Great Waltham, also known as Church End, is a village 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 ...

in the

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 ...

district, in the county of

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.

Description

The parish contains the village of Ford End, and the hamlets of Broad's Green, Howe Street, Littley Green, North End and Fanner's Green, and the hamlet of

Breeds A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

, part of Great Waltham village. Walthambury Brook, a tributary of the

River Chelmer The River Chelmer flows entirely through the county of Essex, England; it runs from the north-west of the county through Chelmsford to the River Blackwater, near Maldon. Course The source of the river is in the parish of Debden in north west E ...

, flows west to east through the parish and at the north of the village. It is twinned with the French town of Ceyrat.

History

Local woman Elizabeth Lowys was the first English woman executed for witchcraft in 1565, after the passing of the Witchcraft Act 1563.

Landmarks

There were Roman settlements in the area. The Church of St Mary and St Lawrence is of Norman or earlier origin and is constructed of flint and stone. There is an Elizabethan

guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

, also known as Badynghams, and a Grade I listed house called Langley's.

Amenities

The village has a primary school, a post office, two churches and a few pubs. It had a bakery, a garage and a small fire station but they closed down in the late 1900s. The village of

Little Waltham Little Waltham is a village and civil parish just north of Chelmsford, in Essex, England. It is adjacent to the village of Great Waltham. The Domesday Book refers to the two villages as Waltham, consisting of several manors. The site of an Iro ...

is about one mile away.

Location grid

References

External links

Listed buildings in Great Waltham
Villages in Essex Civil parishes in Essex City of Chelmsford {{Essex-geo-stub