Great Baddow, Essex

Description
Baddow, Great, a village and a parish in Essex. The village stands near the river Chelmer, 2 miles ESE of Chelms-ford station on the G.E.K.; has a post and telegraph office under Chelmsford ; and is a pleasant place, with a considerable number of genteel residences. The parish comprises 389i8 acres of land and 12 of water; population of the civil parish, 2019 ; of the ecclesiastical, 1486. There is an extensive brewery here. The manor belonged to Algar, Earl of Mercia; was given by William the Conqueror to the Abbey of Caen in Normandy; passed, in the time of Henry I., to the Earl of Gloucester; and went through a series of proprietors, to the family of Houblon. Baddow Hall is now the residence of the Greene family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; gross value, £324 with residence. The church is a building of brick and rubble in the Early English style. There is also a Congregational chapel. Richard de Badew, the founder of Clare Hall, Cambridge, was a native.