YELDHAM (Great), a parish, with a village, in Halstead district, Essex; on the Colne Valley railway, 6½ miles NW by N of Halstead. It has a post-office under Halstead, and a r. station. Acres, 1,820. Real property, £4,372. Pop., 696. Houses, 145. Spaynes Hall belongs to the Rev.J. Way. Spencer Grange is the residence of Mrs. Way. An oak, in the centre of the village, which is now quite dead, measures 30 feet in girth at 4 feet from the ground. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £506.* Patrons, the Trustees of the late Sir W. B. Rush. The church is later English. There are an endowed school with £60 a year, six alms houses, and other charities £25.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))