History of Helions Bumpstead

History of Helions Bumpstead >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

BUMPSTEAD, (HELION) is a large and pleasant village, at the north-western extremity of this Hundred, 3 miles South West of Haverhill, and 8 miles East North East of Saffron Waldon. Its parish contains 906 inhabitants, and 3132 acres of land, bounded on the north by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and giving rise to a rivulet which flows eastward, through Steeple Bumpstead, to the Stour. It contains a large portion of rich meadow and pasture lands, and has many scattered farm-houses. It is in several manors, of which the following are the names and lords:- Dengie Helions, the Governors of St. Thomas’s Hospital; Bumpstead Hall and Steeple Bumpstead, J. Shaw, Esq.; and Olmsted Hall and Horsham Hall, belonging to Queen’s College, Cambridge. The Hamlet of Olmsted Green, includes about 500 acres in Cambridgeshire, and anciently belonged to the Olmsted family, and was formerly considered a hamlet of Castlecamps. The manor of Dengie Helions was held at the survey by Tihel, or Ti Hellus Brito, one the Britons or Armoricans who served in the rear of the Conqueror’s army. He was the founder of the Helion family, who were long seated here. An estate called Bublowes, belongs to the trustees of the late Richard Salway Esq., and was given by Simon de Bublowe, at an early period, to the hospital of St. John, of Jerusalem.

The Church (St. Andrew,) is a plain stone fabric, consisting of a nave and south aisle, leaded; a small tiled chancel, and a brick tower. The guild here, dedicated to St. Peter. The vicarage, valued in K. B. at £13, and in 1831 at £176, is in the patronage of Trinity College, Cambridge, and incumbency of the Rev. John Hodgson, M.A., who has a good residence, and 3½ acres of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1842, the vicarial for £274.16s., and the rectorial for £711.9s.9d. The latter belong to the Trustees of the late Richard Salway, Esq., and Wm. Gibson, Esq., of Ongar. The Church Land comprises 2R. 35P. Three cottages and a blacksmith’s shop have belonged to the poor parishioners from times immemorial.