Place:


Great Dunmow  Essex

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Great Dunmow like this:

DUNMOW (Great), a small town and a parish in Dunmow district, Essex. The town stands on an eminence on the right bank of the river Chelmer, adjacent to the Bishop-Stortford and Braintree railway, at the Junction of the Ongar line, 8½ miles W of Braintree, and has a r. station. It dates from the Roman times; was connected by a Roman road with Colchester; and is identified with a Roman station, which some antiquaries think to have been Villa Faustini, but a greater number call it Cæsaromagus. ...


Vestiges of the Roman road, in several places, still exist; and very many Roman coins and other Roman antiquities have been found in the vicinity. The town consists chiefly of two good streets; had formerly a market on Saturday, and has now one on Tuesday; has also fairs on 6 May and 8 Nov.; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place; and has a post office, ‡ of the name of Dunmow, under Chelmsford, a chief inn, a town-hall, a church, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary institution, three public schools, a workhouse of 1839, and alms-houses, - charities, £69. There was formerly likewise a market-cross. The church is large and ancient; has a five-light decorated window, and a western embattled tower; and has been partially repaired. The manufacture of baize and blankets was, at one time, extensively carried on; but both this and a subsequent kind of manufacture are extinct. The local government was vested, by a charter of Mary, in a recorder, a bailiff, and 12 burgesses; but has long been inert. The parish comprises 6, 746 acres. Real property, £13, 621; of which £100 are in gas-works. Pop., 2, 976. Houses, 600. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged anciently to the Crown; was given at Domesday to Hamo Dapifer, and by Henry VIII. to his queen Catherine; and passed afterwards to the Maynards of Easton Lodge. An ancient brick mansion, a short distance west of the church, belongs to Sir P. Brydges Henniker, Bart. Dunmow-highwood is a meet for the Essex hounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £500.* Patron, the Lord Chance lor.

Great Dunmow through time

Great Dunmow is now part of Uttlesford district. Click here for graphs and data of how Uttlesford has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Great Dunmow itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Great Dunmow, in Uttlesford and Essex | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6688

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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