HALSTEAD, a market-town of the county of Essex, in the hundred of Hinchford, forty-six miles from London. The river Colne runs at the bottom of the town, from which the streets gently rise. It has a good corn-market on Friday, and once employed many persons in the woollen manufacture, which is now nearly extinct. There is a good foundation grammar-school, and the county bridewell is established in the town. The population amounted in 1801 to 3380, in 1811 to 3379, in 1821 to 3858, and in 1831 to 4637.