THE PLACE-NAMES OF
BUCKHURST HILL
Recorder: James Kemble
Essex Place-names Project (Essex Society for Archaeology & History), 2012 (e-book).
www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/essexplacenames
ESSEX PLACE-NAMES PROJECT.
The Essex Place-names Project is a County-wide survey to record place- and field-names from historical documents such as Tithe maps and apportionments, estate maps, sale
and auction catalogues, conveyances, terriers, deeds, rolls, inquisitions and surveys.
The second element of the Project is to investigate on-the-ground visible remains which correspond to the Place-names for actual or potential archaeological, agricultural and industrial
sites, and to record natural (topographical) and man-made features which may relate to the Place-name. This involves field-survey in rural and outside investigation in built-up areas.
It is anticipated that the Project will lead to identification of archaeological sites and lost historic buildings; it will enable analysis of indicators of early settlement, land holding, agricultural and industrial practices of the County. It will refine the more precise meaning of descriptive words and elements used by earlier settlers as they gave names appropriate to the topography of the landscape of their time.
For convenience the surveys are based on the parish, recognising that present civil parish boundaries are not necessarily identical to former ecclesiastical boundaries. Local Recorders
are supplied with templates of Record Forms to ensure consistency of recording across the County, and forward completed forms to a Central Coordinator for transfer to a county
computer database which is available to researchers on the internet at www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/essexplacenames, and updated periodically.
This publication presents part of the information recorded from the Tithe or Estate Award and Map, and from other documents for this parish. The full record is contained on the master
database at Essex County Council (Historic Environment Section) and on the (above) website. Parish books are available to be downloaded from the website link ‘Books’ on the Home page. Please notify errors to the Project Coordinator at the Essex Record Office.
THE TITHE MAP AND APPORTIONMENT.
Since medieval times a tenth of the produce of land and stock had been paid by landholders to the church. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the property of many religious houses,
including the right to collect tithes, passed into lay hands. The Tithe Commutation Act which received Royal assent on 13th August 1836 abolished a rent payable in kind and
substituted rent-charges apportioned on each plot or parcel. The tithe-rent payable was assessed on the average value of wheat, barley and oats and was to fluctuate with price movements.
The commutation could be by voluntary agreement between the local owners and payers or, if agreement failed, could be compulsorily imposed by commissioners. A Valuer was to be
appointed to apportion the rent of each parcel of land and tenants could deduct that rent-charge from their rent paid to the landlord. The task fell to the Tithe Commissioners to produce a
map and an Apportionment (Award). A large-scale survey was produced for over 70% of England and Wales in the following 9 years, and about another 8% up to 1855. Most of the
parishes in Essex were surveyed. The map scales vary. The Award records ownership, tenancy and land-use, field by field and parcel by parcel (often quoting the field name) with the
ground area and rent-charge.
Land that was tithe-free tends to be less accurately mapped and contains few if any of the details recorded for those parcels subject to tithe. Rights of way and roads also tend to be
neglected. Boundaries of the tithe areas are shown as are some natural features such as streams, ponds, gardens, greens and commons. Buildings are often shown coloured red if dwellings
or grey if not. Because the Award may have been agreed only some time after the map was finished, discrepancies occur between the two. Enclosure Awards, when extant, usually date to the 18th and early 19th centuries. J.Kemble.
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The Parish of Buckhurst Hill (in Ongar Hundred).
The Tithe Award of Chigwell (Essex Record Office D/CT 78a), shows a rent-charge of £378 including £17 for glebe payable to Samuel Wix, rector. The whole parish measured 1200 acres of which 1100 acres were arable, 60 acres meadow and pasture, 40 acres wood, 50 acres glebe. The Tithe Commissioners were William Blamire and J.W. Buller, the Valuer Joseph Smith Surridge of Coggeshall. The Tithe Map (ERO: D/CT 78b) was surveyed at a scale fo 6 chains to an inch (13.3 “ to a mile) and was countersigned by J. Mee Mathew, Assistant Tithe Commissioner. The Award records parcels 1-75a west of River Roding which represent Buckhurst Hill. Buckhurst Hill alias Monkhams formed part of Barringtons manor in Chigwell until 1135 when William de Montfichet granted to Stratford Langthorne abbey his wood of Buckhurst. (Barringtons was probably Robert Gernon’s holding in Cingheuuella at Domesday, 1086). In 1521 John Saunders had a lease from the abbot of a tenement called Buckhurst alias Monkyn. Monkhams Farm was pulled down in 1936 (VCH, 1956).
