ONGAR HUNDRED 



STONDON MASSEY 



stituted an almost complete rebuilding, but the central 

 cottage is said to contain timbers from the earlier house. 

 Before i860 the cottages were apparently weather- 

 boarded and tarred buildings and known as Black 

 Cottages. There is some doubt whether they were the 

 original cottages.** 



Before 1684 Mrs. Alice Thomlinson left £1 10s. a 

 year, issuing from Braintrees Farm in Hatfield Broad 

 Oak, to buy waistcoats for six poor widows of Stondon 

 Massey. In 1834 the churchwarden gave equal shares 

 of money to all the poor widows each March. Under 



the 1 892 Scheme which was framed for this and Giles's 

 Charity the income was to be spent on relief in money. 

 The rent was not paid in 1952; in 1951 the whole 

 amount was given to one widow. 



The Bell Rope Charity is described above (see 

 Church). 



Canon E. H. L. Reeve, formerly rector, by will 

 proved 1936 left legacies of ;^6oo and £750, subject 

 to two life interests, for the repair of the church and 

 for the immediate repair of the Giles Almshouses. 

 These charities had not yet come into effect in 1953. 



THEYDON BOIS 



Theydon Bois is 2 miles south of Eppingand 1 5 miles 

 north-east of London.' During the past 100 years much 

 building has taken place near the railway station and 

 many residents travel to work in London. In spite of 

 this the parish retains a number of rural features. The 

 village green is an attractive centre and part of the 

 parish lies within Epping Forest. Local people are 

 proud of their village and have formed the Theydon 

 Bois Rural Preservation Society.^ 



The ancient parish of Theydon Bois contained 2,198 

 acres. 3 In 1 896 those parts of it lying within the Epping 

 Special Drainage Area were transferred for civil pur- 

 poses to the newly formed Epping Urban District. 

 This affected about 60 acres in the north of the parish.'* 

 In 1934 a small part of Theydon Bois was transferred 

 to Epping Uplands and in 1946 there were further 

 slight adjustments of the boundary between these two 

 parishes.* 



Theydon Bois is the most westerly of the three 

 Theydon parishes. It takes its distinctive name from 

 the family of Bois (Je Bosco) which held the manor in 

 the 1 2th and 13th centuries.' The parish is bounded 

 on the south by the River Roding. The ground rises 

 from about 75 ft. above sea-level by the river to 370 ft. 

 in the north-west, where the parish includes some 300 

 acres at the north end of Epping Forest. The road 

 from Abridge (in Lambourne, q.v.) enters the parish 

 by Abridge Bridge over the Roding and runs north- 

 west through Theydon Bois to the 'Wake Arms' in 

 Epping Forest, where it meets the main road from 

 London to Newmarket and Norwich. At Theydon 

 Green in the centre of the parish the Abridge road is 

 joined by those going north to Epping and south to 

 Loughton. The railway, now part of the Central 

 London (Underground) line, runs north through the 

 parish to Epping. Theydon Bois station, on this line, 

 is J mile east of Theydon Green. Theydon Green has 

 been a village since the i8th century or earlier and 

 retains a large open green and pond. The modern 

 parish church and the village school are on the north- 

 west of the green and the Baptist church is on the south- 

 west. Modern development has been mainly to the 

 north, south, and east of the green. There is a small 

 group of houses at Ivy Chimneys, in the north of the 

 ancient parish. This is in the ecclesiastical parish of 



Theydon Bois and includes an iron mission room, but 

 for civil purposes it is in Epping Urban District. 



Theydon Hall, which is on the site of the ancient 

 manor house, is about i J mile south of the green on 

 the Abridge road. Beside it is the site of the old parish 

 church, demolished in 1843. Theydon Hall ceased 

 to be the manor house early in the 17th century. Its 

 place was taken by Birch Hall, \ mile west of Theydon 

 Green. The present Birch Hall is a 19th-century 

 house, but the name is derived from a medieval family 

 which no doubt had a house on the site.* The other 

 old manor house of Gregories was probably about 

 f mile north-east of the church, where there is still a 

 homestead moat. The modern Great Gregories Farm 

 is about i mile north-west of the moat. Parsonage 

 Farm is \ mile east of the railway station." It probably 

 dates from the 15 th century. The parish almshouses, 

 dating from the l8th century, are in Coppice Row.'" 



In the Middle Ages Theydon Bois was a thinly 

 populated rural parish. In 1428 it was one of the few 

 parishes in the hundred which were exempted from 

 taxation because they contained fewer than lo house- 

 holds." In addition to those already mentioned there 

 was probably a medieval house to the north of Theydon 

 Green where traces of a rectangular moat could still be 

 seen at the end of the 19th century." Gaunts Wood 

 and Redoak Wood, J mile south-west of Theydon 

 Green, take their names from medieval tenants, whose 

 houses may have been in the neighbourhood." 



Chapman and Andre's map of 1777 shows about a 

 dozen houses round Theydon Green but few others 

 in the parish apart from those above.'* Blackacre Farm 

 is shown, \ mile south of Theydon Green. It is a 

 timber-framed and plastered house now surrounded by 

 buildings of a much later date. Details which survive 

 are of the 17th century but subsequent alterations have 

 made it impossible to trace the original form of the 

 house. One chimney retains parts of four octagonal 

 shafts and two more, which originally had diagonal 

 shafts, have moulded brick cappings at the base. Inter- 

 nally there is a 17th-century staircase with moulded 

 newels and pendants and heavy turned balusters. 



In general there are few buildings in the parish that 

 are earlier than the 19th century. At Theydon Green 

 the Bull Inn, part of it of the 17th century, still stands. 



** Reeve, Stondon Massey ^ 113. 

 ' O.S.2i in. Map, sheets 51/4.9, 52/50. 



* Sec below, p. 251. 



3 0,S. 6 in. Map (ist edn.), sheets Ivii, 

 Iviii. 



* Co. of Essex {Epping &c.), Conf. 

 Order, i8g6. 



* Essex Renjieiv Order, ig34. 



' Co. of Essex [Rural Parishes) Conf 



Order, ig46. 



7 P.N. Essex (E.P.N.S.), 82-83. The 

 explanation of the name Theydon given 

 there has been withdrawn. It is now 

 thought to mean 'valley where thatch 

 (material) grows' : F.N'. IVilis. (E.P.N.S.), 

 xvi. 



8 P.N. Essex, %i. For the manor houses 

 see below, Manors. 



' Sec below. Church. 



'<* See below. Charities. 



" Feud. Aids, ii, 204.. 



'^ O.S. 6 in. Map (ist cdn.), sheet Iviii; 

 cf. E.R.O., D/DBxPi. 



■3 P.N: Essex, 83. 



'♦ Chapman and Andre, Map of Essex, 

 ly^y, sheet xvi. 



249 



Kk 



