Little Burstead

The name Burstead is Old English and means a fortified place. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists two estates or manors at a vill called Burghesteda in the Barstable Hundred of Essex. The book does not otherwise distinguish between the manors, but historians have deduced that the manor held by Odo of Bayeux was Great Burstead, and the manor held by the Bishop of London was Little Burstead. The Bishop of London's manor at that time had nine households and was reported to have been held by a Godwin of Benfield prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066. A church, dedicated to St Mary, was built at Little Burstead in the 12th century, and the manor of Little Burstead came to be a parish. In the 19th…