Great Burstead or Burghstead, is a pleasant village and parish on the road from Billericay to Tilbury, 2.5 miles south of Billericay Station on the Southend on Sea branch of the London and North Eastern railway, and 7 west from Brentwood.
A stream flows through the parish.
The church of St Mary Magdalen is a building of rubble with stone facings in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, north and south porches, and a western tower, restored in 1912, with shingled spire, containing 5 bells, 4 only of which are in use: the 4th bears the following inscription : “Vox Augustini sonet in aure Dei” and was cast about the year 1436; the others have been recast: in 1898 a stained window was presented by Mrs Spitty, of Billericay; the church was reseated in 1892 and in 1907 it was again restored at a cost of £200.
Inside the church is a chest carved of a single baulk of timber, some 800 years old, into which were placed offerings for the expense of the Crusades; there is a complere list of incumbents since 1330.
The register dates from the year 1558.
The living is a vicarage with 2 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chelmsford, and held since 1933 by the Rev Ernest James Simpson, of St Augustines College, Canterbury. The churchyard was enlarged in 1907 by the gift of one acre of ground from the late Alexander Ward esq., of Lockers; it contains a stone brought from Germany bearing 22 name tablets to the crew of Zeppelein L 32 which was brought down by British airmen in 1916.
A pumping station was erected in 1909 at Slicesgate for the Southend Water Co. There is a Congregational chapel at South green. The kennels of the Essex Union foxhounds are in this parish; the pack comprises 35 couples of hounds and hunts Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Brentwood, Billericay and Chelmsford are convenient places for hunting visitors.
Billericay is the nearest station to the kennels.
The Cistercian monks of the Abbey of St Mary and All Saints at Stratford Langthorne, founded circa 1134, removed temporarily to a cell or grange here by reason of the floods, and held nearly the whole of the parish until the dissolution of their house.
Blunts Walls, 1 mile from Billericay, are the remains of a camp, in which Roman coins and antiquities have been found.
Lord Petre is lord of the manor and principal landowner.
The soil in parts is light and clayey; subsoil, principally clay. The chief crops are wheat and barley.
The area is 8,687 acres; the population of the civil parish in 1931 was 7,272 and the population of the ecclesiastical parish was 1,183.
By the Essex Review Order 1934, part of this civil parish was transferred to the urban district of Brentwood. By the Essex Review Order 1935, part of Buttsbury was added to this civil parish.
Private residents
Ashton John William, Laneside
Attwood Stanley Charles, The Homestead
Bates Charles, Rosedene
Simpson Rev Ernest James, vicar
Tweed Mrs, Laindon Frith
Commercial
Aiken Donald Jn D, mushroom grower, Mill road
Allnutt Henry George, insurance agent, Longacre, South Green
Anderson James, poultry farmer, Noak Hill road
Bishop Fras Charles, shopkeeper, Beverlea, South Green
Bond Freder9ick Hubert, carpenter & joiner, Braemar, Grange road, South Green
Booth Chas & Son, builders, The Hoe, Noak Hill road
Boughtwood Edith (Mrs), dairy farmer, Hill View farm
Bragg H E & Son, haulage contractors, Noak Hill road
Briggs Isabell Mrs, dairy farmer
Buckenham Frank, farmer, Friths farm
Butcher Rt, farmer, Browns farm
Carpenter J & Sons, blacksmiths
Carpenter Claud, farmer, Acors farm
Clowes Leonard Horace Hy, builder, Glendale
Cole Percy, farmer, Curds farm
Cook Frederick G, nurseryman, Briar bank, South Green
Cullis A A & Company, sheet metal workers & makers of galvanised gutters, South Green
Dove Bertha (Mrs), shopkeeper, Noak Hill road
Duke of York PH, Mrs Eliza E Luchford
Dukes Head PH, Walter Cecil Buckenham
Ellis Stanley, farmer, Jacksons farm
Essex Union Foxhounds (Kennels)
Farley William Higgins, farmer, South end farm
Fennell James, shopkeeper, Church street
Fisher Harry, farmer, Barleylands
Gibney Lydia (Mrs), shopkeeper, Outwood Common road, South Green
Glassborrow William Leslie, motor engineer, Rothsay, Outwood Common road
Goble Hy, farmer, Snails Hall farm
Great Burstead Athletic & Social Club (Arthur Walden, sec), South Green
Greg Henrietta Louisa (Mrs), farmer, Littlebrook farm
Hall James Rd, Newsagent, South Green
Hammond Alfred Thomas, farmer, Outwood farm
Harris Ernest James, poultry farmer, Harrods farm
Honey Chas, Nurseryman, Homefields
Jackson Arthur (Mrs), farmer, White farm, Laindon
Jackson Percy Gibbons, farmer, Foots farm, Slicesgate
Jenkins & Son, grocers & post office, South Green
Jenkins Chas, poultry farmer, Sarnia, Slicesgate
Johnson Joseph, portable buildings manufacturer, Church cottage
Kings Head PH, Jn Edward Triming, Slicesgate
Leyland Joyce (Miss), poultry farmer, Foycot, South Green
Lowe Walter, poultry farmer, Oakhurst
Lowman Joseph, smallholder
Mills Ernest, farmer, Coxs farm
Morton James, farmer, Blunts Wall
Nelson Jn, shopkeeper, Noak Hill road
Officer John, farmer, Broomhills
Plough PH, Mrs Annie F C Boughtwood, South Green
Pluckrose Rt Thomas, shopkeeper
Randall Jn Adam & Harry Edward, nurserymen, Slicesgate nursery, South Green
Robinson Fras, Hy, poultry farmer, Willoughby poultry farm
Summers James, coal dealer, Sunnyside, South Green
Thacker Jn Charles Astbury, farmer, Blackmore farm
Walden Arthur Hy, builder, The Forge, South Green
Walden Herbert, smallholder, The Poplars
Wallace Percy William, farm bailiff to H J Rumble esq, Grange farm
Weaver George, nurseryman, Denmark house, South Green
Wheatsheaf PH, Hy Foster
Woodgate William Charles, plumber, Ediglade, South Green
Woodroffe Sydney, poultry farmer, Boyce farm
Wright Alfred Edward, farmer, Bullsteads farm
Wright Fred, farmer, South Green