Bowers Gifford, Essex
Historical Description
Bowers-Gifford, a parish in Essex, on the London, Tilbury and Southend railway, 1½ mile E of Pitsea station, and 7 miles SE of Billericay. It has a post office (S.O.); money order office, South Benfleet; telegraph office, Pitsea station. Acreage, 2472 of land and 21 of water; population, 183. Much of the land is marshy. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £476 with residence. The church is an edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style.
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 | Bowers-Gifford St. Margaret | |
Hundred | Barstable | |
Poor Law union | Billericay |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
St. Margaret (parish church)
The church of St. Margaret, dating from about 1350, is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel and nave, south porch and a western tower with spire containing 3 bells, the two ancient bells are dated 1390 and 1416: the chancel has a stained east window: the church was restored in 1910 at the expense of Sir Duncan A. D. Campbell bart. C.V.O. the owner of Earls Fee in this parish, in memory of his mother and sister, who are buried in the churchyard, when the old ceiling was replaced by oak panelling, a new floor laid, the wall at the west end taken down, revealing a beautiful Early English arch, and the erection of an oak porch at the entrance: Sir Duncan Campbell also gave a third bell in memory of the coronation of King George V.: there is a mutilated brass of Sir John de Gifford, c. 1348, the head of the effigy, which is life-size, and part of the right leg, as well as the inscription, being lost: the figure is clad in banded chain mail, over which is a tunic, girt with a belt, from which a sword hangs across the left thigh: the hands, in gauntlets, are placed together: there are elaborate knee-pieces, and the feet rest on a lion: the shield, covering the left arm, bears the arms of Gifford, sa. 5 fleurs-de-Lis, or, 2, 2 and 1, and is suspended from the shoulder by a narrow baldrick: this brass, which was securely refixed in 1906, is of exceptional interest; not only is it of large size, but it is with two exceptions the earliest military effigy in the county, while the style of armour represented is in certain respects quite unique: the church affords 100 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
There is a Congregational chapel here, built in 1885.
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 Bowers Gifford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bowers-Gifford (St. Margaret))
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 Bowers Gifford 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: