CRESSING
Post Office Directory of Essex ~ 1871
Submitted and Transcribed by Essex Villages
CRESSING is a village and parish, in the Eastern division of the county, Witham hundred,Braintree union and county court district, Witham rural deanery, Colchester archdeaconry, and diocese of Rochester, and formerly belonging to King Harold ll.; it is situated on a small feeder of the Blackwater, 3 miles south-east from Braintree, and 5 north from Witham and Kelvedon. The Maldon, Witham and Braintree Railway passes through this parish, and has a station at Bullford.
The church of All Saints is a small old stone building; it has a nave, chancel, small spire and 1 bell, and contains an ancient monument of the Nevilles, a few brasses, and font; it was restored and seated with open seats in 1868. The register dates from the year 1754.
The living is a vicarage, value �220, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Witham, and held by the Rev. William Hooper, M.A., of Wadham College, Oxford. Here is a National school. The Independents have a small chapel here. The Knights Templars, who had at one time had a commandery or preceptory here, called Cressing Temple, possessed the advowson; it subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, and reverted to the Crown at the general suppression of religious houses. Captain Stuart is lord of the manor.
The principal landowners are Captain Stuart and Jeffery Grimwood Grimwood, Esq. The soil is a rich loam; subsoil, clay and loam. The chief crops are wheat, beans and barley. The area is 2,357 acres, and the population in 1861 was 582; gross estimated rental, �4,230; rateable value, �3,801.
BOARSLYE GREEN is a one mile south-east
Parish Clerk, James Kerlogue
Post Office- James Kerlogue, receiver
Letters arrive from Braintree at 8am.; dispatched at 5pm. The nearest money order office is at Braintree
National School, Miss Susan Mary Partridge, mistress
Hooper Rev. William, M.A. Vicarage
Horsnaill William, Bullford mill
Commercial
Ayton John, carpenter
Baines Thorogood, Three Ashes
Cheek Eliza (Mrs.), beer retailer
Cousins George, farmer
Cousins George, jun. farmer
Cousins Thomas, farmer
Horsnaill & Catchpool, mllr, Bullford mll
Humphreys John, farmer
Johnson Hy. bricklayer & shopkeeper
Joscelyne James Robert, farmer & thrashing machine proprietor
Kerlogue Jas, shoe maker & parish clerk
Laver Joseph, farmer
Mears Joseph, farm bailiff to Thomas H. Shoobridge
Raynor Joseph, farmer
Russell William, carpenter
Sach Edward, farmer & miller
Sadler John, farmer
Stebbings Charles John, farmer
Theobald William, farmer
Totham James, boot & shoe maker
Tunbridge Jacob, farmer
Willers John, beer retailer & blacksmith