ONGAR HUNDRED 



HIGH ONGAR 



usual half-H plan. There are two rather closely set 

 gables at the front, decorated during the past 30 years 

 with imitation half-timbering.' 5 The central chimney 

 has six octagonal shafts with moulded bases. There 

 are two original ground floor rooms, that to the west 

 having a very wide fireplace opening surrounded by 

 old carving reset. The east room is completely panelled 

 with a carved frieze and fine carved overmantel, all of 

 about 1600. If these fittings are in situ they suggest a 

 house of considerable status which is likely to have been 

 more extensive at the time it was built. Alterations 

 took place in the 1 8th century when a low two-story 

 wing was added at the back and most of the small 

 muUioned windows were replaced by larger case- 

 ments. The two doorways are Georgian, one retaining 

 an earlier nail-studded door. Single-story additions at 

 the back of the house are of a still later date. 



At Hallsford Bridge there is a brickworks. To the 

 east of the bridge the Stondon Massey road runs south- 

 east, and Mill Lane, leading to High Ongar village and 

 the east part of the parish, runs north. This section of 

 the parish is bounded on the west by the Roding, from 

 which the land rises gradually to the east, reaching a 

 height of 300 ft. at Paslow Wood Common. The main 

 road from Epping to Chelmsford enters the parish in 

 the north-west by High Ongar Bridge across the 

 Roding. Near the bridge to the south of this road is 

 the rectory (see below. Church). High Ongar village 

 is J mile east of the bridge, lying along the road. Here 

 are the parish church, the village school, the village 

 hall, the post-office, and a small sawmill. There has 

 been a village in this place since the beginning of the 

 17th century and no doubt earlier, although in the 

 Middle Ages it may have been no more than a tiny 

 hamlet. In 1637 there were nine tenements in 'High 

 Ongar Street' belonging to the rectory manor (see 

 below. Church) and there may have been other houses 

 in the village not included in that manor. 



The oldest surviving house in the village is the 

 timber-framed and weather-boarded building im- 

 mediately east of the church; this dates from the late 

 i6th or early 17th century and may have been built 

 as the rectory. It has a half H -shaped plan, the wings 

 projecting to the north. The front has two flanking 

 gables and the upper floor oversails across its entire 

 length. East of the centre is a brick chimney with four 

 octagonal shafts with moulded bases and joined caps. 

 The weather-boarding was probably added in the 1 8th 

 century and at some time the west wing was extended 

 northwards and further chimneys added. A small 

 lean-to shop, now the post-office, was added to the 

 front of the east wing, probably early in the 19th 

 century. There is also a single-story addition at the 

 back between the two wings. Before these extensions 

 were made the house probably had fourteen rooms. 

 The house is now divided into four tenements. Part 

 of it was at one time used as a lock-up, and the post- 

 masters' tenement contains a small room that may have 

 been one of the cells.'* 



Opposite the church is a row of timber-framed houses 

 known as 'The Street'. They are fairly uniform in 

 character and probably date from the early or mid- 

 i8th century. The fronts, some altered, are mostly 

 roughcast but one pair is weather-boarded and the 



Three Horseshoes Inn has timber framing recently 

 exposed. Several houses near The Street appear to be 

 of the same period, faced later with brick. The Tabor 

 almshouses (see Charities, below) were situated near 

 the post-office to the east. 



Mill Lane, running south from the village, took its 

 name from the windmill which formerly stood to the 

 west of the lane ^ mile from High Ongar." The Old 

 Cottage also on the west of the lane has diagonal shafts 

 to the chimney and is of the 17th century. Nash Hall 

 cottages are an attractive row with a mansard roof and 

 gabled dormers. There are 9 pairs of council houses 

 on the west side of the lane immediately south of the 

 village. Farther south on the same side are 7 pairs. 

 Behind these is Millfield, a council housing estate con- 

 sisting of some 20 pairs of houses and 4 pairs of old 

 people's bungalows. It was built about 1948. Also in 

 Mill Lane is a small chapel (see Nonconformity, below). 

 Clatterford Bridge, in Mill Lane, spans a stream which 

 flows west to join the Roding. 



South of the main Chelmsford road J mile east of 

 the village is Nash Hall (see below). Chivers Hall (see 

 below) is north of the road i mile east of the village. 

 At Cozens Farm, on the road ij mile east of the village, 

 there is an incomplete moat. The house itself is not 

 older than the 17th century. It is timber-framed and 

 plastered and has an original chimney. Spurriers, J 

 mile east of Cozens Farm, is a brick farm-house of the 

 late 1 8th or early 19th century. Half a mile east of 

 Spurriers is Norton Heath, a hamlet partly in High 

 Ongar and partly in Norton Mandeville.'^ 



At Spurriers the main road is joined by the road 

 running south-west through Nine Ashes and Paslow 

 Wood Common to Stondon Massey. Bluegates, which 

 is \ mile south of Spurriers on this latter road, has a 

 late-i8th-century front. Withers Pawne (see below), 

 now called The Rookery, is ^ mile south-east of 

 Spurriers. Rookery House, formerly called The 

 Rookery, is J mile west of Withers Pawne. It is a sub- 

 stantial brick house built about 1870. Nine Ashes 

 Farm, now divided into tenements for the employees 

 of Paslow Hall farm, is probably of the early 1 8th 

 century. North of Nine Ashes the road is joined by 

 King Street, which runs north-west to the main road. 

 In King Street are Paslow Hall (see below) and Old 

 Thrifts (see Frith Hall). Old Withers, a timber- 

 framed and plastered farm-house, on the north side of 

 King Street, appears to be of the late 17 th or early 

 18th-century. This is an ancient moated site, which 

 derives its name from the family of Richard Wyther 

 (fl. 1340)." The three-sided moat is now (1953) 

 being filled in. There are eight pairs of council houses 

 in King Street. 



The village of Paslow Wood Common takes its 

 name from the common which formerly adjoined the 

 road here (see below). It has a primary school and a 

 mission church. There is fairly continuous building on 

 both sides of the road ; most of this dates from the 1 9th 

 and 20th centuries and there is a large proportion of 

 small modern bungalows. Larkins Farm is a timber- 

 framed house, probably of the 17th century but encased 

 in red brick early in the i8th century. In the King 

 Street-Paslow Wood Common area there are several 

 1 8th-century cottages. In 1777 there were eight houses 



'5 The timbering is not shown either in 

 a sketch of 1903; E.R.O., Prints, High 

 Ongar, or in a photo, of 1919 : Hist. Men. 

 Com. Recs. 



" In a Map of Essex by C. and J. Green- 

 wood {1825) a 'Dungeon' is shown in the 

 east of High Ongar Street, on the north 

 side. This was no doubt the lock-up in 



question. *' See below. 



" AH. buildings at Norton Heath are 

 described under Norton Mandevillc. 



'9 P.N. Essex (E.P.N.S.), 74. 



173 



