MANORS.
The manor of WOODFORD HALL,
which comprised the greater part of the parish, is
first mentioned in the charter of doubtful authenticity by which Edward the Confessor confirmed
Harold's grant of lands to the canons of Waltham
Holy Cross. (fn. 1) The boundaries of the manor then
stretched westwards from Angrices burne (the river
Roding) to ealdermannes hœcce and cynges hœcce. If
the last was Chingford Hatch, the alderman's hatch
must have been in the south-west corner of Woodford; (fn. 2) a gate called Grovehacche, near Hall Grove,
close to the point where the vills of Walthamstow,
Wanstead, and Woodford met, was mentioned in
1414. (fn. 3) The manor granted to Waltham provided
the prebend of one canon, and from it he had to
furnish the community with rations for two weeks in
the year. (fn. 4) The northern portion of Woodford,
known as Monkhams, did not belong to Waltham
Abbey but to Stratford Langthorne Abbey. (fn. 5) Most
of the parish east of the river belonged to Hill
House. This messuage may originally have been
copyhold of Woodford Hall, later enfranchised. (fn. 6)
From the 15th century it was regarded as a demesne
tenement of the manor, (fn. 7) and in grants after the
Dissolution the manor and Hill House are always
mentioned as distinct properties.
The canons of Waltham retained Woodford after
the Conquest. In 1086 the manor comprised 5 hides
and was valued at 100s. (fn. 8) When Waltham was
reconstituted by Henry II in 1177, he confirmed its
possessions, including the manor and church of
Woodford. (fn. 9) The abbey acquired more lands in
Woodford during the 13th century, including a
messuage and 60 a. of land worth 100s. a year,
which about 1258 were appropriated by the abbot,
claiming the convent's foundation charter as his
authority: the land had been forfeited when Margaret, wife of John atte Mille of Woodford, was
executed for murdering her husband. (fn. 10) This holding
can be traced in 1468, (fn. 11) and 1536, when the fields
of which it was composed included Rowdone and
Mellemede. (fn. 12)
In 1267 William de Luketon, a lay-brother of
Waltham Abbey, was entrusted with the keeping of
the manor. (fn. 13) During the last two centuries of the
abbey's existence, the abbots leased the Woodford
demesnes to a succession of tenants. William Sandre
was the lessee in 1404 (fn. 14) and William Tynge in 1465. (fn. 15)
In the later 15th and early 16th centuries the Hickman family lived there. (fn. 16) In 1538, just before the
Dissolution, the manor, together with Hill House,
was let to William Waverley for £30 p.a. (fn. 17) At that
date the fixed rents accruing to the manor amounted
to £4 7s. 10d., out of which 3s. 4d. was paid to the
woodward, and 4s. was paid for a pasture of 10 a.
called Eldbury. (fn. 18)
In 1541, after the Dissolution, Robert Fuller, the
last abbot of Waltham, obtained a grant for life of
the manor of Woodford with many other estates. (fn. 19)
These he enjoyed for little more than a year. In 1545
Henry VIII granted to (Sir) John Lyon, alderman
and grocer of London, and Alice his wife, the manor
of Woodford, with Hill House, Eldbury, and the
advowson of the rectory. (fn. 20) In 1547 the Crown
recovered the manor from Lyon, (fn. 21) in exchange for
other land, mostly in Berkshire but including Monkhams in Woodford, and granted it to Sir Anthony
Browne, master of the horse, and his (second) wife,
Elizabeth. None of Browne's children by Elizabeth's
survived and, after his death in 1548, (fn. 22) the reversion
of the manor was granted in 1552 to Elizabeth's
second husband, Edward Fiennes, Lord Clinton
and Say, (fn. 23) whom she married in that year. (fn. 24)
In 1553 Fiennes was licensed to alienate the manor
to Robert Whetstone, citizen and haberdasher of
London, (fn. 25) which he did early in 1554. (fn. 26) Whetstone
was a rich man, with estates in several counties
He died in 1557 or 1558, (fn. 27) having devised the manor
of Woodford to Bernard, his eldest son by his
second wife Margaret. (fn. 28) Bernard was still alive in
