Birchanger, Essex
Historical Description
Birchanger, a parish in Essex, on the G.E.R., 2½ miles NE of Bishops-Stortford, under which it has a post and money order office; telegraph office, Stansted Mountfitchet. Acreage, 1066; population, 469. An hospital was founded here by Richard de Newport in the time of King John. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £214 with residence, in the gift of New College, Oxford. The church is a small building of flint, in the Norman and Early English styles.
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 | Birchanger St. Mary | |
Hundred | Uttlesford | |
Poor Law union | Bishop-Stortford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
St Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a small building of flint with stone dressings in the Norman and Early English styles, and consists of chancel, nave, north aisle and a stone turret containing one bell: the north aisle was added in 1898, from designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield and Sons, at a cost of about £750: the church contains a handsome oak reredos, with painted panel, erected in 1901 by the family of Sir Charles Gold, in memory of a brother and sister: there are 180 sittings.
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 Birchanger from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Birchanger (St. Mary))
- 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 Birchanger 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: