High Country History Group

The talk on Heraldry on the 14th November was not well attended (22), but those present enjoyed an excellent talk by Myra Wilkins, who was obviously enthusiastic about the subject and she proved a great hit with her audience. During her talk she spoke about the Coat of Arms for Epping and I have included a description here which links into her talk and that on the 2nd December on the Verderers of Epping Forest, given by Dr Peter Adams, himself a Verderer.

This talk was attended by some 40 members.

The Coat of Arms of Epping Forest District Council was granted by the College of Heralds in 1974 at the same time as the Council itself was formed. It takes representative items from the four authorities that merged to form EFDC - Chigwell Urban Council, Epping UDC, Epping and Ongar Rural Council, and Waltham Holy Cross UC. The shield at the centre of the Arms represents these institutions. The black cross on white background represents Waltham Holy Cross. The horn represents Chigwell Urban Council and is the symbol of the Master Keepers of the Forest who held their court at the King's Head in Chigwell. The four axe heads represent the four Verderers and also the lopping rights enjoyed by Loughton. The crown points to Epping Forest's position as a former Royal Forest.

Above the shield the castle and grazing ground in front of it stand for Ongar. Ongar takes its name from 'aunger', the medieval word for grazing ground. The castle represents the castle built in Ongar by Richard de Lucy during the reign of Henry II. The leaping stag in front of the castle was the emblem of Epping Urban District Council.

The supporting royal stags come from the arms of Waltham Holy Cross. They hold in their mouths Saxon swords or 'seaxes', from the arms of Essex County Council. The motto 'PER CRUCEM PER CORONAM' (Through the cross, through the Crown) summarises the history of the area - from religious holding, to royal forest, to common land.

Blazon

The arms can be technically described as:

Argent a cross engrailed sable, over all a bugle horn ensigned with an ancient crown of fleurs-de-lys or on a chief vert four axe-heads bendwise argent.

The Court of Quarter Sessions sat four times per year (Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer, and Michaelmas), when the county Justices of the Peace came together in Chelmsford. Justices were men of stature in Essex, but they needed no legal training. This was left to the administrative official of the court, the clerk of the peace, who was legally trained.

Quarter sessions courts began in the reign of Edward III and continued to function until their abolition in 1971.

The importance of these courts grew significantly during the 15th and 16th centuries. They assumed much that had been under the jurisdiction of sheriffs' courts and manor courts in the Medieval period. Over time, responsibilities assigned to the magistrates and the courts grew so much that in the early part of the 18th century something known as 'petty sessions' was created to reduce the load. These were hearings, for minor offences, before one or two magistrates where justice could be handed down without a jury present.

Quarter sessions heard a broad range of cases. Their jurisdiction was set in 1590 as being just about anything except treason, but this gradually acquired some limitations particularly where murder and serious felonies were involved. Many of the more serious criminal cases were first heard here and then referred to the County Assizes. Some examples of cases before quarter sessions are burglary, assault, drunkenness, poaching, vagrancy, profanity, rioting, unlawful cutting of timber, and encroachment (i.e., making use of land that one was not entitled to).

Punishment that could be handed down included fines, flogging, imprisonment and transportation. Many matters that might be thought the responsibility of the church ended up at quarter sessions: refusing to attend church, publicly defaming the church and state, bastardy, and enforcement of the poor laws. The court also heard matters which were disputes between individuals such as non-payment of debts.

There were numerous administrative matters overseen by the courts. They issued licenses to pub owners and itinerant traders. Many people, places and things were registered at these courts: barges, charities (from 1786), nonconformist meeting houses, gamekeepers, to name a few. The court was given responsibility for overseeing the upkeep of bridges, jails and houses of correction, and it received the returns for various taxes, such as the hearth tax (late 1600s), the hair powder tax (1790s), and the land tax (after 1745). This is not a complete list, but it is enough to provide a sense of the broad range of local matters that were either resolved or recorded in some way under the jurisdiction of the courts of quarter sessions.

Records of the Essex Quarter Sessions are held in the Essex Record Office.