1601, (fn. 29) but by 1603 he had been succeeded by his
son, Sir Bernard Whetstone, (fn. 30) who lived outside
the county. (fn. 31) Sir Bernard (d. 1624) was succeeded
by his son, also called Bernard. (fn. 32) The last-named
Bernard sold the manor in 1639 to his mortgagee, Sir
William Acton, (fn. 33) having previously sold 'most of
the copyholds and almost all the demesnes', leaving
rents of only £140 out of an original £600. (fn. 34) Acton
conveyed the manor in 1640 to Sir Thomas Rowe
(d. 1644), the traveller and diplomatist. (fn. 35) Rowe's
widow Eleanor held the manor until her death in
1675, (fn. 36) after which her trustee and executor Sir
Thomas St. George sold it in 1678 to (Sir) Benjamin
Thorowgood, alderman of London, who became
lord mayor in 1685. (fn. 37) Thorowgood (d. 1694) was
followed by his son Richard, (fn. 38) who in 1710 sold the
estate to Sir Richard Child, lord of the manor of
Wanstead. (fn. 39) Woodford manor was then incorporated in the Wanstead estate with which it subsequently descended. (fn. 40)
Although Sir Richard Child retained the manor of
Woodford, he sold the hall and most of the remaining
demesne lands to Christopher Crow, so that by 1838
only about 80 a. in Woodford remained as part of the
Wanstead estate. (fn. 41) Crow sold the hall to William
Hunt in 1727, after obtaining a private Act of Parliament. (fn. 42) The hall remained in that family until about
1801 when it was bought by John Maitland. (fn. 43) In
1777 the hall, with 56 a. lying behind and a further
92 a., was leased to John Goddard, a Rotterdam
merchant, (fn. 44) whose widow died there in 1814. (fn. 45) By
1820 Maitland himself had taken up residence. (fn. 46)
He inherited the manor of Loughton in 1825 (fn. 47) and
died at Woodford Hall in 1831. (fn. 48) His son William
Whitaker Maitland succeeded him and leased the
hall first to William Cox, (fn. 49) then, in 1840, to William
Morris, father of William Morris the poet and
craftsman. The Morris family remained there until
1848. (fn. 50) In 1869 the Woodford Hall estate was sold
to the British Land Co. for building development.
The house was used until 1900 as Mrs. Gladstone's
convalescent home. (fn. 51) It was then demolished and
the parish church memorial hall was built in front
of the site in 1902. (fn. 52) The chapel of the convalescent
home survives as part of a house in Buckingham
Road. (fn. 53)
The original manor-house was probably at Woodford Bridge, where the field name Eldbury, mentioned above, survived until the 16th century.
Before 1235, however, another house was in use, on
the 'upper' road. (fn. 54) A map of about 1700 shows the
demesne lands, including Hall Grove at the south-west corner of the parish. (fn. 55) It is crudely drawn but
gives a fairly detailed elevation of the old hall, which
was a gabled three-storey building, apparently of
the early 17th century. By 1771, William Hunt,
nephew of the purchaser of 1727, had pulled down
the hall and was in process of rebuilding it, (fn. 56) to the
design of Thomas Leverton. (fn. 57) Expensive improvements to this property, especially to the garden in
front of the house, were carried out in 1804 (fn. 58) in
accordance with designs by Humphry Repton; but
his plan for a large portico with Ionic columns does
not seem to have been carried out, (fn. 59) for Victorian
prints show short, curving flights of steps leading
up, over a semi-basement, to the front door. The
hall was a three-storey building with a frontage of
five bays, the middle three of which were slightly
advanced and surmounted by a pediment. The main
block was flanked by single-storey wings with hipped
roofs. (fn. 60) This house was set in about 50 a. of park. (fn. 61)
In 1810 Charles Bacon designed an entrance gateway
and a ruin in the park. (fn. 62)
The custom of Borough English prevailed in this
manor. (fn. 63) Several examples of succession to a copyhold by the youngest son are known for the period
1488 to 1536. (fn. 64) The custom was still in being at the
