Place:Orsett Rural, Essex, England

Watchers
NameOrsett Rural
TypeRural district
Coordinates51.5°N 0.35°E
Located inEssex, England     (1894 - 1936)
See alsoTilbury, Essex, Englandurban district which absorbed Chadwell St. Mary parish in 1912
Purfleet, Essex, Englandurban district which absorbed two parishes in 1929
Billericay, Essex, Englandurban district which absorbed parts of three parishes in 1934
Hornchurch, Essex, Englandurban district which absorbed part of a parish in 1936
Thurrock, Essex, Englandurban district which absorbed the remainder of the rural district in 1936
Thurrock (district), Essex, Englandunitary authority covering most of the area since 1974
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Orsett Rural District was a local government district in Essex, England from 1894 to 1936. Its southern boundary was the River Thames with Romford Rural District further upriver and Rochford Rural District further downriver. Prior to being formed as a rural district in 1894, the constituent parishes had, from 1835, made up the Orsett Poor Law Union and from 1875 (with Grays Thurrock until 1886) they formed the Orsett Rural Sanitary District.

In 1912 Chadwell St. Mary parish was formed into Tilbury Urban District. In 1929 the parishes of Aveley and South Ockendon joined West Thurrock and Purfleet to become Purfleet Urban District. In 1934 parts of Corringham, Fobbing and Langdon Hills were removed to create Billericay Urban District. The remaining parts of the district were used in 1936 to form part of Thurrock Urban District, with part of North Ockendon transferred to Hornchurch Urban District. With the exception of the transfers to Billericay and Hornchurch, the remainder of the original rural district is now in Thurrock unitary authority.

Parishes

Parish Duration Description Notes
Aveley 1894 - 1929 Ancient parish/Civil parish became part of Purfleet Urban District in 1929
Bulphan 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Chadwell St. Mary 1894 - 1912 Ancient parish/Civil parish became Tilbury Urban District in 1912
Corringham 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish part to Billericay Urban District in 1936
East Tilbury 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Fobbing 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish part to Billericay Urban District in 1936; part to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Horndon on the Hill 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Langdon Hills 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish part to Billericay Urban District in 1936; part to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Little Thurrock 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Mucking 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
North Ockendon 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish part to Hornchurch Urban District in 1936; part to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Orsett 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
South Ockendon 1894 - 1929 Ancient parish/Civil parish became part of Purfleet Urban District in 1929
Stanford le Hope 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
Stifford 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936
West Thurrock 1894 - 1929 Ancient parish/Civil parish became part of Purfleet Urban District in 1929
West Tilbury 1894 - 1936 Ancient parish/Civil parish to Thurrock Urban District in 1936

Research Tips

  • The Thurrock Local History Society provides an Ordnance Survey map which illustrates the area of Essex covered by Thurrock.
  • 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
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Orsett Rural District. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.