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Waltham-Abbey, or Holy-Cross (Holy Cross and St. Lawrence)

WALTHAM-ABBEY, or Holy-Cross (Holy Cross and St. Lawrence), a market-town and parish, in the union of Edmonton, hundred of Waltham, S. division of Essex; containing, with the hamlets of Holyfield, Sewardstone, and Upshire, 4177 inhabitants, of whom 2041 are in the town, 23½ miles (W. by S.) from Chelmsford, and 12½ (N. by E.) from London. The name Waltham is compounded of the Saxon words Weald and Ham, signifying a residence in or near a wood. The town derived its origin, in the time of Canute the Great, from the facility and inducement for hunting afforded by the neighbourhood, which led Ralph de Toni, standard-bearer to that monarch, to build a few houses. A church was soon afterwards erected, principally for the preservation of the holy cross, to which many legends of miraculous efficacy were attached; and upon a lapse of the property to the crown, Harold, to whom it was given by Edward the Confessor, founded (in 1062) a monastery for Secular canons, for whom in 1177, Henry II. substituted monks of the order of St. Augustine, at the same time dedicating the establishment to the Holy Cross: at the Dissolution, the revenue was valued at £1079. 12. 1. Within the choir, or eastern chapel, was entombed the body of Harold, who was slain in the battle of Hastings; with the bodies of his brothers Gurth and Leofwin. In a place called Romeland, adjoining the abbey, was a house at which Henry VIII. occasionally resided; and to a conversation held here, on the important subject of the king's divorce, Cranmer was indebted for the royal favour.

The town is spacious and irregularly built, consisting chiefly of one long street. It is situated on the banks of the river Lea, which here divides into many streams, and which separates the two counties of Essex and Herts about half a mile to the west, and also the parishes of Cheshunt and Waltham-Abbey. The inhabitants are well supplied with water. Some gunpowder-mills belonging to government, situated here, afford employment to nearly 200 persons. About 100 are engaged in printing silk handkerchiefs, and some business is done in the manufacture of pins, though it is by no means so extensive as formerly: there are also a brewery, flour-mill, and two malt-kilns; and, in the hamlet of Sewardstone, a factory for throwing and spinning silk, employing between 200 and 300 persons. At the west end of the town is the new cut from the river Lea, and the Eastern Counties railway passes within half a mile. The market is on Tuesday: fairs are held on May 14th and September 25th, for horses and cattle; and on Sept. 26th is a statute-fair for hiring servants. The powers of the county debt-court of Waltham-Abbey, established in 1847, extend over the parishes of Waltham-Abbey and Cheshunt, and the registration-district of Epping. A town-hall has been erected. The parish comprises 11,474a. 1r. 38p., of which about 9000 acres are inclosed, 400 in common fields and meadows, 280 marsh, 385 road, river, and waste, and 1352 ancient forest land.

The living is a donative curacy; net income, £100; patrons and impropriators, the Trustees of the Earl of Norwich. The church, which is the nave of the old abbey church, is a spacious structure in the Norman style with a tower of later date; on the south side is the Lady chapel, now used as a vestry and schoolroom. In the interior are three tiers of semicircular arches with zigzag ornaments, supported on circular massive piers. Among the monuments and sepulchral tablets, the principal is a memorial of Sir Edward Denny, who died in 1599; a slab near the communion-table retains the impression of an abbot with his crosier, the brass having been taken away. The only remains of the venerable abbey, exclusively of the church, are a fine gate with a postern, the bridge leading to it, and some dilapidated walls. A district church has been erected at Sewardstone. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans. Several bequests have been left to the poor, and for purposes of education.


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

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