An Archive for Belchamp Walter
If you looked at the history of Belchamp Walter you may well be confused into what happened when and who owned what at any given time. If you think that Julian Fellows was a master at convoluted plots then think again, Belchamp Walter is a interesting as Downton Abbey and Belgravia.
At first glance you may think that there was an unbroken line of "control" of the parish since 1611, Manoral other documents held in Essex Archive tell a different story.
The "Renovations" of the Church
The 19th Century was also when the "renovations" were made to St. Mary's the result of which saw the loss of some of the historical heritage of the village.
The late 19th and early 20th Centuries were not affluent times. The Belchamp Walter estate lands, the Manor (not the house/hall) were owned by Thomas Ruggles from 1741 to 1865. Over this 124 year period Ruggles was in effect the person who upheld the law and made judgement on the affairs of the manor.
1865 the "manor" was "recovered" by JMSR, this was after the death of Thomas Ruggles (????) who previously "held" the manor. Whether this was due to the fact that the Ruggles-Brice family no longer had an interest in the land, but there was a Farmers Strike in 1893, so I am guessing that "the income from farming was not as it once was".
The article the in Suffolk Free Press - April 5th 1893 mentions the N.A.U., I am presuming that this was a for-runners of the NFU, the National Farmers' Union. The NFU website does not mention such a union before 1908.
Essex Archive
Having approached my research by making a relatively random search of the archive on-line looking for instances of Belchamp Walter and names that I had uncovered from other research, I found a number of articles relating to the village. Some of these revealed dates and events that were not covered by either published accounts on either reports in the press or "official" histories.
Relative Spending
An interesting comparison is the amount of money that was spent on the various enterprises at the end of the 19th Century in the village.
In todays money the various costs are:
- The School House - 1872- £735 in - around £100,000 in 2022
- The Renovations in the Church - 1859 - £1,400 in - around £250,000 in 2022
- The Bells in the Church - The cost of their foundry - the bells at Belchamp Walter were cast from 1712 and 1782
- The Farmers strike 1891 - Who knows?
Of the £735 for the school house, in addition to the donation of the land, an amount of £181 was paid by John Mayne St. Clere Raymond.