Welcome to this website about the community of Chrishall in Essex.
Chrishall is a small village on a hilltop in the very north west of Essex, close to the borders of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, in the East of England. This website is particularly aimed at the local community and the genealogist who perhaps has never visited Chrishall and wishes to visualise the kind of community whence his or her ancestor came. It is run by…
“I stumbled accidentally across some aspects of its history, and began to learn and think more about it, but then – as I studied the records – people began to rise up out of them. Where before I had seen only names on lists, individual characters began to shake their shoulders and stand up. It was as though these dead were being awakened, resurrected. They seemed close, as though they had something to say.”
(quote from In a Country Churchyard by Ronald Fletcher. Although this quote refers to Westleton in Suffolk, we hope you come to feel the same about Chrishall charcters and history.)
Recent updates to existing content:
- October 2021: updates to the following pages:
- Joan Cobham of Chrishall
- Vicars of Chrishall
- Arthur Crocker Obituary
- Pavilion opening – a bit about the pavilion history added
- September 2021: more information on the Woods family still coming in, now with a picture too.
- June 2021: a tragic tale connected with Butler Berry – see the link from the Vicars of Chrishall page
Chishill Well and a local water diviner
While rummaging through a file of articles recently I found this fascinating article about the digging of Chishill well. We don't know where the well was, or where Twelve Acres was for that matter. Someone must know?? We also don't know the name of the water diviner...
Wenden Lofts Mill
Wenden Lofts’ Mill “Miss Nellie Smith who lived at Hamlet House, Pond Street, is shown on the photograph as a young girl on the steps of the Mill. Her family lived at Hope Farm and farmed the land round about. The Mill was taken down very soon after the First World...
Chrishall Windmill
For nearly two hundred years Chrishall had it’s own windmill. It stood next to Mill House on Mill Causeway and was a post mill, probably very similar to Chishill Mill. The mill was made of wood and could be turned around a main central post so that the sails were into...
A period of unrest leads to road improvements!
1830 Wheat 64s 3d per quarter. A changeable summer. Accounts of the harvest vary, some recording a good harvest and some estimating it as less than average. Blizzards in mid-January and severe frosts in February, March was fine, warm and excellent for sowing. July was...
The Royal Observer Corps
The following article was written by Joe Hagger who was one of the village cobblers or shoe-makers and lived in the cottage that faces the green next to The Red Cow. (This article is published as written and the language reflects the time at which Mr Hagger was...
Chrishall at work
Trying something a little new for you today - a flip book of some "Chrishall Industry". Give it a moment or two to load, particularly if you are on a slow connection.