History of Leyton & Leytonstone in 1863 Whites Directory

Leyton & Leytonstone 1863 Whites Directory

LEYTON, (LOW) a large and handsome village, with many neat houses embowered in trees, is pleasantly situated on the east side of the river Lea and the North-Eastern Railway, 5 1/2 miles N.E. by E. of London, from 1 to 2 miles north of Stratford Station, on the Eastern Counties Railway, and about a mile E. of Lea Bridge Station, on the North-Eastern line. It has a station on the London, Woodford, and Loughton Railway, which is intended to be extended to Epping, &c. The parish of Low Leyton had 2519 inhabitants in. 1801; 3274, in 1841; 3901, in 1851; and 4794, in 1861, including 572 in West Ham Union Workhouse. It comprises 2241A. IR. 28P. of land; but the north-east side of the parish forms the large and pleasant hamlet and chapelry of Leytonstone, as afterwards noticed.
In both villages are many fine suburban villas, mostly occupied by merchants and tradesmen of London. The parish extends northward to Knotts Green and the southern verge of Epping Forest, in which it and the neighbouring parishes have forest rights. It is fertile and well-wooded, though part of it consists of low marshes and meadows on the banks of the Lea, which separates it from Middlesex, near Hackney, and from which river it was anciently called Lea-town. It includes about 250A. of waste in the forest, and has a gravelly soil, abounding with fine springs. Lea Bridge Gas Works, commenced in 1854, supply Low Leyton, Walthamstow, &c. Various antiquities have been found in this parish, but the evidence of its having been the site of a Roman station, though supported by Camden and some other antiquaries, does not appear to be sufficiently strong to warrant its being positively asserted. Camden himself speaks with hesitation; and though willing to suppose it the Durolitum of Antoninus, acknowledges that to justify this opinion the distance of that station from London (15 miles), as stated in the itinerary, must be regarded as inaccurate. It is therefore most probable that the remains discovered here belonged to some Roman villas. In 1718, Mr. Gansel, in digging up two acres of land for a
garden, near the manor house, found under the whole, very large and strong foundations, in one place all stone, with considerable arches, and a door-way with steps down to it, but, filled up with gravel. In many of the foundations were large quantities of Roman bricks and tiles, and some broken pieces of Egyptian granite. In digging a pond, the workmen, after sinking ten feet through a bed of clay, found a great quantity of oak timber, morticed together like a floor, grown very hard and black, but they did not ascertain how far it extended. Several Roman brass and silver coins, both Consular and imperial, from the time of Julius Caesar, were scattered about, as well as some silver coins with Saxon characters. The ground where these discoveries were made adjoins the church-yard, where some time before a large urn of coarse red earth was found. At the domesday survey, the Abbot of Westminster, Robert, son of Corbutio, Peter da Valoines, Hugh de Montfort, and Robert Gernon, held the parish, which is, now in three manors. Leyton, the chief manor, was given to Stratford Abbey, and in 1545 was granted to Lord Wriothesly, who sold it to Ralph Warren, Esq., lord mayor of London. It afterwards passed to the Cromwell, Rider, and Gansel families. It was sold by the latter about 1780, with part of the estate, to an ancestor of John Pardoe, Esq., the present lord of the manors of Leyton and Marks, who resides at the Manor House, which was built in 1794, in lieu of the old one, called the Grange, which has recently been pulled down. The Earl of Mornington is lord of Ruckholts manor, which comprises the hamlet of Leytonstone, and was for many years held by the Hickes family, whose mansion was taken down in 1757. Rucksholt House stood near the Lea, about a mile south of the church, and near its site is a square embankment, enclosing a circular mound, about 30 yards in diameter, and encompassed by a moat six yards in width. This ancient entrenchment is now nearly obscured by trees, planted over most of the area. The parish is mostly freehold, and a great part of the soil, belongs to other proprietors, some of whom have handsome mansions here. Sir Thomas Roe, the first English ambassador to the East, was born in this parish, in 1580. He was knighted in 1604, and went on a voyage of discovery to the West Indies. In 1614 he was sent by James I. on an embassy to the Great Mogul, from whose court he removed to that of the Grand Segnior, where he obtained very essential advantages for his countrymen. On his return, he was made Chancellor of the Garter and a member of the Privy Council. He brought to this country the celebrated Alexandrian Manuscript of the Greek Testament, and died in 1644 The CHURCH (Virgin Mary) is a neat brick structure, and was mostly rebuilt (except the tower) in 1821, at the cost of £4521, of which sum £3300 was raised hy subscription, and the rest by a parish rate. It has a nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel, and in the tower are three bells and a clock. The interior is handsomely, fitted up, and on the walls are many handsome monuments. In the chancel is a memorial of that much celebrated historian and antiquary, John Strype, who held the vicarage during the long period of 68 years, and was buried in 1737, aged 94. In the north, Aisle is the monument of Charles Goring, Earl of Norwich, who died in 1670 ; and a marble tablet to the memory of Wm. Bowyer, a learned and eminent printer, whose life was written by John Nichols, his apprentice and partner. He died, aged 74, in 1777. The church was given with the manor to Stratford Abbey. The vicarage, valued in K.B. at £7. 12s., and in 1831 at £534, is in the patronage of J. Pardoe, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. John Pardoe jun., who has a neat residence and 1 1/2 A. of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1843 for £770 per annum, of which about £400 belongs to the vicar, and the rest to the impropriators of the rectorial tithes. Two-thirds of the latter belong to J. Pardoe, Esq., and one-third to Mr. Frith. The old parish Workhouse was pulled, down in 1848, and the site added to the church-yard. In the village is a neat Wesleyan Chapel, built of white brick, in 1843.

