ELSENHAM
White's History, Gazetteer & Directory of Essex ~ 1848
Submitted and Transcribed by Essex Villages
ELSENHAM, a pleasant village 7 miles N. W. by W. of Dunmow, is about a mile east of the North Eastern Railway, on which is has a station. Its parish contains 491 souls, and 1825 acres of land, mostly the property of George Rush, Esq., the lord of the manor, who resides at the Hall, a large brick mansion, with embattled walls and tasteful grounds.
At Domesday Survey, the parish was held by Robert Gernon and John Waleram; and it afterwards passed to the Barley, Adams, Dawkins, Heath, and other families.
J. B. Daubuz and several smaller owners have estates here, mostly copyhold, subject to arbitrary fines.
The Church (St. Mary) is an ancient structure, with an embattled tower, containing four bells, and crowned by a slender spire. The entrance is under a semi-circular arch, with plain and reticulated Saxon mouldings, and supported by massive pillars. Covered with indented mouldings, and having capitals rudely formed and of very antiqued appearance. In 1070, this church was appropriated to Caen Abbey, in Normandy, by John Waleram.
The rectory, which is a manor, was granted by Henry VIII. to Thomas Lord Audley, and was sold about the time of the Restoration to Wm. Canning, Esq., an ancestor of the Rev. Thos. Canning, M. A., the present impropriator of the rectory, and patron and incumbent of the vicarage, valued in K. B. at £11, and in 1831 at £122.
The glebe is 38a. 1r. 32p., and the parsonage is a commodious brick mansion, with pleasant grounds. The tithes were commuted in 1839, the rectorial for £413, and the vicarial for £152. 4s. 11d. per annum. In 1656, John Wells left three cottages and an orchard in trust, that the rents should be distributed by the church wardens in cloth among the poor parishioners. This property is now let for £9 a year. In 1756, Thos. Rayner left £30 to be applied in schooling poor children, but no interest has been paid since 1809, and the principal is supposed to be lost.
Bowtell Wm. vict. Crown
Canning Rev. Thos. M. A. Vicarage
Child Wm. shopkeeper
Dixon Wm. tailor
Gunn Hannah, schoolmistress
Robinson John, butcher
Robinson Wm. carpenter
Rush George, Esq., Elsenham Hall
Ward Benjamin, shoemaker
Ward Elizabeth, shopkeeper
Wright Ann, beerhouse keeper
Farmers (*at Tye Green)
*Cornell Thomas II *Dennis Quilter
Legerton Samuel, Green street
Livermore Wm. Cox's Farm
Mumford Wm. II *Wilkinson James
Phillips John (and corn miller)
Savell Elizabeth, Motts Hall
Railway trains several times a day to London, Cambridge, &c.
Letters from Bishop Stortford
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
ELSENHAM , a village and a parish in the district of Bishop-Stortford and county of Essex. The village stands adjacent to the London and Cambridge railway, 5 miles NE by N of Bishop-Stortford; and has a station on the railway. The parish comprises 1,829 acres; and its post-town is Stanstead, under Bishop-Stortford. Real property, £2,685. Pop., 480. Houses, 102. The property is divided among a few. Elsenham Hall is a chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £92. Patrons, Trustees. The church is good; and there are charities £9.
Transcribed by Noel Clark
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
ELSENHAM is a village and parish, on a feeder of the Stort, 35½ miles from London, 5½ north-east from Bishop’s Stortford, 6 south-west from Thaxted and north-west from Dunmow; it is in the Saffron Walden division of the county. Uttlesford hundred, Bishop’s Stortford County court district, Stansted rural district, Walden petty sessional division, Newport and Stanstead rural deanery, Colchester archdeaconry and Chelmsford diocese. Elsenharn station, on the London and North Eastern railway, is on the borders of the parishes of Elsenham, Henham and Stanstead Mountfitchet. There is a light railway from Thaxted to Elsenham. The church of St. Mary the Virgin, standing on a hill near to Elsenham Hall, is a building of stone, of Early Norman date, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 4 bells: in 1910 the belfry was restored and the bells rehung by the patron of the living, and in the same year a new altar was presented by Mrs. Hine: there are 200 sittings. The register of baptisms dates from 1732; marriages, 1755; burials, 1730. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value about £250, with residence, in the gift of Sir Waiter Gilbey bart. J.P. and held since 1932 by the Rev. Francis William Cobb M.A. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, hon. C.F. There is a mission hall here, built in 1881, and under the care of the Society of Friends. A cemetery with chapel, given by Sir Walter Gilbey bart. was opened in 1902, and is under the control of a Burial Board. The Village Hall, erected in 1909. contains a large room for concerts and games and a billiard room; there are 60 members. A sum of about £20, derived from six tenements and some land left by John Eyre Wells, late of Elsenham, is, after deduction for repairs, distributed in clothing. Claricia Rush’s clothing club has an income of £4 11s. 11d. a year, the proceeds of £150 now invested in Consols. Sir Waiter Gilbey bart. J.P. who is lord of the manor, and James Arthur Findlay esq. M.B.E., J.P. are the principal landowners, and there are other small landowners. The manufacture of jam and lavender water is carried on. The soil is mixed, part heavy and part loam; subsoil, mixed, with clay and gravel. The crops are wheat, barley and turnips. The area is 1,848 acres of land and of water; the population in 1931 was 382.
GAUNTSEND is 2 miles south-east; Tye Green, 1¼ south; Greenstead Green, 2 miles south-east.
Post, M. O., T. & T. E. D. Office. Letters through Bishop’s Stortford, Herts
Railway Station (L. & N. E)