 1835 £250. In 1836 Kelvedon Hatch became part of the Ongar Poor Law Union.

From: 'Kelvedon Hatch: Parish government and poor relief', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 70-71. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15564&amp;amp;strquery=kelvedon hatch Date accessed: 06 February 2011.

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.

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Web sites
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