(la) Bocherste(e) is documented in 1135, 1203 (Reaney, 1935). Watts (2004) translates this from Old English boc hyrst, ‘beech-tree hill’. The foundation charter of Waltham monastery given by Earl Harold Godwinson dated 1062 includes the bounds of Alderton Hall in Loughton (written in Old English) which seem to include the northern extreme of Buckhurst Hill; ætherices hlype, ‘Ætheric’s deer-leap’, which forms one of the bounds, may be remembered in Roebuck Lane (Kemble, 2007).
The church dedicated to St John Baptist built in 1837 was largely rebuilt in and after 1864. The Gothic stone tower of the Congregational Chapel (now United Reformed church) dates from 1873. The railway station, rebuilt in 1891-2, originally served the Eastern Counties Railway from 1856. The former Forest Hospital is in Arts & Crafts style, 1909-12 (Pevsner, 2007). River Roding forms the eastern boundary; the former line of the boundary following the river’s deviations are shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of c.1875.
The Hundred name in Domesday Book is 1086, Hangra, Angra. The wood at Aungre was bequeathed by Thurstan, son of Lustwine, in 1043x45 to his servants except the deer-enclosure and stud there, and to Thurgot the half hide which Ælfstan occupied (Whitelock, 1930). In 1068 Angra (Chipping Ongar) was confirmed to St Martin le Grand in London by William I (Hart, 1971). Reaney (1935) translates this from Old English anger, ‘grass land’. Christie (1926) sites the moot at Richard de Lucy’s castle at Chipping Ongar or at Toot Hill at Stanford Rivers where stands the mill mound.
References:
Christie, M., 1926. Essex Hundred Moots. Trans Essex Archaeological Society, xviii (3), 192.
Hart, C., 1971. Early Charters of Essex. Leicester.
Kemble, J., 2007. Essex Place-names, Places, Streets & People. Historical Publications. p.36.
Pevsner, N., Bettley, J., 2007. Buildings of England - Essex. Yale.
Reaney, P., 1935. Place-names of Essex. Cambridge.
Victoria Country History of Essex, 1956, iv, 28.
Watts, V., 2004. Dictionary of English Place-names. Cambridge.
Whitelock, D., 1930. Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge.
The Place-names of Buckhurst Hill.
Baldfaced Stag PH / The Bald Stag, 1777,C / TQ / 406 / 939 / bldg / inn
Baptist Chapel / TQ / 411 / 939
Buckhurst Hill / (la) Bukherst (alias Goldhurst), 1485,Ipm; Bucket Hill, 1777,C / TQ / 410 / 942
Buckhurst Hill Farm / (la) Bocherst(e),1135,BL, 1203,ChR; Bokehurste Hill, c1528,EAS ix / TQ / 413 / 947 / bldg
Buckhurst Hou. / TQ / 408 / 947 / bldg
Congregational Chapel / TQ / 412 / 941
Hospital / TQ / 408 / 946
King's Place / Langhfordes otherwise the Kings Place,1576,EAS xi / TQ / 416 / 938 / bldg / Robert Langford sold land to Edward IV in 1476 (Reaney, p54)
King's Place / Kings Place, The Lodge, 1777,C / TQ / 416 / 939 / bldg
Langfords, 1987,OS / Potelles alias Langfordes, 1485,Pat / TQ / 416 / 938 / street / Richard Potel, 1285,Ass
Little Plucketts / Plucknetts Garden, 1675,Loughton / TQ / 416 / 944 / wood / wood / Nicholas Ploket, 1366, ADi
Lord's Bushes / Lordeswood, 1591,LandsR / TQ / 410 / 934 / wood / wood / John le Lord of Epping, 1327,SubRoll
Monkham Farm / Monekenebukhurst, 1286, AD i; Monkham, 1777,C / TQ / 412 / 930 / bldg / of monks of Stratford Langthorne Abbey
New Road / Epping New Road , A104, 1987,OS / TQ / 405 / 937
Oak Hall / TQ / 405 / 946 / bldg
Old Road / High Road, A121, 1987,OS / TQ / 406 / 937
Palmerston Road / Palmerston Road, B170, 1987,OS / TQ / 410 / 940
Plucketts (pt) / Plokettes, 1442,FF; Plucketts, 1586,Loughton / TQ / 421 / 945 / wood / wood / Nicholas Ploket, 1366, ADi
Princes Road / TQ / 415 / 937
Queens Road / TQ / 415 / 938
Roebuck Inn / The Roe Buck, 1777,C / TQ / 411 / 947 / bldg / inn
Roebuck Lane / cf. ætherices hlype, 1062, Charter / TQ / 413 / 947 / Old English hlype = deer-leap
Squirrels' Lane / TQ / 419 / 931
St John's Church / TQ / 417 / 942
Victoria Road / TQ / 417 / 938
White Bridge / TQ / 430 / 946
For abbreviations, see Reaney, P., 1935. Place-names of Essex. Cambridge; and Kemble, J., 2007. Essex Place-names, Places, Streets & People. Historical Publications, p 151.