The National Schools, in Low Leyton, form a handsome brick building in the Elizabethan style, with dwellings for the master and mistress, erected in 1847 at the cost of £1200, raised by subscription. Miss Rayner gave £300 towards the erection of these schools, which occupy the site of the old Free School, founded in 1698 by Robt. Ozler, who left £300 for the erection of the school, and endowed it with a yearly rent-charge of £12, for the education of 14 poor boys, seven of Leyton, and seven of Walthamstow, to be appointed by 12 trustees, chosen from the principal inhabitants of the two parishes. In 1813,Win.Bosanguet left £200 three per cent. Consols, and directed the dividends to be applied in supplying the free scholars with books and stationery. The schools are attended by 70 boys and 70 girls, and belonging to them are a field and garden, and a small close. la the latter is an Infant School, with about 90 pupils. The ALMSHOUSES, near the churchyard, form a large tiled building, divided into eight tenements for as may aged poor widows, who have each a small garden. They were founded by John Smith, in 1653, who endowed the eight almspeople with 50s. a year each, now derived as a rent charge of £20 per annum out of Hughes Farm, in this parish. The almspeople have also £12 a year out of Bovill Upland Farm, in Mayland, left by Charles Phillipps, in 1747; and £6 a year out of the house No. 56, Dover street, Piccadilly, London, left by John Phillipps, in the same year. They have likewise the dividends of the following stock, viz.;- £300 three per cent Consols, left in 1813, by Wm. Bosanquet; £300 three per cent. Reduced Annuities, left in 1817, by Thos. Lane; £200 three-and-a-half-per cent. Reduced Annuities, left in 1818, by Magdalene Daubuz; £250 Bank Stock (yielding £20 a year), left in 1827, by Mrs Cath Moyer; and £120. 9s. 8d. three per cent. Consols, purchased with £100, left by Mrs. Mary Bertie. The yearly income of the charity is now about £95. The eight almswomen are supplied with coals, and each has a weekly stipend of 3s. 6d. They have also 2s. 6d. each yearly from a rent-charge of 20s. out of Coopersale estate, near Epping, left by Henry Archer, in 1584. The poor parishioners have 20s. a year from Lord Maynard, as their share of Sampson's Charity. They have 3A. IR. 9p. of meadow land, called Small Gains, purchased with £60 given by Sir Wm. and Lady Hickes, in 1702, and now let for £21. For weekly distributions of bread they have £39 a year from Holbrook's Charity. This and two other yearly sums of the same amount for the poor of St. Botolph and Walthamstow, are paid out of a farm in Marsh lane, in the latter parish, now belonging to Mr. Richardson. The "Inhabitants' Charity" consists of £550 three per cent. Rduced Annuities, purchased at various times with money paid into the poor's box by the inhabitants, in consideration of their having been allowed to enclose part of the waste. The proceeds of these three charities are applied in weekly doles of bread. The London Sailers' Almshouses, in Lea Bridge road, were founded in 1857, by the London Master Bakers' Pension Society. They now comprise 88 houses, occupied by decayed bakers, who ore each, allowed 30s. per month, and 1 1/2 ton of coals yearly. About 20 more houses are to be added.

LEYTONSTONE, the populous and handsome north-eastern hamlet of Leyton parish, has about 2300 inhabitants, and a handsome village, extending more than a mile along the Stratford and Epping road, to the borders of the Forest, and having many large and handsome houses, with sylvan grounds, mostly occupied as suburban villas by gentlemen of London, though distant from six to seven miles N.E. of the city. It has a Station on the railway from London to Woodford and Loughton. A great part of the soil belongs to other proprietors, both as free and copyholders. LEYTONSTONE HOUSE, at Forest Edge, is now one of the seats of Thomas F. Buxton, Esq. Wallwood House, the seat of William Cotton, Esq., stands within the bounds of the Forest, and was built by Lord Colchester, who, in 1693, had a grant of 250A. of forest land. A large Workhouse was built here for West Ham Union, in 1840. Leytonstone District Church (St. John the Baptist) is a handsome white brick structure, erected in 1832-8, at the cost of about £6000, rased by subscription, and a grant of £500 from the Church Building Society. It is of mixed architecture, and has a square tower in which are six bells and a clock, given by William Davis, Esq. The east window is enriched with, painted glass. The organ was provided by a separate subscription; and the fittings of the pulpit and reading-desk, and the communion table, were the gifts of Mrs. Morrison. The site and burial-ground were purchased of Miss Sansom, and the hamlet was constituted a separate ecclesiastical district in 1845. The benefice is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the vicar of Low Leyton, and incumbency of the Rev. H. H. Evans, M.A. The old chapel of ease, which was built by William Dunster, Esq., in 1749, is now occupied as a National School. Here is an Independent Ohapel, built by subscription in 1838. It is neatly fitted up, and has a Sunday School. St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery, in Leytonstone, was opened in 1861, and extends over 11 1/2 acres. It has been provided by the London Catholics; and the Rev. James McQuoin, of Stratford, is the priest, and Charles Newman, sexton. Leytonstone is said to have had the latter part of its name from a Roman mile-stone, which formerly stood on the high road.