Please email suitable material for this web site, including pictures, local news, details of events at the Village Hall, etc. to -
jekar1@ aol.com
See The Summer 2010 Edition of the award winning Great Hallingbury Highlights Magazine, and the Parish News for details of Village Hall and History Society events.
Just click on 'Our files' (in the left panel, and then scroll down to the files you wish to view).
What a wonderful show! - our thanks to all who contributed to the 2010 Great and Little Hallingbury Flower Show.
More Pictures to follow in the next Highlights
HALLINGBURY HIKE HIGHLIGHTS AIRPORT BLIGHT AROUND STANSTED -
Sunday 26th September
Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) is staging the Hallingbury Hike, a special four mile circular walk, on Sunday 26 September to highlight the blight which lingers over the beautiful north west Essex countryside in the wake of the recently withdrawn plans to construct a second runway at Stansted.
Hikers will set off from 2pm after a commemorative photo at the village hall in Great Hallingbury, just to the south of the airport. There is no charge for taking part. Refreshments will be available from 1pm to 5pm for departing and returning ramblers and route maps will be provided.
While the area around Stansted Airport is not spectacular in the way of the Lake District or the Devon coast, it nevertheless has its own quiet, distinctive and outstanding beauty. In the words of Sir John Betjeman, writing in October 1967: “It is a quiet, prosperous, agricultural area of old stone and flint churches, pargetted cottages with red tiled roofs, spreading farms and gabled manor houses, little hills, elms, oaks, willowy streams and twisty lanes leading to towns of such renowned beauty as Thaxted and Saffron Walden. The very fact that this country is so gentle, unobvious and typical of the best of England makes it all the more important that, being so near to London, it is preserved from noise and ‘development’.”
However, while plans for a second runway at Stansted have been scrapped for the time being, airport operator BAA is refusing to give a guarantee that it will not revisit its plans for major expansion over coming decades. This is exacerbating the blight which has hung over the area since plans to expand Stansted were mooted for the fourth time by the Government in 2002.
A further concern is the stated desire of BAA to use the existing facilities at the airport more intensively – something which would have far reaching effects for those living under flight paths not only in Essex but extending into Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.
Said Carol Barbone, SSE’s Campaign Director: “The second runway threat may have receded for the moment, but the spectre of expansion will continue to hang over the community until we have a long term guarantee that plans to make Stansted Airport bigger than Heathrow today will never again be revisited.”
More information on the Hallingbury Hike is available from the Coming Events section of the SSE website at www.stopstanstedexpansion.com or by calling 01279 870558. Great Hallingbury is located just off the M11 (junction 8) and the village hall is in Church Road, CM22 7TZ.
The Campaign Team
Stop Stansted Expansion 01279 870558 info@stopstanstedexpansion.com www.stopstanstedexpansion.com
“Our Community – Our Responsibility”
Buy a shingle to repair our spire -
Just one pound each - The wooden shingles(tiles) on the St.Giles spire have been attacked by woodpeckers and we now need to replace a number of shingles - please support our appeal.
Terry Waite and Beryl Mead wife of the late Norman Mead MBE visit Broxted for the SSE Tree Planting Ceremony - Sunday 29th November 2009
Norman Mead was Chairman, and a member of the Great Hallingbury Parish Council for many years. His memory was honoured recently by Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE). Norman Mead MBE was the first Chairman of SSE and he fought against the expansion of Stansted Airport over three decades.
Patron Terry Waite CBE visited the SSE Wood on Broxted Hill on Sunday 29 November to plant an oak tree in honour of Norman. The event took place during National Tree Week.
More information and photographs on the SSE web site - www.stopstanstedexpansion.com
THE MOBILE POLICE OFFICE - WILL BE AT THE VILLAGE HALL ON THE FOLLOWING
FRIDAY’S FROM 3.00 TO 4.00 pm. 19th March, 23rd April, 21st May, 18th June, 13th August
THE MOBILE LIBRARY WILL BE AT: BEDLARS GREEN 2.10 TO 2.25pm WOODSIDE GREEN 2.25 TO 2.50pm
ON ALTERNATE WEDNESDAYS - 17th March, 31st March, 14th April, 21st April, 12th May, 26th May, 9th June, 23rd June, 4th August, 18th August.
Click on 'Links to related Websites' to see the Little Hallingbury Website and the Bishop's Storford Camera Club Website.
The manor of Hallingbury Place was adjacent to Hatfield Forest which became a royal forest under William the Conqueror and was part of the Forest of Essex. The present villages of Great and Little Hallingbury run around the perimeter of the estate of the former Hallingbury Place.
The famous Residents of Great Hallingbury –
200 AD – 1923 AD
Romans
There are many Roman remains in the village. The Chancel arch in the church is built of Roman bricks. There have been many finds of pottery, i.e. Samian ware in the village.
Saxons
The Romans left Britain in 410AD, and the Saxons took over parts of this area, the tribal leader Hallinga giving his name to the fort he built, (Hallinga’s burh)
Domesday 1086
The domesday book refers to the land before Williams’s time. Hallingbury was held by Edith, along with a freeman Godith and a thane Asgar. Edith was the mistress of King Harold, nick-named Swanneck, and legend says she was buried in St. Michaels church. The first Norman to hold the land was Geoffrey Martel, who held several manors in Great Hallingbury, with 25 acres of meadow worth 28 pence. The village also had a priest, 5 plough teams, 8 villagers (there had been 18), 5 borders, woodland for 600 pigs, 8 cattle, 120 sheep, 8 swine and 3 beehives. It was worth £6.
