Belchamp Walter the Post Office Directory 1878
This is the transcript from another document found in the vestry of St Mary Belchamp Walter.
This document is particularly interesting as it is obviously not written by a resident of the area. The description of
the Church and the assignment of the chantry chapel as the "tomb of DeVere, Earl of Oxford"
is particularly of note.
The text in the green boxes are a transcript from the original typed document.
BELCHAMP WALTER is a parish in the Eastern division of the county, Hinckford hundred. Sudbury union and county court district,
archdeaconry of Colchester and rural deanery of Hedingham, arcdeconrey of Colchester and diocese of St. Albans.
4 miles West of Sudbury station, situated on a brook falling into the stour.
The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a small building with chancel, nave, tower and 8 bells; it has an ancient carved stone
Norman font; the church was thoroughly restored in 1860 at a cost of £1,400, by the Rev.
J. M. St. Clere Raymond: there are several stained windows: It contains a fine-toned organ and some monuments of the
Raymond family; there is a very handsome carved stone canopy of the Decorated period over the tomb of DeVere, Earl of Oxford:
a reredos is in course of erection at the expense of the Rev. J.M. St. Clere Raymond. The register dates from the year 1559.
The living is a vicarage annexed to Bulmer, jointh yearly value: £445, in the gift of the Rev. J. M. St. Clere Raymond, and held
Robert Brisco Earée is curate.
The Rev. J. M. St.Clere Raymond who is lord of the manor and Wm. Wright Esq. are the principal landowners.
The Hall, the seat of the Rev. J. M. St.Clere Raymond, is a substantial brick mansion of the time of Queen Anne,
standing in pleasure grounds and park looking over the valley to the parish of Bulmer: the Hall containsa fine collection of
pictures and china.
Top
The soil is loam and clay: subsoil, clay and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, beans and barley.
The area is 2,125 acres; rateatle value f4,012; and the population in 1871 was 735.
NORTH END is a hamlet 2½ miles west.
NORTH WOOD (formerly extra parochial) is a parish in the union of Sudbury, having three houses and a population in
1971 of 10.
Parish Clerk, William Stammers.
Post Office. - Frederick Hawkins, receiver.
Letters received from Sudbury arrive at 7.40a.m.; dispatched at 5.5p.m. The nearest money order office is Sudbury.
What follows appears to be a directory of inhabitants of the Village in 1878:
I have left the spellings as they appear in the typed document
P.O. Listing - Links to some names below
- National School, Miss Marion Elizabeth Parsons, mistress.
- Earée Rev. Robert Brisco (curate)
- Raymond Rev.J.M.st.Clere, The Hall
- Wright William, Eyston hall
- Adams Charles, farmer, Larges
- Brand Joseph Bamund, farmer, Clarke's farm
- Cooper John, farmer
- Copland Frederick, miller & malster
- Firmin Harriet (Mrs) farmer, Fisher's farm
- Hawkins Fredr, blcksmth & sub-pstmstr
- Martin Albert, beer retailer
- Martin Thomas, carrier
- Messent John, shoe maker
- Offord John Edey, farmer, Waits farm
- Pannell Joseph, wheelwright
- Pearsons James, Eight Bells, & farmer
- Prigg John, farmer Crows Farm
- Pulford Arthur, miller
- Smith William, farmer, Merryhall & Larriots
- Stunt Robert Wright, farmer
- Twitchett Peter, shopkeeper & shoemkr
Links to persons in the P.O. listing
Where these are known they have been added. These could be to where they are buried in St. Mary's
Churchyard, where they lived/worked or an appearance in a census.
