Woodford

"WOODFORD (ST-MARY), a parish in the hundred, of BECONTREE, county of ESSEX, 8 miles (N. E. by N. from London, containing 2699 inhabitants. Woodford, so called from the ford in the wood, or forest, where is now Woodford-bridge, is a beautiful village, situated on the confines of Epping Forest, on the main road from London to Newmarket, which passes through it: the houses are in general detached, and irregularly arranged on the undulating declivities of a rising ground, beautifully interspersed with trees, and disclosing at intervals mansions of a superior character, which are principally occupied by wealthy merchants of the metropolis. In different parts of the parish some fine and extensive views into the counties of Essex and Kent present themselves. A nearer communication with the metropolis has been recently opened, by the construction of a new road from the highest part of the village, near the Castle Inn, which passes through the forest into the Lea Bridge road. The custom of Borough English, by which the younger son inherits, prevails in this manor. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Commissary of London, concurrently with the Consistorial Court of the Bishop of London, rated in the king's books at £11. 12. 1., and in the patronage of the Hon. W. T. L. P. Wellesley. . . There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school, in which about one hundred and thirty children of both sexes are educated, of whom fifty are clothed, is supported by voluntary contributions. This parish is entitled to send two boys for gratuitous instruction to each of the schools founded at Chigwell, in 1629, by Dr. Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York; it has also the perpetual right of presenting two boys to Christ's Hospital, London, granted by Thomas Foulkes, in 1686. In 1828, a parochial library was established in the village. At Woodford Wells is a mineral spring, formerly in high estimation, but now little resorted to." [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]

South Woodford - a place within this parish