In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Witham like this:
WITHAM, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, a hundred, and a division, in Essex. The town stands on the Roman road from London to Colchester, at an intersection of railways, near the influx of the Podsbrook rivulet to the Blackwater, 8 miles NE of Chelmsford; was built and fortified by Edward the Elder; passed to Eustace of Boulogne, the Knights Templars, and the Knights of St. ...
John; was a seat of assizes in 1568; is now a seat of petty-sessions; consists chiefly of one long street; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, a good inn, a police station, a literary institution, an ancient church, partially built of Roman bricks, a church of 1842, built at a cost of £5,000, a handsome Independent chapel, rebuilt in 1840, three other dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, national and British schools, two suites of alms-house s with £80 and £172 a year, a workhouse of 1838, built at a cost of £6,850, some general charities, a weekly market on Tuesday evenings, and fairs on Whit-Friday and Whit-Saturday.—The parish comprises 3,633 acres. Real property, £15,629. Pop. in 1851, 3,303; in 1861, 3,455. Pop., 674. There are four manors. The living is a vicarage, with All Saints chapelry, in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £473.* Patron, the Bishop of R.—The sub-district contains 7 parishes. Acres, 17,251. Pop., 6,947. Houses, 1,443.—The district includes Ke1vedon and Cogge shall districts-districts, and comprises 38,938 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £10,795. Pop. in 1851, 16,099; in 1861, 16,324. Houses, 3,443. Marriages in 1866, 91; births, 467,-of which 26 were illegitimate; deaths, 316,-of which 87 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,030; births, 5,263; deaths, 3,332. The places of worship, in 1851, were 18 of the Church of England, with 7,661 sittings; 6 of Independents, with 3,028 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 541 s.; 3 of Quakers, with 1,270 s.; 2 of Wesleyans, with 269 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 60 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 49 s. The schools were 20 public day-schools, with 1,498 scholars; 36 private day-schools, with 779 s.; 19 Sunday schools, with 2,067 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 47 s.-The hundred contains 16 parishes and a part. Acres, 37,304. Pop. in 1851,12,177; in 1861, 12,211. Houses, 2,562.-The division is part of Lexden hundred; and contains 16 parishes. Acres, 30,571. Pop. in 1851, 12,288; in 1861, 12,247. Houses, 2,668.
Witham through time
Witham is now part of Braintree district. Click here for graphs and data of how Braintree has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Witham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Witham, in Braintree and Essex | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/175
Date accessed: 19th April 2024
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