Place:West Horndon, Essex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

West Horndon is a village in the parish of West Horndon in the south of the Brentwood Borough of Essex on the boundary with Thurrock. It is located 20 miles (32 km) east north-east of Charing Cross (a basis for measuring distances from the centre of London) in London. West Horndon is #24 on the map and was a civil parish in the Billericay Rural District in Essex from 1894 until 1934. The rural district was abolished in 1934 and Childerditch was divided between the newly formed urban districts of Brentwood and Billericay. Since 1974 the section that was absorbed into Brentwood is now part of Brentwood District. It would appear that the section in Billericay Urban District was transferred to Thurrock District, probably in 1974.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

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. It became part of Billericay Rural District in 1894. In 1934 the parish was abolished when it became part of Brentwood Urban District.

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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 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.

Research Tips

• Map of Essex showing civil parishes at 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time from the Ordnance Survey original.
• Map of Essex showing civil parishes in 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time from the Ordnance Survey original.
• 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