Chigwell was a local government district in south west

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.Vision of Britain
Chigwell UD

historic map
) It contained the settlements of

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the London U ...

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

and

Buckhurst Hill Buckhurst Hill is an affluent suburban town in the Epping Forest District, Epping Forest district of Essex, England. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and adjacent to the northern boundary of the London Borough of Redbridge. The area de ...

; and formed part of the

Metropolitan Police District The Metropolitan Police District (MPD) is the police area which is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. It currently consists of the Greater London region, excluding the City of London. The Metropolitan Police District was create ...

Formation

It was created an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

by a

county review order The Local Government Act 1929 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made changes to the Poor Law and local government in England and Wales. The Act abolished the system of poor law unions in England and Wales and their boar ...

on 1 October 1933 as the merger of the former area of: * Buckhurst Hill Urban District (874 acres) *

Loughton Urban District Loughton was a local government district in south west Essex, England. It contained the town and Civil Parish of Loughton and was bordered by Buckhurst Hill Urban District, Chingford Urban District, Epping Rural District and Waltham Holy Cross Ur ...

(3,962 acres) *

civil parish only, from

Epping Rural District Epping was, from 1894 to 1955, a rural district in the administrative county of Essex, England.Vision of ...

(4,135 acres)

Development

The district lay on the edge of the ''Greater London Conurbation'' and experienced a rapid population growth, in part caused by

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

out-county construction at

, the Urban District's headquarters, and also in the south east of the district of the Hainault Estate (which also extended into neighbouring Ilford and

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

). Extensive council house building by the Chigwell Urban District itself took place between

and

.
Chigwell: Introduction
', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 18-22. Date accessed: 27 November 2007. In 1948, the

New Works Programme The New Works Programme of 1935–1940 was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolley ...

of the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

brought the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

services of the Central line to six stations in the district; namely Roding Valley,

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

and Debden. The large LT Hainault depot was also mostly in the U.D.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms were granted in 1951 and represent ''Or, a stag at rest proper, on a chief gules three axe-heads bendwise sinister with blades down-words argent.''

Abolition

The

Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London The Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, also known as the Herbert Commission, was established in 1957 and published its report in 1960. The report made recommendations for the overhaul of the administration of the capital. They ...

considered the entire district for inclusion in

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

, however after strong local resistance, only a small area of around Hainault was transferred from the urban district and Essex to form part of the

London Borough of Redbridge The London Borough of Redbridge is a London borough established in 1965. The borough shares boundaries with the Epping Forest District and the ceremonial county of Essex to the north, with the London Borough of Waltham Forest to the west, the ...

in Greater London in 1965. The population of this area in 1961 was 7,071. On 1 April 1974 the remainder of the district was abolished by the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

and the area has since formed part of the

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

district.

References

{{coord, 51.63, 0.07, type:adm3rd_dim:8000_region:GB-ESS, display=title Political history of Essex Epping Forest District Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 Urban districts of England Chigwell