Place:South Hanningfield, Essex, England

Watchers
NameSouth Hanningfield
Alt namesHaningefeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 102
Haningfeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 105
TypeParish
Coordinates51.65°N 0.517°E
Located inEssex, England
See alsoChelmsford Hundred, Essex, Englandancient hundred in which it was located
Chelmsford Rural, Essex, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1974
Chelmsford (district), Essex, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

South Hanningfield is a small village and civil parish in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England. The village is located on the south bank of the Hanningfield Reservoir, around 6 miles (10 km) south-southeast of the city of Chelmsford, and around 2 1⁄2 miles (4 km) north of Wickford.

The centre of South Hanningfield is situated around the village green, known as the Tye. There are approximately 80 households in the village, but the whole parish had a population of 2,629 as of the UK census of 2011.

Since 1934 when large parts of the parishes of Ramsden Bellhouse, Ramsden Crays and Downham were absorbed into South Hanningfield, the civil parish has included the larger villages of Ramsden Heath and Downham. Prior to this transfer the area of South Hanningfield was 1,489 acres. In 1951 it was 4,933 acres, and was reduced to 4,235 by 1961.

The parish was part of the Chelmsford Rural District from 1894 until 1974, and since 1974 it has been located in the Chelmsford District or Borough. The parish was originally in the Chelmsford Hundred.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

HANNINGFIELD (South), a parish in Chelmsford [registration] district, Essex; 3¼ miles N of Wickford, and 7 S by E of Chelmsford [railway] station. Post town: Stock, under Ingatestone. Acres: 1,526. Real property: £2,050. Population: 235. Houses: 51. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to Lord Petre. The living is a rectory annexed to the rectory of West Hanningfield, in the diocese of Rochester. The church is good.

The Chelmsford Rural District page has a map illustrating the location of the parish, numbered #28.

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