Ugley (Oakley) Essex

Extract from Kelly's Directory 1882

The name of this parish has been variously pronounced. Quercetum appears to be the name by which it was know to the Romans, from the locality abounding in oaks ; and according to Morant the name has been corrupted by the pronunciation of the Norman clerks from Oakley to Ugley : it is in the Western division of the county, Clavering hundred, Bishop's Stortford union and county court district, Newport rural deanery, Colchester archdeaconry and St. Albans diocese, on the high road from London to Newmarket and near the Great Eastern railway (Cambridge Line), 2 miles north-west from the Elsenham station, 5½ north from Bishop's Stortford and 33 from London by road.
The Church of St Peter is an ancient building, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, organ chamber and square brick tower with 3 bells and was completely restored and a transept added in 1866 ; a chapel on the south side was originally built from the ruins of Bollington Church. The register dates from the year 1560. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £160 , with residence, in the gift of the governors of Christ's Hospital and held by the Rev. George Atkinson Crossle M.A. of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Charities left by Robert Buck, 1620 ; Thomas Buck, 1679 ; and Edward Sandford, 1863, amount to £43 yearly and are chiefly distributed in coal and clothing.
Orford house, the seat of Mrs Chamberlayne, a fine old building about 1 mile south from the church, was erected by Admiral Russell, afterwards Earl of Orford. R. Gosling esq. who is lord of the manor, Mrs Chamberlayne, W. Fuller-Maitland esq. M.P. Major-Gen. Inglis, J.P.Judd, S.Sandford Poole, James Newman esqs. and Christ's Hospital are the principal land-owners. The soil is mixed ; subsoil, clay, gravel and chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area is 2720 acres ; rateable value £2657 ; and the population in 1881 was 400.

BOLLINGTON now a hamlet of Ugley, half a mile south-west belonged to King Harold and was formerly a distinct parish with a church of its own, a portion of which on its being pulled down, was re-erected as a chapel on the south side of Ugley church and has been rebuilt by S. Sandford Poole esq. the owner of Bollington Hall. Wades Hall is about half a mile west-south-west ; both of these halls are now occupied as farmhouses and held off-hand.
OAKLEY GREEN is one mile south.

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