South Weald, (which signifies “the south wood”) is an extensive Parish , bisected by the London Road at Brook Street,  2 miles west from Brentwood station, 5 north east from Romford and 17 from London, and seems to have existed in the time of King Harold, by whom it was given to Waltham Abbey: it is in the Southern division of the county,  Billericay Union, hundred of Chafford, Brentwood county court district, Chafford rural deanery, Essex archdeaconry, and Rochester diocese. with a population in 1851, of 1,383, exclusive of Brentwood. The Church of St Peter has a nave and north aisle, and a handsome square stone tower containing 5 bells; it contains several monuments and brasses, and a brass taken from the tomb of Sir Anthony Browne, judge CP of 1567, of whom C J H Tower esq, and others of the Tower family, are descendants: the church was completely restored in 1868. The register dates from the year 1538. the living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £600, with residence, in the gift of the bishop of Rochester, and held by the Rev Charles Almeric Bell MA, of Christ Church, Oxford. A school and ten almshouses, in the Elizabethan style, were erected about 1856, from designs by Mr Teulon, the eminent architect, of London. At Bentley Mill a district school for boys and girls was built by subscriptions, amounting to about £450, and opened in January 1865, for the children of this and the adjoining parishes of Kelvedon and Navestock. The parishioners have the right to send their children to Brentwood Grammar school. The improptietor of the great tithes is Christopher John Hume Tower, esq JP, of Weald Hall, which is remarkable for having been the residence of Queen Mary, and formerly the seat of Sir Anthony Browne, the founder of the Grammar school of Brentwood and almshouses of South Weald. The mansion has been most elaborately restored, and many of the rooms are of large dimensions, in which there are some fine specimens of tapestry, and a fine collection of china: the hall is richly decorated, and has also some very large and beautiful paintings, among these being a very large one by Rubens if a lioness and cubs: there is also some old oak furniture in beautiful preservation; the moulded ceiling of this hall is of great artistic beauty in design, and considered a very fine specimen of that kind of workmanship: the lawn immediately in front of the hall is laid out with flower beds, which are a facsimile of the main features in the ceiling of the hall, and have a pleasing effect. The park is well timbered, and the sweeps broken by beautifully undulating surfaces: it contains traces of a circular camp, surrounded by a single ditch. Near the church is Belvedere Tower, commanding a fine view over the surrounding country.  

 Situated on a fine eminence, about three-quarters of a mile from the Brentwood station, stands the County Lunatic Asylum, seen from the Eastern Counties railway, within half a mile of Brentwood, this building, with the tapering spire of its beautiful little chapel, forms a picturesque object: it is in the Elizabethan style, richly decorated, and will accommodate about 800 patients: in 1864 three additional blocks of buildings were erected, which accommodate 75 more patients, and in 1871 another block for the accommodation of 250 female patients: the wards are spacious and airy, and many  command an extensive and beautiful prospect: the building is approached from the Warley Road by a carriage drive: there are upwards of 110 acres of land connected with the asylum, including Brentwood Hall, and 30 acres purchased in 1873, part appropriated as a cemetery and the remainder used as a farm and kitchen garden and pleasure grounds: the farm and garden are cultivated by the patients, under the superintendence of attendants. The principal landowner is Christopher John Hume Tower esq, JP, who is also lord of the manor. The soil is clay and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area of the entire parish is 5.037 acres; gross estimated rental, £14,403; rateable value, £11, 932; and the population in 1871 was 2,994, exclusive of Brentwood.

Coxtye Green, 2 miles north; Pilgrims Hatch, 2 north east and Brook Street, 1 mile south, are populous hamlets.

Parish clerk, Horace Bright.

Post Office – Mrs Sarah Beadle, receiver. Letters from Brentwood arrive at 7.30 am; dispatched at 6 pm. The nearest money order office is at Brentwood.

Post Office, Pilgrims Hatch – John Clark, receiver. Letters through Brentwood arrive at 5 am & 11.25 am; dispatched at 10.25 am & 7.45 pm

County Lunatic Asylum, Warley Road, Donald Cochrane Campbell, MD superintendent; George Amsden, MB & Robert L Shone, assistant medical officers; Rev Joseph Sowter, AKC chaplain; Charles Rayner, steward & clerk; Miss Camilia North, matron; Miss Elizabeth Hillier, assistant matron; Thomas Morgan Gepp, Chelmsford, clerk to the visitors; William Michael Tufnell, Chelmsford, treasurer & treasurer of benevolent fund. Visiting days to patients, 1^st & 3^rd Thursdays in the month.

School (boys & girls), Mrs Walker, mistress

School, Bentley Mill, Benjamin Cooper, master