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Blackmore, Essex

Historical Description

Blackmore, a parish in Essex, 1½ miles ESE of Chipping-Ongar station on the G.E.R., and 4 NW by W of Ingatestone, under which it has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 2588; population, 599. An Augustinian priory was founded on the site of the manor house by the De Sampfords, in the time of Henry II.; passed, under Cardinal Wolsey, to his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, and afterwards to Waltham Abbey, and was given at the dissolution to Robert Smith. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; gross yearly value, £126. The church belonged to the priory, and is ancient, small, and good. There is also a Baptist chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyEssex 
Ecclesiastical parishBlackmore St. Lawrence 
HundredChelmsford 
Poor Law unionOngar 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Churches

Church of England

St Lawrence (parish church)

The church of St. Lawrence, formerly attached to the Augustine priory founded here in the reign of Henry II. is an ancient building, consisting of quasi chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, north porch and a western tower of timber, three stages in height; with a basement of rubble, and a shingled spire containing 5 bells, three dating from 1647 and the others from 1648 and 1752; one bell (tenor), 1647, recast in 1901: it was originally a Norman structure, but underwent extensive alterations in the 13th and further changes in the 14th and 15th centuries, and is now mostly of the Early English period, and probably built on the foundations of the Norman edifice, portions of which still remain: the west front, and one bay of the Norman church at the west end, belong to the 12th century; the west front has a circular-headed doorway, above which, on a line, are two windows of a like form, and over these, in the gable, a circle: the whole of this front, constructed of squared masonry, is a fine specimen of Norman workmanship; the remaining bay of the Norman nave has slender columns with graceful capitals, upon which the Early English work is curiously engrafted: at the east end of the south aisle is a small chantry chapel, containing a fine altar-tomb with effigies to Thomas Smyth esq. ob. 1594, and Margaret, his wife; on the nave floor is a slab of Purbeck marble, with the matrices of a fine brass cross and shields: the side chapel, which takes the place of a former mausoleum at the east end of the north aisle, was rearranged in 1902: the organ was presented in 1906: the east window and several others are stained: the church was restored in 1898, 1902 and 1907, at a cost of £3,809. and affords 180 sittings.

Baptist

Baptist Chapel

There is a Baptist chapel here, built in 1841 by the late Mr. Ashley Barrett, and endowed with £58 a year.


Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Blackmore from the following:


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 Blackmore are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online:

DistrictBrentwood
CountyEssex
RegionEastern
CountryEngland
Postal districtCM4
Post TownIngatestone

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