Thaxted, Essex

Description
Thaxted, a small but ancient town and parish in Essex. The town stands on the river Chelmer, on the road from Chelmsford to Saffron Walden, 7 miles SE from Saffron Walden, and 6 NE from Elsenham station on the G.E.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dunmow. Acreage of parish, 6252; population, 1767. There is a parish council of nine members. The manor belongs to the West family. The Guildhall, which was built in the reign of James I., is used as a reading-room and for parish meetings. Horham Hall, erected in 1520 by Sir John Cutts, is a fine castellated building, now partly covered with ivy. A fair for pleasure is held on the Monday before Whit Monday, and another for cattle on 10 Aug. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £370 with residence. The church, a spacious and handsome building of flint and stone in the Late Perpendicular style, is one of the finest in the county. It consists of chancel and nave, each with aisles, S transept, N and S porches much enriched, and a lofty western tower with crocketed spire, strengthened with flying buttresses. The church is 183 feet in length, and the tower and spire, which form a landmark for all the surrounding country, are 181 feet high. It has some ancient brasses and memorials, and a fine ancisnt font. There are Baptist and Congregational chapels, and a Friends' meeting-house. The charities of Thaxted are unusually valuable, and at one time they amounted to about £1000 a year. Owing to the depressed state of agriculture, this amount has been considerably reduced of late years, and the gross value of the charities is now about £550. Samuel Purchas, the author of " Purchas: his Pilgrimage," and " Purchas: his Pilgrimmes," was born here in 1677.