Stanford Rivers

Stanford Rivers is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The parish, which is approximately 11 miles (18 km) west from the county town of Chelmsford, contains the village of Toot Hill and the hamlet of Little End, both settlements larger than Stanford Rivers village, and the hamlet of Clatterford End. The village is 2.0 miles (3 km) south-east of Chipping Ongar, 3 miles (5 km) south-west of North Weald Bassett and 3 miles north-west of Kelvedon Hatch. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 852.

The nearest London Underground station to the village is Epping, 5 miles (8 km) to the west, the terminus of the Central Line. Harlow Town, a National Rail station operated by Greater Anglia, is 8 miles (13 km) to the northwest.

According to A Dictionary of British Place Names, the 'Stanford' in Stanford Rivers derives from the Old English for "a stone ford or stony ford". Stanford Rivers is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Stanfort', and in 1289 as "Stanford Ryueres", 'Ryueres' being the 13th-century manorial family.

In trade directories Stanford Rivers is described as a parish three miles south from Ongar station on a branch of the London and North Eastern Railway, and seven miles from Brentwood and nineteen from London. The parish, part of the Ongar Hundred, Ongar Rural District, and Ongar petty sessional division, is in the Brentwood county court district.

Population shown in directories for Stanford Rivers parish were in 1851: 1,052; in 1871: 938; in 1881: 975; in 1891: 982; in 1901: 982; in 1911: 864, and in 1931: 758. The populations of 1891, 1901 and 1911 includes the officers and inmates of the Ongar Union workhouse. The workhouse—established in 1836 for poor relief provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—united poor relief for twenty-six nearby villages or parishes. The Ongar workhouse building survives today as a trade and business area in the hamlet of Little End at the southeast of Stanford Rivers parish. Little End dates to at least 1777, when houses were recorded at the settlement.

Recorded area of parish land in 1855 was 4,386 acres (18 km²); in 1874, 4,926 acres (20 km²) with a rateable value of £6,970; in 1882, 4,296 acres with a ratable value of £6,968; in 1894, 4,402 acres (18 km²) of land and 12 acres (50,000 m²) of water with a rateable value of £4,809; in 1902, 4,402 acres of land and 12 of water with a rateable value of £5,007; in 1914, 4,405 acres (18 km²) of land and 9 acres (40,000 m²) of water with a rateable value of £5216; and in 1933, 4,405 of land and 9 of water. Over this period chief crops grown were wheat, barley and beans, on a soil of clay or heavy loam overlaying clay, gravel or sand.

Recorded in 1855 was a National School for boys and girls, which was built in 1850 for 190 children, which in 1882 had an average attendance of 100, in 1894, 146, and in 1902, 152. By 1914 the school had become a Public Elementary School with an average attendance of 125, under the control of the Essex Education (Ongar District) Advisory Sub-committee.

Notable people and principal landowners in Stanford Rivers were, in 1874 and 1882 Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith, 3rd Baronet (1827–1905); in 1894 Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840–1916) who was also lord of the manor, and Capt George Edward Capel Cure; in 1902 Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith again with the now Major George Edward Capel Cure of Blake Hall; in 1914 Sir Drummond Cunliffe Smith, 4th Baronet (1861–1947) of Suttons, Stapleford Tawney who was also lord of the manor, and Major George Edward Capel Cure of Shakenhurst (hall and estate), Cleobury Mortimer. Drummond Cunliffe Smith was still a principal landowner and lord of the manor in 1933. The Smith estate and manor of Suttons in Stapleford Tawney contained 1,384 acres (6 km²) of land in Stanford Rivers. Isaac Taylor (1787–1865), artist, author, and inventor lived at Stanford House at Little End.