Place:Ramsden Bellhouse, Essex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

From 1894 until 1934 Ramsden Bellhouse (#19 on the map) was a civil parish in the Billericay Rural District. In 1934 it was split with the larger northern section transferred to South Hanningfield civil parish in the Chelmsford Rural District and the southern section becoming part of Great Burstead civil parish in Billericay Urban District. The northern section included the settlement of Ramsden Heath. Since 1974 the southern section has been in the Billericay area of the district of Basildon, while the northern section is covered by the Chelmsford District. The parish was originally in the Barstable Hundred.

A Nineteenth Century Description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Ramsden Bellhouse from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"RAMSDEN-BELLHOUSE, a parish, with a village, in Billericay [registration] district, Essex; adjacent to the river Crouch, 2¾ miles E by S of Billericay, and 4¾ N by W of Pitsea [railway] station. It has a post-office, of the name of Ramsden-Heath, under Ingatestone. Acres: 2,685. Real property: £2,917. Population: 430. Houses: 102. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory, annexed to the rectory of Stock-Harward, in the diocese of Rochester. The church is ancient but good, and has a tower and spire."

Research Tips

These two maps show the changes to Ramsden Bellhouse in 1934.

• Map of Essex showing civil parishes at 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time from the Ordnance Survey original.
• Map of Essex showing civil parishes in 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time from the Ordnance Survey original.

• 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