Place:Springfield, Essex, England

NameSpringfield
Alt namesSpringafeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 105
Springhefeldasource: Domesday Book (1985) p 105
TypeParish
Coordinates51.747°N 0.509°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 1894-1934
Chelmsford, Essex, Englandmunicipal borough of which it was part 1934-1974
Chelmsford (district), Essex, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
NOTE: Springfield is a common name for a municipality throughout the English-speaking world. In addition to Springfield, Essex and Springfield, Massachusetts, there is also Springfield, Clark, Ohio, United States and many others in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Always write out the name of the place in full to prevent mix-ups.


the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Springfield has been a civil parish of the Borough of Chelmsford, Essex, England since the borough's foundation in 1974. The parish takes in the portion of Chelmsford north of river Chelmer and west of the A12 bypass and originally comprised the manors of Springfield Hall, Springfield Barnes (now Chelmer Village), Cuton Hall, and in part New Hall (now Beaulieu Park).

Until the 1950s the parish was a semi-rural village lying a mile north east of Chelmsford, on the old Roman Road. In 2008, according to a published estimate, the population of the parish was 11,500.

The parish was part of the Chelmsford Rural District from 1894 until 1934, when it was absorbed into Chelmsford Municipal Borough. The parish was originally in the Chelmsford Hundred.

The Chelmsford Rural District page has a map illustrating the location of the parish, numbered #29.

A former resident of the village of Springfield, William Pynchon (WR ref William Pynchon), went on to become one of the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony - a group of New World settlers whose capital city was Boston. In 1636, Pynchon and a group of pioneers founded Springfield, Massachusetts, beside New England's greatest river, the Connecticut River, amidst New England's most fertile soil.

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


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Springfield, Essex. 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.