Black Notley, Essex
Historical Description
Notley, Black, a very ancient village and a parish in Essex. The village stands near the river Brain, 1½ mile NNW of Bulford station on the Maldon, Witham, and Braintree branch of the G.E.R., and 1½ S by E of Braintree. The parish contains also the hamlets of Row Green and Slamondsey or Slamsey, and its post town and money order and telegraph office is Braintree. Acreage, 2309; population of the civil parish, 658; of the ecclesiastical, 642. Oaklands is a modern mansion standing in its own grounds near to the high road. Many antiquities, including copper, brass, and glazed vessels, have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £290. Patron, St John's College, Cambridge. The church is a small building of flint and stone in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, organ chamber, S porch, and an octagonal shingled spire; it was restored in 1879 at a cost of £3000. Bishop Bedell and the naturalist John Ray were natives.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Essex | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Black Notley St. Peter and St. Paul | |
| Hundred | Witham | |
| Poor Law union | Braintree |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)
The church of SS. Peter and Paul is a small edifice of flint with stone dressings in the Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, organ chamber, south porch of carved oak, and a belfry at the western end of the nave, surmounted by an octagonal shingled spire and containing 5 bells; the spire was re-shingled in 1905; the church was restored in 1879 mainly at the expense of two ladies, the entire cost being about £3,000: it is seated throughout with solid oak and has a carved oak screen dividing the chancel and nave: the chancel has two piscinæ and sedilia and the roof is of ancient carved oak: the stained east window is a memorial to Lieut. W. G. Overton, d. 7 December, 1859: the stained west window was erected to Edward Nottidge M.A. rector from 1835, and there is one other in memory of Miss Overton: the church has about 120 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Black Notley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Notley, Black (St. Peter and St. Paul))
- Kelly's Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex, 1914
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.
The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.
Maps
Online maps of Black Notley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online:
Parochial History
By Local Government Board Order 22,339, dated March 24, 1889, Slamsey Farm, Oaklands and Oaklands Lodge, were transferred from White Notley to Black Notley.