Gosfield, Essex
Historical Description
Gosfield, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands on a branch of the river Colne, 2 miles SW of Halstead town and station on the Colne Valley railway, and has a post and money order office under Halstead; telegraph office, Halstead. Acreage, 2978 of land and 55 of water; population, 546. Gosfield Hall, once the seat of the Duke of Buckingham, dates from the time of Henry VIII., has been much altered from its original appearance, but still is a fine specimen of the stately castellated mansion of its period, and stands amid well-wooded grounds, with a splendid lake. Gosfield Place and Cut Hedge are handsome modern edifices. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans. The church is an ancient building of stone, plastered, in the Perpendicular style, and contains some very interesting tombs and monuments. One of the monuments is of marble, by Schee-maker, to John Knight, Esq., and it bears the following epitaph by Pope:- " 0 fairest pattern to a failing age, Whose public virtue knew no party rage; Whose private name all titles recommend- The pious son, fond husband, faithful friend; In manners plain, in sense alone refined; Good without show, and without weakness kind; To reason's equal dictates ever true; Calm to resolve, and constant to pursue; In life with every social grace adorned, In death, by friendship, honour, virtue, mourned."
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 | Gosfield St. Catherine | |
Hundred | Hinckford | |
Poor Law union | Halstead |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Gosfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Gosfield (St. Catherine))
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 Gosfield 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: