The Village Sign
Little Hallingbury. Essex.
Transcript of a talk by George Assinder given on the occasion of the unveiling of the village sign on the 9th June 2003.
The book marked 1086 commemorates that the speaker discovered that our church was recorded in the Domesday book of 1087 and this being 'in situ' at the time meant that our church was founded some fifty years earlier in the reign of Edward the Confessor when a great spate of church building occurred throughout the country. And whilst we are thinking in terms of centuries I want to talk to you about a Saxon by the name of Heall who arrived in the country about AD 800 and settled in this district The settlement would have been called "Heallgebir", the place of Heall. By the time of Domesday it had become Hallingebiri and over the subsequent centuries eventually became our present Hallingbury or Hallingburg.
The next symbol is the blacksmith forge at the top and sheaves of wheat at the bottom. This is to indicate that we have always been a truly rural village set in a large agricultural area, which appears to have been populated and farmed since Roman times. I do emphasise that we are still part of a country area and that Little Hallingbury once had three farriers working here to cater for the large horse population before the arrival of the tractor. May we always remain so and this sign will help you and our children and grandchildren to remember that we must preserve our ancient identity and resist the creeping urbanisation from Stansted. The third symbol is the pottery in the right hand corner.This is a remarkable contribution not only to our history but also a niche in our English history. About the year AD 100 there was an infiltration of Belgic Celts from the Continent who settled here peacefully with our indigenous Celts (the ancient Britons) and it was these people who made the pottery probably about the year AD 150. For many years they were on display in our church but because of the danger from vandals were removed to Saffron Walden museum where they are safe from the hooligans who have twice broken into our church and later stole the lead from our roof and yet again a few weeks ago smashed in a valuable stained glass window.
Lastly we come to the well-known building in the bottom right hand corner. This is the Mill House on the Stort, which you all know. This was originally in the 17 th century a silk mill and I am surprised to learn that in England we once cultivated the silk worm. Anyway, the building was demolished and a more orthodox grain mill erected on its site where grain was milled for the next two centuries although having been erected during that time. It is now a private dwelling.
However, that is some of our history but obviously there are many other facts which could not be recorded on the sign. The most important of these is ancient monument, which is not only part of our heritage but is a national monument under the jurisdiction of the Home Office. I refer of course, to the Wallbury Dell. For many years this was known locally as a Roman Camp and, in fact, is so described on the Ordnance survey maps. When I arrived in Little Hallingbury many years ago 1 was puzzled by the description and further research in conjunction with the West Essex Archaeological Group.
I discovered that this rampart was an Iron Age erection many centuries before the Romans. It had a deep ditch around it. The principle reason for doubting the Roman legend is that it simply was not the custom of the Romans to erect of utilise a camp of this nature, It is of special interest to Little Hallingbury because one of the three manors comprising Hallingbury was called 'La Walle', Hallingbiri and Monkisbiri in Domesday times.
