Great Chesterford, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Great Chesterford All Saints is an Ancient Parish in Essex. Great Chesterford is an ancient village with many listed buildings situated on the banks of the River Cam, or Granta, on the boundary of Essex and Cambridgeshire.

The church, All Saints, dates from the 13th century, and has had many additions over the years. Rumour has it that silver bells which hung in the church tower, were hidden in an underground passageway which ran between the Church, the Old Vicarage and the Crown House Hotel to keep them safe from government soldiers. They have never been found, although some traces of the passageway have been uncovered.

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.

CHESTERFORD, GREAT (All Saints), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of SaffronWalden, hundred of Uttlesford, N. division of Essex, 4 miles (N. W. by N.) from Saffron-Walden; containing 917 inhabitants. It is by most antiquaries identified with the Camboricum of Antoninus, and the foundation of walls inclosing a quadrangular area of 50 acres, was, till lately, plainly discernible. That it was a Roman station is evident, not only from its name, but from its contiguity to several Roman roads, of which the Ikeneld and Ermin streets intersect each other in the immediate vicinity; and Roman bricks, coins of the earlier and later emperors, and other relics have been found, in great quantities. Besides the large camp, are several smaller camps, including one near the church, in the grounds between which and the river Granta are traces of an amphitheatre: at the distance of half a mile from the larger camp is another, called Hingeston Barrows, and on the opposite side of the river a third. On an eminence, near the Roman road from Inckleton towards Newmarket, is Fleamsdyke, where is a small square fort, probably the castra exploratorum, in the centre of which are vestiges of a building; and the Roman road to Grantchester may be plainly discovered, forming a ridge of 200 yards, in a direction towards the river above Cambridge. The parish comprises by admeasurement 2811 acres, of which 200 are woodland: the soil, in the more elevated parts, is a dry thin loam resting on chalk, and in the valleys a rich loam on a gravelly bottom. The village is pleasantly situated, and commands an uninterrupted prospect extending into the county of Cambridge. Here is a station of the railway from London to Cambridge, ten miles distant from Cambridge. The market has been discontinued; but a fair for horses is held on July 5th. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the rectory of Little Chesterford annexed, valued in the king's books at £10; net income, £427; patron and impropriator, the Marquess of Bristol. The tithes of both parishes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1801. The church is an ancient and spacious structure, and formerly contained a chantry, founded in the reign of Henry VIII., by William Howden, and the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, was £9. 9. 7. John Hart, of Saffron-Walden, in 1592 founded what he intended to be a grammar school, and endowed it with upwards of 30 acres of land, under the management of the Master and Fellows of Magdalen College, Cambridge, who appoint the master; but a considerable part of the endowment having been lost, the charity has been incorporated with a national school.

From: Samuel A. Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 576-586. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50871 Date accessed: 15 February 2011.

Great Chesterford is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located 18 miles (29 km) north of Bishop's Stortford, 12 miles (20 km) south of Cambridge and about 50 miles (80 km) north of London.

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
Saffron Walden 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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