Great Bardfield Essex Family History Guide
Great Bardfield is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.
Alternative names:
Parish church: St. Mary
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1662
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1800
Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational and Society of Friends/Quaker.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Little Sampford
- Shalford
- Stebbing
- Thaxted
- Little Saling
- Little Bardfield
- Great Saling
- Finchingfield
- Lindsell
- Great Sampford
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BARDFIELD (Great), a village and a parish in Dunmow district, Essex.
The village stands on Blackwater river, 9 miles NW of Braintree r. station. It has a post-office under Braintree, a new town hall, a police station, and a fair on 22 Jan.; and is a seat of petty sessions.
The parish comprises 3,689 acres. Real property, £6,715. Pop., 1,065. Houses, 259. The property is subdivided.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £262. Patron, Representatives of late Rev. B. E. Lampet. The church is old.
There are three dissenting chapels, two public schools, and charities £72.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
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 market town, 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.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Essex
- Civil Registration District: Dunmow
- Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
- Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
- Rural Deanery: Sampford
- Poor Law Union: Dunmow
- Hundred: Freshwell
- Province: Canterbury