Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ONGAR

ONGAR, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Essex. The town stands on the river Roding, at the terminus of a branch of the Great Eastern railway, 6 miles E by N of Epping; was known, at Domesday, as Aungre; took afterwards the name of Chipping-Ongar, to designate it, as the seat of a market, and to distinguish it from High Ongar; belonged, at Domesday, to Earl Eustace; passed, in the time of Henry II., to Richard de Lucy; occupies the site of anancient entrenchment; is proved, by the finding of many Roman relics in it, and by the existence of Roman bricksin its church, to have been the place of a Roman settlement; had a castle at some early period, rebuilt and moated by Richard de Lucy, and now represented by some remains; is now a seat of petty sessions; consists chiefly of one street, situated on a rising bank, and commanding a good view; and has a post-office‡ under Brentwood, a banking office, a three-arched bridge overthe Roding, an iron bridge erected in 1869 over the washway at Shelley, a town hall, a police station, a church, an Independent chapel, a national school, and charities £76. The church succeeded a very ancient chapel; hasloophole windows; and contains a monument to Lady Jane Cromwell, cousin of Oliver Cromwell. A school and lecture-rooms, in connexion with the Independent chapel, and situated in the rear of it, were erected in 1865. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and a fair on 12 Oct. The parish comprises 508 acres. Real property, £4,052. Pop., 867. Houses, 175. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. value, £127. * Patron, Admiral Swinborne.

The sub-district contains also the parishes of Greenstead, Stanford-Rivers, Navestock, Stapleford-Tawney, Thoydon-Mount, Lambourne, Stapleford-Abbots, Stondon-Massey, Kelvedon-Hatch, and Doddinghurst. Acres, 23, 302. Pop., 5, 852. Houses, 1, 135. The districtcomprehends also the sub-district of Bobbingworth, containing the parishes of Bobbingworth, Shelley, High Ongar, Norton-Mandeville, Blackmore, High Laver, Little Laver, Abbots-Roothing, Beauchamp-Roothing, Berners-Roothing, Shellow-Bowells, Willkngale Doe, Willingale-Spain, Fyfield, and Moreton. Acres of the district, 47, 465. Poor-rates in 1863, £7, 878. Pop. in 1851, 11, 855; in 1861, 11, 317. Houses, 2, 280. Marriages in 1863, 69; births, 365, of which 25 wereillegitimate; deaths, 228, of which 77 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 648; births, 3, 575; deaths, 2, 109. The places of worship, in 1851, were 27 of the Church of England, with 5, 155 sittings; 5 of Independents, with1, 580 s.; and 1 of Baptists, with 122 s. The schools were 25 public day-schools, with 1, 343 scholars; 17private day-schools, with 267 s.; 21 Sunday schools, with 1, 166 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 26s. The workhouse is in Stanford-Rivers; was built at a cost of £4, 416; and, at the census of 1861, had 141 in-mates. The hundred excludes seven parishes of the district, includes six parishes not in the district, and comprises 56, 185 acres. Pop. in 1851, 15, 881; in 1861, 16, 393. Houses, 3, 222.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Ongar CP       Ongar Hundred       Ongar RegD/PLU       Essex AncC
Place names: AUNGRE     |     ONGAR
Place: Chipping Ongar

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