Latton, Essex Genealogy

England Essex

Parish History
Latton St Mary the Vrigin is an Ancient Parish in the county of Essex.

Latton, Harlow, Essex. Latton was once a small Essex village until it was absorbed by the Harlow New Town development in 1947. The church used to stand in the grounds of Mark Hall, which was about a mile north of Latton village. This church was begun by the Normans and was enlarged during the 15th century. Even though it stands in Harlow New Town, it still has a large green area surrounding it.

The ancient road pattern survived with few changes until the mid 20th century. In 1616 Mill Lane ran from the mill on the Stort south across the Harlow-Roydon road and continued as Latton Street past Mark Hall, the church, and Purfoots Green, to the butts north of Latton common. A track across the common joined the Epping-Harlow road, which crossed the southeast corner of the parish. Brook (later Back) Lane forked right from Latton Street at Purfoots Green and ran south, parallel to the street, to Mark Hall common. Reeves (later Meeting House) Lane and another, unnamed lane ran from Potters in Latton Street east to Potter Street, Harlow. Three Want Lane, from Rye Hill, Epping, ran past the priory and as Priory Lane joined the Epping-Harlow road. Priory Lane, recorded in 1616, was used in the 19th century by drovers avoiding the turnpike gate on the Epping-Harlow road on their way to Bush fair. An earth mound near Latton priory may be associated with an old trackway across Rye Hill to Epping. In 1778 William Lushington of Mark Hall enlarged his park by diverting Latton Street farther to the west. That left the parish church isolated in the centre of the park. The Epping road crossing the south-east corner of the parish was taken over in 1769 by the Epping and Ongar highway trust. In 1828 the trust remade the road near the Bull and Horseshoes to reduce the gradient. Alterations to the road system after 1947 are treated under Harlow. As a small and sparsely populated parish Latton was dependent for services on Harlow and Potter Street. The Stort navigation, completed in 1769, was cut along the course of the river on Latton's northern boundary. The Northern and Eastern railway line from London, which reached Harlow in 1841, and was extended to Cambridge in 1845, ran through Latton immediately south of the navigation.

From: 'Parishes: Latton', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 8 (1983), pp. 186-195. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63852&amp;amp;strquery=Latton Date accessed: 26 January 2011.

The diocese of Chelmsford was created in 1914, prior to this Essex parishes were in the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London until 1845 when they transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The diocese of Chelmsford has 474 parishes and 600 churches and is the second largest region in the church of England outside London.

Latton was a village and civil parish until it was abolished and absorbed into Harlow New Town and local government district in Essex, England. It is located in the west of the county and on the border with Hertfordshire, on the Stort Valley, The town is near the M11 motorway and forms part of the London commuter belt.

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
Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
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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
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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