HALSTEAD, a market-town of England, county of Essex, is situated on the Colne Valley Railway and on a steep acclivity rising from the river Colne, 48 miles N.E. of London. Though irregularly built it has a neat appearance, and most of the streets are wide and clean. The principal buildings are the parish church, a fine Gothic edifice in the Perpendicular style, containing a monument supposed to be that of Sir Robert Bourchier, lord chancellor to Edward IIL; the church of the Holy Trinity, in the Early English style, erected in 1844; the Lady Mary Ramsay’s grammar school, the mechanics’ institute, and the corn exchange. The principal industries are the manufacture of silk, crape, and velvet. Straw plaiting, at one time the principal occupation of the women, is now nearly extinct. The population of the town in 1871 was 5783, and of the parish 6904.