The Normans built the church, although only the chancel arch and one small window remain from this period.
Henry Parker
Henry Parker, Lord Morley, was a gentleman usher to King Henry VIII and was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. In around 1518, he took over the Hallingbury estates. He probably built the Tutor house, which was finally pulled down in 1923. Henry died in 1556 and the funeral helms in the church are his. (one is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum).
Henry’s grandson succeeded him. He was also called Henry and was a recusant in Elizabeth’s reign, which is probably why the priest, Richard Amadas continued to worship as a Catholic. He hid the altar Statues in the walls of the church. They were found when the church was rebuilt in the nineteenth century.
Henry was implicated in the rebellion of the Northern earls against Elizabeth in 1570, although previously in 1560, he had entertained Elizabeth at Hallingbury Place. After the uprising, he was considered a dangerous traitor and fled abroad. The crown seized the estates.
After the death of Henry, his son Edward was restored to the estates. He conformed to the Protestant religion, and in 1586 was one of the judges in the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. He again entertained Elizabeth on one of her progresses through Essex and in 1592 he bought Hatfield Forest, previously a royal hunting forest.
William Parker
William Parker 4th baron Mounteagle and Lord Morley was the next Parker of note. He married Elizabeth Tresham, sister of Sir Francis Tresham, one of the plotters in the Gunpowder plot in 1605. Realising his brother-in-law could be blown up in Parliament, attending the House of Lords,Tresham sent a letter to Mounteagle saying that “they shall receive a terrible blow, this Parliament” Mounteagle informed Sir Robert Cecil and James I and the plotters were caught. Some 30 barrels of gun powder and a large store of wood were found along with Guy Fawkes in the basement of Parliament. Lord Mounteagle went on to become a member of the Council in1606. He was a member of the East India Company. He died in 1622 and was buried in the church.
In the reign of James I there lived in Great Hallingbury another important person – William Bedwell. Born in 1562 he lived until 1632. He was an important Cambridge Scholar and is believed to have lived at Bedwell (or Bedlars) Green. He became known as the father of Arabic Studies, but was also a mathematician who wrote several mathematical treatises. He was the first teacher of Arabic in England, and author of the first European book on the Koran. He also translated the Bible into Arabic. For us he is important as a teacher at Bishop’s Stortford School and in 1604 he became one of the Westminster Company of translators of the Bible, i.e. The King James Bible 1611.
Henry Parker
Henry Parker 12th Lord Morley was a Cambridge graduate. He supported Charles I in the Civil war, was caught and denounced guilty of treason and all his wealth impounded. In 1697 his son had no heirs and the title died out. The Morleys were followed by the Turnours.
Probably, as far as the Hallingburys are concerned, the most important family were –
The Houblons
The Houblons were religious refugee merchants from Lille who settled in London. James Houblon, born 1592 was a friend of Pepys and is mentioned in the famous diary. Pepys also wrote his epitaph. His son John was founder of the bank of England, (His portrait is on today’s £50 note). He gave £10,000 in 1694 and became its first governor. He also became Lord Mayor of London. John’s nephew, Richard, inherited and left his wealth to his nephew Jacob.
Jacob Houblon bought the Hallingbury estates at the end of the 17th Century. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and graduated in 1729. From 1735-41, he was MP for Colchester. He married Mary Hynde Cotton of Madingley in 1735. In 1736 the birth of their son Jacob was a cause for great celebration in the Hallingburys, which was reported in the London Gazeteer. Jacob made many improvements in the village. He provided work for his tenants and villagers, dredging a swamp in the forest and making the lake. He rebuilt cottages, improved methods of farming, replanted woods and copses. He also bred horses and raced them. His son Jacob continued his fathers work. He too was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and as was fashionable, went on the Grand Tour. He brought back with him seeds of Cedars of Lebanon which he planted in the Cedar Drive. His children picnicked in the forest – Laetitia decorated the Shell House. It is possible that Capability Brown worked on the Gardens at Hallingbury Place, certainly he planned them and was paid £105 in 1729.
Laetitia married Baron von Feilstach, who along with the Houblons was buried in the church yard.
Young Jacob had married Susannah Archer, hence the next personality is John Archer Houblon who did so much for the village. He built houses for his tenants, and farm hands, the school for 200 children with its text over the door ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, …’ He rebuilt the church in 1874 with its carved capitals and superb Reredos, with its inset cross. The painting is in the style of Byrne Jones. The steeple had on top of it the golden cross which he could see form the house and along his path from the house to the church. The church opening is described in detail in the records. John married twice – first Ann who died in 1847 and then Georgina, who was with him for 44 years. She wrote about his life and works which is why we know so much about him. On John’s death the estates were sold and in 1924 the estate was broken up and the house pulled down.
Our thanks to Shirley Mackrill for this text.
(Click on HISTORY for more information)
Great Hallingbury village includes the hamlets of Start Hill, Tilekiln Green, Bedlars Green, Howe Green, Anvil Cross, Woodside Green, Jenkins Lane and Beldams. The village falls within the Uttlesford District Council in the County of Essex.
