A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



on the roll and they were taught by a teacher and a 

 monitress.'^ 



By the Education Act of 1902 the school passed 

 under the administration of the Essex Education Com- 

 mittee as a non-provided endowed school. Average 

 attendance rose from 44 in 1900 to 53 in 191 5 but 

 fell again to 33 in 1938.93 In 1944 the school was 

 reorganized for mixed juniors and infants, the seniors 

 being transferred to Chipping Ongar. In 1950 the 

 managers applied for aided status; a decision about this 

 was still awaited in September 1952. There were 36 

 pupils and two teachers at the school in May 1952.''* 



The school is situated a little to the south-west of Tile- 

 gate Green, just within the southern boundary of High 

 Laver and it is attended by children from High Laver 

 as well as by those from Magdalen Laver. '5 It is a 

 single-storied red-brick building. 



The Revd. Thomas James Robinson, by will dated 

 1876, left an annuity of ^^2 for the aged 

 CHARITY and industrious poor of the parish. The 

 will was disputed but the legacy was 

 paid in 1883 in the form of ^^59 5/. stock. In 1952 

 the income was used to give \os. in cash to three 

 people.'* 



LOUGHTON 



The town of Loughton lies to the east of Epping 

 Forest and west of the Roding, adjoining Chigwell; 

 it is 12 miles from London.' The ancient parish of 

 Loughton became an urban district in 1900 and in 

 1933 was united with the Urban District of Buckhurst 

 Hill and Chigwell civil parish to form the ChigweU 

 Urban District.^ The area of the ancient parish was 

 approximately that of the present Loughton (North) 

 and Loughton (South) Wards of the urban district, 

 taken together, and in 1931 comprised 3,961 acres.^ 

 For ecclesiastical purposes the ancient parish was 

 divided in 1887 by the creation of the new parish of 

 St. Mary, in the south of the town.'* 



The best approach to Loughton is from the north, 

 by the road through Epping Forest from the 'Wake 

 Arms'. The forest has always formed an important 

 part of the landscape of Loughton. Over 1,300 acres 

 of the forest were within the ancient parish and were 

 preserved by the Epping Forest Acts of 187 1-80.5 

 The road leaves the forest about a mile south of the 

 'Wake Arms', at Goldings Hill and runs south down 

 hill, becoming Church Hill and then High Road and 

 continuing to Buckhurst Hill and London. For many 

 centuries this road, 2 miles long, was the main focus of 

 settlement in the parish. South-east of Goldings Hill 

 is the new Loughton: the large housing estate of 

 Debden, built since 1945 by the London County 

 Council. The estate takes its name from the ancient 

 manor of Debden, which lay at its northern end, 

 around Debden Hall and Debden Green. Debden 

 Green itself does not form part of the estate. It is a 

 pleasant little hamlet of about eight houses, mostly of 

 the 19th century and later, grouped about the ancient 

 green. Loughton Hall, on the site of another ancient 

 manor, is now in the centre of the Debden estate, a 

 mile south of Debden Green. Beside the hall is the 

 Lttle church of St. Nicholas (a chapel of ease to St. 

 John, Loughton) which stands on the site of the 

 original parish church. The Roding forms the boundary 

 of the parish in this direction. There is an ancient 

 crossing at Loughton Bridge a mile south-east of 

 Loughton Hall. The railway from London via Strat- 

 ford and Woodford, now part of the Central London 

 Line, enters Loughton from the south. After passing 

 through Loughton station it makes a wide arc east and 



92 Essex Educ. Cttee. Handhk. 1904, 

 p. 148. 



93 Min. of Educ. File 13/196. 

 9* Inf. from Essex Educ. Cttee. 

 95 Sec above, p. 104 and also parish of 



High Laver. 96 char. Com. Files. 



' O.S. 2\ in. Map, sheet 51/49. 



^ Kelly's Dir. Essex (1902); Ciigwell 

 U.D. Official Guide (2nd edn.), 22. 



3 Official Guide, p. 22; Kelly's Dir. 



Essex (1933). The ward boundary be- 

 tween Loughton (South) and Buckhurst 

 Hill is \ mile north of the ancient parish 

 boundary. 



♦ See below, Church. ' See below. 



<> y.C.H. Essex, \, 277; Hist. Mon. 

 Com. Essex, ii, 165—6. 



' See below, Manor. 



' F.C.H. Essex, i, 447a, 446A, 515*, 

 537a, i>. 



north to Theydon Bois and Epping. Debden (formerly 

 Chigwell Lane) station is J mile south-east of Loughton 

 Hall. Rectory Lane, an old path which has become the 

 main road through the new estate, runs from Church 

 Hill south-east to Debden station and Loughton 

 Bridge. Alderton Hall, which hke Debden Hall and 

 Loughton Hall was the centre of an ancient manor, is 

 at the south-west edge of the new estate. 



An early settlement in the parish was within the 

 forest at what is known as Loughton Camp, about ij 

 mile north of the railway station. The camp was a 

 rough oval some 6J acres in area, enclosed by a single 

 rampart and ditch. It is thought to be pre-Roman.* 



In the nth century there were eight estates in 

 Loughton. The largest were Alderton and Debden, 

 which were probably the main centres of population 

 at that time.' In 1086 there were 18 manorial tenants 

 at Alderton and 1 1 at Debden and the total number in 

 the parish was 49.8 In 1377 the parish contained 44 

 poll-tax-payers.' 



Although the total area of the parish was fairly 

 large, the population was for long concentrated in a 

 small part of it. Many medieval place-names survive 

 and relate almost entirely to High Road and its im- 

 mediate neighbourhood and to the areas around the 

 three manor houses. Traps Hill, Algers Road, Goldings 

 Hill, Borders Lane, Lyngs Lane (now Pump Hill), 

 Pyrles Lane, OUards Grove, and Ree Lane (now 

 Englands Lane) have medieval names or the names of 

 medieval tenants who held land in those areas.'" There 

 appears to be a specific reference to High Road in 

 1404 when a tenant was presented at the manor court 

 for throwing the scourings of his ditch upon the high- 

 way at Richard Algor's Gate." The offence was 

 evidently committed in the neighbourhood of the 

 present Alger's Road.'^ 



While the concentration of population along the 

 High Road was probably of medieval origin it was no 

 doubt increased by the construction, early in the 17th 

 century, of the new road through the forest to Epping 

 (see below). In 1671 there were 89 houses in the 

 parish'^ and there were only 119 in 1801, when the 

 population was 68 1.''' Chapman and Andre's map 

 (1777) suggests that the appearance of Loughton was 

 not very different from what it had been 100 years 



9 W. C. Waller, Loughton in Essex, i, 

 20. 



'» P.N. Essex (E.P.N.S.), 67-68. For 

 details of the descent of properties see 

 Waller, Loughton, \, App. vii. 



" Waller, Loughton, \, 112. 



" For the location see Waller, Loughton, 



'3 E.R.O., Q/RTh 5 (Hearth Tax). 

 M Census, 1801. 



I 10 



