ONGAR HUNDRED 



MORETON 



MORETON 



Moreton is a parish about 3 miles north of Chipping 

 Ongar.' Its area is 1,474 acres.^ In 1946 a small 

 detached part of Moreton (i acre) lying immediately 

 to the north of Bobbingworth Lodge was incorporated 

 into the parish of Bobbingworth. 3 A detached part of 

 Magdalen Laver (5-6 acres) still lies in Moreton, to 

 the north-west of High Laver Bridge. An unusual 

 number of moated sites and of pre-i8th-century houses 

 confirms other evidence which indicates that Moreton 

 was formerly an important place in the area. There 

 were 63 inhabited houses in 1801,73 in i8ii,and69 

 in 1821.* In 1801 the population was 360. s By 1851 

 it had grown to 544; then it declined to 378 in 1901.* 

 By 1931 it had risen again to 471 but in 1951 it was 

 only 411.^ The soil is mainly Boulder Clay but there 

 are patches of London Clay and glacial gravel. 



The land rises from about 1 70 ft. above sea-level in 

 the south-west to 280 ft. in the north-east. Cripsey 

 Brook, a tributary of the Roding, flows through the 

 south-western part of the parish and forms a small part 

 of the southern boundary at Moreton Bridge. At 

 Padlers End, J mile south-west of the bridge, are 

 several small i8th- and early- 19th-century cottages 

 and four pairs of council houses. Moreton Bridge 

 Road enters the parish at Moreton Bridge and runs 

 northward to join the Fyfield Road at Moreton End, 

 the main centre of population. Moreton End includes 

 some attractive groups of 18th-century houses. The 

 White Hart Inn at the road junction may be of 16th- 

 century origin. At its east end the first floor oversails 

 and is supported on curved brackets. It has been altered 

 at var'ous times. Opposite the 'White Hart' is the 

 'Nag's Head', a roughcast early-i8th-century build- 

 ing with a moulded eaves cornice. Rose Cottage and 

 the Castle House Stores form another group of the 

 same date. Part of Ivylands, at the Moreton Bridge 

 end of the village, has a pedimented door hood and 

 may be of the i8th century or earlier. Black Hall, also 

 known as Guildhall Cottage,^ stands immediately 

 north of Ivylands. From Moreton End the Harlow 

 road runs northward. There are five pairs of council 

 houses on the west side of this road. On the east side 

 about J mile farther north is the site of Church Farm,' 

 from which a footpath, formerly North Lane, leads 

 eastward to join Fyfield Road at Makings Farm. 

 Farther along on the west side of Harlow Road is a 

 late-l8th-century weather-boarded house, now called 

 Crispins. This is said to have been built on the site of 

 the Castle Inn'" and the Castle House Stores, now 

 moved to Moreton End, occupied part of it for many 

 years." Nearly opposite Crispins is a row of thatched 

 cottages, apparently of early-i8th-century date. From 

 here Harlow Road runs north-west past the Congrega- 

 tional chapel'^ to High Laver Bridge while Mill Road 

 runs north past Moreton Mill.'s There are two pairs 

 of council houses on the road north of the mill. 



' O.S. 2\ in. Map, sheet 52/50. 



^ Inf. from Essex County Council. 



3 County of Essex (Rural Parishes) 

 Confirm. Order 1946. 



* Census, 1801, 181 1, 1821. 



5 y.C.H. Essex, ii, 350. 



« Ibid. 



' Census, 1 9 1 1 f . ; inf. from Essex 

 County Council. 



« See below, Church. » Ibid. 

 »o W. Talbot, MS. Hist. Moreton (in 

 possession of rector). For the 'Castle* see 



ES. IT 



Chapman and Andr^, Map of Essex ijjy, 

 plate xii. 



" Inf. from Miss Ball. 



" See below, Nonconformity. 



'5 See below. 



'^ See below. School. 



" See below, Church. 



■« Ibid. 



*' For these manors see below. 



'8 W. Talbot, MS. Hist. Moreton. 



'» Hist. Mon. Com. Recs. 



^o Chapman and Andre, Map of Essex 



129 



From Moreton End Fyfield Road runs east past the 

 village school,''* a red-brick police house built in 195 1, 

 and a small cottage which has an oversailing gable-end 

 and may be of the 1 6th or early 17th century. Opposite 

 the cottage stands the rectory.'^ The church'* is im- 

 mediately north-east of the rectory. Opposite the 

 church is a lane to Nether Hall and Upper Hall.'^ 

 About \ mile farther along the Fyfield road is Makings 

 Farm, a low two-story cottage, probably converted 

 from an 18th-century malt kiln.'* Beyond Makings 

 Farm stands Hill Farm, a small timber-framed house 

 of the 15 th century. It originally had an open central 

 hall of two bays, flanked by cross-wings to east and west. 

 These have overhanging gables at the front of the house 

 and still exist more or less in their original form. A 

 ceiling has been inserted in the central block and the 

 roof raised, so that the ridge level is now higher than 

 that of the side wings. The moulded wall posts and 

 arched braces of a central truss are visible on the 

 ground floor, but the upper part of the truss is missing. 

 The hall originally had a screens passage at its east end 

 and the roughly four-centred head of its front entrance 

 is still in position. The east wing retains an arch-braced 

 roof truss above the first floor. It has a king-post and 

 steeply cambered tie-beam. The rebuilding of the 

 upper part of the hall probably took place in the late 

 1 6th or early 17th century, and the four-centred arch 

 of a fireplace of this date was observed in 1919." 

 Both this chimney and that at the west end of the house 

 have diagonal shafts. 



At Hill Farm Fyfield Road is joined by a road 

 running northward to Little Laver. About J mile 

 along this road stands Newhouse, a timber-framed 

 house on a moated site, probably built in the i6th 

 century. It retains original panelhng and a brick fire- 

 place with a moulded three-centred arch. The farm 

 has a timber barn of the same date. 



In this area of the parish are several disused roads^" 

 and the sites of several former houses. Spencer's 

 Hoppet, north-west of Newhouse, contained a house 

 from at least the middle of the 14th century but by 

 1 840 it was only pasture land. The last of its farm 

 buildings was taken down about then by the tenant, 

 Henry Clarence.^' South of Newhouse a lane leads 

 eastward to Greens, a timber-framed house on a 

 moated site, rebuilt probably in the 17th century. 

 From Greens a footpath, formerly a lane, leads south- 

 east past a moated site where Tanner's Cottage^^ 

 formerly stood, and thence to join Fyfield Road near 

 Embley's Farm, a timber-framed house of the 17th 

 or early i8th century which may once have been two 

 cottages. 



Just before Fyfield Road leaves the parish it is 

 joined by a lane running southward past Harriets and 

 Cross Leys to Bundish Hall.^3 Stacey's, which was 

 situated nearly opposite to Harriets, is said to have losj 



J777, plate xii. 



21 Cat. hq. p.m. n, p. 298; E.R.O., 

 D/CT 244. William Talbot, who lived 

 at Moreton and wrote a history of the 

 parish c. 1885, said that Henry Clarence 

 took down the last farm building in 1833 

 but a building was still marked on the 

 Tithe Map in 1839. 



" O.S. 6 in. Map (ist edn.), sheet li. 



2' From Cross Leys to Bundish Hall it 

 is a green lane. 



