According to P. H. Reaney's Place-Names of Essex the name means 'Cicca's well', Cicca being an Anglo-Saxon personal name. In medieval sources the name appears with a variety of spellings including "Cinghe uuella"[4] and Chikewelle".[5] Folk etymology has sought to derive the name from a lost "king's well", supposed to have been to the south-east of the parish near the border of what is now the London Borough of Redbridge.[citation needed] There were several medicinal springs in Chigwell Row documented by Miller Christy in his book History of the mineral waters and medicinal springs of the county of Essex, published in 1910. The 18th-century historian Nathaniel Salmon stated that the "-well" element in the name derives from Anglo-Saxon weald (wood).[4]
The land registration map of Redbridge Council shows "Chig Well (site of)" as being located to the rear of the house located at 67 Brocket Way, Chigwell.
Economic development
Traditionally a rural farming community, but now largely suburban, Chigwell was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is referred to by Charles Dickens in his novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty; the Maypole Inn is based on the King's Head inn, though the name was taken from the Maypole public house in Chigwell Row. It is likely Dickens was aware of both hostelries, since he frequently visited Chigwell, which he described in a letter to John Forster as "the greatest place in the world... Such a delicious old inn opposite the churchyard... such beautiful forest scenery... such an out of the way rural place...".
RAF Chigwell
From 1933 to 1958 there was an RAF presence[6] at Roding Valley Meadows (near what is now the David Lloyd Leisure Centre). It served first to provide barrage balloon protection during the Second World War and was involved in the rollout of Britain's coastal nuclear early warning system during the Cold War.[citation needed] In 1953 it briefly housed the RAF contingent taking part in the Coronation celebrations. Some of the RAF Chigwell site is now part of the Local Nature Reserve, Roding Valley Meadows LNR.
The hamlet of Chigwell Row lies towards the east of Chigwell, near Lambourne; this part of the parish is well forested and mostly rural. Grange Hill is the area around the junction of Manor Road and Fencepiece Road/Hainault Road, extending as far as the boundary with Redbridge including the Limes Farm estate. Chigwell has a population of around 17,500 and is generally considered a wealthy area,[7] characterised by large suburban houses, notably in Manor Road, Hainault Road and Chigwell High Road, which featured in the popular English situation comedy Birds of a Feather (although many of the outside locations used in that programme were not in Chigwell).
When elected parish and district councils were established under the Local Government Act 1894, it was decided that the more developed Buckhurst Hill west of the River Roding and the more rural part of Chigwell parish east of the Roding needed to be administered separately. The old parish was therefore split along the river, with Buckhurst Hill being removed from the parish of Chigwell to become its own urban district.[11][12] The reduced parish of Chigwell east of the river was given a parish council and included in the Epping Rural District.[9]
In 1933, the parish of Chigwell and the neighbouring Buckhurst Hill Urban District and Loughton Urban District were united into the Chigwell Urban District.[13] Chigwell continued to form a civil parish after the 1933 reforms, but as an urban parish it was ineligible to have a parish council; the lowest elected tier of local government between 1933 and 1974 was Chigwell Urban District Council.[14]
When Greater London was created in 1965 a small, more densely populated section at the south-eastern end of Chigwell parish was transferred to the London Borough of Redbridge; this area is now known as the Manford estate. Despite the transfer to Greater London, it retains Chigwell postal addresses.
Chigwell Urban District was abolished in 1974 when the area became part of the new Epping Forest District.[15] The area of the former Chigwell Urban District became unparished as a result of the 1974 reforms. In 1996, three new civil parishes were created covering the area of the pre-1974 Chigwell Urban District: Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, and Loughton.[16]
Ye Olde King's Head and St Mary's Church, depicted in 1851
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club had its training facilities in the area until May 2012,[7] when it moved to a new facility in Enfield, northeast London. Leyton Orient Football Club also have a training ground in Chigwell, adjacent to Chigwell School's fields.[7]
There are two pubs, the King William IV and the Two Brewers.
Ye Olde King's Head, which was operated as a pub until 2011, is said to be the Maypole Inn in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge.[7] The building was subsequently sold to local resident Lord Sugar's property company Amsprop which now leases the Grade II* Listed building to the Sheesh Turkish restaurant.
Chigwell Station, opened 1903 by the Great Eastern Railway
All bus services are Transport for London services, except the 804. Route 150 just penetrates into Chigwell Row. Routes 362 and 462 serve only Grange Hill. Route 275 just passes through Tomswood Hill and the westernmost section of Manor Road. Chigwell is served by Chigwell station and Grange Hill station (further south bordering Hainault), both on the Central line of the London Underground. For a more frequent service to London there are also nearby Buckhurst Hill, Woodford, Loughton and Hainault stations as services between Grange Hill and Woodford are limited to three trains per hour in each direction, with an increased service during morning peak hours.
↑"2021 Census Parish Profiles". NOMIS. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 March 2025. (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)
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