Moot Hall, Steeple Bumpstead

Steeple Bumpstead is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Haverhill in Braintree district, Essex, England. The parish church does not have a steeple, however the Congregational Church has a small Victorian one. It is believed that the steeple referred to was located on the A1307 close to what is now the Wixoe Pumping Station. Village features include a village hall, School (Steeple Bumpstead Primary school) and park.

Moyns Park is a Grade I listed Elizabethan country house in Birdbrook, north Essex, England. The home of the Gent family, until the late 19th century, was once owned by Major-General Cecil Robert St John Ives, maternal grandfather of Ivar Bryce, the next owner. Bryce was a close friend of the author Ian Fleming, who stayed at the house in the summer of 1956. When Bryce's wife, Josephine Hartford, an A&P heiress and sister of Huntington Hartford, died in 1992, she left the estate to Lord Ivar Mountbatten and George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven. Ivar Bryce's first cousin Janet Mercedes Bryce had been married to David Mountbatten and was the mother of Ivar and George Mountbatten. Lord Ivar Mountbatten lived in the house with his wife, Penelope Thompson, before selling it in 1997. It is said that Fleming made final changes to his novel From Russia, with Love in the house. The house was also the location for several Hammer Horror films. The house was also used as a residential Riding School in and around 1949, with courses in dressage, show jumping and short B.H.S courses. The chief instructor was C. Coombs MBE. The name Moyns is believed to have its origins in the name of the Le Moyne family who under Gilbert Le Moyne remained in England after the Norman invasion of 1066. The family ran through several major and minor lines of nobles and gentry such as the De Warrens, Gents, Darbys, Dalstons (of Cumberland), and many others. The family is now linked to many others by marriage, e.g. Speakmans, Boutflowers, Glasses, Chenevix-Trenchs, and more. The area in the Le Moynes once had lands that encompassed Hedingham Castle and other villages over a swathe of Essex. The Gents held their first court at Moyns in the early 16th century and the estate grew and continued to do so under Sir Thomas Gent (Queen Elizabeth's Baron of the Exchequer, Sergeant-at-Law and later judge). According to an article in The Essex Countryside of May 1965 by GC Harper, the house was once moated, and takes its name from its first owner who had it built, Robert de Fitzwilliam le Moigne in the early C14, but little but the SW wing remains from C15. It remained in that family for 200 years, then passed by marriage to William Gent. His son Thomas became MP for Maldon in 1571 and a 'trusted assistant' to Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth 1's Secretary of State & spymaster, whence he rose to 2nd Baron of the Exchequer. He sat in judgement at the trial of the conspirators of the Babington Plot to assassinate the Queen and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. His wealth & status led him to rebuild the west front, completed by his son Henry, as he died in 1593. Thomas signed a petition to Walsingham requesting he write to the governors of the Dutch congregation in Colchester & demand that 20-30 families return to Halstead to resume the cloth trade there, but to no avail. George Gent d. 1818 was a magistrate for more than 60 years. The right to appoint the headmaster of the school in Steeple Bumpstead belonged until c.1835 to the owner of Moyns. The Moyns occupancy ceased in 1879 when it was sold to Major General Cecil Robert St John Ives, whose grandson John Bryce occupied it in the 1960s. The gardens of the 200-acre estate had yew topiary, and the paths were said to be planted to a plan by Lord Bacon, with a bowling green one of the oldest.

Bumpstead was a rural district in the administrative county of Essex, England from 1894 to 1934.

Haverhill South railway station was located in Haverhill, Suffolk. It was a terminus on the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway. In 1924 passenger services were diverted to Haverhill North (on the Stour Valley Railway) which also served the town, but Haverhill South continued to be served by freight trains until 1965. Since closure the station has been demolished and the site redeveloped.

Sturmer railway station was a station that served the village of Sturmer, Essex, England. It opened in 1865 on the Stour Valley Railway between Sudbury and Cambridge. The station and line closed in 1967 as part of the Beeching cuts. The station building still stands today as a private residence.

Stambourne Green is a hamlet in Essex. A 19th century gazetteer describes it as being near another hamlet, Westley End, which no longer appears to exist. Nearby places include Stambourne, Steeple Bumpstead, Ridgewell, Cornish Hall End, Great Yeldham and Finchingfield.

Sturmer is a village in the county of Essex, England, 2 miles (3 km) SE of Haverhill and close to the county border with Suffolk. Its name was originally "Stour Mere", from the River Stour and is explicitly mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. A Tudor illustration of the mere from the summer of 1571 exists in the National Archives. The mere still exists today to the north-east of the village. The village also gives its name to the Sturmer Pippin apple which was raised by Ezekiel Dillistone from 1831, and grown in the orchards of the village.

