Clavering Hundred 1848 Whites Directory
Clavering is the smallest hundred in Essex, and is sometimes called a Half Hundred. It is on the north-western side of the county, and is about 9 miles in length from north to south, but only from 2 to 4 in breadth. It is bounded on the west and south by Hertfordshire, and on the east and north by Uttlesford Hundred. Its six parishes are Berden, Clavering, Farnham, Langley, Manewden, and Ugley; and two hamlets. Two of them (Berden and Farnham,) are in Bishop Stortford Union, and the others are in Saffron Walden Union. All of them are in the Northern Parliamentary Division of Essex, in Saffron-Walden Polling District, in the Diocese of Rochester, and Archdeaconry of Colchester ; and in the Rural Deaneries of Stansted and Newport. The river Stort rises near the village of Clavering, and flows southward through the centre of this small Hundred, which was anciently a woodland district, belonging to the early Earls of Essex, and afterwards to the Fitz-Roger, Clavering, Nevill, and Barrington families. The surface is picturesquely undulated, and the soil is of various qualities, and has been much improved by draining and judicious management. Mr. Matthew Woodley, of Bentfield Bower, is the High Constable ; and the Hundred is in Walden Police Division.