Fordham, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex

Parish History
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The church of ALL SAINTS, Church Road, the invocation recorded in 1516, stands on high ground overlooking the Colne valley. It com- prises a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower. The nave and chancel are built primarily of rubble, with small amounts of brick and flint mixed in, but the aisles and clerestorey have regular, alternat- ing bands of flint and brick. The nave is prob- ably 11th- or early 12th-century, but the church was largely rebuilt in the earlier 14th century, when the chancel was rebuilt, the three-bay nave arcades inserted, the aisles constructed, the porch and lower storeys of the tower built, and the chancel arch rebuilt. The arcades have two- centred heads, two chamfered orders, and moulded capitals and octagonal piers very simi- lar to those at Langham. The matching chancel arch was built as a single unit with the eastern responds of the arcades, and the tower arch is similar, but not identical. The contemporary clerestorey has small, squat trefoil openings. The chancel, aisles, and porch retain parts of their 14th-century roofs. In 1547 the whole church was reroofed, all or partly of lead. A rood loft was mentioned in 1548. The church was whitened, and the windows mended and glazed in 1549, but in 1633 extensive repairs were needed, and the steeple was cracked. In 1684 the roof at the chancel end needed repair and the tower was so badly cracked it was in danger of collapsing. In 1705 the church floor needed levelling and there were cracks in the outside walls. The shingled spire, mentioned in 1768, fell down in 1796 damaging the west side of the tower, and was rebuilt in red brick. A conservative restoration by Joseph Grimes of Colchester was completed in 1861, providing seating for 242 adults and 88 children, financed partly by grants from the Incorporated Church Building Society and the Essex Church and Chapel Building Society. The plaster was removed from the outer walls, the windows reglazed, and the floors tiled. The former rood screen fixings remained visible after the resto- ration. The chancel walls were cracked in 1869 after the drought of 1868. Alterations in 1907 included the provision of an oak reredos and a chancel screen. Seventeenth-century panelling is incorporated into the 19th-century pulpit. A monument in the chancel to Capt. John Pulley (d. 1715) has a bust and frieze of sailing ships. A chalice of parcel gilt recorded in 1552 was probably made from the girdle of Alice Creffield, in accordance with her will of 1522. In 1684 there was a small silver chalice and cover, and a pewter flagon and paten. Charles Onley, rector, gave a flagon, paten, and shell, apparently of silver, before 1804, and an old chalice was exchanged. All the silver plate was sold and electro-plate had been substituted by 1925. In 1552 there were three bells. The three bells in 1684 included one of 1637 by Miles Gray, the three in 1768 included one of 1723 by John Damion. In 1859 there were only two bells, Damion's and Gray's, and in 1862 one was cracked. The Hanoverian coat of arms, made at Joseph Wallis's iron foundry, Col- chester, was hanging over the north door in 1997.

From: 'Fordham: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10: Lexden Hundred (Part) including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe (2001), pp. 215-217. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15245&amp;amp;strquery=fordham Date accessed: 12 February 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Lexden_and_Winstree_Poor_Law_Union,_Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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