beginning of the 20th century. (fn. 65)
The manor of MONKHAMS alias BUCKHURST alias MUNCKENHILL was a small estate
extending into Chigwell. (fn. 66) William de Montfitchet
endowed the abbey of Stratford Langthorne with
his wood of Buckhurst in 1135, (fn. 67) and this became
known as Monkenbuckhurst to distinguish it from
other beech hursts in the area. (fn. 68) The estate was
augmented by grants of land in Chigwell, but part
of it was always in Woodford. In 1253 the abbot of
Stratford was granted free warren on his demesnes
at Woodford and elsewhere, (fn. 69) and in 1291 he was
taxed for temporalities in Woodford worth £1 a
year. (fn. 70) Early-16th-century references in the Woodford court rolls indicate that the land lay to the
north of the old Sakes (now Snakes) Lane. (fn. 71) By 1640
the name 'Monkham' was used for some of the
woodland between Sakes Lane and the parish
boundary, but the original estate probably extended
eastwards towards Rayhouse as well as including
land in Buckhurst Hill to the north. (fn. 72) It was never
called a manor in medieval times, and the abbot of
Waltham, probably as lord of the manor of Woodford
Hall, claimed jurisdiction over it in 1525, (fn. 73) but in
1630 royalties there were claimed on behalf of the
owner of Buckhurst, (fn. 74) and in 1646 it was described
as a manor or farm. (fn. 75)
In 1547, after the Dissolution, Edward VI granted
the tenement called Buckhurst alias Monkhill and
the wood called Monkgrove to Alderman Sir John
Lyon of London and Alice his wife in part-exchange
for the manor of Woodford Hall; Buckhurst was to
be held in chief by 1/40 knight's fee and Monkgrove
was to be held in free socage. (fn. 76) For the remainder
of the 16th century the estate descended as described
under Chigwell parish. (fn. 77) During the 17th century
it consisted of 3 or 4 tenements and about 300 a.,
and was generally leased in two parts. In 1612
George and John Lyon sold the property to James
Holden, (fn. 78) who then granted John a 99-year lease
of the larger part. (fn. 79) In 1616 John Lyon granted
the residue of his term to Thomas Hill, (fn. 80) who
acquired the freehold a few days later. (fn. 81) Hill acquired
both the freehold and leasehold interests of the
remaining part of the estate in 1631–2. (fn. 82) In 1646
the whole property was again on a 99-year lease and
this passed to (fn. 83) William and George Nutt in 1649. (fn. 84)
In that year the property was split up afresh when
the freehold reversion of the larger moiety, lying
almost entirely in Chigwell, was conveyed to the
Nutts. (fn. 85) It was this portion which descended with
the Nutt family and was eventually merged with the
Luxborough estate in Chigwell. It included Little
Monkhams in Woodford, which in 1838 was owned
by Christopher Mills and let to Jonas Death. (fn. 86)
Possession of the other moiety, lying entirely in
Woodford and including Monkham Grove, remained
with the Hill family: there are various references
to its members living at Monkhams in the later 17th
and early 18th centuries. (fn. 87) John Hill of Enfield
(Mdx.) felled wood there from at least 1718 until
1733 (fn. 88) when he mortgaged his freehold. (fn. 89) By 1735
Thomas North had an interest in the premises. (fn. 90)
He and his wife Mary, who were rated as of 'Muncomegrove' in 1738, built a new house. (fn. 91) Their son
Thomas Cox North sold the property in 1760 to
Eliab Harvey (d. 1769). (fn. 92) In 1775 Harvey's executors
obtained statutory power to sell it, (fn. 93) and they did so
soon after to Sir James Wright of Rayhouse. (fn. 94)
Wright auctioned part of his Woodford estates in
1803: Monkham Farm was bought by George
Brown and Monkham House, leased since 1795 to
Mrs. Pearse, (fn. 95) by Nicholas Pearse, (fn. 96) who conveyed
it to Brice Pearse in 1809. (fn. 97) The Pearse family had
already acquired Hereford House, the adjoining
property. (fn. 98) Brice Pearse died in 1812 but his son,
also Brice, (fn. 99) continued to build up the estate. In
1814 he acquired Monkham Farm from George