Haverhill ( HAY-vər-hil, HAYV-ril) is a market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies about 14 miles (23 km) southeast of Cambridge, southwest of Bury St Edmunds, north west of Braintree and west of Colchester.

Haverhill Railway Walks is a 14.1 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Haverhill in Suffolk. It is owned and managed by West Suffolk Council.This is a footpath along a three mile stretch of a closed section of the Stour Valley Railway. Much of it is covered with scrub and large trees, and it provides a wildlife corridor for a diverse range of fauna and flora through the centre of Haverhill.

Birdbrook is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southeast of Haverhill, Suffolk and is 34 km (21 miles) north from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Braintree and in the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden. The parish is part of the Bumpsteads and Upper Colne parish cluster. It is 93 metres above sea level. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 397. There is a Public House, "The Plough" and a Church, "St Augustine of Canterbury". Nearby Moyns Park, a Grade I listed Elizabethan country house, is said to have been where Ian Fleming put the finishing touches on his novel From Russia, with Love.

Cornish Hall End is on the B1057 road three miles north of Finchingfield and 4 miles (6 km) south of Steeple Bumpstead in the Braintree district of Essex, England. The main part of the village is a ribbon development of about 60 houses on either side of the road with many outlying farms, hamlets and individual houses. It is approximately 11 miles (18 km) from Braintree, Great Dunmow and Saffron Walden, and about 7 miles (11 km) from Haverhill in Suffolk. Cornish Hall End is served by a Parish Council which also represents Finchingfield. Its neighbouring villages are Finchingfield, Stambourne, and the Sampfords (Great Sampford and Little Sampford). Near the village at Herkstead Hall Farm is one of the sources of the River Colne, Essex. It was one of the places studied in the Survey of English Dialects. It is also situated in the small region where the flora Oxlip grows.

Helions Bumpstead is a small village in Essex located near Haverhill and the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire borders. It is 2 miles from Steeple Bumpstead. Helions Bumpstead has "the greens"; Pale Green (grid reference TL655421), Wiggens Green (TL663424), and Drapers Green (TL644425). There are four roads into and out of the village, they are; Mill Road, Water Lane, Sages End Road and Camps Road. The centre of the village is marked by the crossroads and village green. There is also a meadow with a pond in the centre of the village. The main defining features of the village are the village post office, the village hall, the 3 Horseshoes Public House and St Andrew's Church; the village is in the Diocese of Chelmsford and shares its priest with St Mary's, Steeple Bumpstead. There is also a Gospel Hall in the village. The Three Horseshoes Public House was purchased by the community in March 2019 through a community share offer managed by the Helions Bumpstead Community Benefit Society. The pub underwent refurbishment and operated initially for the benefit of the community during the Covid 19 pandemic as a shop and then for Friday evening openings run by volunteers. In December 2021 the pub reopened fully when the Community Benefit Society appointed professional tenants. The village hall has recently been undergoing refurbishment with money raised over the years from events and grants given to the village. The hall has had the interior stage removed to increase the space for functions; been given a new slate tile pitched roof; been repainted; and, more recently, had an extension to the storage area. Every year Helions Bumpstead has its own Summer Fête, including a Dog Show and evening party, and Christmas Bazaar. A harvest supper is also organised annually to raise funds for the up-keep of St. Andrew's church. A farmers' market showcasing local produce was once held every third Saturday of the month in the village hall. The Helions Bumpstead Village Magazine is printed quarterly, compiled of news articles and pieces of writing by villagers. It is subsidised by the sale of advertising space, which also adds to funds for the village hall. One of the most famous WW2 planes called the Mosquito was tested on the airfield near Castle Camps. Many of the hangars the planes were built in can still be seen today. The actor Norman Pierce, known for his role as Jim Sturry in the 1942 Ealing Studios film Went the Day Well?, as well as many other roles in films including Saloon Bar, The Four Feathers and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, was a resident of Helion Bumpstead and died there in 1968 aged 67. There is an annual Boxing Day walk, when people meet up at the Three Horseshoes car park and, each year, walk a different route around the village. The Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth II marked the presentation of a village sign, including the village symbol (a red badge with a white diagonal cross) which stands in centre of the village. At the time of the Queen's Golden Jubilee, the village held a large fair in her honour. A board featuring photographs of the event was put up inside the village hall to commemorate it. These pictures are no longer on display.