A schoolhouse seems to have been built in 1725 or 1726 by direction of the parish vestry so that elementary subjects, the catechism, and Church of England doctrine should be taught to poor children. In 1725 Sir Edward Smyth, lord of the capital manor, lent £20 towards the cost of building, to be repaid from the rent of the Church lands. In the same year, however, Mrs. Jane Luther, lady of Suttons, repaid this debt. It would seem, moreover, that Mrs. Luther undertook the entire cost of building for she stated in her will, dated 1745, that she had built the schoolhouse at her expense and had afterwards received a rent of 30s. a year for it. She then stipulated that after her death this rent was to be used primarily to keep the schoolhouse and its premises in repair, the residue being used to purchase bibles and prayer-books for distribution amongst the poor.

Meanwhile in 1726 the vestry had decided to employ a schoolteacher at a salary of £5 a year. It is not clear, however, for how long the parish employed a salaried schoolteacher or who occupied the schoolhouse before Mrs. Luther's death in 1745. Soon after her death the schoolhouse was being rented by Thomas King, who also rented the Church house. In April 1748 it was reported that King owed £3 for two years' rent of the schoolhouse.

From 1750-1, if not before, the schoolhouse or at least the schoolroom was occupied by a master to whom the parish sent children on a per capita basis. In 1750-1 £5 18s. was paid to the schoolmaster out of rents from the Church house and lands. In 1751-2, £5 13s. 10d. was paid from the same source for 'alterations in the schoolroom', it being stated that 'the shelves and partitions was put up by the parish to be left when the tenant goes out'. In the same year Mr. Lewthwaite was paid £2 17s. for 'schooling' and from then until 1783, if not later, children's schooling was usually the main item of expenditure in the churchwarden's annual account of parish income. This item varied in amount from year to year. In 1752-3 three children were sent to school at a total cost of 12s. 6d. Usually, however, the annual cost was between £2 and £5. It is not clear what arrangements were made for educating the poor children of Stapleford Tawney after 1783.

In 1818 it was stated that there was no school of any kind in the parish. In 1831 a meeting of the vestry recommended that the rector should 'allow £4 per annum to Samuel Parish schoolmaster being the rent for the house which he now lives in on condition that he continues to educate the poor children on the Sundays'. In 1835 it was stated that the schoolhouse built at Mrs. Luther's expense was occupied rent-free by a schoolmaster who had been placed there by the rector and who had 30 fee-paying pupils. At this date the master probably still taught the poor children of the parish on Sundays in return for his rent-free house. The schoolhouse was still occupied rent-free by a master in 1848 and possibly in 1861 but probably not as late as 1863 and almost certainly not as late as 1871.

By 1839 the poor children of the parish were attending a day school in Theydon Mount. In 1871 an inspector proposed that 30 Stapleford Tawney children should be accommodated at Theydon Mount and that the remaining 16 in need of elementary schooling should be found places at Stapleford Abbots. Churchmen in Stapleford Tawney, however, decided to found their own school on land given by the lord of the manor of Stapleford Tawney.

A deed of 1873 appointed the rector and churchwardens as trustees of the school and declared that the religious teaching should be according to Anglican principles. The new school, with accommodation for 60, was built in 1873-4, next to the church. A teacher's house was attached. The school was opened in 1874 under a certificated mistress but, despite the receipt of annual grants from 1875 and an average attendance of 32 in that year, the falling population of the parish caused average attendance to fall to 15 in 1893.

In 1904 there were 30 pupils on the roll under two mistresses, one of them certificated, and the average attendance was 25. By the Education Act of 1902 the school passed under the administration of the Essex Education Committee as a non-provided Church school. Average attendance continued to be low; in 1910 it was 19 and in 1911 the possibility of closure was discussed. Average attendance rose, however, to 23 in 1920 and to 32 in 1936. After the reorganization of the school for mixed juniors and infants in 1936 the average attendance again fell, reaching 15 in 1938. In 1939, in view of the low number of pupils, the school was closed. The building is now used for village activities. It is a gabled building of red brick with bands of blue. The gables have pierced bargeboards.

Four charities existed for the benefit of those living in the parish. They are:

1. Thomas Petit who died before 1602, left 5 shillings a year each for the poor and 'poor folk's marriages' to the parishes of Stanford Rivers and Greenstead. It issued from lands in Stanford Rivers. In 1834 the money had not been paid for at least twenty-three years. The owner of the land was apparently willing to pay the charge in future but there is no later record of the charity.

2. William Green, by his will dated 1554, devised a rent charge of £2 to twelve poor inhabitants of Stanford Rivers and £1 to six poor of Chipping Ongar. In 1786 it had not been paid since 1739.

