Springfield is a settlement and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of the borough of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, which is now a north-eastern suburb of the city of

. In 2008 it had a population of 17,405.

History

Until the 1950s, the parish was a semi-rural village lying one mile north east of

, on the old Roman Road, with little to attract the visitor outside of the annual Essex show, a half dozen pubs and the town's

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

and

Essex Police Essex Police is a territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Essex, in the East of England. Essex Police is responsible for a population of over 1.8 million people and an area of . The chief constable is Ben-Julian Harring ...

headquarters, both of which still lie to the east of the Roman road. The Essex show-ground was once sited on fields north of The Green, and south of Pump Lane. Since this time, the former show site along with a thousand or so acres of surrounding arable land have been developed to create the most populous suburb of Chelmsford. An area in the north of the parish was transferred to Broomfield in 1888. Larger areas were transferred to Chelmsford in 1907 and 1934. The historic heart of the parish, now within Chelmsford's unparished area, is centred on the Anglican All Saints' Church, Springfield Place and Springfield Green. This area is one of the few not to have been visibly transformed in the last 50 years. From 1894 to 1974 it was in Chelmsford Rural District. In 1974 it became part of the non-metropolitan district of Chelmsford. Listed buildings in Springfield include Springfield Hall, The Old Rectory, Springfield Place (purchased by Thomas Brograve in 1781) and Dukes Cottages.

Geography

The parish originally took in the portion of the town north of the River Chelmer and west of the A12 road, and comprised the manors of Springfield Hall, Springfield Barnes (now Chelmer Village), Cuton Hall, and part of

New Hall New Hall may refer to: * New Hall, Fazakerley, a historic complex that was originally a model village, in Liverpool, England * New Hall, Woodford, a 17th-century cottage in Woodford, Greater Manchester, England * New Hall moated site, a scheduled ...

(now Beaulieu Park). Now that Chelmer Village is a separate parish, Springfield extends north-west from the A138 road as far as the river.

Springfield, Massachusetts

A former resident of the village of Springfield, William Pynchon, went on to become one of the leaders of l

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

– a group of

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

settlers whose capital city was

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. In 1636, Pynchon and a group of pioneers founded

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

, beside New England's largest river, the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

, amidst New England's most fertile soil. Originally named Agawam (now a suburb of the city itself, featuring the Six Flags New England amusement park), the settlement was renamed "Springfield" in Pynchon's honour, after he had suffered indignities from Connecticut's Captain John Mason – the notorious " Indian Killer" of

British America British America collectively refers to various British colonization of the Americas, colonies of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and its predecessors states in the Americas prior to the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1 ...

Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Na ...

– who expressed disdain at Pynchon's "delicate treatment" of the region's Native People. After this, Springfield forever aligned with Boston, although 89 miles separate the two, instead of aligning with

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, now the state capital of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

– only 23 miles south of Springfield. This city was the first of many across the English-speaking world to take the name of the Essex village. Among places named after Springfield, Massachusetts, is

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

, the capital of that state.

Education

The parish hosts a number of schools: * Secondary: ** New Hall School (RC) ** The Boswells School * Primary: ** Barnes Farm School (in Chelmer Village) ** Bishops Primary School (CoE) ** Chancellor Park (in Chelmer Village) ** Perryfields School ** Springfield Primary School (formerly Nabbotts School) ** The Tyrrells School ** Trinity Road Community School New Hall School (independent, RC) is nearby at

Boreham Boreham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Essex, England. The parish is in the City of Chelmsford and Chelmsford (UK Parliament constituency), Chelmsford Parliament constituency. The village is approximately northeast ...

References

External links

Springfield Parish CouncilSpringfield Green Conservation area
{{Chelmsford Populated places in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Chelmsford