Place:Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Sawbridgeworth is a small, mainly residential, town and also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire District of Hertfordshire, England. It is also known also as Sapsworth.

Between 1901 and 1974 it was an urban district. Sawbridgeworth borders Harlow and is four miles south of Bishop's Stortford, twelve miles east of Hertford and nine miles north of Epping. The river Stort flows through the east of the town, past the Maltings. Its population as recorded in the 2011 UK census was 8,458.

Nearby villages include High Wych and Much Hadham. The parish includes the village of Spelbrook or Spellbrook.

History

The Manor of "Sabrixteworde" (one of the many spellings previously associated with the town) was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. After the Battle of Hastings it was granted to Geoffrey de Mandeville I by William the Conqueror. Local notables have included John Leventhorpe, an executor of both King Henry IV and King Henry Vs' wills, and Anne Boleyn, who was given the Pishiobury/Pishobury estate, located to the south of the town.

Much of the town centre is a conservation area; many of the buildings date from the Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian periods. Great St Mary's church was originally built in the 13th century (although a church on the site existed in Saxon times) and includes a Tudor tower containing a clock bell (1664) and eight ringing bells, the oldest of which dates from 1749. Ralph Jocelyn of Hyde Hall, who was twice Lord Mayor of London in the 15th century, is buried here; images of many of his family and other locals have been engraved on brass, and hence the church is popular for enthusiasts of brass rubbing. The ghost of Sir John Jocelyn, known for his love of horses, is reputed to appear riding a white horse on the old carriage drive every 1 November.

The town's prosperity came from the local maltings, owned by George Fawbert and John Barnard; in 1839 they set up the Fawbert and Barnard charity to fund local children and their education, funding a local infant school that still exists today.

During the Second World War RAF Sawbridgeworth operated Supermarine Spitfires, Westland Lysanders, North American Mustangs, and de Havilland Mosquitoes. The joinery works, located between the canal and the railway and owned by the building contractor Walter Lawrence & Son Ltd, built over 1,000 Mosquito fuselages for deHavilland during World War 2.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Sawbridgeworth.

Research Tips

• Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Register Office Block CHR002, County Hall, Hertford SG13 8EJ. Indexes and Catalog
• Hertfordshire Family History Society
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• GENUKI outlines information for genealogists for the county. It is also a doorway to pages covering individual parishes.
• Joiner's Marriage Index is available for Hertfordshire on GENUKI. Individual parishes are covered separately.
• Wikimedia Commons has a variety of maps of Hertfordshire, and parts of Hertfordshire, past and present.
• 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.
• The FamilySearch Wiki 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).
• The hundred of Braughing: Introduction and map as provided by British History Online in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, volume 3, pp 289-291
• The parish of Sawbridgeworth ibid, volume 3, pp 332-347