Place:Ingatestone, Essex, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Ingatestone is a village in Essex, England, with a population of about 5,000. To the immediate north lies the village of Fryerning, and together the two form the civil parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning. Ingatestone lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt 20 miles (32 km) northeast of central London. The built-up area is largely situated between the A12 major road and the Great Eastern Main Railway Line. Today it is an affluent commuter village.

Ingatestone and Fryerning Civil Parish was formed in 1889. The new parish was part of the Chelmsford Rural District from 1894 until 1974, and since 1974 it has been located in the Brentwood District or Borough.

History

Ingatestone was established in Saxon times on the Essex Great Road (now the A12) running between the two Roman towns of Londinium (London) and Camulodunum (Colchester). The name means "Ing at the Stone", the affix distinguishing it from various nearby settlements that also formed part of the manor of Ing. It is first recorded in 1283 as Gynges atte Ston.

Stone is not prevalent in the local geology, and therefore the village's stone, deposited by glacial action, is unusual in the area. A large Sarsen stone can still be seen, split into three pieces, with one being located by the west door of the St Edmund and St Mary's parish church and one each side of the entrance to Fryerning Lane.

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Fryerning and Ingatestone (Inga) were recorded as being in the Chelmsford Hundred and part of the land of St. Mary of Barking with a value of 60 shillings (£3), which was held by Robert Gernon as a demesne.

Ingatestone belonged to Barking Abbey from about 950 AD until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was purchased from the Crown by Sir William Petre. Petre, originally a lawyer from Devon, had risen to become the Secretary of State to Henry VIII. He built a large courtyard house, Ingatestone Hall, as his home in the village, along with almshouses which still exist today as private cottages in Stock Lane.

By the 18th century Ingatestone had become a major coaching centre, but the advent of the railway saw its prominence decrease and a decline in business along the Essex Great Road. In 1889, the parishes of Ingatestone and Fryerning merged, now covering almost now covering almost 4,000 acres (16 km2). Ingatestone grew further during the 20th century as commuters, attracted by the surrounding countryside, moved into the area.

Plans to bypass the narrow Roman road through the village were first drawn up before the Second World War, but construction of a dual-carriageway bypass did not begin until 1958. Further dual-carriageway sections of the A12 trunk road were added in the 1960s, to bypass Brentwood and Chelmsford.

Research Tips

• Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
• The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
• GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
• Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
• For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
• FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
• The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
• A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
• British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:

Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).

Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.

Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.

Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.

Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.

Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.

Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.

• As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:

• Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
• Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
• Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records