Ashdon, Essex
Historical Description
Ashdon, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands on an affluent of the river Cam, 3½ miles NE of Saffron-Walden, and 2 S of Bartlow station on the G.E.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Saffron-Walden. The hamlet of Bartlow is in the parish. Acreage, 4156; population, 790. A place with a fine prospect and four barrows-the latter supposed to be sepulchral monuments of Roman chiefs-contends with Ashingdon in Rochford district the repute of being the battlefield of Canute's victory of Assandune, in 1016, over Edmund Ironside. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £610. Patron, Caius College, Cambridge. The church is an ancient building of rubble and clunch in mixed styles, and there is also a Baptist chapel.
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 | Ashdon All Saints | |
Hundred | Freshwell | |
Poor Law union | Saffron-Walden |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is an ancient building of rubble and stone in mixed styles, ranging from the 11th to the 15th century, and consists of chancel, nave of three bays, aisles, a chapel on the south side known as the "Maynard chapel," north and south porches and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells, one of which is of pre-Reformation date: on the north side of the chancel is a fine altar-tomb, over which are the arms of Richard Tyrrell, ob. 1566, and on the south side are sedilia and a piscina: the stairs formerly leading to the rood loft still remain in the south pier of the chancel arch: a round-headed stoup, belonging to an earlier church, may be seen near the south doorway, and part of the square basin of the font of the 11th century, with fluted carving, is still preserved; the font now in use is octagonal, and two or three centuries later: a carved oak pulpit was erected in 1882 in memory of the Rev. J. F. Walker, a former rector, by his widow: the arcades of the nave are of clunch on basements of squared Barnack stone: the interior of the church underwent partial restoration during the years 1883-9, and the flooring and seating have been renewed: the roofs were restored in 1895: there are 370 sittings.
The churchyard was closed by Order in Council in Aug. 1879. A cemetery of three roods, adjoining the churchyard, was formed in 1877 at a cost of £360. a portion is consecrated, and the whole is under the control of the Parish Council.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Ashdon from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ashdon (All Saints))
- 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 Ashdon 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: