DISCLOSURE: This page may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, we may receive a commission.
UK Genealogy Archives logo

Bardfield, Great (St. Mary)

BARDFIELD, GREAT (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Dunmow, hundred of Freshwell, N. division of Essex, 4½ miles (E. by S.) from Thaxted; containing 1120 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises 3670 acres, is separated on the north from the hundred of Hinckford by the river Pant, or Blackwater. The manor was granted by Henry VIII. to his queen, Anne of Cleves, and after her decease became the property of the family of Lumley, from whom it passed to others; it was finally sold to the governors of Guy's Hospital, London. The village, which was formerly a market-town, and is still of considerable extent, is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, rising from the bank of a stream tributary to the Blackwater. A fair is held on the 22nd of June; and the petty-sessions for the hundred are held here on alternate Mondays. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £11, and in the gift of devisees in trust of the late W. C. Key, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for rent-charges of £262. 11. and £445, the former payable to the incumbent, and the latter to the governors of Guy's Hospital. The church is an ancient structure of stone, with a square tower surmounted by a lofty spire of wood covered with lead, and consists of a nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel. A chantry was founded in it by William Bendlow, serjeant-at-law, in 1556.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

Advertisement

Advertisement