Brown and, during the next few years, various fields
near Snakes Lane. (fn. 100) About 1820 he bought from
John Hall a large mansion and other property on the
south side of Snakes Lane. (fn. 101) Approval given by the
justices in 1820 to divert Snakes Lane to the south-west (fn. 102) enabled him to consolidate the enlarged
estate, which by 1838 comprised the mansion,
renamed Monkham House, Monkham farm-house,
the 'old farm-house', and 233 a., mainly pasture. (fn. 103)
Pearse called part of his estate the manor of Hill
House. The original Hill House had been in the
opposite, south-east corner of the parish, but its
name had later been used for the part of Woodford
Hall manor north-west of Monkhams Lane, in
which area Pearse had bought land. (fn. 104) He died in
1842, (fn. 105) and in 1844 Elliot Macnaughton bought the
estate. (fn. 106) He sold it in 1864 to Henry Ford Barclay. (fn. 107)
By that time the fields around the house had been
turned into a park of some 70 a., 30 a. of which were
copyhold of Woodford manor. (fn. 108) Before his death in
1891 Barclay extended his holding to include a large
part of the original Monkhams wood west of the
railway line. (fn. 109) In 1892, when Arnold F. Hills purchased the estate for £36,350, (fn. 110) it consisted largely
of woodland, divided into Knighton wood, Bristow's
wood, and Pea Field wood. (fn. 111) James Robert Twentyman bought the estate in 1903, (fn. 112) and began to sell
building plots. Before 1914 the southern part of the
estate had been laid out and, after Twentyman's
death in 1928, his trustees disposed of the remainder
for development. (fn. 113) The name Monkhams has been
given to an avenue, a drive, and a lane in the area.
There was a husbandman's dwelling-house at
Monkham Grove by 1527. (fn. 114) When the estate was
divided, the 'capital' house called Buckhurst or
Buckhouse, Munckenhill or Monkhams, so distinguished by 1631, (fn. 115) remained attached to the
Woodford moiety. (fn. 116) There were two separate sites
of 'Munkom Houses' in c. 1640. (fn. 117) One corresponded
with the site, astride the Woodford-Chigwell
boundary, occupied by Monkham Farm (Chigwell)
and the house now known as Little Monkhams, the
other with the site to the south-east, near the present
railway line, known as Monkham or Lane farm. (fn. 118)
Monkham farm-house in Chigwell, which was
rebuilt in brick by Thomas Hill in c. 1649, (fn. 119) was
demolished in 1936; (fn. 120) but Little Monkhams, a
much-altered timber-framed house, probably of
the late 16th or early 17th century, was still standing
in 1969. Lane farm appears to have occupied the
site of the original 'capital' house, (fn. 121) which was
probably never more than a farm-house. Between
1735 and 1758 Thomas and Mary North built a
modest new gentleman's house, (fn. 122) about half a mile
to the south-west of the farm, on the north side of
Snakes Lane, adjoining Hereford House. (fn. 123) Their
extensive felling and stubbing in Monkham Grove
and fencing off of it from the forest between 1737
and 1752 was probably associated with building
this house and laying out of its grounds. (fn. 124) The house,
which was known by 1803 as Monkham House, (fn. 125)
was pulled down after Brice Pearse bought John
Hall's house on the south side of Snakes Lane and
transferred the name to it. (fn. 126) The second Monkham
House was a large two-storey stucco building with a
plain parapet. The east front had 5 windows and a
Tuscan porch, and the south front had 3 full-height
bows, each of 3 windows. It was apparently built
in the early 19th century, but if so, it replaced an
earlier house, shown on the site in 1777. (fn. 127) At the
end of the 19th century elaborate fountains and
illuminations were installed. (fn. 128) The house was demolished in 1930 when Park Avenue was built. (fn. 129)
A new Monkhams farmstead was built between
1825 and 1838, nearer Monkham House and fronting
Monkhams Lane to the south-west of the old Lane
farm. (fn. 130) The old farm-house was still standing in
