Place:Essex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Essex is a ceremonial and administrative county in England in the United Kingdom and is the home county northeast of the city of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south and London to the southwest. Essex County Council is the principal local authority for much of the county, sharing functions with 12 district and borough councils. The county town is Chelmsford. Essex is a region at the second level for European statistical purposes.

The Ceremonial County forming this region comprises three areas of local government: the two-tiered non-metropolitan county of Essex and the unitary authority areas of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea.

The historic county can be considered the oldest as Wessex and Mercia were replaced for administration since before the Norman period and a vestige of the term Northumbria exists in Northumberland — Essex occupies the eastern portion of the pre-England Kingdom of Essex. Large swathes of the county which are closest to London are part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which prohibits urban development in its green spaces. It is the location of the regionally significant Lakeside Shopping Centre and London Stansted Airport; and the new towns of Basildon and Harlow.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe (i.e. the "East Saxons"), the eastern kingdom of the Saxons. Originally (recorded in 527 AD) Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and most of what later became Hertfordshire as its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. Colchester in the north east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating back to before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunum and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint. In changes before the Norman conquest the Kingdom of Essex was subsumed into the Kingdom of England and Essex became a county.

County-wide administration

Essex County Council was formed in 1889. However County Boroughs of West Ham (1889-1965), Southend-on-Sea (1914–1974) and East Ham (1915–1965) formed part of the county but were unitary authorities (not under county council control). 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, as shown in the map on the right.

Parish-level administration - changes

A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford and Sawbridgeworth. At the time of the main changes around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries; parts of Helions Bumpstead, Sturmer, Kedington and Ballingdon-with-Brundon were transferred to Suffolk and Great Chishill, Little Chishill and Heydon were transferred to Cambridgeshire. Later, part of Hadstock, part of Ashton and part of Chrishall were transferred to Cambridgeshire and part of Great Horkesley went to Suffolk and several other small parcels of land were transferred to all those counties.

Boundaries

The boundary with Greater London was established in 1965 when East Ham and West Ham county boroughs and the Barking, Chingford, Dagenham, Hornchurch, Ilford, Leyton, Romford, Walthamstow and Wanstead and Woodford districts^[1] were transferred to form the London boroughs of Barking, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region.

Two unitary authorities

In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the administrative county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities (numbered 13 and 14 on the map to the right).

Essex Police covers the administrative county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford. Before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors. Before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The County Hall, made a listed building in 2007, dates largely from the mid-1930s and is decorated with fine artworks of that period, mostly the gift of the family who owned the textile firm Courtaulds.

Research Tips

Essex Archives Online is a free online service from the Essex Record Office, giving access to a variety of documents and records. You can search any of the indexes by either Person, Places, Subjects, Institutions or Documents.