Buttsbury is a village and former 2,079-acre (8.4 km2) civil parish (once an ancient parish) now in the parish of Stock, in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England. Its name is a contraction of Botulph's Pirie, a major saint who died in 680.[1] It is sometimes surmised that the name refers to a tree under which St Botolph preached.[2] In fact, it derives from a pear-tree orchard belonging to one Botulf in the area of present-day Perry Street. In 1931, the civil parish had a population of 1709.[3]
Location
Buttsbury farm land, facing Ingatestone Hall from St Mary’s Church, in 2021
It is centred on minor roads between the towns of Ingatestone and Billericay. The parish technically starts immediately north of the old centre of Billericay and extends around the south, west and north sides of Stock.[4] The 14th-century church of St Mary is positioned at the crossroads on a hill, which overlooks Ingatestone Hall in the distance. Within Buttsbury, the River Wid[5] flows crossing the Buttsbury Wash.[5]
The village of Buttsbury and the surrounding land dates back to Saxon times. St Botolph, who died in 680AD, is said to have preached under a pear tree in the area of Buttsbury - an impossibility because St. Botolph was never in central Essex. The land was owned by a Saxon family named Bond or Bodis; the Saxon Settlement was called Cinga from 'inga' - the folk - a name taken from the Gegingas who first settled the Wid Valley (c.f. Ingatestone and other -ing ending adjacent villages). After the Norman Conquest of 1066, Buttsbury came under Norman rule and was entered into the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Cinga'; the land was then owned by Henry De Ferrers.
Under Norman rule in 1231, the parish of Buttsbury was referred to Ginges & Ginges Laundry in 1236, consisting of several manors. It is likely that the parish took its name from the Blunts family, who had properties in nearby Billericay; alias Ging - Joyberd - Laundry, being the largest manor in the parish. These manors embraced most of Stock and part of nearby Billericay, still called Buttsbury.
In 1295, Buttsbury was recorded as having a watermill called Wluesdon on the river Wid, near present-day Buckwyns' Farm by a bridge called Wolvesdonebrigge. In 1351, the bridge had fallen into disrepair and became unusable; the case went to court in Chelmsford. Sir Robert Baucon, who was responsible for the upkeep of the bridge, owned land in Buttsbury where the modern sixteenth-century Buttsbury Bridge is situated today on the Stock to Buttsbury road and in a different location to 'Wolvesdonebrigge'.
Today, the village of Buttsbury consists of houses, farms and St Mary's Church. Suggestions for the isolated position of the church and the disappearance of the village it served are that the village was cleared to make way for sheep or, more likely, the Black Death of the 14th century decimated the local population and the survivors eventually moved elsewhere for higher wages and better working conditions.
Agriculture
Since the early medieval period, the land of Buttsbury has been mainly agricultural, with some remaining areas of woodland. Of working adult men in 1831, 84, a clear majority, worked in agriculture. The other three working sectors were: manufacturing (0 men), retail and handicraft (43) and other (13).[6] This remained the situation by 1881, by which time 18 of the women residents were domestic servants.[7]
In 1848, in the Whites Directory of Essex, Buttsbury had 521 inhabitants and consisted of 2021 acres of land; its houses were intermixed with the houses of Stock.
In the early 1870s, Buttsbury had 531 residents divided across 109 houses.[1] A wave of early 20th-century building was coupled with better general health, especially lower infant mortality rates. Between 1911 and 1921, the population rose from 697 to 863, notwithstanding World War I in that period. In the following ten years, it rose to 1,709.[9]
On 1 April 1936, what remained of the parish was almost entirely subsumed into Stock and Billericay.[11][12]
The parish still exists and consists of a small area around St. Mary's Church.
