Great Burstead or Burghstead, , is a pleasant village and parish on the road from Billericay to Tilbury, 1.5 miles south of Billericay Station 0n the Southend on Sea branch of the Great Eastern railway, and 7 west from Brentwood.
The small market town of Billericay is in this parish for civil purposes, but was constitutrd a separate ecclesiastical parish, 14th September 1844. A stream flows through the parish.
The chuch 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 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; in 1909 a window was erected to Major T J Spitty DL, JP, and Mary Ann, his wife.
The register dates from the year 1558.
The living is a vicarage with 6 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of St Albans, and held since 1909 by the Rev Hermann Coikdwell, BA, of Trinity College, Dublin. A pumping station was erected in 1909 at Slycesgate for the Southend Water Co. There is a Congregational chapel at South green. The churchyard was enlarged in 1907 by a gift of one acre of ground from the late Alexander Ward esq of Lockers.
The kennels of the Essex Union foxhounds are in this parish; the pack hunts seven days a fortnight. Brentwood, Chelmsford and Maldon are convenient places for hunting visitors.
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, one mile from Billericay, are the remains of a camp, in which Roman coins and antiquities have been found.
Gatwick is the residence of Edward Thomas Mashiter esq, JP. 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 3,709 acres; the population of the civil parish in 1901 was 1,859, and the population of the ecclesiastical parish was 521.
Letters arrive from Brentwood, through Billericay, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office.
Private Residents
Coldwell Rev Hermann BA, vicar
Dare Walter Charles
Henderson John
Heseltine Capt Godfrey, The Kennels
Jones Edgar, JP, The Elms
Mashiter Edward Thomas, JP, Gatwick
Richardson John Fentonm Franklin villa
Commercial
Adam Robert, farmer, Barleylands
Anderson Sarah (Miss), shopkeeper
Ball William James, farmer
Boughtwood Chas, farmer & coal dealer
Bull Henry, greengrocer
Carpenter James, blacksmith
Carter William B, farmer, Harlocks farm
Clements John Ernest, poultry farmer
Co-operaive Sanatoria Ltd (THomas William Edwards, sec), New lodge
Cordery George John Barnard, Plough PH, Tye Common
Crook Eil, farmer, Curds farm
Dawkins Harry, grocer
Dowsett & Co, nurserymen
Farley Georgina (Mrs) & Son, farmers, Southend farm
Giddins George Carter, poultry dealer
Houghton James, blacksmith
Jarvis Arthur, beer retailer
Jones Herbert, huntsman to the Essex Union foxhounds, The Kennels
Loman Joseph, dairy farmer
Lyon Caroline (Mrs), beer retailer – Burstead Plough
McIntyre Daniel, farmer, Broomhills
Maryon John, dairy farmer, Snails hall
Miles Thomas, farmer
Mills Sarah Ann (Mrs), farmer
Morton James, farmer, Blunds Wall
Pierson Edward Marsh, farmer, Outwood farm
Smith Arthur, wheelwright
Smith George, farmer
Stewart Henry F, carpenter
Swann Timothy, farmer
Swann William Henry, beer retailer – Duke of York
Thorneycroft William Hy, Kings Head PH
Webster Tom, farmer, Whites farm
White William, farmer
Also see Billericay & Little Burstead in 1912