1892, but when the railway was built in 1856 the
line cut though its farm buildings. (fn. 131)
The principal estate at Woodford Bridge was
RAYHOUSE. It was never a manor, though sometimes described as such by confusion with Rayhouse
in Barking; until the 19th century it was a copyhold
tenement held of the manor of Woodford Hall. (fn. 132)
Until the 15th century it was held by the family of
atte Ree as a messuage and 30 a. of land. William
ad aquam or atte Ree was holding a virgate at
Woodford about 1235–70, (fn. 133) Richard is mentioned
in 1271, (fn. 134) John and William in 1404, (fn. 135) and Thomas
in 1414. (fn. 136) In 1451 John atte Ree, a hereditary bondsman (nativus de sanguine) held a heriotable messuage
called Rayhouse and 30 a. of land as well as 10 a. of
molland, (fn. 137) which he surrendered to the use of his
wife Joan, with reversion to William Ripton. (fn. 138)
Ripton's heir, also William, was probably a minor
when his father died, because the holding was
granted to a London citizen, William Stondon. In
1498 Stondon surrendered Rayhouse to the use of
his wife Maud, and on her death in 1514 her brother,
John Hykman, succeeded to the property after a
dispute. Hykman surrendered Rayhouse to John
Hatfield, a London vintner, and Eleanor his wife,
to whom William Ripton also released his claim.
John Hatfield alias Pylbarough (d. 1518) was followed
by his son John Pylbarough, who greatly enlarged
the holding, acquiring the copyhold of Old Counsedews, another virgate at Woodford Bridge, the
half-virgate of Gales and Netherhouse in Woodford
Row, besides several small crofts and pieces of
meadow. (fn. 139)
John Pylbarough remained as tenant after the
Dissolution (fn. 140) but his successors cannot be traced
until 1663 when William Stone, M.D., and his wife
Dorothy, together with Anne, widow of Josiah
Clerke, surrendered Rayhouse to the use of John
Norman, a London cooper. (fn. 141) At the beginning of the
18th century the Cleland family gained possession of
the estate (fn. 142) but in 1732 William Cleland surrendered
it to the use of Alvar Lopez Suasso. (fn. 143) In 1736 Suasso
conveyed it to James Hannot, (fn. 144) who in 1760 leased
part of the farm. (fn. 145) His heir, Bennet Hannot, sold
Rayhouse about 1770 to Sir James Wright, sometime British minister at Venice, who took up residence in the two-storey five-bay brick mansion. (fn. 146) Sir
James also acquired several adjacent estates, including Monkham house and farm. (fn. 147) In 1793 he started to
build Ray Lodge, near Ray House, for his son
George, employing as architect John (later John
Buonarotti) Papworth, then aged only 18. (fn. 148) Sir James
died in 1804 and was succeeded by his son, Sir
George Wright, Bt., who in 1807 sold his Rayhouse
estate to Benjamin Hanson Inglish. (fn. 149) Inglish was
admitted to the two houses and 133 a. land. (fn. 150) Ray
House was then on lease to J. V. Purrier, and Ray
Lodge to Sir William Fraser. (fn. 151) After Inglish's death
in 1834 the lands were split up and auctioned, John
Cutts being the largest purchaser. (fn. 152) In 1840 the
owner of Ray House was Thomas Lewis (fn. 153) and in
1876 G. T. Benton. (fn. 154) Ray House was rebuilt after
a fire at the turn of the century and was sold in 1924
to Bryant & May Ltd. as a country club and sports
ground. (fn. 155) In 1958 it was sold to the borough council
and became a public park. (fn. 156)
The name of the early tenants shows that the
estate was by the river and a 16th-century reference (fn. 157)
shows that it covered both banks by 'Reyhouse-brygge'. In a map of 1777 the estate is shown astride
the Roding by Woodford Bridge. (fn. 158) Ray Lodge has
disappeared and all that survives of the 18th-century
Ray House is its octagonal walled garden at the
north end of Ray Park, still used as a plant nursery.
The name of Ray Lodge is preserved in Ray Lodge
Road and Ray Lodge Close. Ray Park, the gas
works, and the Ashton playing fields now cover
most of the rest of the area.