BELCHAMP-WALTER
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
BELCHAMP-WALTER, a parish in the district of Sudbury and county of Essex; on a small affluent of the river Stour, 4 miles W of Sudbury r. station. It has a post-office under Sudbury. Acres, 2,125. Real property, £4,319. Pop., 708. Houses, 152. Belchamp Hall is the seat of the Raymonds.; and contains an interesting collection of pictures. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Bulmer, in the diocese of Rochester. The church is a neat, high edifice; and contains a brass of 1591, and tombs of the Raymonds .
Transcribed by Noel Clark
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
BELCHAMP WALTER is a parish, in the Eastern division of the county, Hinckford hundred, Sudbury union and county court district, rural deanery of Hedingham, archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese of St. Albans, 4 miles west from Sudbury station, situated on a brook falling into the Stour. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a small building, consisting of chancel and nave and a western tower containing 8 bells; it has an ancient carved stone Norman font and several stained windows: in the chancel is a monument of white and grey marble to various members of the Raymond family: John Raymond esq. purchaser of the estate, buried here June 27th, 1635 and his wife December 6th, 1652; Oliver Raymond esq. buried March 25th, 1679, and St. Clere Raymond esq. buried October 25th, 1690: there is also, beneath a finely carved canopy of the Decorated period, the tomb of one of the de Veres, Earls of Oxford: a reredos in mosaic work has been erected at the expense of the Rev. J. M. St. Clere Raymond, by whom also the church was restored in 1860, at a cost of £1,400. The register dates from the year 1559. The living, which is a vicarage annexed at Bulmer, joint yearly value £445, in the gift of the Rev. John Mayne St. Clere Raymond B.A. of Belchamp Hall and held by Rev. Oliver Raymond LL.B. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who is also rector and resides at Middleton. The Rev. J. M. St. Clere Raymond, who is lord of the manor and Wm. Wright esq. are the principal landowners. The Hall, the seat of the Rev. J. M. St. Clere Raymond M.A. is a substantial brick mansion of the time of Queen Anne, standing in pleasure grounds and park looking over the valley of Bulmer; the Hall contains a fine collection of pictures and china. The soil is loam and clay; subsoil, clay and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, beans, oats and barley. The area is 2,125 acres; rateable value, £3,580; and the population in 1881 was 617.
NORTH END is a hamlet 2½ miles west.
NORTH WOOD (formerly extra parochial) is a parish in the union of Sudbury, having five houses, rateable value £306; and a population in 1881 of 8.
Parish Clerk, William Stammers.
POST OFFICE.---Mrs. Kezia Hawkins, receiver. Letters received from Sudbury arrive at 7.40 a.m.; dispatched at 5.5 p.m. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Sudbury
National School (mixed), built in 1872 for 123 children, with an average attendance of 90; Miss Emma Fickling, mistress
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