A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Our Lady and St. Joseph.'* The priest was evidently 

 not resident, for in 1 867 Ongar was being served from 

 Barnet.3' 



In 1 869 there was Mass only on alternate Sundays, 

 but plans for a church were already far advanced. s* It 

 was opened on 21 April iSyo.^' It is a small red-brick 

 building with a western bell-turret, and it stands in the 

 garden of a house on the west side of High Street, below 

 Castle Street. The house is occupied by the priest. 



There appears to have been a resident priest in 

 1870.*° By 1874 the priest of Ongar was also serving 

 a new Mass-centre at Dunmow. He was living at this 

 time at Bentley Lodge, near Brentwood.*' In 1888 

 the Ongar priest served centres at Saffron Walden, 

 Epping, and Dunmow. Ongar itself had a weekly 

 Mass.'*^ There was no resident priest between 1892 

 and 1901.^3 The Revd. Thomas Byles, priest from 

 J905 to 1912, was drowned in the Titanic.** The 

 Revd. John Ryland became priest about 1916.'" In 

 1904-5 there was a Roman Catholic orphanage at 

 Chipping Ongar known as St. Joseph's Home.** It 

 was founded by a Father Schaefer as a branch of the 

 St. Joseph's Home at Bow, London, but apparently 

 did not last for long. 



In the nth century much of Chipping Ongar was 

 woodland. The 'wood of Ongar' 

 AGRICULTURE mentioned in 1044 in the will of 

 Thurstan has been mentioned 

 above.*' In 1086 the manor of Ongar contained wood- 

 land for 1,000 swine.** There were then 36 pigs on 

 the manor. This was not a large number, but it is 

 likely that pig keeping in this area was of some im- 

 portance in the 12th century and later, for in 1 21 3 

 Robert Peverel, farmer of Ongar, was ordered to supply 

 the king with 138 sides of bacon from his bailiwick.*' 

 Peverel's account for 1209—10 shows that he was then 

 keeper of Stanford Rivers as well as Ongar. 5° The rents 

 of assize of the manors then amounted to ^16 is. dd. 

 During the year he had stocked the manors with 20 

 oxen and 32 horses at a cost of ^^24 \oi. 6d. He had 

 also bought for sowing 162 quarters of oats, costing 

 ;^9 16/. id., \\ quarters of barley for 2S. id., and beans 

 costing 2/. 6d. 



In about 1 243 the manor of Ongar was said to con- 

 tain 374i acres of (arable) land, of which 200 acres 

 were worth a total of ^^5 a year, and 1 74^ acres were 

 worth in all £2 \%s. 2</. There were 7 acres of pasture 

 worth IS. and 28 acres of meadow, of which 18 were 

 worth 30/. a year and 10 were worth i \s. 8i2'.5' There 

 were rents of freemen and villeins worth ^^3 I is. ^d.^^ 

 and the villeins owed a total of 1400 J labour services a 

 year, worth 68/. 6d.^^ There were 2 mills, one of them 

 driven by water, worth 40;. and a dovehouse worth 

 2/.5* This inquisition had been made on the death of 



Maud de Lucy. About this time, in 1243, the king 

 ordered the sheriff to buy oxen for 4 ploughs to till the 

 demesne lands formerly held by Maud in Stanford and 

 Ongar.55 



In 1294 the manor contained 200 acres of arable, 

 worth £'^ a year, 1 2 acres meadow worth 24/., a park 

 worth 20i., 2 mills, one driven by wind and the other 

 by water, worth ;^5, and pasture worth 3^.5* 



In 1372 there were in the manor 140 acres of arable 

 worth 23/. \d., 20 acres of meadow worth 20s., 30 

 acres of poor pasture worth loj^., and 'a certain pasture 

 called le Park containing 40 acres' worth I mark. 

