A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



In 1086 the west of the hundred — Loughton, Chigwell, the Theydons, and 

 North Weald — and the area around Chipping Ongar were thickly wooded.^ 

 By the end of the 1 6th century the only large areas of woodland remaining 

 were Epping and Hainault forests. Most of Hainault Forest was destroyed 

 about i860 but Epping Forest was preserved after a notable controversy. 

 Hardly any evidence has been found of open-field arable cultivation in the 

 hundred. Commons survive in several parishes. In others they were inclosed 

 in the i8th or 19th centuries but in most they had been inclosed before 1700. 

 Apart from the forest inclosures the landscape of the hundred probably changed 

 little between the Conquest and the middle of the 19th century. Building 

 development started in the south-west about i860, when the railway from 

 London was extended to Loughton, Epping, and Ongar, and continued slowly 

 until 1939. Since 1945 the London County Council has built two large 

 housing estates, at Debden and Hainault. 



Until the 19th century most of the inhabitants of the hundred were engaged 

 in agriculture and its ancillary trades. There were many water-mills along the 

 Roding and a few windmills on higher ground. Brickmaking was carried on 

 in many parishes in the London Clay area and there was a little beer-brewing 

 with hops grown locally. Agriculture is still predominant outside the towns. 

 Brickmaking continues in a few places but brewing has entirely ceased. There 

 are light industries in Loughton and Buckhurst Hill but the towns are mainly 

 residential. 



Domesday Book lists some 40 estates under Ongar hundred. 3 Seven other 

 estates, though not so listed, seem clearly in this hundred in 1086.+ These 47 

 estates contained 103 hides in 26 villages distinguished by separate names. 

 Most of these villages later gave their names to the parishes of the hundred, but 

 there were several exceptions. The Domesday Theydon was later split into the 

 three parishes of Theydon Bois, Theydon Garnon, and Theydon Mount. The 

 Domesday Laver similarly became three parishes and Stapleford and Ongar 

 each became two parishes. The Domesday Rodinges, to which three Ongar 

 hundred and thirteen Dunmow hundred entries relate, was eventually divided 

 into eight parishes, two of which were in Ongar hundred. In contrast to these 

 places where 'the fission of vills' occurred were some which later became part 

 of parishes larger than themselves: Alderton and Debden, which were separate 

 Domesday villages were later included in the parish of Loughton, Woolston 

 Was merged in Chigwell parish, Passfield in High Ongar, and Little Stanford 

 in Stanford Rivers. The case of Stanford is specially interesting, for it shows 

 the process of fission starting in 1086 but later reversed. This may also have 

 happened in two other places: there are separate references in Domesday to 

 Fyfield and 'the other Fyfield' and to Navestock and 'the other Navestock', but 

 there was no later fission in either village. One place which later became a 

 parish in this hundred is not specifically mentioned in Domesday: Stondon 

 Massey which was probably included in an entry for Margaret Roding (Dun- 

 mow hundred). The connexion between Stondon Massey and Margaret 

 Roding was subsequently maintained by the payment of tithes from Marks 

 Hall in Margaret Roding to the Rector of Stondon. A tithe-rent charge is still 



2 Cf. F.C.H. Essex, {,375. 



5 Ibid. ^2j—^j\. passim. Occasional ambiguities in Domesday Book make the total doubtful to within two 

 or three. 4 y.C.H. Essex, i, 537^, 538a, 540<?, 554a. 



