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Essex 1863 Whites Trade Directory for Great Ilford

Great Ilford 1863 - Whites Directory

ILFORD (GREAT) is a large and populous village on the London and Romford road, and on the east side of the river Roding, which is navigable to it for barges. It has a station on the Eastern Counties Railway, and is distant 1 miles E. by N. of Whitechapel, 2 miles N. of Barking, and 6 miles W.S.W. of Romford. It gives name to an extensive Ward of Barking parish, with which it maintains its poor, though, in ecclesiastical matters, it was constituted a separate parish, jointly with CHADWELL WARD,in 1831. The latter has a range of scattered houses, called Chadwell street, on and near the high road, from 1 to 3 miles E. of Ilford, .and includes about 800 inhabitants, several fertile farms, and a portion of the Heath. GREAT ILFORD WARD has about 4000 inhabitants, and comprises the village of BARKINGSIDE, the hamlet of Aldborough Hatch, and a large and thickly wooded portion of Hainault Forest, extending from 2 to 5 miles N. and N.E. of Great Ilford. About 2000 acres of this forest were enclosed and let as a farm in 1853. The two Wards comprise about 8000 acres of land, and many scattered farm houses, &c. : About 60 houses were taken down in Great Ilford, to make room for the Railway Station, in 1839; but since then the village has been much improved by the erection of new houses, &c. It has three good inns, many well stocked, shops, a never-failing public well, and a Police Station, to which 12 of the metropolitan police are attached; and in Little Iford parish, on the opposite side of the river Roding, is Ilford Gaol. etc, where petty sessions are held every Saturday. The Gas Works were constructed in 1839, at the cost of about £2000, raised in £5 shares. In the vicinity are two extensive brick yards. Sir Edward Hulse, Bart, is lord of the manor, but a great part of the parish belongs to the Marquis of Salisbury, H. C. Holcombe, P. Dare, J. Davis, and many smaller proprietors, some of whom have pleasant seats here. ALDBOROUGH HATCH, an estate with several farm houses and other dwellings, is more than two miles N.E. of Ilfojd, and adjoins Hainault Forest. About 1730, Martin Bladen, Esq.,built a large and elegant mansion here, at the cost of £14,000; but the greater part was taken down many years ago, though .the remaining part still forms a good house; and near it is a new church, built in lieu of the old Chapel of Ease, in 1861, at the cost of .£1200, mostly given by Government. It is a perpetual curacy, valued at £20,in the patronage of the Lords of the Woods and Forests, and incumbency of the Rev. W. F. E Knollys. In an adjacent part of Hainault Forest, is held an annual pleasure fair, on the first Friday in July, upon and near the site of FAIRLOP OAK, which was of such great age that, as Mr. Gilpin says, "the traditions of the country traced it half way up the Christian era." Great care was taken, to preserve this venerable oak, but in 1805 it was accidentally set on fire, and the trunk was considerably injured, and most of the principal branches wholly destroyed. Part of it was afterwards converted into the beautiful carved pulpit in St. Pancras Church, London. The trunk measured 36 feet in girth, and the branches spread over an area of 800 feet in circumference. About 130 years ago, a Mr. Day, a block and pump maker, of Wapping, commenced the practice of dining with his friends annually, beneath the shade of this monarch of the forest, and in the course of a few years, other parties were formed, in London, on Mr. Day's anniversary, and suttling booths were erected here for their accommodation; and these continued to increase till the place assumed the appearance of a regular fair, on the return of every first Friday in July. A few years before Mr. Day died, his favourite oak lost a large limb, out of which his coffin was made. He died in 1767, aged 84 years, and was buried at Barking.
