Littlebury is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Uttlesford Uttlesford is a local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the market town of Saffron Walden. At the 2011 Census, the population of the district was 79,443. Other notable settlements include Great Dunmow, Elmdon, S ...

district, north-west

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England. The village is approximately a mile and a half from the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

, south from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, the nearest city, and north-east from the county town and city of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

. The parish of Littlebury includes the village of Littlebury Green and the hamlets of Catmere End and Chapel Green at the west, and parts of the estate of

Audley End Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is st ...

at the southeast. The parish had a population of 869 at the 2011 census.

History

The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

tools having been found at

Little Chesterford Little Chesterford is a small village and civil parish in Uttlesford, Essex, in the East of England. Close to the Cambridgeshire border, it is built principally along a single sunken lane to the east of a chalk stream tributary of the River Cam o ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

sherds to the east of the village. Ring Hill Fort to the west of Audley End is believed to date from the Iron Age, and there is significant evidence of Roman settlement. The name Littlebury first appears in a 10th-century will as ''lytlan byrig'' and in 1008 as ''Lithanberi''. The village is located on the medieval

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to Newmarket road (now the B1383 and A11) as well as the River Cam. A Roman road crossed the parish at Littlebury Green, which is referred to as Streetly Green in some historic records. The parish was owned by Ely Abbey from the ninth century, and was retained by the Crown following

Dissolution Dissolution may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books * ''Dissolution'' (''Forgotten Realms'' novel), a 2002 fantasy novel by Richard Lee Byers * ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), a 2003 historical novel by C. J. Sansom Music * Dissolution, in mu ...

. In 1601 it was sold to Thomas Sutton and in 1603 fell to the

Earl of Suffolk Earl of Suffolk is a title which has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfe ...

. It passed between the Earls of Suffolk, owners of Audley End house, until in 1762 it was bequeathed to

Lord Braybrooke Baron Braybrooke, of Braybrooke in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1788 for John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, with remainder to his kinsman Richard Neville-Aldworth. Lord How ...

. The Cambridge to Liverpool Street line passes through the village and it formerly had its own station.

Church

The parish church of Holy Trinity was built on the site of a Roman camp. The first record of it dates from 1163 and the church was considerably altered between 1870 and 1874. It houses a beautiful stone font with decorated oak canopy. St Peter's church at Littlebury Green was built in 1885. The village formerly supported a chapel, situated on Chapel Green, but no trace of it remains.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to Arkesden with a total population at the 2011 census of 1,708.

Amenities

The village has a pub, the ''Queen's Head'', a fourteenth-century coaching inn.

Notable people

* Joan Bradbury, widow of Thomas Bradbury who founded a school in the 17th century. * Samuel Shaw, New Zealand labour reformer, born in Littlebury. *

Thomas Sutton Thomas Sutton (1532 – 12 December 1611) was an English civil servant and businessman, born in Knaith, Lincolnshire. He is remembered as the founder of the London Charterhouse and of Charterhouse School. Life Sutton was the son of an official ...

, Master of the Ordnance in the North. * The architect Henry Winstanley (1644-1703) was a resident of Littlebury. He was clerk of the King's works at Newmarket and

under Charles II, and built the first

Eddystone lighthouse The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 ...

. He died when it was washed away in a storm in 1703.

References

External links

Littlebury Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Uttlesford