CHIPPING ONGAR AND NEIGHBOURHOOD
Pigot's Essex 1832-3 Trade Directory
CHIPPING ONGAR is a small market town and parish, in the hundred of Ongar; 21 miles north-east of London, and seven from Epping. It derived it appellation 'Chipping,' or , from its once possessing a market of some celebrity; which, though not now so extensive, has been lately reviving, and the old market-house has in consequence been repaired. The remains of an ancient castle are in this place; and there have been found, at various times, several antiquities of Romish and Saxon origin; hence it appears not improbable that it was either a Roman station, or a strong hold of the Saxons, previous to the Norman invasion. Large works may be traced round the town, and many Roman bricks are discernible in the walls of the church.
The living is a rectory, and the benefice is possessed by the Rev. A. Edwards; the present curate is the Rev. Joseph Stanfield. Here is a small free-school, founded by Mr. Joseph King, in 1678. The trade of Chipping Ongar is inconsiderable, and there are no manufactories. The 'Bull' is the principal Inn here, and is a house affording every convenience to the traveller. The market day is Saturday, and an annual fair is held on the 12th October and following day. - The parish contained, by the late census, 798 inhabitants, being an increase of 203 in thirty years.
POST OFFICE, CHIPPING ONGAR, Anna M. Scruby, Post Mistress. Letters from London, &c. arrive every morning at eight, and are despatched every evening (Sundays excepted) at five.
COACHES.
To LONDON, John West's coach, from the Red Lion, every Monday morning at seven, and every other morning (Sunday excepted) at eight - and a coach (from Clare) passes through Chipping every afternoon at half-past one.
VANS.
To LONDON, Stephen Clement's Van, every Tuesday and Friday, to the Blue Boar, Whitechapel, and returns the following days - and Charles Theobald, from the Bull, every Thursday.
Transcribed by CG
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
ONGAR, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Essex. The town stands on the river Roding, at the terminus of a branch of the Great Eastern railway, 6 miles E by N of Epping; was known, at Domesday, as Aungre; took afterwards the name of Chipping-Ongar, to designate it, as the seat of a market, and to distinguish it from High Ongar; belonged, at Domesday, to Earl Eustace; passed, in the time of Henry II., to Richard de Lucy; occupies the site of an ancient entrenchment; is proved, bt the finding of many Roman relics in it, and by the existence of Roman bricks in its church, to have been a place of Roman settlement; had a castle at some early period, rebuilt and moated by Richard de Lucy, and now represented by some remains; is now a seat of petty sessions; consists chiefly of one street, situated on a rising bank, and commanding a good view; and has a post-office under Brentwood, a banking-office, a three-arched bridge over the Roding, a town-hall, a police-station, a church, and Independent chapel, a national school, and charities £76. The church replaced a wooden chapel dedicated to Edmund the Martyr; is itself dedicated to to St. martin; has loophole windows; and contains a monument to Lady Jane Cromwell, cousin of Oliver Cromwell. A school and lecture-rooms, in connexion with the Independent chapel, and situated to the rear of it, were erected in 1865. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and a fair on 12 Oct. The parish comprises 508 acres. Real property, £4,052. Pop., 867. Houses, 175. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £127. Patron, Admiral Swinbourne.
ONGAR (HIGH), a village and a parish in Ongar district, Essex. The village stands on the river Roding, 1¼ mile NE of Ongar r. Station; is sometimes called Old O., Great O., and Little O., and has a post-office, of the name of High Ongar, under Brentwood. The parish contains also the hamlet of Astelyns, and comprises 4,510 acres. Real property, £8,701. Pop., 1,177. The property is much subdivided. Ongar Park and Forest Hall are chief residences. Astelyns House was an ancient seat, in which the Duke of Norfolk is said to have taken shelter when fleeing from Queen Elizabeth; and is now a farm-house. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £1,382. Patron, the Rev. H.J. Earle. The church is good; and has a brick tower, rebuilt in 1858, at a cost of £800. There are alms-houses, and other charities, £8.
Transcribed by Noel Clark
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1878
CHIPPING ONGAR (of Ongar Ad Castra) is an ancient town and parish, and a polling place for the Western division of the county, the head of a union and the chief place of the hundred, bearing its name, in Brentwood county court district, Ongar rural deanery, Essex archdeaconry and St. Albans diocese; it is on the west bank of the river Roding, and east of the Cripsey brook on the road from Stratford and close to the road from Epping to Chelmsford, and is the terminous of the Great Eastern railway branch from Loughton, 7 miles east from Epping, 11 west from Chelmsford, 8 north-west from Brentwood, and 21 miles by road and 24 by rail from London. Over the Roding is a brick bridge of three arches. The town is within the area of a old entrenchment, and consists chiefly of one street on the main road, situated on the rising bank of the river, with a good view. Petty sessions are held here every Saturday in the police station. The church of St. Martin is a small structure and consists of chancel, nave, and spire with 2 bells; it has many Roman bricks worked into its walls: the original windows are singularly small, more resembling the loopholes of a castle than the windows of a church; it contains a monument of the Lady Jane, cousin of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell; foundations of Roman remains are said to have been dug up in the churchyard. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a rectory, yearly value £127, in the gift of the trustees of the late Admiral Swinburne and held by the Rev. James Tanner, M. A. of Pembroke College, Oxford. The cemetery is opposite the railway station, and is under the management of the Ongar Burial Board. There is a Congregational chapel. In 1869 a Catholic church was erected. the union comprises twenty-six parishes, viz. Abbots Roothing, Beauchamp Roothing, Berners Roothing, Blackmore, Bobbingworth, Chipping Ongar, Doddinghurst, Fyfield, Greenstead, High Laver, High Ongar, Kelvedon Hatch, Lambourne, Little Laver, Moreton, Navestock, Norton Mandeville, Shelley, Shellow Bowells, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Abbots, Stapleford Tawney, Stondon Massey, Theydon Mount, Willingdale Doe and Willingdale Spain. The Union Workhouse cost £4,416. The gross estimated rental of the union is £84,238; rateable value £76,760. Here is a school endowed with the rents of five houses in the town, producing £78 yearly, left by Joseph King in 1678; it was re-organised in 1869; it is managed by 12 trustees and now educates upwards of 90 scholars from parishes of Chipping Ongar and Shelley; it was enlarged in 1873 to meet the requirements of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, at a cost of £320. Here is a large private school, with upwards of 130 boarders. The market is held on Saturday. A statute fair is held on the 12th of October yearly. a drill hall was built in 1873 subscription, for the 18th Essex (Ongar) Volunteers. Many Roman remains have been found here, and there are relics of the old castle. Lady Jane H. Swinburne, of Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames, is lady of the manor. The principal landowners are Lady Jane H. Swinburne, Robert C. Cure, Philip John Budworth, Pemberton Barnes and J. L. Newall, esqrs. The area is 508 acres; rateable value, £3,927; and the population in 1871 was 946.
Transcribed by Esther Mott