Theydon Bois, Essex Genealogy

England   Essex   Essex Parishes



Parish History
Theydon Bois is an Ancient Parish in Essex.

The old parish church of ST. MARY, which may earlier have been dedicated to ST. BOTOLPH, stood next to Theydon Hall, about ¾ mile north of Abridge Bridge. An engraving of 1814 shows a view of the church from the south. It was a small building with nave, chancel, south porch, and wooden bellturret at the west end of the nave. In the chancel was a single-light window and door. In the nave were two single-light windows and two blocked openings. The building may well have been of the 12th century, though the drawing is too crude to prove it. In about 1770 there was said to be neither monument nor inscription in the church, and in 1819 'neither monument nor inscription of note', but two monuments from the old church are in fact preserved in the present building. In 1843 the parish vestry resolved to build a new church in a more central situation, and a faculty was accordingly obtained. The old church was pulled down, the materials being sold for £78 and the barrel organ for £20. The site is now marked only by a few tombstones overgrown with grass and young trees. The new church was erected at Theydon Green at a total cost of £2,231. Among the subscribers was Queen Adelaide, who gave £20. The curate, George Hambleton, published a poem of 418 lines 'to seek agreeably to delineate to those who have kindly helped forward the cause of Theydon Bois new church, the extreme desirableness of this erection'. A further £120 then (1843) remained to be raised. To the poem was prefixed a view and plan of the new building, by Abbott and Habersham, architects, St. Neots. The church consisted of chancel, nave and west tower. The accommodation was for 360 and the value of the contract £1,458. The church was consecrated in 1844, but owing to faulty construction it had to be taken down in 1850 and the present church was then built in its place. The present church of St. Mary, the third to bear this dedication and the second on the present site, was designed by Sydney Smirke and consecrated in 1851. The cost was about £2,000; the curate paid half this amount and the other half was provided by the architects of the previous church. The church consists of a nave, chancel, north vestry, and large western tower with spire. The belfry stage of the tower and the tall spire are octagonal. The building is of red brick with stone dressings. Internal repairs were carried out in 1887, 1901, and 1906. The spire was covered with copper in 1920. There are three bells, two of which came from the medieval church. The first was recast in 1843 by Thomas Mears. The second was cast about 1460 by John Danyell and is inscribed Sancta Margareta Ora Pro Nobis. The third, dated 1567, was probably by Robert Dodds. There were three bells in the church in 1552. The bell frame is dated 1727. (fn. 82) Owing to its condition the bells have not been rung for about 100 years, but are only chimed. No plate survives from the earliest church. The oldest existing piece is a paten of 1804, given in 1844 by Sir Edward Bowyer-Smijth. The pulpit, which is of walnut, was given in 1900 as a memorial to the Revd. C. E. Campbell, formerly vicar. It was designed by Paul Waterhouse. New oak benches for the choir and other furnishings have been installed within the past five years. The royal coat-of-arms of James I hangs over the west door. There are six other hatchments, four of the Wild family of Theydon Hall and two of the Dares. There is also a monument to the Dare family, dated 1810, and below the chancel is their vault, containing thirteen coffins, at least seven of which must have been brought from the medieval church. On the south side of the nave is a wall monument to Samuel Wild (1817) and his wife Elizabeth (1844). Below this a marble tablet and a painted inscription set out Elizabeth Wild's charitable bequests. Among the later monuments is one to George Hambleton (1874), vicar for 34 years. The stained glass in the east window was also given in his memory. Another stained window is a recent memorial to the Buxton family, patrons of the vicarage, and there is also one to Frances Mary Buss, who is buried in the churchyard. For several years about 1885 occasional services and Sunday schools were held in a mission hut at Ivy Chimneys. In 1895 a second-hand 'iron room' was bought for £84 and erected on a site in Theydon Road at the branch road to Great Gregories and opposite Delaford Cottage. The total cost with fittings was about £165. A bell and turret and two rooms at the rear were added later. In 1913 the iron room was moved to a new site on the south side of Ivy Chimneys Road about 100 yds. east of the junction with Theydon Road.

From: 'Theydon Bois: Church', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 255-257. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15697&amp;amp;strquery=theydon Bois Date accessed: 27 January 2011.

Theydon Bois (pronounced /ˌθeɪdən ˈbɔɪz/ or /ˈbɔɪs/) is a large residential village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. It is located 1.4 miles (2.2 km) South of Epping, 0.85 miles (1.3 km) North-East of Loughton and 6 miles (9.6 km) South of Harlow.

Theydon Bois is within the bounds of the M25 motorway and is situated near to its junction with the M11 motorway. It is served by Theydon Bois tube station on the Central Line and has one primary school, Theydon Bois County Primary School. It lies on the edge of Epping Forest.

Despite the French-looking word "bois", the village name is usually pronounced to rhyme with "choice" or just "boys".

The origin of the village placename comes from the family of Bois (de Bosco) which held the manor in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The second part of the village name has been 'Boys' as far back as can be traced with various spellings. When the Great Eastern Railway built its branch to Ongar, they asked the clerk of the Epping Parish Council, a Mr John Windas, how it should be spelt. As he had some knowledge of French and in view of the village's proximity to the forest, he suggested the best spelling would be 'Bois'.

A notable characteristic of the village is its complete absence of street lighting. Villagers have consistently voted against the installation of such lighting for decades, fearing that it would damage the traditional village ambience and require a rise in council tax.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Online images are available Seax - Essex Archives Online From the Essex Record Office St Mary

Census records
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Index for the Census may be searched at FamilySearch Historical Records

http://www.1881pubs.com/ for details of public houses in the 1881 census

Poor Law Unions
Epping Poor Law Union, Essex

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Essex Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

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Web sites
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