ONGAR HUNDRED 



THEYDON BOIS 



Electricity was laid on in 1928/' A police station has 

 existed since about 1886.*^ A branch of the county 

 library was opened in I928/-' There are two public 

 halls, both temporary wooden buildings erected since 

 1946.+' One is a church hall, the other a village hall. 

 There are many village organizations, including a 

 branch of the United Nations Association. Most of 

 them are linked by the Village Association, in which is 

 vested the management of the village hall.^* There is a 

 playing-field behind the hall. The Theydon Bois Rural 

 Preservation Society was formed about eight years ago 

 'to preserve the rural character of the countryside in 

 and around Theydon Bois as an appropriate and natural 

 setting to Epping Forest'.'** It has helped to produce a 

 parish guide, issued by the parish council. 



Apart from the distributive trades in recent times no 

 occupations unconnected with the land have been 

 important in the life of the parish. In the 19th century 

 there was brickmaking on a site north of Birch Hall 

 Farm now occupied by Oakhill Farm.*' In this 

 parish, as elsewhere in the district, mixed farming is 

 carried on. In 1849 it was estimated that there were 

 709 acres of arable, 956 acres of meadow or pasture, 

 and 86 acres of woodland in Theydon Bois. This was 

 exclusive of 345 acres of forest waste which lay within 

 Epping Forest.'** At the same date there were some 1 5 

 farms in the parish of over 20 acres, the largest of which 

 was Theydon Hall Farm with 261 acres. About 8 

 were over 100 acres.*' 



Theydon Bois lay only partly within the bounds of 

 the royal forest. It was stated in 1872 that of 2,176 

 acres in the manor of Theydon Bois 800 acres lay out- 

 side the forest.50 '7'Jie movement to disafforest and 

 inclose Epping Forest has been described above (see 

 Loughton). At Theydon Bois, as at Loughton, the 

 Crown was negotiating, during the 1850's, for the sale 

 of its forestal rights to the lord of the manor. In 1857 

 R. W. H. Dare bought those rights for the area of his 

 manor at a cost of ;^l, 3 53.5' Between 1857 and 1 871 

 he and his son inclosed over 300 acres of the forest.^* 

 Inclosure was halted by the action of the government 

 in the first Epping Forest Act. As a result of the Epping 

 Forest Act, 1878, most of the forest area in Theydon 

 Bois was again thrown open and became subject to the 

 provisions of the Act for the future preservation of the 

 forest. At Theydon Bois the inhabitants claimed ancient 

 rights of estovers, exercised, as at Loughton, from 1 2 

 November in each year to the following 23 April. 

 These rights were recognized by the Act, which pro- 

 vided for their extinguishment in return for com- 

 pensation. 53 



James Theodore Bent (1852-97), explorer and 

 archaeologist, married (1877) a daughter of R. W. H. 

 Dare. He is buried at Theydon Bois.s* Frances Mary 

 Buss (d. 1894), pioneer of education for women at her 

 North London Collegiate School, is also buried 

 there. 55 For John Strype (1643-1737) see below, 

 Church. 



In 1066 THETDON BOIS was held by Hacun as 

 a manor and as 3^ hides and 80 acres. In 

 MANORS 1086 it was held in demesne by Peter de 

 Valognes. An additional 2 hides and ij 

 virgate, previously held by 7 freemen, had by 1086 

 also been acquired by Peter, who claimed to hold the 

 property by exchange. He was also tenant in chief of 

 J hide and 40 acres, which had formerly belonged to 

 Ulwin. Peter had it in mortgage by the king's per- 

 mission. It was held of him by Walter. 56 The tenancy 

 in chief of these estates descended in the Valognes 

 family like North Weald Basset (q.v.) until the death 

 of Gunnore, whose second husband was Robert Fitz 

 Walter. Fitz Walter, who died in December 1235, 

 appears to have held part of the barony of Valognes, 

 including Theydon Bois, in right of his wife, after her 

 death. 5' He also outlived their daughter and heir 

 Christine, widow of William de Mandeville, Earl of 

 Essex, and after his death Theydon Bois evidently 

 passed to Christine, wife of Peter de Maule, one of the 

 coheirs of Christine de Mandeville. 58 As the tenant in 

 chief of the manor Christine de Maule was a party to 

 its conveyance about 1288—97 to Waltham Abbey (see 

 below). 



In 1 166 Osbert son of Ralph de Wetmere held I 

 knight's fee in Theydon Bois of Geoffrey de Valognes, 

 while William de Bosco held i fee of the new feofF- 

 ment.59 The subsequent history of the first of these 

 fees has not been traced, but in 1235-6 a William de 

 Bosco was holding in Theydon Bois what was variously 

 described as i fee and as J fee.*" The manor must have 

 continued in the same family, for in 1248 Hugh de 

 Bosco released his right in the advowson of Theydon 

 Bois (see Church) and the manor was later in the pos- 

 session of a Henry de Bosco, who died holding it.*' 

 Henry was succeeded by John, son of Peter de Tany, 

 a nephew. John de Tany in or before 1289 enfeoffed 

 Reynold, Abbot of Waltham, with the manor.*^ It was 

 then agreed that Christine de Maule was to receive ^5 

 from the abbey after the death or removal of each 

 abbot, by way of compensation for the loss of the feudal 

 incidents due to her as tenant in chief This transaction 

 was contrary to the Statute of Mortmain (1279). The 

 parties evidently realized this after it had been con- 

 cluded and took steps to secure the abbey's title. It 

 had been provided by the statute that where land had 

 been alienated to a religious house the tenant in chief, 

 if he acted within a year, might occupy the property 

 concerned. Christine de Maule therefore pleaded the 

 statute and renounced the agreement with Waltham 

 Abbey. She next enfeoffed Anthony Bek, Bishop of Dur- 

 ham, and Richard de Cokham, Rector of Lambourne, 

 Essex, with the manor of Theydon Bois.*3 In 1 297 Bek, 

 Cokham, and Peter de Tany all released their rights 

 in the manor to the abbey, and the king confirmed 

 their grants.*'* The account in the Waltham Abbey 

 cartulary from which much of the above has been taken 

 adds that Christine had excluded her son and hefr 



<■ Inf. from Eastn. Elec. Bd. 



" Kelly's Dir. Essex (1886 f.). 



<3 Inf. from County Librarian. 



*^ Inf. from Vicar of Theydon Bois. 



*' Theydon Boh Official Guide, p. 7. 



«« Ibid., p. 15. 



♦' E.R.O., D/DBx Pi ; O.S. 6 in. Map 

 (ist edn.), sheet Iviii. 



■" E.R.O., D/CT 349. 



♦9 Ibid. 



5° Mins. of Epping Forest Comm. p. 

 426. 



" W. R. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 



352- 



52 Ibid. 357. 



53 Epping Forest Act, 1878 (41 & 42 

 Vict. c. 213, sect. 6, and schedule i). 



5* D.N.B. 



5 5 See below. Church, Charities. 



56 y.C.H. Essex, i, 537*, 538a. 



57 Bk. of Fees, 574, 578. 



58 The Ancestor, xi, 1 3 3-4. 



59 Red Bk. of Exch. 349. 

 '0 £*.o/f«j,479,578. 



'■ B.M. Cott. MS. Tib. c.ix f. 196^. 



^2 Ibid. Reynold's successor. Abbot 

 Robert, was elected in 1289: y.C.H. 

 Essex, ii, 171. 



" B.M. Cott. MS. Tib. c.ix f. 196^: 

 'Processus qualiter Abbas de Waltham 

 pcrquisivit manerium de Theydon Bois'. 



<>* B.M. Harl. MS. 3739 ff. 267-72. 

 The grants included the reversion of land 

 held in dower by Maud, widow of Richard 

 de Bosco. 



251 