3. Mary Rayner of Greenstead, by her will proved in 1873, left £400 for the upkeep of her family tomb and for the provision of clothing for the most deserving poor of Stanford Rivers. Although the primary trust was void by the rule against perpetuities, small sums were spent on the tombstone at various times. In 1950 the income was £10 1s. 2d., which together with the last year's balance was enough to give 27 parishioners 10s. each for clothing.

4. Jessie Matilda Berkeley of Mere (Wilts.), by her will proved in 1930, left £500 in trust for the upkeep of the graveyard of the parish church and for the benefit of the poor provided that her family vault was maintained in good repair. The income in 1950 was £20 8s. 4d. and all of this was spent on the upkeep of the churchyard.

From the Essex Constabulary General Orders dated the 30th January 1891

The Chief Constable has to signify his appreciation of the conduct of Sergeant H. Laver and Pc 147 W. Chinery in the prosecution of the 'Holly Tree Working Men's Club' at Stanford Rivers. After convicting in every case, the Chairman of the Ongar Bench remarked, 'I may say, on behalf of myself and my brother magistrates that the evidence given by the police officers is worthy of great praise. They gave their evidence in a very straightforward and clear manner. Indeed, we think they are particularly worthy of commendation in that respect.'

Does any reader know where the Holly Tree Working Men's Club was situated?

Population census records were first taken in 1801, and have since been taken every ten years. The only exception was in 1941, when we were at war. Prior to this only Parish Records recorded the number of people, together with a crude description or classification of occupations.

The early census returns, from 1801 to 1831, show the number of people and houses – but no names. These do however, give the first reliable indication of the population. On the 1831 census, additional information begins to appear, with a breakdown of the numbers of men working in the main occupations of the day. These were put into classifications, which were determined by the local census enumerator, and so the results have to be treated with care. Some of the classifications were factories, farming, trade, and domestic service. These records are in printed form, and can be viewed at most local libraries, or archives.

From 1841, the census is handwritten. This can prove to be somewhat difficult to read as some were written in pencil, and often the handwriting was so appalling as to be almost unintelligible. The record of the census is one of the most useful sources for anyone starting to research family history. If you find your ancestors listed there you can discover a great deal of information about everyone in the household at that time.

The Essex Record Office at Chelmsford holds copies of the census returns for the whole county of Essex for the census years 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901.

1801 March 10th

1811 May 27th

1821 May 28th

1831 May 30th

1841 June 6th

1851 March 30th

1861 April 7th

1871 April 2nd

1881 April 3rd

1891 April 5th

1901 March 31st

1911 April 2nd

1801–1831 Census contained no genealogical information. Very few returns for this period survive.

1841 Census gives name, age (rounded up to the nearest 5 years for those over 18), occupation, and states whether born within the county of residence.

1851 Census & succeeding years also show the relationship to the head of the household and the parish and county of birth.

1891 census shows whether person is employed or unemployed.

William Wallis, 21, Daniel Harding, 21, and Daniel Hammond, 20, labourers, were indicted for burglariously entering a store house adjoining the dwelling house of John Shuttleworth at Stapleford Tawney and stealing divers articles, his property, on the 9th June. Stolen some tin ware, two reams of paper and other goods. Sentence: All Guilty – transported for life.

In England, the medieval deer park provided a visible demonstration of the wealth of a lord. The park allowed the owner the opportunity to hunt and provided him with a managed supply of fresh venison. The park was a partially wooded area, enclosed by a banked and 'paled' boundary of height sufficient to contain the deer. The size of such a park would vary from a few acres to more than a thousand acres. The construction of the park would have required considerable investment of both labour and materials, and the upkeep of the pale would have involved significant running costs. The most notable local example of such a deer park, and the earliest recorded in England, is thought to have been the Anglo-Saxon Ongar Great Park.

Thirty-seven such parks are mentioned in Domesday, but by 1300, there were probably around 160 deer parks in Essex alone, out of a national total of maybe more than 3,200. This figure is arrived at through careful research into medieval documentary sources and listing the location of such parks where known.

Amongst these early records, the first reference to a park in Stapleford Tawney occurs in 1286. Thomas de Weylaund obtained a licence to empark within two small woods. From Westminster, Edward I is recorded as granting a licence on 29 April 1286:

Licence, after inquisition ad quod damnum by Roger le Strange, justice of the forest this side of the Trent, for Thomas de Weylaund to enclose and impark two groves in Chigenhale, Tany and Wytele, containing 14 acres, and 6 acres within the bounds of the Forest of Essex.