The Tithe Award Place-names of Buckhurst Hill in Chigwell - by Owner.
Place-name / alias / Fld No / Grd Rf / x / y / acr / rd / pch / Land use / Owner / OccupierBuckhurst Hill field / 11 / TQ / 9 / 3 / 2 / pasture / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Little Wood field / 14 / TQ / 2 / 2 / 14 / arable / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Great Wood field / 18 / TQ / 11 / 0 / 10 / arable / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Little Hill / 23 / TQ / 2 / 0 / 38 / pasture / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Lady Mead / 39 / TQ / 2 / 1 / 32 / pasture / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Kings Meadow / 44 / TQ / 12 / 3 / 36 / pasture / Addison, Thomas Wm / Maitland, William
Little Meadow / 45 / TQ / 2 / 2 / 37 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Duel field / 46 / TQ / 424 / 940 / 17 / 0 / 8 / arable / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Sixteen acres / 47 / TQ / 16 / 1 / 38 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Long field / 48 / TQ / 16 / 1 / 8 / arable / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Oziers / 48a / TQ / 1 / 0 / 24 / oz / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Pasture field / 49 / TQ / 6 / 3 / 32 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Pasture field / 50 / TQ / 1 / 3 / 6 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Homestead / 51 / TQ / 2 / 0 / 13 / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Front field / 52 / TQ / 13 / 0 / 13 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Middle field / 53 / TQ / 12 / 0 / 0 / arable / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Top field / 54 / TQ / 418 / 938 / 11 / 1 / 11 / arable / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
West field / 59 / TQ / 3 / 1 / 0 / pasture / Adean, Henry John / Wollet, George
Arable / 13 / TQ / 6 / 2 / 24 / arable / Bridges, Thomas Wm / Bridges, Thomas William
Sheep pasture / 15 / TQ / 413 / 946 / 6 / 0 / 10 / pasture / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Homestead / 16 / TQ / 0 / 0 / 22 / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Barn mead / 17 / TQ / 412 / 944 / 7 / 3 / 22 / pasture / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Lane mead / 19 / TQ / 410 / 942 / 7 / 0 / 24 / pasture / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Arable / 20 / TQ / 3 / 2 / 24 / arable / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Meadow / 21 / TQ / 2 / 2 / 8 / pasture / Brooks, Rev William / Nicholson, John
Cottages, gardens / 1b / TQ / 0 / 0 / 18 / Heath, Comfort / Collop, John
Cottage / 9 / TQ / 0 / 0 / 32 / Hills, Joseph / Rason, Thomas; Smith, John; Sawyer, Charles;Westwood, Wm
Cottages, gardens / 1a / TQ / 0 / 1 / 17 / Jessop, Joseph / Wheeler, Thomas;Radley, Eleaner; Spicer, John; Green, Thomas; Heath, Comfort
Homestead / 2 / TQ / 413 / 947 / 1 / 1 / 11 / Loster, Rev Charles Alfred / Frost, Henry
Roe Buck field / 28 / TQ / 415 / 946 / 2 / 2 / 18 / pasture / Loster, Rev Charles Alfred / Frost, Henry / Old English hlype = deer-leap
Nine acres (pt) / 29 / TQ / 5 / 0 / 34 / arable / Loster, Rev Charles Alfred / Frost, Henry
Gravel Field (pt) / 3 / TQ / 5 / 0 / 34 / pasture / Loster, Rev Charles Alfred / Frost, Henry
Spittle mead (pt) / 41 / TQ / 2 / 1 / 18 / pasture / Loster, Rev Charles Alfred / Frost, Henry
Little West field / 56 / TQ / 6 / 2 / 35 / arable / Mills, James / Death, William
Great West field / 57 / TQ / 13 / 0 / 10 / arable / Mills, James / Death, William
Horse Bush field / 58 / TQ / 15 / 0 / 10 / pasture / Mills, James / Death, William
Upper Bridge field / 60 / TQ / 420 / 932 / 7 / 2 / 8 / pasture / Mills, James / Death, William
Lower Bridge field / 61 / TQ / 422 / 931 / 20 / 2 / 24 / pasture / Mills, James / Death, William
Green Wood field / 62 / TQ / 419 / 928 / 16 / 0 / 27 / arable / Mills, James / Death, William
Little Broad field / 63 / TQ / 9 / 0 / 30 / arable / Mills, James / Death, William
Road field / 64 / TQ / 7 / 0 / 26 / pasture / Mills, James / Death, William
Further Squirrels / Squirrels Lane, 1875, OS / 65 / TQ / 418 / 932 / 3 / 2 / 26 / pasture / Mills, James / Death, William