Sheering 1863 Whites directory
SHEERING, or SHERING, is a pleasant village, on the Dunmow road, 2 miles N.E. of Harlow. Its parish, which contains 499 inhabitants, and 1594 acres of land, extends westward to the river Stort, which separates it from Hertfordshire. In old records it is called Sceringa, Snaring, Cherring, &c. In the Confessor’s time it belonged to three Saxon freemen; and at the Domesday Survey it was held by Peter de Valoines, who married Albreda, sister to Eudo Dapifer. Their granddaughter carried the manor in marriage to Robert Fitzwalter, and it remained in the barony of Fitzwalter till 1432, when it passed in marriage to the Ratcliffes, one of whom was created Viscount Fitzwalter, in 1525, and in 1529 Earl of Sussex. Their last male heir, in the direct line, sold Sheering to the Earl of Middlesex, who sold it, in 1635, to Thomas Hewit. In 1723, it was sold by Lady Filmer, to Robert Chester, Esq. , one of the South Sea Company Directors, on whose forfeiture it was sold by the Company to Samuel Feake, Esq. , who erected DORRINGTON HOUSE, now the seat of Clayton Glyn, Esq. , the present lord of the manor. This handsome mansion occupies a delightful situation, in the vale of the Stort, about a mile S.W. of the church. The estate called Quickbury, or Cowickbury, belongs to Mrs. Mills. The Barnard, Glasscock, and other families, have estates in the parish, partly copyhold, subject to certain fines.
The Church (Virgin Mary) is a plain ancient building, with a nave and chancel. Chapel-field, on the north side of the road leading to Netherton, is the site of an ancient free chapel, which was dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was founded, in 1278, by Christiana de Valoines, with an endowment for the support of two chaplains ; but no traces of it are now extant.
The rectory, valued in K.B. at £13. 13s. 4d., and in 1831 at £435, is in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, and incumbency of the Rev. Edward Hill, M.A., who has 22 acres of glebe, and a handsome modern residence, in the Elizabethan style. The tithes were commuted, in 1840, for £507 per annum. For teaching 12 poor children, a schoolmistress has the dividends of £105, new three-and- a-half per cent. stock, left by the Rev. Francis Tutte, in 1815.
POST OFFICE at John Rattee’s. Letters via Harlow.
Barnard Mrs M. Mill House
Barnard Wm. corn miller
Brown Adam, shopkeeper
Brown Mrs Mary, vict. Crown
Chapman Reuben, wheelwright
Ebdy Wm. carptr. & vict. Old Cock
Gardiner Hy. gent. Clyde Cottage
Glasscock John, carpenter, builder, and farmer
Glyn Clayton, Esq. Dorrington House
Hill Rev. Edward, M.A. Rectory
Hutchin William, blacksmith
Langley Agnes, schoolmistress
Linsell Jonathan, baker and beer seller
Mead Amelia, shopkeeper
Mitchell Elizabeth, shopkeeper
Rattee John, butcher, Post Office
FARMERS.
Griggs Isaac, Chambers Farm
Hayden George, Street Farm
Houghton George Ellerton, Hall
Stallibrass Mrs J. New House
Sullins Peter, and maltster
Whitnall Wm. Sherwood, Wheelers
RAILWAY, &c.- See Harlow.
CARRIER.
Joseph Noakes, to London, M. W. & Fri.