As stated, this is confusing. The parishes of Writtle and Chignal do have a common boundary, but the acreages cannot be readily identified with their locations. Nevertheless, it does appear that there was a deer park in Stapleford Tawney.

Now the pursuit of further references to the Tany deer park takes a sharp turn and Thomas de Weylaund comes into focus.

In a further reference, from the same volume of state papers, it is recorded, on 23 June 1288, from Edward I again from Westminster, that:

Commission to Thomas de Weylaund, John de Luvetot, John de Cobeham and including Ralph de Sandwich, keeper of the City of London, on complaint by many of the inhabitants that they are annoyed by the lime-kilns in the said city and suburb at Suthwerk, wherein the lime was formerly burnt by logs of wood is now burnt by sea-coal, so that the air is infected and corrupted, to view the same in conjunction with the sheriffs of London and bailiff of Southward to provide remedies.

How enlightened! Thomas is appointed to a four-man commission, the purpose of which is to examine the environmental consequences of using sea-coal instead of wood for burning lime. The commission is to 'provide remedies'.

Thomas was a man of substance. His family background and his education had earned him respect. He was trained as a clerk and became a subdeacon. He was made a justice itinerant in Essex and Hertfordshire in the period 1271 to 1272. In 1278, he was appointed chief justice at the Westminster bench, but during the next eleven years it is recorded that 'he showed great activity in the administration of the law, but neglected no opportunity of furthering his own interest and building up a great landed estate'. Thomas exceeded his powers during the Edward's absence from the country in the years 1286 to 1289. During this period he bought a number of properties and estates in Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, spending about £150 per year on these acquisitions.

Edward I returned in August 1289 to receive widespread criticism of the behaviour of the judiciary. In taking steps to restore confidence Thomas was the first in line. Two of his servants had committed a murder at a local fair and Thomas had failed to have them arrested, though he was aware of their involvement.

He was indicted but escaped before arrest. He fled to sanctuary in the Franciscan priory of Babwell just outside of Bury St Edmunds. Sir Robert Malet was sent to apprehend Thomas. Forty days were allowed for the fugitive to be given up; after such a period, with Thomas still in the convent, Malet resolved to starve him out. The application of such harsh measures and the fact that Thomas was a subdeacon caused friction between king and clergy, who claimed immunity for the beleaguered Thomas. The king confiscated his lands and appointed a new chief justice.

Unsurprisingly, Thomas de Weylaund was duly starved out but earned safe conduct to the Tower. There, Thomas was offered a choice of three options: to stand trial, to endure perpetual imprisonment or to abjure the realm. With further dark clouds threatening, as a result of other misdemeanours, he chose to abjure the realm; not only would he be banished for ever, he would also renounce his property within England and Ireland.

He was allowed 9 days to reach Dover on foot. There his life and liberty were exchanged for a confession. Thomas de Weylaund embarked, bare-footed, head uncovered and cross in hand. His wife, Margaret, and her son were permitted to benefit from his property only after considerable legal process and rather against the intention of abjuration.

In 1292, Thomas was living in Paris. Around 1297, he was pardoned by Edward I and returned to live in his wife's manor at Brundon, now in Suffolk.

Now where was the park at Stapleford Tawney?

Stanford Rivers is a large parish whose north-east boundary is ½ mile south-west of Chipping Ongar. The soil is boulder clay and London clay with small patches of gravel. The part of the parish to the north of the stream which flows into the Roding at Wash Bridge, and which includes Toot Hill and Ongar Park Wood, may originally have been part of the parish of High Ongar, and may have become part of Stanford Rivers about 1280.

Like many other parishes in this area Stanford Rivers is made up mainly of scattered farms and cottages. There are two hamlets, one in the east and the other in the north-west, both some distance from the parish church. The population density never seems to have been unusual for the area, although until the 19th century the population was larger than that of High Ongar, a parish adjacent and of similar area.

Population in 1801 numbered 740. It rose to a peak of 1,082 in 1851 and then gradually declined. In 1951 it was 802. There has been a slight increase since 1911, due to council housing and private building after the break-up of the Bishops Hall estate (1).

