Great Chesterford Essex Family History Guide

Great Chesterford is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.

Alternative names:

Parish church: All Saints

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1586
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1800

Nonconformists include: Free Thinkers and Independent/Congregational.

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Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CHESTERFORD (Great), a village and a parish in Saffron-Walden district, Essex.

The village stands at the verge of the county, on the river Granta, adjacent to the Eastern Counties railway, 4 miles NNW of Saffron-Walden; and has a station, of the name of Chesterford, on the railway, and a post-office, of the name of Great Chesterford, under Saffron-Walden.

It formerly was a market-town; and it still has a fair on 1 July. A Roman station was here; and Roman roads went hence to Chelmsford, Cambridge, and Ixworth.

Traces of Roman walls exist; vestiges of a Roman villa and a Roman temple were recently discovered; and many Roman coins, urns, and other relics have been found.

The parish comprises 3, 030 acres. Real property, £5, 082. Pop., 1, 027. Houses, 215. The property is much sub-divided.

The living is a vicarage, united with the rectory of Little Chesterford, in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £427. Patron, the Marquis of Bristol. The church is large and good; had a chantry, founded by W. Howden; and contains two brasses.

An endowed school has £41 a year; and other charities £99.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

CHESTERFORD, GREAT (All Saints), a parish, and formerly a market-town, in the union of Saffron-Walden, 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.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

FamilySearch

Administration

County: Essex
Civil Registration District: Saffron Walden
Probate Court: Court of the Commissary of the Bishop of London (Essex and Hertfordshire Division)
Diocese: Pre-1846 – London, Post-1845 – Rochester
Rural Deanery: Pre-1847 – Sampford, Post-1846 – Saffron Walden
Poor Law Union: Saffron Walden
Hundred: Uttlesford
Province: Canterbury