Chelmsford Hundred 1848 Whites directory
The following enumeration of the thirty parishes in this Hundred, shews their hamlets, their territorial extent, their population in 1841,
and the annual value of their lands and buildings, as assessed to the Property Tax in 1843 : –
PARISHES, &c. Acres and Population in 1841.
Great Baddow parish 4,030 Acres, 2,022
Little Baddow parish 1,420 Acres, 417
Middle-Mead hamlet 410 Acres, 175
Blackmore parish 1,990 Acres, 709
Boreham parish 3,820 Acres, 1,054
Broomfield parish 1,986 Acres, 820
*Buttsbury parish 1,440 Acres, 521
Chelmsford parish 2,841 Acres in both, 3883
+Moulsham hamlet , 2906
Chignal St. James parish 930 Acres, 252
Chignal Smealy parish 1,050 Acres, 94
Danbury parish 3,670 Acres in all, 696
Bicknacre (partof) 3,670 Acres in all 3, 180
Runsell hamlet , 313
Fryerning parish 3830 Acres, 807
Hanningfield East parish 3,770 Acres, 440
Hanningfield South parish 1,620 Acres, 226
Hanningfield West parish 2,800 Acres, 521
Ingatestone parish 670 Acres, 856
Leighs Great (part of) p. 1,340 Acres, 201
Leighs Little parish 1,640 Acres, 182
Margaretting parish 2,480 Acres, 570
Mountnessing parish 1,940 Acres, 925
Rettenden parish 4,480 Acres, 807
Roxwell parish .. 5,240 Acres, 827
Runwell parish 1,760 Acres, 324
Sandon parish 980 Acres, 531
+Springfield parish 3.150 Acres, 2256
Stock parish 2,620 Acres, 605
Waltham Great parish 4420 Acres, 2154
Waltham Little parish 3,330 Acres, 690
Widford parish 780 Acres, 362
Woodham Ferrers p. 4160 Acres for both, 771
Bicknacre (part of) , 124
Writtle parish 8,060 Acres, 2521
TOTAL 82,651 Acres, 30,751 population £166,922 annual value
The annual value of Stock is included with Buttsbury.
Moulsham return included 203 persons in Chelmsford Union Workhouse, and 48 in the House of Correction. Springfield included 180 in the County Gaol.
Bicknacre hamlet is in Woodham Ferrers and Danbury parishes, and has 304 inhabitants.
§ Rettenden includes the village of Battle Bridge.
|| Great Leighs is mostly in Witham Hundred, and has 765 souls, and 3,150 acres.
HIGH CONSTABLES-Messrs. Jas. & Edw. Butler, Chelmsford.
All the Hundred is in CHELMSFORD UNION, except Blackmore and Mountnessing parishes, the former of which is in Ongar Union, and the
latter in Billericay Union.
CHELMSFORD UNION, as just noticed, comprises 28 out of the 30 parishes of Chelmsford Hundred, and also the three parishes of Good Easter, Mashbury, and Pleshey, in Dunmow Hundred. Its 31 parishes comprise an area of 128 square miles, and had 30,603 inhabitants in 1841, of whom 15,751 were males, and 14,852 females. The number of houses in the Union in the same year was 6,272, of which 6,015 were inhabited, 159 uninhabited, and 98 building. The average annual expenditure of the district for the support of the poor,
during the three years preceding the formation of the Union, was £19,248, but in 1838 it was only £13,458. The UNION WORKHOUSE is a large and commodious building, erected in 1837, in a pleasant situation in Moulsham hamlet, near Chelmsford, at the cost of £10,000. It has room for 450 paupers.
Board of Guardians meet at the Workhouse every Tuesday, at 10 o’clock.
Four guardians are chosen annually for Chelmsford ; two each for Springfield, Great Waltham, and Writtle ; and one for each of the other 27 parishes.
Robert Bartlett, Esq. , is Union Clerk and Superintendent Registrar ; Mr. W. E. Banks, auditor; Mr. W. Wicks, accountant and registrar of marriages ;
Messrs. William Burr, of Writtle, H. B. Croydon, of Ingatestone, and Mr. Grant, of Little Waltham, are the relieving officers ; and Messrs. Wicks, Burr, Suckling, Lewis, and Dannett, are registrars of births and deaths, for the five districts. Mr. and Mrs. Beckham are master and matron of the Workhouse ; the Rev. William Buswell, B.A., is the chaplain ; and Mr. J. N. Barlow, surgeon .
The DISTRICT SURGEONS are- Messrs. O. Copland, W. R. Barlow, L. Foaker, A. Wells, J. M. Edwards, J. Hutchinson, D. Wheeler, and J. Thorp, jun.
CHELMSFORD HUNDRED, as has been seen in the preceding table, comprises about 31,000 inhabitants, and 82,651 acres of land, divided into 31 parishes, and forming a fertile and picturesque district, in the central part of Essex, and in the Southern Parliamentary Division of the county. It is in the Deanery of Chelmsford, Archdeaconry of Essex, and Diocese of Rochester. Nearly in its centre, is the handsome town of Chelmsford, the capital of the county.
It varies from 10 to 16 miles in length and breadth , and is bounded by the Hundreds of Witham, Dengie, Rochford, Barstable, Ongar,
Dunmow, and Hinckford. It is traversed by the Eastern Counties Railway, and the great turnpikes from London to Colchester, Braintree, &c.; and watered by the rivers Chelmer, Can, and Sandon, and numerous tributary streams. The Chelmer is navigable for small craft to Chelmsford; and the Crouch, which forms part of the southern boundary of the Hundred, is navigable to Hull Bridge. The soil of the Hundred is various, but generally fertile and well cultivated ; and the surface is beautifully varied with gentle undulations, wood and water, and arable lands and meadows ; embellished with many neat mansions and extensive pleasure grounds, as well as with numerous old halls, which have long been occupied as farm houses. The south-eastern parts of the Hundred, about Danbury, Woodham Ferrers, Rettenden, and Runwell, are more hilly than the rest, and have more woodland and open commons. Morant says it does not appear that Chelmsford Hundred was ever granted by patent or otherwise, to any particular person, but has always remained in the disposal of the sheriff of Essex, for the time being.