 There was also a broken-down windmill. s' 



In 1386 there were 160 acres of arable worth 

 40/. id. a year, 1 2 acres of meadow worth 24J., and 

 42 acres of pasture worth 21/. The rents of assize were 

 worth 27/. and the rents of 3 capons at Christmas were 

 worth 6d. in all.s* The same figures were given in 

 returns made in 1392 and 1395.59 



At the death of James Morris in 1597 the manor 

 included a water-mill, a parcel of land called Betts, a 

 tenement of about 30 acres called Tufftsfield, situated 

 in 'boro field', a meadow called Rye meade, 4 parcels 

 of meadow, pasture, and moor called Le Mores in 

 High Ongar, occupied by Henry Barnard, and a croft 

 called Parsons acre.*" A mill was mentioned in 161 8 

 as appurtenant to the manor.*' 



In the 17th and i8th centuries hop-growing was 

 carried on in Ongar. In 1639 there was a dispute, 

 heard at Quarter Sessions, concerning a crop of hops 

 that had been grown on 3J acres of 'hoppground' in 

 the parish.*^ Defoe, writing in 1722 described Ongar 

 as part of an area 'famed for husbandry and good malt, 

 but of no other note'.*' 



In 1838 the area of the parish was estimated at 480 

 acres, of which 193 acres were arable and 273 acres 

 meadow and pasture.** The Castle Farm, owned by 

 Sir John Swinburne and occupied by William Coe, 

 contained 168 acres. There were two smaller farms, of 

 97 and 62 acres, the Bowes House, with its gardens and 

 pleasure grounds, covered 99 acres. Apart from these 

 there was no tenement of more than 5 acres. 



There is hardly any evidence as to how and when 

 inclosure was carried out in this parish. A very small 

 inclosure of waste ground in about 1800 is mentioned 

 below.*' 



The occupations followed in Chipping Ongar have 



mainly been those normal in a 



OCCUPATIONS small market-town. The relative 



importance of the place was no 



doubt greater during the Middle Ages before the decay 



of the castle. 



It is not unlikely that a market was held as early as 

 the 1 2 th century.** The first explicit reference to one 



" Catholic Dir. 1865. 



5' Ibid. 1867. Mass was being said at 

 11.30 a.m. and Benediction given at 

 6.30 p.m. on Sundays. 



'8 Ibid. 1869. 



3« The Tablet, 25 Apr. 1870. It is 

 dedicated to St. Helen, which suggests the 

 benefaction of Miss Helen (later Countess) 

 Tasker. A small red-brick building, now 

 in ruins, standing at the back of the * King's 

 Head' is said to have been used as a Roman 

 Catholic Church; inf. from Mr. J. G. 

 O'Leary. Cf. E.R.O., T/P 96: Ongar 

 W.E.A. Survey. 



*» Catholic Dir. 1 870. 



«> Ibid. 1874. 



*2 Ibid. 1888. 



*3 Ibid. 1892-1901. 



** Ibid. 1905-12. <5 Ibid. 1916. 



*6 Char. Com. Recs. 



*' See above, Manor. 



*8 V.C.U. Essex, i, 467a; see also 375. 



*9 Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 145. 

 The bacon was evidently intended for 

 shipment to France, no doubt to feed the 

 king's troops. 



"> Pipe R. 1 2 10 (Pipe R. Soc. N.s. xxvi), 

 206. 5" Ci32/File I. 



52 These figures are not entirely clear. 



53 Ci32/File I. 5* Ibid. 



55 Cal. Lib. R. 1240-5, 188. In 1086 

 there had been 2 ploughs in demesne at 

 Ongar, and 5 at Stanford Rivers. 



!' Ci33/File 67. The park was prob- 



166 



ably Ongar Park in High Ongar. 

 5' Ci35/File 230. 



58 Ci36/File47. 



59 Ibid. File 76, File 107. 



«» C142/258/74. At least part of Le 

 Mores (Moors) was in Norton Mande- 

 ville (q.v.). «' CP43/143 rot. 38. 



" E.R.O., Q/SR 308/22. 



63 y.C.H. Essex, W, 445. Hops are still 

 found growing wild in the neighbourhood : 

 inf. from Mr. D. W. Hutchings of Ongar. 

 For the I9th-cent. brewery at Marden 

 Ash see High Ongar. 



6* E.R.O., D/CT 262. 



'5 See Parish Government and Poor 

 Relief, below. 



6* No market charter has survived. 



