Helions Bumpstead 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 Braintree district, in

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, located near Haverhill and the meeting-point of the Essex,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

and

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borders. It is 2 miles from

Steeple Bumpstead Steeple Bumpstead is a village and civil parish south of Haverhill, Suffolk, Haverhill in Braintree (district), Braintree district, Essex, England. The parish church does not have a steeple, although the Congregational Church has a small Victor ...

. Helions Bumpstead has "the greens"; Pale Green (), Wiggens Green (), and Drapers Green (). There are four roads into and out of the village; they are Mill Road, Water Lane, Sages End Road and Camps Road. The centre of the village is marked by the crossroads and

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

. There is also a meadow with a pond in the centre of the village. In 2011 the parish had a population of 439.

The Village

The main defining features of the village are the village post office, the village hall, the Three Horseshoes Public House and St Andrew's Church; the village is in the

Diocese of Chelmsford The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. It was created on 23 January 1914 from part of the Diocese of St Albans. It covers Essex and part of East London. Since 1984 it is divided into three ...

and shares its

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

with St Mary's, Steeple Bumpstead. There is also a Gospel Hall in the village. The church has a ring of 8 bells. The Three Horseshoes Public House was purchased by the community in March 2019 through a community share offer managed by the Helions Bumpstead Community Benefit Society. The pub underwent refurbishment and operated initially for the benefit of the community during the Covid 19 pandemic as a shop and then for Friday evening openings run by volunteers. In December 2021 the pub reopened fully when the Community Benefit Society appointed professional tenants. Around 2022, the village hall was undergoing refurbishment with money raised over the years from events and grants given to the village. The hall gained a new slate-tile pitched roof, was repainted, and had an extension to the storage area; its interior stage was removed to increase the space for functions. Every year Helions Bumpstead has its own Summer Fête, including a dog show and evening party, and Christmas Bazaar. A harvest supper is also organised annually to raise funds for the up-keep of St. Andrew's church. A

farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...

showcasing local produce was once held every third Saturday of the month in the village hall. The ''Helions Bumpstead Village Magazine'', comprising news articles and pieces of writing by villagers, is printed quarterly. It is subsidised by the sale of advertising space, which also adds to funds for the village hall. There is an annual Boxing Day walk, when people meet up at the Three Horseshoes car park and, each year, walk a different route around the village. The

Silver Jubilee Silver Jubilee marks a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, the 25th year of a monarch's reign or anything that has completed or is entering a 25-year mark. Royal Silver Jubilees since 1750 Note: This ...

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

was marked with the presentation of a village sign, featuring the village symbol (a red badge with a white diagonal cross), which stands in centre of the village. At the time of the Queen's

Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali language, ...

, the village held a large fair in her honour. A board featuring photographs of the event was temporarily erected inside the village hall to commemorate it.

Etymology

The name ''Bumpstead'', once referring to the whole area now known as

Steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a relig ...

and Helions Bumpstead, is first attested in a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

of 1042—albeit only in a copy of the mid-twelfth century—as ''Bumsted'' and ''Bumsteda''; it next appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 (in the spellings ''Bumesteda'', ''Bummesteda'', and ''Bunsteda''). The first element of the name is agreed probably to have been the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ''bune'', in this context meaning 'reeds' (though it could also mean 'flax' or 'hemp')—either because the settlement was named for the presence of reeds themselves, or because it was named after a river called ''Bune'' that had itself been named for its reeds. This interpretation fits the presence of a river characterised by reeds running through Steeple Bumpstead. The second element is thought either to have originated as Old English ''stede'', meaning 'place', or ''hām-stede'', meaning 'homestead'. Thus the name once meant something like 'reed-place' or 'place on the River ''Bune'''.''The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society'', ed. by Victor Watts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. ''Helions BUMPSTEAD''.Helion Bumpstead and Steeple Bumpstead
, ''Survey of English Place-Names''. In time, two distinct centres developed, with the Helions part taking on the name ''Bumpstead Magna'' (Great) and the Steeple district ''Bumpstead Parva'' (Little).Roy Brazier, ''Portrait of Helions Bumpstead''. The 'Helions' part of the name ''Helions Bumpstead'' comes from the name of the landowner Tihel the Breton, also known as Tihel de Herion, who came from Helléan in the Morhiban district of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

rewarded Tihel with the manor of Bumpstead for his participation in the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

. (The name of Steeple Bumpstead arises from the presence there of a church tower.)

History

Helion Bumpstead's manor house is on a hill facing due east; the church is on a small mound less than half a mile away. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century the lords of the manor were the Reynolds family, which produced several distinguished politicians and judges. In the Sages End area of the village, a spring called the 'Dropping Well' was the source of the best water in the village. It was noted as running at four gallons a minute in a report by Hubert Airy in 1871 when he visited the village to investigate the poor sanitary state that existed there. Even in the summer months the spring ran nearly two gallons each minute, enticing the inhabitants of Castle Camps to walk there when really hot weather dried up their watering holes. 'Dropping Well' was the source of much of Helions Bumpstead's water, as it made its way down Sages End road to join the main rivulet near the crossroads, thence to flow eastward into the River Stour and to the sea at

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

. During the 1914 Farm Workers' strike, the village hosted many talks by leading socialists including

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...

which attracted the highest turnout of over 2,000 people in July. The

De Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

, one of the most famous aeroplanes of the Second World War, was tested on the airfield near Castle Camps. As of the early 2020s, many of the hangars in which the planes were constructed were still standing.

Notable residents

The actor Norman Pierce, known for his role as Jim Sturry in the 1942

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on th ...

film '' Went the Day Well?'', as well as many other roles in films including '' Saloon Bar'', '' The Four Feathers'' and ''

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' is a 1943 British romantic-war film written, produced and directed by the British film-making team of Powell and Pressburger, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and ...

'', was a resident of Helion Bumpstead and died there in 1968 aged 67.

References

External links