History of Asheldham

St. Lawrence's Church, Asheldham
©Robert Edwards
Photograph by kind permission of Robert Edwards,
contributor to the Geograph Project

History of Asheldham >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

Asheldham
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.

ASHELDHAM is a small parish of scattered houses, 2 miles North East of Southminster, and 10 miles East South East of Maldon, containing 140 souls, and 1673 acres of land. It is in three manors, viz., Asheldham Hall and New Hall, belonging to Lord Petre, and Bodenyks, belonging to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London; but part of the soil belongs to a few smaller owners. Eudo Dapifer held the parish at the Domesday Survey and it afterwards passed to the Roos Brockhole, Devereux, Warren, and other families.

The Church (St. Lawrence,) is a plain fabric, with a square tower, and a nave and chancel of one pace. It was given by Robert, son of Godebold, to Little Horksley Priory. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in K.B. at £16.13s.4d., and in 1831 at £348. The Bishop of London is patron, and the Rev. W.W. Dakins, D.D., rector of St. Michael's, Crooked lace, London, is the incumbent. The Parsonage house is small, but the glebe is 40A., and the tithes were commuted in 1837 for £420 per annum. The poor have £1.3s.6½d. yearly from William Aylett's Charity. About 150A. of common land, in this parish, was enclosed in 1845.