History of Belchamp Otton

All Saints Church, Belchamp Otton
©Robert Edwards
Photograph by kind permission of Robert Edwards,
contributor to the Geograph Project

History of Belchamp Otton >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

BELCHAMP, (OTTEN) a pleasant scattered village, 6 miles West of Sudbury, has in its parish 389 inhabitants and 1688 acres of fertile land. Samuel Sampson, Esq., is lord of the manor, but a great part of the soil belongs to George Thistlewood, Thomas Pung, and Robert Halls, Esqrs.; and Messrs. Henry Baker, William Parmenter, and John Pratt. The three latter have neat houses here. In the reign of Henry II. one of the ancient family of Otto, or Othon, held the manor of Otten Belchamp Hall, and it afterwards passed to the Botetourt and other families. The Hall was nearly all rebuilt, on a larger scale, by Mr. Baker, its present owner, in 1845.

The Church (All Saints,) is a small neat structure, which was repaired in 1847, and has a modern tower and three bells. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £12, and in 1831 at £355, is in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. E.H. Dawson, M.A., who has a good residence and 3A. 1R. 25P. of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1840 for £443 per annum. The poor of this parish and Little Yeldham have £8 a year as a rent of a house and 2½A. of land, in the latter parish, left by John Cooke, in the 1st of Philip and Mary. The Church Land comprises 8A. let for about £14, and bequeathed in 1498 by John Pryce, partly for superstitious uses.