Great Ilford CHURCH (St. Mary) is a handsome white brick structure, which was finished in June, 1831, at the cost of about £3500, raised by Parliamentary grants, a liberal donation from the Church Building Society, and by private subscriptions. It is in the lancet Gothic style, with a tower and spire, and has 850 sittings, most of which are free. The site was given by J. S. Thompson, Esq., and the clock by C. A. Hackett, Esq. The late W. R. H. Dare, Esq., was the greatest promoter of the building, and after its completion the parishioners presented him with a piece of plate weighing 250 ounces. The benefice was constituted a vicarage, by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in 1836, and endowed with the small tithes of Great Ilford and Chadwell Wards. It is now valued at £430 per annum, and is in the patronage of All Souls College, Oxford; and in the incumbency of the Hon. and Rev. Hy Wm. Bertie, D.C.L. Before the erection of this church, the only episcopal place of worship in the village was the Hospital Chapel, noticed below. There is a small chapel of ease at Aldborough Hatch, as already noticed; and a handsome CHURCH, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected for BARKINGSIDE DISTRICT in 1840, at the cost of about £3000, for the accommodation of the inhabitants of the northern parts of the parish, near the forest. It is a neat brick structure, of mixed architecture, with a spire and about 500 sittings, of which 314 are free. Towards the building, £ll50 was obtained in grants from the Essex Church Building Society, the Incorporated Society, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and All Souls College, and the rest was raised by subscription. The site of the church and burial ground was given by Messrs. Hibbit, Wright, and Campion. Towards the endowment (£130 per annum), about £1500 has been raised by subscription, and about £400 has been granted by the Governors of Queen' Anne's Bounty. The annual sum of £45 has also been secured to the incumbent, out of the tithes of the vicarage of Great Ilford. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar, and incumbency of the Rev. W. P. E. Knollys. To the endowment fund, £200 was given by an anonymous donor, and £l0 by the Master and Fellows of All Souls College, who are appropriators of the rectorial tithes, now held on lease by the Marquis of Salisbury. Barkingside was made a district parish, of about 1400 souls, in 1841, and has a National School, built in 1842, at the cost of £700. In Great Ilford is a National School, built in 1835, by subscription, and an Infant School, erected in 1846, at the sole expense of the Misses Thompson. In 1846, Captain Ibbetson, of Heath House, erected near his mansion a small handsome Ohurch, or Chapel of Ease, in the early English style, with a tower and stained glass windows. The Baptists have a chapel here, erected in I80l and enlarged in 1827. It is endowed with about £30 per annum, and is now under the ministry of the Rev. J. Woodard. Here is also a small Wesleyan Chapel; and a Mechanics' Institution, for which, a neat building was erected by Miss Thompson, in 1858.
ILFORD HOSPITAL was founded in the reign of Henry II., by the Abbess and Convent of Barking, as an asylum for their leprous tenants and servants, subject to the visitation of the Bishop of London. It was endowed by the abbess and others with considerable property, in Barking, East Ham, and Great and Little Ilford, for the support of a master, 13 brother lepers, two priests, and a clerk. After the dissolution of the religious houses, it was re-founded by a grant of Queen Elizabeth, in 1572, for the residence and support of a master, a chaplain, and six poor aged men. Thos. Fanshawe, his heirs and assigns, were appointed visitors and governors of the hospital, and vested with the appointment of the master, who enjoys all the revenues of the hospital, after providing for the repairs of the building, and paying the following yearly salaries, viz.:- £14 to the chaplain, and £2. lls. each to the six almspeople. These payments are now made by the Marquis of Salisbury, who holds the estates, and combines in himself the two characters of patron and master of the hospital, in virtue of a mortgage deed, dated 1668, whereby Viscount Fanshawe, in consideration of £1219, owing by him to Thos. Allen, granted to the latter and his assigns, for 1000 years, all the valuable estates, and his other rights and interest in the hospital. The chaplain performs morning and evening service in the CHAPEL (St. Mary) every Sunday, and besides his salary of £14, he receives about £30 a year from pew-rents, and £3 as the rent of two rooms, intended for his residence. He likewise occasionally receives the burial fees. The Hosptal is on the London road, and in its centre is the chapel, which was built in the 16th century, and is 100 feet by 20. The Rev. J. Reynolds is the chaplain. The poor of Great Ilford participate in the charities of Barking parish.In 1812, when digging for brick earth, near Ilford, various fossil remains were found, consisting of large bones of oxen, horns and bones of stags, and also the head, bones, and teeth of an elephant, differing from those of Asia and Africa. Teeth and tusks of the hippopotamus have also been found here. The ILFORD BATTALION OF RIFLE VOLUNTEERS comprises the Ilford, Romford, Brentwood, Rochford, Hornchurch, Great Bentley, and Woodford companies. J C. Davis, Esq., is the lieutenant-colonel; and 0. E. Coope, Esq., major.