A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



his will to his wife Frances for life, with remainder to 

 his eldest son Charles.*^ Frances died holding the 

 manor in l^()()M Charles Waldegrave succeeded her 

 and in the same year settled the manor on his son 

 Edward on the latter's marriage with Eleanor, daughter 

 of Sir Thomas Lovell.^s Edward was knighted in 

 1607 and created a baronet in 1643 for his services to 

 the king in the Civil War, when he commanded a 

 regiment of horse with distinction. ** Navestock 

 descended with the family honours until the 19th 

 century. In 1686 the 4th baronet was raised to the 

 peerage as Baron Waldegrave and in 1729 his son was 

 created Earl Waldegrave. *' The original Waldegrave 

 estate in Navestock was increased during the 17th and 

 1 8th centuries by the acquisition of the manors of 

 Slades, Bois Hall, Loft Hall, and probably other pro- 

 perties in the parish. The 6th Earl Waldegrave (d. 

 1835) gave the whole estate to his eldest, but illegitimate, 

 son John J. H. Waldegrave, who in 1840 was holding 

 some 3,000 acres in Navestock, almost three-quarters 

 of all the land in the parish.** J. J. H. Waldegrave 

 married Frances Braham. He died in 1840 and his 

 widow married his younger, legitimate, brother George 

 Edward, Earl Waldegrave (d. 1846). Through her 

 marriages the countess acquired all the Waldegrave 

 estates in Essex and elsewhere, for in 1876 they were 

 alienated from the earldom and became her absolute 

 property. She died in 1879 leaving Navestock to her 

 fourth husband. Lord Carlingford. On his death in 

 1898 the manor was sold to James Tabor of Roch- 

 ford.*' In 1919 it passed into the possession of Walter 

 P. Tyser, who had leased the manor house since 191 1. 

 The estate is now (1955) owned by the Church Com- 

 missioners.'" 



An inventory of 1335 gives interesting details of the 

 manor house of Navestock." Adam de Murimuth, 

 Canon of St. Paul's, to whom the manor was then com- 

 mitted, also received 'under one roof a bakehouse and 

 dairy, a kitchen with an oven and two cisterns, a hen 

 house, a hall with buttery and pantry at the west end 

 of the hall and a chamber at the east with galleries. 

 And a chamber with store room {celarium) and room 

 above, roofed with tiles, and belonging to the same 

 chamber a chapel of plaster of Paris roofed with timber 

 (tendulis), an old granary with four bays {interfinis) 

 and an old kiln and a little house for calves outside the 

 door and a smithy, a sheepfold outside the door, a 

 windmill.' 



The building described in the inventory was pos- 

 sibly on the site of the present Navestock Hall, which 

 is about 1 50 yds. south-east of the church. This house, 

 now a farm, dates from the early i6th century. The 

 north wing was probably added in the 1 8th century or 

 later. The explosion of a German landmine in Sep- 

 tember 1940 dislodged the external plaster, revealing 

 the fact that much more of the house was of the 

 original date than had been supposed.'^ This is a two- 

 story timber-framed structure with a four-centred door- 



head on its north side. The timbering has been left 

 exposed and a Georgian bay on the east side has been 

 rebuilt with oak timbers from a demolished barn. One 

 of the lead rainwater heads is inscribed 'e. w. 1757'. 



The site of a later manor house, now demolished, is 

 about 400 yds. north-east of the farm. This was a 

 mansion built in the first quarter of the 1 8th century by 

 Lord Waldegrave (d. 1741). A map of 1726 by 

 Thomas Browne shows the layout of the garden and 

 park. '3 The house faced south-east with a stable-yard 

 and kitchen gardens on the north-east and formal 

 gardens with ornamental water on the opposite side. 

 Behind the house a deer park reached nearly to the 

 Roding. In the park were two wooded duck decoys. 

 A double avenue, over a mile long, is shown stretching 

 across the river to join the Abridge-Ongar road. The 

 house itself was described later in the century as 'a 

 good regular brick building'. '"i A print of the same 

 date shows the main two-story block to be of nine bays, 

 the three central windows being surmounted by a pedi- 

 ment. Flanking this are single-story wings with 

 balustraded parapets, each having three windows. The 

 principal entrance has a segmental pediment. Prob- 

 ably the revulsion against formality which took place 

 in the late i8th century led to alterations in the park. 

 The WetstafF Brook was dammed to form the sheet of 

 water known as the Lady's Pond and the straight 

 avenue was abglished.'s In 181 1 the house was taken 

 down and the materials sold.'* Later in the 19th 

 century Frances, Countess Waldegrave often visited 

 the site and built herself a summer-house there. '^ 

 After her death in 1879 her fourth husband. Lord 

 Carhngford, erected a memorial on the same spot. 

 This stone is still standing and bears a long inscription, 

 now partly illegible, and a portrait medallion of the 

 Countess. South-west of the mansion site a system of 

 trenches with two small square islands'* indicates the 

 remains of the ornamental pond in the formal garden. 



In the later 19th century the owners of the estate 

 lived at Dudbrook which lies in the north-east corner 

 of the parish. A house was already in existence here 

 before the demolition of Navestock Hall," but it 

 appears to have been rebuilt or much enlarged at 

 various subsequent dates. The style is mostly of the 

 early and mid- 1 9th century, and there is a tower-like 

 feature in the centre with four finials at the angles. 

 For nearly 30 years it was the home of Mr. Walter 

 Tyser, who also made additions to the building. In 

 1951 it was bought by the East Ham County Borough 

 Council for use as a home for old people.' 



The manor of BOIS HALL took its name from the 

 family of Boys alias de Bosco. In 1 298 John de Bosco 

 and his wife Christine held a small estate in Nave- 

 stock.2 This John was dead by 1 3 17.' In 1393 Sir 

 Richard Sutton conveyed to John Boys and others, 

 with remainder to Boys's heirs, extensive properties in 

 Essex including the manor of Navestock [sic].* This 

 manor was probably that which later became known 



" Cal. Pat. 1560—3, 370-1. 



'♦ Morant, £jscj:, i, 182. Inc. 1579-86 

 John Greene, owner of Bois Hali (see 

 below) was evidently tenant of Navestock 

 Hall: see above, p. 142. 



S5 C142/437/173. 



•' G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, ii, 213. 



8' Complete Peerage (orig. edn,), viii, 

 37-4.0. 



M Complete Peerage, iii, 279; E.R.O., 

 D/CT 248. 



*" Complete Peerage, iii, 279 ; Kelly's Dir. 



Essex {iSg^); Burke's L.G. 1937, p. 2202; 

 Complete Peerage (orig. edn.), viii, 41. 



»» Inf. from Mrs. L. F. Pryor. The 

 estate still comprises about three-quarters 

 of the land in the parish. 



»' Hist. MSS. Com. gti Rep. ft. i App. 

 38a. 



'^ Inf. from Miss Parrish. 



" E.R.O,, D/DZn 3. 



'♦ Hist. Essex by Gent, iv, 48. And see 

 plate facing p. 136. 



95 The alterations are shown in a map 



of the parish, 1785, revised 1835 : E.R.O., 

 D/DXa 24. 

 '^ T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 419. 



97 Inscription on memorial stone. 



98 Hist. Mon. Com. Essex, ii, 193. It was 

 not a duck decoy as suggested. 



99 Shown on Chapman and Andre, Map 

 of Essex, lyyy, sheet xvii. 



* Inf. from the matron. 



^ Feet of F. Essex, ii, 88. 

 3 Ibid. 171. 



* Ibid, iii, 219. 



144 



