CHADWELL ST.MARY
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
CHADWELL-ST.MARY, a parish in Orsett district, Essex; on the Thames, and on the Tilbury and Southend railway, 2 miles E of Grays r. station, and 2 and ½ S of Orsett. Post-town, Grays, under Romford. Acres, 1,977, of which 160 are water. Real property, £2,946. Pop., 457. Houses, 85. The property is divided among a few. Chalk caves occur here, called Daneholds and Cunobelin's gold mines. Tilbury fort is partly within the border. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £427. Patron, the Rev. J.P. Herringham. The church is old but good. Charities, £12.
Transcribed by Noel Clark
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
CHADWELL ST. MARY, which takes its name from a well dedicated to St. Chad (or Cedd), who is said to have baptised his converts here and built a church between Chadwell St. Mary and West Tilbury, is a parish on the road from Grays to Tilbury, 2 miles north from Tilbury station on the London, Midland and Scottish railway, 3 south from Orsett, 14 south-east from Romford and 22 from London, in the South Eastern division of the county, Barstable hundred, Orsett petty sessional division, Grays county court district, in Orsett and Grays rural deanery, archdeaconry of West Ham and Chelmsford diocese. By Local Government Board Order No. 57,469, which came into operation April 1st 1912, Chadwell civil parish was constituted Tilbury Urban District. Full particulars are given under Tilbury Docks. The village of Chadwell lies high on one of the finest gravel beds in the kingdom, above the chalk range: the Tilbury Docks and Tilbury stations are both in this parish. The southern portion of the parish, known as Tilbury, was sewered in 1894 at a cost of £9,000. The church of St. Mary is a building of flint faced with a soft white stone, chiefly in the Decorated style, but incorporating some Norman features, and consists of chancel, nave and an embattled western tower, of flint and rubble, containing 3 bells, dated respectively 1628, 1763 and 1694: the nave is separated from the chancel by a dwarf screen of oak, surmounted by a wrought iron screen of elaborate design by Charles E. Powell esq.: in the chancel are three oil paintings, presented by the late rector in 1893, one representing the "Finding of Moses," another "The feast given to our Lord in Simon’s house," and the third "St. Francis of Assisi;" the east window was filled with stained glass at the cost of Mrs. Seabrooke, late of Grays, and there are three other stained windows: then chancel retains sedilia and a piscina: there is a mural tablet to the Rev. William Herringham B.D, a former rector and Prebendary of St. Paul’s, d. 22 Feb. 1819; and another to Thomas Noble Elwyn, of Albemarle street, London, surgeon, d. Dec. 1848, and his relict, Elizabeth: under the communion table is a small brass: the font is modern: the church was reseated in 1857, and in 1892 the chancel was decorated with mural painting by Mr. J. T. Carter, of London, at the expense of the then rector: in 1880 the ancient rood staircase, which had been blocked up, was opened, and in 1893 a new organ was erected at a cost of £500. and a new vestry built: the church has 198 sittings. The register of baptisms dates from 1539; marriages and burials from 1578. In the churchyard stands a memorial to the men of this parish who fell in the Great War. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £650, with residence and 10 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Church Association, and held since 1896 by the Rev. Edward Smith D.D., F.G.S. Tilbury Docks are in this parish, but for convenience of reference are given under Tilbury Docks. The southern portion of the parish, embracing the docks, forms a separate ecclesiastical parish. The Peter Symonds charity of £12 yearly is distributed partly in coals. The trustees of the late C. E. Errington esq. lords of the manors of Chadwell and Biggin, in this parish, and Champion Branfill Russell esq. J.P. are the principal landowners. The soil is light; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area is 1,801 acres of land, 54 of inland and 136 of tidal water and 26 of foreshore, the marshes reaching to the Thames; the population in 1931 was 16,825 in the civil, and of the ecclesiastical parish in 1921, 442.
Chadwell Post, M. O. & Tel. Call Office. Letters through Grays. The nearest T. office is at Tilbury