History of Ashingdon

Ashingdon, St Andrew's Minster c1955
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.

History of Ashingdon >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

Main Road, Ashingdon
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.

ASHINGDON, or Assingden, is a small parish and village, 3 miles North by West of Rochford, containing only 1146 acres of land, and 119 inhabitants. As noticed with Hockley, this is the Assandune where Canute obtained a great victory over the Saxons under Edmund Ironside. The manor was held by Suene, at the Norman Survey, and it afterwards passed to the Perot, Coggeshall, Boteler, Bullen, Rich, and other families, and it is now held by the Earl of Mornington, but most of the soil belongs to the executors of the late Mr. John Dowler, and other proprietors.

Smithy, Ashingdon
Reproduced courtesy of Footsteps.
Quality reproductions of old photographs.

The Church (St. Andrew,) stands on a bold eminence, commanding a view of nearly all the others in this and the adjoining Hundred. It is a small ancient structure, and formerly contained an image, which, in superstitious ages, was in high celebrity for the miracles said to have been wrought by it. The benefice is a discharged rectory, valued in K.B. at £8.13s.4d., and in 1831 at £254. It is in the patronage of the Rev. John Nottidge, and incumbency of the Rev. Septimus Nottidge, M.A. Mr. James Keyes, of Little Stambridge, and Mr. Christopher Dale Knapping, of South Shoebury, occupy farms here; and the resident occupiers are the executors of John Dowler; William Keyes, Moon Farm; Miss Emma Potton, farmer; and John Whittingham, blacksmith and beer seller.

If you wish to trace any of these people on the census returns, the nearest census date for this 1848 directory is the 1851 census. This can be obtained from ancestry.co.uk: 1851 England Census; or, genesreunited.co.uk: 1851 census