Great Parndon, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Great Parndon 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.

Great Parndon was a civil parish in Essex, England, that has been absorbed by the new town of Harlow and is now an electoral ward.

It had a recorded population of 18 people in 1086, rising to 41 by 1524-25. In 1622, there were 71 houses between the two parishes of Great and Little Parndon, with most names attributed to Great Parndon, given that Little Parndon was small and sparsely populated. The population of Great Parndon rose slowly from 300 in 1801 to 534 in 1891, reaching 576 in 1921, falling to 504 in 1931, then rising to 684 in 1951, by which time the building of Harlow town had begun.

It formed an ancient parish in the Harlow hundred of Essex. It was part of the Epping Poor Law Union and was within the Epping rural sanitary district. In 1894 it became part of Epping Rural District. In 1934 it gained a small part of the parish of Eastwick, Hertfordshire.

The civil parish of Great Parndon was abolished in 1955. It was mostly incorporated in the new parish and urban district of Harlow, while small areas in the south-east and south-west were transferred to Roydon, Epping Upland, and North Weald Bassett.

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

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
Epping 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.