EDITORIAL NOTE 



The first volume of the Victoria History of Essex was published in 1903 

 and the second in 1 907. A little work on other volumes was put in hand in 

 1907 and 1909, but nothing came of it, and it was not until 1950 that any 

 desire to add to the Essex volumes in the series openly displayed itself. 

 In that year, however, two conferences of the Local Authorities in Essex, 

 specially convened, resolved to raise a local fund so that work on the history 

 of their county might be resumed. The three County Boroughs, and most 

 of the Municipal Boroughs, Urban Districts, and Rural Districts agreed to 

 contribute in proportion to their populations, and the money thus found 

 was used to meet the local editorial expenses. The Essex County Council 

 extended some useful practical help. A 'Victoria History of the County of 

 Essex Committee' was set up in 1951 to ensure a proper use of the money, 

 and appointed a local editor (Mr. W. R. Powell) and assistant editor (Miss 

 Audrey M. Taylor). It has met ever since under the chairmanship of Sir 

 John Ruggles-Brise, Bt., and besides a few co-opted individuals, consists 

 of representatives of the participating Local Authorities and the learned 

 societies in Essex. Mr. J. G. O'Leary, Public Librarian of Dagenham, who 

 had cheerfully shouldered the burden of appealing for financial support, 

 undertook the duties of secretary. With this Committee the University of 

 London agreed to collaborate, and so was formed another of those partner- 

 ships for the promotion of local historiography, the prototype of which is 

 described in the editorial note prefixed to the seventh volume of The 

 Victoria History of Wiltshire. The University of London will ever grate- 

 fully recall the local generosity which made this partnership possible, and 

 the Essex Authorities the opportunity thus afforded them of bringing out 

 in instalments a modern history of their county. 



The present volume presents some special features. Thanks to the exten- 

 sive system of topographical indexing adopted in the Essex Record Office 

 it has been possible to exploit the large accumulations of historical material 

 in that Office in systematic fashion. This has enabled contributors to pre- 

 pare fuller accounts of parish government, the administration of poor 

 reUef, and the maintenance of roads and bridges than have as yet appeared 

 in the series, while the history of the descent of land since the 17th century 

 has been enriched, as perhaps never before, by the use of private estate • 

 documents. Secondly, the publication by the County Council of Essex 

 Parish Records 1240-1894 so recently as 1950 suggested that the brief 

 descriptions of the earlier parochial registers of each parish, commonly 

 included in the topographical volumes of the History, might be dispensed 

 with here. Thirdly, in 1921 the Royal Commission on Historical Monu- 

 ments published the second volume of its report upon the buildings of the 

 county earlier than 171 4. The existence of this volume rendered com- 

 parable treatment of the buildings in Ongar hundred superfluous, but the 



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