The land in the parish varies in height from about 100 ft. above sea-level in the south to over 300 ft. at Toot Hill in the north-west. The River Roding forms the eastern and southern boundaries of the parish. A stream flows east across the north of the parish to join the Roding at Wash Bridge. Several smaller streams join the river farther south. Ongar Park Wood, in the north-west, is a mile long and ¼ mile wide. A mile south of this is Knightsland Wood, and farther southeast are Twentyacre Wood and Tenacre Wood. The main road from Chipping Ongar to London passes south-west through the parish.

Lying along this road, at a distance of 2 miles from Chipping Ongar, is the hamlet of Little End. There have been houses here at least since 1777. A recent group of council houses has been built here. The factory of Piggott Bros. & Co., tent and tarpaulin makers, is on the east side of the main road at Little End.

Opposite the factory is the site of the former Congregational church, and also the present rectory. Stanford House, which lies near the factory to the south, is of 18th-century date possibly with an older core. It has brick walls, to which imitation half-timbering has been applied recently. It was the home of Isaac Taylor. A mile northeast of Little End is Littlebury. Wash Farm, at Wash Bridge, is the name given on modern maps to Bridge Farm, alias Bridge House Farm (see below, Bridges and Piggsland). The part of the main road to the south-west of Little End has been known since at least the 17th century as Hare Street.

The main road is joined at Little End by a road running north-west to Toot Hill. Stanford Hall and the church lie beside this road ½ mile from Little End. The old rectory is ½ mile south-west of the church. The school (2), and Stewart's Farm, are on the road between the church and Toot Hill.

Toot Hill is now the main centre of population. Does Farm here is of late 16th-century origin, faced with brickwork in the 19th century. It has a cruciform chimney-stack with five polygonal shafts. A cottage on the north side of the road about ¼ mile east of Does was part of a larger building at one time divided into three tenements. The east end, including a central chimney, was destroyed by fire within the last 20 years. It is of the 15th or early 16th century and is of timber construction, plastered and weather-boarded. Also at Toot Hill is a small cottage with one gabled cross-wing which may be of the 16th century or earlier. On both sides of the 'Green Man' at Toot Hill is a layout of 16 post-1945 council houses.

In the extreme south of the parish the main road is joined by a road which leads to Navestock and crosses the Roding by Shonks Mill Bridge. Half a mile northwest of the bridge is Lawns Farm. The house is of late 16th- or early-17th-century date, much restored. It is timber-framed and plastered and has a tiled roof. The front is flanked by two gables oversailing at first floor level. North of Lawns is Wayletts (3), another timber-framed and plastered house, probably of the 17th century. Traceys Farm is ½ mile north-west of Wayletts. Murrells is on the north-west side of the main road, to the north-east of Traceys. It also is timber-framed and plastered. The front has been entirely rebuilt after receiving severe damage from a flying bomb in 1944. The house probably dates from the 16th century, but may have incorporated parts of an even older house. Berwick Farm is in the west of the parish near Twentyacre Wood. The site of Bellhouse, once the main manor house of the parish, is a mile east of Berwick.

The railway from Epping to Chipping Ongar passes through the north of the parish. North Weald station is just inside Stanford Rivers in the north-west, and Blake Hall station similarly in the north (4). The railway stations at North Weald and Blake Hall were probably opened as soon as the line to Chipping Ongar was completed in 1865. There was a coal merchant's wharf at Blake Hall Station in 1869.

There are frequent references to the condition of bridges in Stanford Rivers. In 1566 Stewards Bridge, with land on both sides belonging to a Mr. Steward, was in need of repair. This may have been the bridge described later as Hawkes or Hackes Bridge and as Hallyngford. Stewards Bridge was frequently presented in the manor court during the reign of Elizabeth I as needing repair. The great bridge between Stanford Rivers and Navestock, Shonks Mill Bridge, is treated under Navestock. Wash Bridge was taken over by the county in 1830. In 1858 it was described in detail by the county surveyor.

The coach and carriers from Chipping Ongar were calling at Stanford Rivers in 1848 and 1863.

Stanford Rivers had a postal receiving house in 1793. It was on the daily horse ride shown on the post-office map of 1813. In 1848 the post-office was at the 'White Bear'. By 1896 there was a sorting office. Toot Hill had a sub-post-office in 1863. There was a telephone service at Stanford Rivers by 1926.

