TAKELEY
White's History, Gazetteer & Directory of Essex ~ 1848
Submitted and Transcribed by Essex Villages
TAKELEY parish has a long straggling village,
called Takeley Street, 4 miles W. of Dunmow, and E. of Bishop Stortford. It
comprises 899 inhabitants, and 3154 acres of land, including Smith?s Green,
Morrell Green, and Brewer's-end, and many scattered farm-houses, &c. It gives
rise to the Pincey Brook, and has a fertile soil and undulated surface. It is in
four manors, which were held by Robert Gernon, Eudo Dapifer, and St. Valery
Priory, at the Domesday Survey.
Thomas Mumford, Esq., is lord of the chief manor, called Waltham Hall, or
Takeley, which was held by Waltham Abbey, and after dissolution by the Heigham,
Miller, Petre, Shaard, and other families. The small manor of Colchester Hall
belong to St. John's Abbey, at Colchester, and was afterwards held by the Wyberd
Wiseman, Crackbone, Plumme, and Russell families.
The manor of St. Valery?s, vulgarly called Warish Hall, was given by William the
Conqueror to the Abbey of St. Valery, in Picardy, which had a small Priory here,
as a cell to that Abbey, founded in the reign of Henry l. On the suppression of
alien monasteries, this manor was given to Wm. Wickham, Bishop of Winchester,
who settled it as part of the endowment of New Collage, Oxford, to which it
still belongs. In the court rolls it is called, 'Takeley St. Walerici'.
Bassingbourne Hall, a large mansion on a commanding eminence, was erected by
Fras. Barnard, Esq., who purchased the estate in 1745, and it still belongs to
his family. The Hall was occupied by the late Sir Peter Parker.
The Church (Holy Trinity) is an ancient structure with a tower and four bells,
and has a south aisle, in which there is an apartment, called Bassingbourne?s
Chapel, opposite which is a strong room, in which relics and images of saints
were deposited in Roman Catholic times. A brass plate is inscribed to the memory
of Hannah Knollys, who, in 1689, left a house and garden for the parish clerk,
and a yearly rent-charge of £7 for the vicar.
The Bishop of London is appropriator of most of the great tithes, and also
patron of the vicarage, valued in K.B. at £11, and in 1831 at £218, and now in
the incumbency of the Rev. V. N. Child, M.A., who has a handsome residence and
22a of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1839, for the following yearly
payments:- £654. 10s. to the Bishop of London; £105. 10s. to F. W. Nash, Esq.,
and £220 to the Vicar, who has also an augmentation of £55 per annum out of the
Bishop?s tithes, now held on lease by F. W. Nash, Esq.
An Independent Chapel, erected in 1808, and several houses in Takeley Street,
are in the extensive parish of Hatfield Broad Oak.
Those marked ^ are in Hatfield Broad Oak parish
Post Office at Rt. Lambert's. Letters via Dunmow & Bishop Stortford
^Bird John & Edw. carpenters, &c
Child Rev. Vicesimus Knox, M. A. vicar
Chopping Thos. vict. Green Man
Clarke Samuel, corn miller, &c
Flack Richard, butcher
^Hanson Rev. John, (Indpt. min.)
Lambert Robert, Post-office
Lambert Thomas, tailor & draper
Pallett Peter, sexton
Piper Isaac, corn miller
Poole Mr. Wm. Smith's Green; (& goldsmith in London)
Potter John, coal dealer, &c
Prior Joseph, cart owner
Robe Mrs. W. Frogs Hall
Speller John, vict. Rein Deer
Staines Jas. vict. Three Horse Shoes
Tomlin Mary Ann, schoolmistress
Warren Wm. Rt. clothier & furniture broker
Beerhouses
Clarke Samuel
Hall Hy. pig dlr
Lambert Thos.
Stokes John
Blacksmiths
Barltrop Daniel
Brown Charles
^Perry John
Boot & Shoemrs
Bentley Wm.
Chopping Wm.
^Cook David
Hayden John
Simmons Benj.
Speller Robert
Farmers (+ are Owners)
Chopping John
+Clarke Henry
+Elliot Geo. W.
Garret Robert, Jack's Green
Hockley Daniel, High House
Hockley Charles
+Lawrence Julius
Marshall John
Marshall Thos.
+Mumford Thos. Waltham Hall
Mumford Thos. Warish Hall
Mumford A. T.
Mumford G. H.
Mumford H. E.
+Parkins Thomas
+Patmore Nichs. Old House
Patmore Wm. & J.I.
+Scott Samuel, Smith's Green
Swan John
+White Susan
Grocers & Drapers
Aylett Wm.
^Bird Edward
Rous John Jas.
Speller Thomas
Stokes John
Wheelwrights
Heard Wm.
Willey Rt. Issac
Carriers, &c
Pass to Dunmow, & Bp. Stortford
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
TAKELEY is a village and parish on the road from Dunmow to Bishop's Stortford, with a station within the parish of Hatfield Broad Oak on the branch of the London and North Eastern railway from Bishop's Stortford to Braintree, 5 miles west of Dunmow, 4 east from Bishop's Stortford and 36 from London, in the Saffron Walden division of the county, Uttlesford hundred, Dunmow petty sessional division and rural district, Braintree and Dunmow joint county court district, and in the rural deanery of Dunmow, archdeaconry of Colchester and Chelmsford diocese. The church of St. Mary's is an ancient building of flint in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, south aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 4 bells: the font has an ancient and interesting cover which has been restored: the chancel, which was restored in 1874, when a chancel arch and organ chamber were erected, was again restored in 1914: a rood screen was erected in 1911: there are 400 sittings. The register dates from the year 1662. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300, with 6½ acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Chelmsford, and held since 1912 by the Rev. Edwin Henry Oakley M.A. of Queens' College, Cambridge. Here is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1812, seating 250 persons. A Recreational Hall was built in 1904. The parish is divided into several small manors. The ownership of the land is divided. The soil is clay and loam; subsoil, mixed. The crops are wheat, oats, barley, clover, beans and roots. The area is 3,188 acres; the population in 1931 was 848.
BAMBER, or BAMBROWS GREEN is a mile and a half north-east; SMITH'S GREEN, half a mile east; MOLE HILL GREEN, 3 miles north.
Post, M. O., T. & T. E. D. Office (situated in Hatfield Broad Oak parish). Letters through Bishop's Stortford, Herts
Police Station
Railway Station (L. & N. E)
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