West Horndon is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the south of the

Borough of Brentwood The Borough of Brentwood is a local government district and borough in Essex in the East of England. History and geography The borough is named after its main town of Brentwood. There are still large areas of woodland including Shenfield ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

on the boundary with

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

. It is located 20 miles (32 km) east north-east of Charing Cross in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The civil parish also includes

East Horndon East Horndon is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of West Horndon, in the south of the borough of Brentwood in Essex in the East of England. It is situated just south of the A127 road near Herongate. The village Church of Al ...

and Dunton Hills. The village has its own parish council and forms part of the 'Herongate, Ingrave and West Horndon' ward of Brentwood Council. The local school is West Horndon Primary School, and the village falls within the Brentwood County High catchment area. West Horndon parish was abolished in 1934 and created again in 2003 with new boundaries following a petition by residents in 2002.

History

West Horndon was an ancient parish in the Barnstable hundred of Essex. It was grouped into the Billericay poor law union and rural

sanitary district Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1872 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures: *Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies *Rural sanitary dis ...

. It became part of Billericay Rural District in 1894.http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10186389#tab02 In 1934 the parish was abolished when it became part of

Brentwood Urban District Brentwood Urban District was a local government district in south Essex, England from 1899 to 1974. The district was created in 1899 from the parish of Brentwood which from 1894 had formed part of Billericay Rural District. In 1934 when Biller ...

. The parish abolished in 1934 was an elongated area stretching north–south in common with neighbouring parishes. East Horndon was a separate parish to the east and the next parish to the west was Little Warley. The population of West Horndon in 1931 was 147. The village began to grow with the 1938 establishment of Rotary Hoes, a manufacturer of trenching machinery. House-building continued in the 1950s for commuters to London as well as workers at Rotary Hoes. In 1975, Rotary Hoes left West Horndon for Lowestoft and closed shortly afterwards. The civil parish formed in 2003, with significantly different boundaries, is perpendicular to the former parish, stretching east–west to incorporate territory formerly part of the parishes of Childerditch, Dunton, East Horndon,

Little Warley Little Warley is a village and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Brentwood, in the Brentwood district, in the county of Essex, England. It is situated south of Thorndon Country Park. In 1931 the parish had a population of 395. ...

and West Horndon. In each of these former parishes the inner part is now part of West Horndon and the northern and southern extremities (and eastern part for Dunton) is outside the parish.

Geography

The parish includes the settlements of

Dunton Hills Dunton Wayletts is a hamlet in the unparished area of Basildon, on the western outskirts of Laindon, in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It is located between the Southend Arterial Road (A127 road) and the London, Tilbury and Southend lin ...

and West Horndon. It is predominately a rural parish with large sections of open land within the

Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...

. Within the main settlement of West Horndon village are some streets of suburban houses and a small area of light industrial use. To the southeast of the parish is the Dunton Hills golf course. Little Warley in the northwest is the other main area of activity with some houses and the Clearview sports centre. East Horndon is a scattered settlement to the northeast and is partially located north of the A127 Southend Arterial Road. The entire parish is within the

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in the address increases ...

of Brentwood in the

CM postcode area The CM postcode area, also known as the Chelmsford postcode area,Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) is a group of 25 postcode districts in England, within 16 post towns. These cover central Essex (including Chelmsford, Harlow, Bren ...

. The entire southern boundary with the unparished borough of

is the

London, Tilbury and Southend railway The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR), was a British railway company, whose network connected Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , Tilbury, Southend and . The company ...

line, with a small deviation to include all of West Horndon railway station. The western boundary with the unparished area of

Great Warley Great Warley is a village in the Warley ward of Brentwood borough in Essex, England. It is situated to the far south west of the county and near to the Greater London boundary and the M25 motorway. Consecrated in 1904, the Grade I listed parish ...

is the

Mardyke The Mardyke ( ga, An Mhuirdíog) is an area in Cork city, on the northern half of the long western part of the island formed by the two channels of the River Lee near the city centre. It was historically left as open space because the land along ...

river, where the parish touches the eastern Greater London boundary at

North Ockendon North Ockendon is the easternmost and most outlying settlement of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is east-northeast of Central London and consists of a dispersed settlement within the Metropolitan Green B ...

. The northern boundary is partially formed by the Southend Arterial Road, with some land to the northeast of it included in the parish. The eastern boundary is with the

Borough of Basildon The Borough of Basildon is a local government district in south Essex in the East of England, centred on the town of Basildon. It was formed as the Basildon District on 1 April 1974 from the former area of Basildon Urban District and the part ...

Locale

The village is surrounded by open countryside and an industrial estate. It is the first area east of London to not be continuously built up. There are hills rising as high as 100 metres covered in trees, arable fields and fenland of

London clay The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from t ...

. There are several streams running down from the hills into the Mar Dyke which drains the fens out to the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lon ...

. There was a time when it was planned to make the Mardyke into a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

but it was never brought to fruition. Thorndon Avenue is a long straight road leading to the heart of the modern village of West Horndon. Halfway down is the

junior school A Junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at Infant school which covers the age range 5–7. (As both Infant and Junior schools are giving Primary ...

with playing fields at the back and opposite is the modern church of St Francis. At the centre of the village is a village hall which was built around 1961. On the other side of Station Road (which runs through the centre of the village) is a housing estate, consisting of meandering roads and cul-de-sacs, bordered at the rear by the railway line. Road names on this estate are named after places in Essex, namely Fyfield Close, Clavering Gardens, Witham Gardens, Dunmow Gardens and Chafford Gardens. More modern housing exists off both sides of Station Road towards the Industrial estate and railway station.

Transport

West Horndon railway station is a station on the London, Tilbury and Southend main line from London to Southend. The Railway Hotel, behind the station, was once a coaching inn. North of the town and parallel to the railway is the A127 Southend Arterial Road. West Horndon is east of junction 29 of the M25 motorway. The village is served by two bus routes which both terminate in Brentwood.

History

Originally there were three manors in the area of West Horndon, Tillingham Hall being the one which had most of the land in its borders. In 1066 Alwin, a free woman held it, but by 1086 it had passed to Swain of Essex in the hundred of Barstable. Following this the Tillingham family held the hall for several hundred years. It was eventually sold to Sir William Bawd, who conveyed it to Coggeshall Abbey, where it remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is thought that the Abbey began to restrict the rights of the commons, for there were many proceedings in the manor-courts against the ordinary people, supposedly trespassing on the land of the lords. After they acquired the commonland it was mostly left as wild heath and woods, much as we see it today, the later lords of the manor having much pleasure hunting to hounds through it, even as far as Southend. The church of All Saints is built entirely of brick, the present one being the third on this site. The village of Torinduna (Thornhill) referred to in Domesday was built around this hill. The Saxon church was built around AD 807, then rebuilt in the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

style by the Neville family about 1200. In 1930, three houses were given to farm workers. Only one remains at 18 Thorndon Avenue, which has been restored to its original condition. The rest of Thorndon Avenue was constructed during the 1950s. The southern portion of the traditional parish of West Horndon is now in the unitary authority of Thurrock.

Nearest places

Upminster Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural vill ...

Bulphan Bulphan (pronounced ) is a village and former civil parish in the borough of Thurrock in the East of England and one of the traditional (Church of England) parishes in Thurrock. In 2019 it had an estimated population of 1028. In 1931 the parish ...

* Warley *

Laindon Laindon is a commuter town in Essex, between Basildon and West Horndon. It was an ancient parish in Essex, England, that was abolished for civil purposes in 1937. It was based on the (probably smaller) manor of the same name and now lies mostly ...

References

External links

West Horndon Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Borough of Brentwood