There was a resident police constable at Stanford Rivers from 1906. Two new police houses were built at Hare Street in 1954 (5).

Water was supplied to parts of the parish in 1949 by the Herts. and Essex Waterworks Co. There is sewerage in part of Stanford Rivers. Electricity was laid on in part of the parish in January 1951. There is no local supply of gas, but the parish is traversed by an untapped trunk main.

There is a village hall at Hare Street (6) and a parish room at Toot Hill, both dating from 1921 (7). A branch of the county library was opened in April 1927.

In 1086 the main manor of Stanford was a large and important estate containing a total of 20 plough teams. Little Stanford contained 1 plough-team. There was another ½ plough-team on the estate formerly held by a freeman. At the time of Domesday 5½ plough-teams were employed on the demesne, but the number had dropped steadily since 1066. There was estimated to be woodland sufficient to feed a total of 520 swine. This suggests that Stanford was less densely wooded than Chipping Ongar immediately to the north. From the 11th century until the 16th the lords of the capital manor never seem to have been resident. This and the size of the parish explain why so many subordinate estates grew up. Even after the Petres had settled at Bellhouse there does not seem to have been a large demesne farm. Their estate was mostly let out to tenants farming 100–300 acres.

In 1842 there were 17 farms in the parish with 90 acres or more. The largest, of 703 acres, was a comparatively new creation, of which the nucleus was Stanford Hall farm. The others were between 90 and 320 acres. There were also a number of smaller holdings. There were 400 acres of woodland (mostly in Ongar Park Wood). The remainder of the parish contained cultivated arable and grassland in roughly equal quantities. A field of 13 acres near Stanford Hall to the west was named Hop Gardens; but it was then being used for pasture.

There is little to show how and when enclosure took place in the parish. In 1579 Bartholomew Combers, blacksmith of Stanford Rivers, was granted permission by the queen, as lord of the manor, to build a cottage and forge on a piece of waste ground in the manor called Bridges Green. The Tithe Map (1842) shows traces of former open meadow: strips or 'pieces' in Hollingford Mead, running down to the Roding, in the south-east of the parish.

In 1086 there was a mill in the main manor of Stanford. There was one at Littlebury in 1260. Its tithes were granted about that time to Thoby Priory. In 1701 there was a water-mill at Littlebury. The present Littlebury Mill appears to be of early-19th-century date. It is weather-boarded on a brick base. In 1946 it changed over from water to electric power, and in 1952 the mill-stream was filled in, so that the water now follows the original course of the Roding.

In 1777 there was a windmill between Littlebury Hall and the main road. This is shown on the Tithe Map but it may not then have been in operation. The former Shonks Mill is treated under Navestock. The map of 1777 shows this watermill beside Shonks Bridge, and also a windmill a little to the west. This windmill, like that at Littlebury, is marked on the Tithe Map, but had disappeared 30 years later. There was also a windmill at Toot Hill in the 19th century. It was built about 1824. In 1829 it was badly damaged by lightning and the miller was seriously injured. A lithograph drawing of the mill, showing him gazing at the damage, was sold for the benefit of him and his family. The mill was soon working again and continued to operate until about 1900. It was finally demolished in 1935. It was a wooden post-mill turned by hand. The four brick piers which formerly supported the cross-trees at the base of the mill can still be seen on the site. The single-story weather-boarded mill cottage, probably built about 1824, still exists. The mill stood on the north side of the road leading to Greenstead Green.

Spinning was carried on in the parish workhouse from 1770 to about 1800. The brick and tile works to the south of North Weald station existed in 1871–3. A transmitting station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Co. operated in the parish in about 1926–9. The factory of Piggott Bros. & Co., tent and tarpaulin makers at Little End, was formerly the Ongar Union workhouse. It was converted to its present use after the union was dissolved in 1930. The central range of brown gault brick has three stories and a basement, also a splayed projecting bay at the back. It was built in about 1830–1 as the workhouse of the voluntary poor law union which preceded the Ongar Union. The side wings, in a slightly pinker brick, were added a few years later.

Most of the eminent men who have been connected with Stanford Rivers were rectors of the parish. Isaac Taylor (1787–1865) artist, author, and inventor, is usually known as Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers. He was the son of Isaac Taylor of Ongar (1759–1829). He settled at Stanford House in 1825 and lived there for the rest of his life.