Little Bardfield Explained

Country:England
Coordinates:51.9506°N 0.414°W
Official Name:Little Bardfield
Population:264
Population Ref:(2011)[1]
Shire District:Uttlesford
Shire County:Essex
Region:East of England
Constituency Westminster:Saffron Walden
Post Town:Braintree
Postcode District:CM7
Postcode Area:CM
Dial Code:01371
Os Grid Reference:TL655305
Static Image:St. Katherine's church, Little Bardfield, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 130558.jpg
Static Image Width:240px
Static Image Caption:St. Katherine's church, Little Bardfield

Little Bardfield is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of northwest Essex, England. Little Bardfield is a small scattered village on the southwest side of the vale of the River Pant. A minor road (Bardfield Road) runs through the village and connects Thaxted 3miles to the west, to Great Bardfield 1miles to the east. The parish comprises the village of Little Bardfield and two hamlets: Hawkspur Green and Oxen End, which are all surrounded by farmland.

Little Bardfield's church is dedicated to St Katharine, and contains an Anglo-Saxon tower.[2] In 1774 Sarah Bernard, widow of the Rev Thomas Bernard, by will directed her executors to cut down all the timber in Halsted Grove. With the proceeds of this, they erected a school and five terraced almshouses.

The nave and tower of St Katharine's Church date from circa 1040AD, with a fourteenth century chancel and porch. The interior was entirely restored in 2006 when the integrated decorative scheme devised for the church by G.F. Bodley in 1866 was reinstated. Between 1910 and 1940 the Brotherhood of St Paul, an Anglo-Catholic theological college which trained around three hundred priests for service overseas, was located in the parish.

See also

The Hundred Parishes

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Parish population 2011. 27 September 2015.
  2. Web site: Plate 43 Little Bardfield: Parish Church of St. Katherine. 1916. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Volume 1 - North West. English Heritage. 4 October 2013.