Epping, Essex
Historical Description
Epping, a parish, a market and a union town in Essex. The town is 16½ miles from Whitechapel, and 15 from Shore-ditch Church, London, and it has a station on the Ongar branch of the G.E.R. It stands on hilly ground near the source of the river Roding, and consists chiefly of one wide irregular street stretching for more than a mile along the Newmarket Road. In the old coaching days it enjoyed a fair amount of prosperity, and after declining considerably through the introduction of railways, it is now reviving again, new road& being laid out and new residences built. It has a good supply of water, drawn from an artesian well situated in Sawbridge-worth, Herts. It has a weekly market on Fridays, and three annual fairs, which are held on Whit Tuesday, Oct. 12, and Nov. 13 and 14, chiefly for cattle and horses. The town, from its pleasant situation, attracts a great many visitors during the summer months, and there are an iron foundry and agricultural implement works, which give employment to numerous hands. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Epping Upland and Ryehill, has an area of 5281 acres; population, 2565. It has a head post office. The living is. a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans, united in 1889 to that of All Saints, Epping Upland; net value, £537 with residence. The church, erected in 1890 on the site of the old church, is a building of stone in the Gothic style of the 14th century. The church of All Saints at Epping Upland, which until 1889 served as the parish church, is an ancient, unpretentious building of brick and concrete in the Norman style. The living was united in 1889 with that of St John the Baptist. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, and a Friends' meeting-house. Copt Hall, 2 miles to the SW, is a fine mansion of white brick standing in a large park.
Epping Parliamentary Division, or Western Essex, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 55,416. The division includes the following:-Dunmow (except the parish of Thaxted)-Barnston, Brosted, Canfield (Great), Canfield (Little), Chickney, Dunmow (Great), Dunmow (Little), Easter (High), Easton (Great) Easton (Little), Lindsell, Pleshey, Roothing (Aythorp), Roothing (High), Roothing (Leaden), Roothing (Margaret), Roothing (White), Stebbing, Takeley, Tilley; Epping - Chigwell, Chingford, Epping, Loughton, Nazeing, North Weald Bassett, Theydon (Bois), Theydon (Garnon), Theydon (Mount), Waltham (Holy Cross); Ongar-Blackmore, Bobbingworth, Fyfield, Greenstead, Kelvedon Hatch, Lambourne, Laver (High), Laver (Little), Laver (Magdalene), Moreton, Navestock, Norton Mandeville, Ongar (Chipping), Ongar (High), Roothing (Abbot's), Roothing (Beauchamp), Roothing (Berner's), Shelly, Shellow Bowells, Standford Fivers, Stapleford Abbot, Stapleford Tawney, Stondon Massey, Willingale Doc, Willingale Spain; Harlow-Hallingbury (Great), Hallingbury (Little), Harlow, Hatfield Broad Oak, Latton, Matching, Netteswell, Parndon (Great), Parndon (Little), Roydon, Sheering.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Essex | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Epping All Saints | |
Hundred | Waltham | |
Poor Law union | Epping |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Epping from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Epping (All Saints))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.
The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.
Maps
Online maps of Epping are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online: