Navestock is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Borough of Brentwood The Borough of Brentwood is a local government district and borough in Essex in the East of England. History and geography The borough is named after its main town of Brentwood. There are still large areas of woodland including Shenfield C ...

in south

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, in the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...

region of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It is located approximately northwest of the town of Brentwood and the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...

cuts through the western edge of the parish. It covers an area of in excess of 1800 hectares (4500 acres) and had a population of 510 in 2001, increasing to 585 in 2011. The name means ‘the stump on the headland’, which reflects its topography and landscape.Brentwood Borough Council
, Navestock parish page. Date accessed: Tuesday, 13 November 2007.

History

The western edge of the parish was within the ancient forest of Essex, and two boundary stones still mark its limits. The church of St Thomas the Apostle dates back to the 12th century, and was subject to

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

, London, which held the manor of Navestock until the dissolution of the monasteries. After this the manor was in the hands of Sir Brian Tuke and was included when he sold Pyrgo to

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

in 1544 although Navestock and Stapleford were both subsequently leased to George and Walter Cely, relatives of John Cely who had previously been Paler of the Park of

Havering Palace Havering Palace was an old royal residence in England. Between its building before 1066 until its abandonment in 1686 it was in the village of Havering-atte-Bower (in the London Borough of Havering, before 1965 in Essex). By 1816 no walls remain ...

Havering-atte-Bower Havering-atte-Bower is a village and outlying settlement of Greater London, England. It is located in the far north of the London Borough of Havering, on the border with Essex, and is northeast of Charing Cross. It was one of three former paris ...

. Sir Edward Waldegrave was lord of the manor of Navestock under Elizabeth I and the Waldegrave family remained the local landowners until the 19th century. There are various Waldegrave memorials in the parish church, including those of

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave, (168411 April 1741) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to Austria and France. Life Waldegrave was the son of the 1st Baron Waldegrave and Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of ...

; the Hon. Edward Waldegrave, son of the 4th Earl, who drowned off Falmouth on his return from the

Battle of Corunna The Battle of Corunna (or ''A Coruña'', ''La Corunna'', ''La Coruña'' or ''La Corogne''), in Spain known as Battle of Elviña, took place on 16 January 1809, when a French corps under Marshal of the Empire Jean de Dieu Soult attacked a Briti ...

in 1809; the 7th Earl Waldegrave and his wife Frances; and

Viscount Chewton A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

, son of the 8th Earl, who died from injuries in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

. Enclosure of common land, by the 3rd Earl Waldegrave, took place in 1770. Navestock was an early centre for

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, which has been played on the green at Navestock Side since the 18th centuryA History of the County of Essex: Volume 4 (1956), pp. 139-143, '' Navestock: Introduction ''
Date accessed: Thursday, 15 November 2007. with the earliest recorded match taking place in 1768.Club history
Navestock Cricket Club. Retrieved 14 October 2022. The ground was used as the venue for a single first-class match in 1793 between sides organised by Richard Newman and Richard Leigh.The Green, Navestock Side
CricketArchive. Retrieved 14 October 2022. Cricket is still played on the green by Navestock Cricket Club. According to the census of 1801 the population of Navestock was 623, and reached a peak of 982 in 1851. There was then a gradual decline in population during the period of agricultural depression in the late 19th century and the 1901 census recorded only 692 inhabitants. After fluctuating at around that level in the first half of the 20th century the population has declined further and was only 510 in 2001. This makes Navestock unusual in that despite its proximity to London its population is below its level of two hundred years ago, although there are many travelers living on smallholdings in the area who don't register so the number is undoubtedly a lot higher than officially listed. Historically Navestock was included in the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

of Ongar. It formed part of the

Ongar Rural District Ongar Rural District was a local government district in Essex, England from 1894 to 1955.
– Ongar RD I ...

Council from 1894 until that authority was absorbed into

Epping and Ongar Rural District Epping and Ongar Rural District was a rural district in the county of Essex, England from 1955 to 1974.http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10074174 Creation It was created in 1955 by the merger of the disbanded Ongar Rural Distri ...

Council in 1955. Following local government reorganisation in 1974 it has been part of the Borough of Brentwood. The present civil parish retains largely the same boundaries as the ancient parish as it existed prior to the mid-19th century, and forms part of the 'Brizes and Doddinghurst' district council ward.

Geography

Navestock remains a rural and agricultural parish despite being less than 30 km from central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It is not served well by main roads and so despite being well within the

London commuter belt The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London's infrastructure, and ...

has undergone little recent housing development, and retains a feeling of remoteness. There is no traditional nucleated village in Navestock, but there is a concentration of houses at Navestock Side in the east of the parish and a rather more dispersed one at Navestock Heath in the centre. The medieval church and hall are in an isolated position about a mile further north from Navestock Heath. The greater part of the parish sits on top of two spurs divided by a stream flowing north into the

River Roding The River Roding () rises at Molehill Green, Essex, England, then flows south through Essex and London and forms Barking Creek as it reaches the River Thames. Course The river leaves Molehill Green and passes through or near a group of eight o ...

, which forms the northern boundary of the parish. The highest point is 103m near Navestock Side in the eastern edge of the parish, while much of the centre and south of the parish forms a plateau generally above 70 metres. The land falls away steeply to the north to the Roding valley, the lowest point being below 30m where the Roding leaves the parish in the far north-west corner.

Landmarks

The country house Abbotswick Hall, now a Catholic retreat centre, is located in the parish.

References

External links

* http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15611 * http://www.essexinfo.net/navestock/ * http://www.freewebs.com/navestockcc/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20110710202824/http://essex1841.com/Navestock-1841.php {{Borough of Brentwood Civil parishes in Essex Borough of Brentwood