Talk:Little Stambridge

Hamlet? Image caption?

This article originally stated Little Stambridge is a former civil parish, which is verified in a reliable source (Vision of Britain). The lead has been altered to state Little Stambridge is a hamlet based on a webpage that appears to be self-published and therefore not subject to editorial checking. No other cited source states Lower Stambridge is a hamlet and a check of Ordnance Survey's Open Names (TQ88) does not list Little Stambridge as a hamlet (but does have Little Stambridge Hall Lane as a named road). I haven't found another recent source to verify Little Stambridge is a hamlet. (The Kelly's Directory source from 1914 states Little Stambridge is a village and parish.)

The infobox image is captioned Little Stambridge Hall yet the hall as depicted by Historic England and in planning docs is not the house/farm buildings shown in the image. It looks like the caption added by the photographer is wrong and should probably read Little Stambridge Hall Lane. Rupples (talk) 13:15, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

My earlier edits were trying to avoid the clumsy present tense phrasing "is a former civil parish", which to my mind carries the suggestion that the area of the former civil parish remains somehow in use today as a geographical frame of reference. I think the phrasing "is a former" can work in some limited contexts, such as for famous people who are still alive but have retired from doing the thing for which they became famous, but I don't like it for old administrative areas. We don't say the Ottoman Empire "is a former empire" for instance (to take the logic to a larger scale).

If there were consensus that Little Stambridge is a hamlet today, I'd always prefer to start a page about a place with a description of what the place is now, not what it was in the past. However, you are correct to spot that the source I'd cited is self-published and therefore not reliable. I have therefore put the former parish back into the first sentence, taken out the self-published source, and reworded to avoid calling it a hamlet, but I've also tried to make the tenses clearer than they were in the first iteration. I've also amended the image caption, which I agree looks to have been taken on Little Stambridge Hall Lane to the south of the hall itself. Hope those changes address your points. Stortford (talk) 16:15, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Yeah Little Stambridge was definitely a village in the past since 19th century OS maps show it and old sources describe it as a village however as noted OS maps don't currently show it and appears only the manor website calls it a hamlet and I'm not sure that is a reliable source though it does seem OK apart from the fact it appears to have an error regarding the date of the demolition of the church. @Stortford: are you saying "was a civil parish in (county) rather than "is a former civil parish, now in (parish) would be better for former parishes that have no existance today such as a village? Talk:Middlesex/FAQ mentions this but maybe because the former parish doesn't have much of an area name unlike Middlesex. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:29, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

Yes, I would definitely prefer "was a civil parish" or "was formerly a civil parish" over "is a former civil parish", as the "is" suggests it somehow still is something today, which isn't true when we're talking about abolished administrative areas. I'd also do the "now in (parish)" bit as a separate sentence for ease of reading rather than overloading the opening sentence, as I have done in my rewording for Little Stambridge. Stortford (talk) 06:13, 16 December 2025 (UTC)