ONGAR HUNDRED 



CHIGWELL 



was closed in 1933, after the opening of the stations at 

 Loughton and Grange Farm, Chigwell.3 



Allotments were instituted by the parish vestry in 

 1867 at Grange Hill and Ghigwell Row.'' 



The origin of the Chigwell Row recreation ground 

 is mentioned below (see Agriculture). It has been taken 

 over by the Urban District Council, which has also 

 provided grounds near Chigwell station and at Roding 

 Valley. The Buckhurst Hill recreation ground has also 

 been taken over by the council. s 



Until the 19th century Chigwell was a rural parish 

 devoted mainly to agriculture. 

 JGRIC ULTURE The soil is clay. At Buckhurst Hill 

 and Chigwell Row there were for- 

 merly extensive stretches of woodland forming part of 

 Epping Forest and Hainan It Forest. Apart from the 

 forests the southern part of the parish has always been 

 used for pasture, possibly because most of the wealthier 

 inhabitants lived there and preferred such surroundings. 

 The remainder of the parish has always contained a 

 higher proportion of arable land, but even there pasture 

 has predominated. 



Little is known of agricultural practices in the parish 

 during the Middle Ages. Certain iields at Buckhurst 

 Hill appear to have been still divided into strips in the 

 13th century but were consolidated after coming into 

 the possession of Waltham Abbey about 1300.* Such 

 records as remain of this period show that pigs were the 

 main source of revenue, as was usual in this part of 

 Essex, where the forests provided good pannage.' 

 Assarts from the forests were numerous in the 1 3 th and 

 14th centuries, although rarely of more than an acre in 

 extent.* At Woolston in the 15th century pigs were 

 still the most common animals, but cattle, sheep, and 

 geese were also kept." Most of the arable land appears 

 to have been worked by the lord of the manor using 

 customary labour until towards the end of the 15th 

 century, when labour services had been generally com- 

 muted.'" Between 13 12 and 1534 some 100 acres 

 arable belonging to the demesne of Woolston had been 

 converted into pasture." Grazing land was certainly . 

 regarded as more profitable than arable. The will of 

 John Fuller of Serjeants, dated 1 671, charged his 

 widow to 'make no waste by ploughing' on the land 

 which he left her in trust for his children.'^ An unusual 

 crop, greenweed, was raised in a field at Buckhurst Hill 

 in 1664. '3 It was probably used for dye. 



During the i8th century more land probably passed 

 under cultivation. A tithe survey of 1800 shows that 

 there were then 973 acres of arable. Wheat accounted 

 for 280 acres, oats 291 acres, potatoes 32 acres, barley 

 25 acres, beans, peas, and vetches 26 acres, and seeds 

 129 acres with 190 acres fallow. There were 2,310 

 acres of grassland and 30 acres of privately owned 

 woodland. The remaining 1,696 acres of the parish 

 were made up mainly of the forest waste at Chigwell 

 Row and Buckhurst Hill.'* According to Vancouver's 

 tables of 1794 the yield of crops was slightly above the 



average for the county.'s James Hatch of Claybury in 

 Barking, lord of Chigwell Hall, who owned some 800 

 acres in Chigwell apart from waste, was one of the 

 correspondents who supplied Arthur Young with in- 

 formation for his General View of Agriculture in Essex 

 (1807). He reported that crops of potatoes, well 

 manured on a rotational system, had obviated fallow 

 land. He stated also that fourteen years was the mini- 

 mum lease that he would grant because tenants could 

 not 'make the necessary exertions in draining and 

 manuring under a shorter term'.'* Young considered 

 that the forest waste in Chigwell was a handicap to 

 good husbandry, any advantage gained by rights of 

 common being far outweighed by the damage done by 

 deer and poachers." He suggested that 750 acres 

 waste worth %s. 6J. an acre could be improved to 25/. 

 by inclosure. 



Small inclosures had been continuing in the 1 6th and 

 17th centuries, sometimes by grant in manor courts and 

 sometimes by silent encroachment.'* In 1851 Hainault 

 Forest was disafforested by Act of Parliament." The 

 Hainault Forest Allotment of Commons Act, iSjS,*" 

 provided that 701 acres (mainly within the parish of 

 Chigwell) should be allotted as common of that parish. 

 By the Chigwell Inclosure Award 1863 most of this 

 common was inclosed.^' The largest allotments went 

 to James Mills, lord of the manor of Chigwell Hall, 

 who received 209 acres, and Mrs. Lloyd of Barringtons, 

 who was granted 72 acres absolutely and an additional 

 50 acres on condition that she maintained it for use as 

 a public recreation ground. ^^ 



Meanwhile, at Buckhurst Hill, inclosures were being 

 made from Epping Forest. In 1858 James Mills pur- 

 chased the forestal rights of the Crown in his manor of 

 Ghigwell Hall.^3 The Epping Forest Commission re- 

 ported in 1877 that 257 acres had been illegally inclosed 

 within this manor between 185 1 and 1871.2'' By 1877 

 most of these inclosures had been built on or had be- 

 come private gardens and were therefore exempt from 

 the provisions of the subsequent Epping Forest Acts. 

 An important exception was Lords Bushes, which con- 

 tained 92 acres and became part of the forest once more 

 under those Acts. Unlike those at Chigwell Row, there- 

 fore, the inclosures at Buckhurst Hill did not signi- 

 ficantly increase the agricultural acreage. 



A fair proportion of the parish is still devoted to 

 farming, mostly in the north and east, and is now evenly 

 divided between arable and pasture land. 



From medieval times men with interests in London 

 have made their country homes 

 OTHER OCCUPJ- in Chigwell," and the indi- 

 TIONS genous population, when not 



engaged in agriculture, has 

 been largely occupied in catering for their needs, either 

 in goods or services. In the second half of the 17th cen- 

 tury four cordwainers, a butcher, a weaver, a mason, a- 

 carpenter, and a brickmaker are named in various 

 records.^* They are typical of the tradesmen generally 



3 Buckhurst Hillj ChigijueU dnd Lough- 

 ton Oficial Guide. 



* E.R.O., D/P 166/8/11. 



5 Official Guide. <> E.R. Ivii, 96-99. 



' E32/12, 13, 16. 



« Ibid. ; W. R. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 

 323. 



» E.R.O., D/DEs M 94 ff. (Court Rolls 

 of Woolston). 



'» E.R.O., D/DEs M94-95. For a 

 manorial grange and bakehouse in the 

 Middle Ages see Parish Government. 



■' E.R. Ixii (Jan.), 51. 



"■ Archd. Essex, 131 Atterbury. 



■3 E.R.O.,e/SR 402/131. 



M E.R.O., D/P 166/3/1. 



'5 Young, Gen. View of Agric. in Essex, 



i. 325. 354- 

 "■ Ibid, i, 395. " Ibid, u, 95. 



18 E.R.O., D/DDa M14, D/DU 97/2. 

 '« 14 & 15 Vict. C.43. 



21 21 & 22 Vict. C.37. 



" E.R.O., g/RDc 66. For Hainault 

 Forest before inclosure see Chapman and 



23 



Andre, Map of Essex, I'jyy, sheet xvi. 



22 The recreation ground was at Chigwell 

 Row, adjoining the remaining portion of 

 Hainault Forest. 



23 W. R. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 352. 



24 Rep. of Epping Forest Com. H.C. 187, 

 pp. 79-81 (1877), xxvi. 



25 Court Rolls :E.R.O., D/DDa Mi-i 3, 

 D/DEs M80-109, D/DU 97/1-9; Wills 

 and other records. 



^^ Abstracts of records in possession of 

 the author. 



