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- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Chelmsford Rural District was a local government district in Essex, England from 1894 to 1974. It surrounded, but did not include, the town of Chelmsford; which formed a municipal borough.
The rural district was formed in 1894 and was based on the Chelmsford rural sanitary district. The parishes in the map and table below were part of the rural district during at least part of its existence.
During 1934 there were some changes to the district boundary. The Municipal Borough of Chelmsford expanded and gained 1,659 acres (7 km2) from the rural district, including parts of the parishes of Broomfield, Springfield, Widford, and Writtle. At the same time 1,282 acres (5 km2) were transferred from Buttsbury parish to form part of Billericay Urban District. Later that year, an area of 6,128 acres (25 km2), made up of Mountnessing and parts of the parishes of Downham, Ramsden Bellhouse, Ramsden Crays and Shenfield, was gained from the abolished Billericay Rural District. Also at this time 274 acres (1 km2) was gained from the parish of Hockley in Rochford Rural District and attached to the parish of Woodham Ferrers.
The map includes parishes that were in existence in Chelmsford Rural District before 1934 plus those that were transferred to Chelmsford from Billericay in 1934. The dashed line below Chelmsford Rural District boundary illustrates these alterations, but not accurately.
The district was abolished in 1974 and its former area was merged with the municipal borough of Chelmsford to form the current non-metropolitan district of Chelmsford, which inherited the borough charter. The parishes of Ingatestone and Fryerning and Mountnessing became part of the district of Brentwood.
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Parishes
Research tips
- Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
- The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
- GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
- Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
- For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
- FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
- The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
- A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
- British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
- Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
- Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
- Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
- Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
- Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
- Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
- Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
- As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
- Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records
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