Place:Great Canfield, Essex, England

Watchers
NameGreat Canfield
Alt namesCanedfeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 100
Canefeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 100
Chenefeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 100
TypeParish
Coordinates51.833°N 0.3°E
Located inEssex, England
See alsoDunmow Hundred, Essex, Englandancient hundred in which it was located
Dunmow Rural, Essex, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1974
Uttlesford (district), Essex, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Canfield is a village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford District, in the English county of Essex. It is near the small town of Great Dunmow and about a mile to the west of High Roding.

"Great Canfield is watered by the River Roding – the village runs from Stane Street and includes the hamlets of Hope End Green, Canfield Hart, Bacon End and Green Street. Canfield Castle is an impressive earthwork near the church and is known as The Mount. This is all that remains of a castle put by the de Veres, Earls of Oxford. The motte and bailey plan is probably Norman but not documented until 1214. The outer court covers seven acres and is surrounded by a wide moat filled from the river. The mount and church, with the River Roding, form a lovely setting." (Source: The Recorders of Ucclesford History)

The parish was part of the Dunmow Rural District from 1894 until 1974. Since 1974 it has been located in the Uttlesford District of Essex.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Great Canfield.

Research Tips

  • A map of Dunmow Rural District, marked as D8.
  • The Recorders of Ucclesford History provides a series of webpages on most of the parishes in Ucclesford District. They also host transcriptions from various parishes provided by local family history societies.
  • 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
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Great Canfield. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.