Ongar is a civil parish in the

Epping Forest District Epping Forest District is a local government district in Essex, England. It is named after the ancient woodland of Epping Forest, a large part of which lies within the district. The district covers northeastern parts of the urban area of London ...

in Essex, England. Other than the town of

Chipping Ongar Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 ...

it also includes Greensted, Greensted Green, Marden Ash and Shelley. The local council of the parish is Ongar Town Council. Located approximately 21 miles north-east of London, it is a partially developed parish with large sections of open land.

History

The name "Ongar" means "grass land". The parish was created in 1965 as an amalgamation of the Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Shelley civil parishes in the Epping and Ongar Rural District. In 1974 the parish became part of Epping Forest District.

Government

Ongar Town Council is the local authority for the civil parish. The parish council offices are located in Chipping Ongar.

Geography

The civil parish includes the following settlements: *

* Greensted * Greensted Green * Marden Ash * Shelley The shape of the parish is an inverted "L" running from Greensted in the west to Marden Ash to the east, then north to include Chipping Ongar and then Shelley. Ongar is a

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...

in the

CM postcode area The CM postcode area, also known as the Chelmsford postcode area,Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) is a group of 25 postcode districts in England, within 16 post towns. These cover central Essex (including Chelmsford, Harlow, Br ...

Demography

As at the 2001 census the population was 6,069 and 51.7% female. There are 2,494 households, with an average household size of 2.43. The population has decreased by 8% since 1991, the largest drop in the district.

Education

State education in Ongar is provided by Chipping Ongar Primary School (in Chipping Ongar), Ongar Primary School (in Shelley), and The Ongar Academy secondary school.

History

Ongar Grammar School was a private school for boys which was opened as a boarding school in 1811 by William Stokes M.A. By 1845 the school was known as 'Ongar Academy' (not in the post-2010 Academy school sense), by 1874 it was known as a private grammar school, by 1882 as Chignell Grammar School, and by 1914 as Chipping Ongar Grammar School. It closed as such in 1940,"Chipping Ongar: Schools"
in ''A History of the County of Essex'' vol 4, Ongar Hundred, ed. W R Powell (London, 1956), pp. 169-171.

British History Online ''British History Online'' is a digital library of primary and secondary sources on medieval and modern history of Great Britain and Ireland. It was created and is managed as a cooperative venture by the Institute of Historical Research, Universit ...

. Retrieved 2 March 2018''Post Office Directory of Essex 1874''''

Kelly's Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in Britain that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses ...

of Essex'' 1882 p.220 / 1894 p.261 / 1902 p.310 / 1914 p.143 before the introduction of

secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

under the

Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Histori ...

and the

Tripartite System The Tripartite System was the selective school system of State school#United Kingdom, state-funded secondary education between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 onwards in Northern Ireland. It was an administrative implementa ...

. An earlier private school, which was endowed by a Mr Joseph King in 1678 and funded from rents on houses, was established for "educating, apprenticing and supplying with religious books the poor inhabitants of the parish".''Digest of Parochial Returns'', House of Commons Select Committee on Education of the Poor (1818) By 1882 this endowed school was listed as being for the education children of the Chipping Ongar and Shelley parishes, and had been reorganized in 1869 and enlarged in 1873 to meet requirements of the

Elementary Education Act 1870 The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities wit ...

. By 1894 this school had widened its catchment to include Greensted, and by 1914 to include

High Ongar High Ongar is a village and civil parish in the County of Essex, England. It is located a mile (1½ km) north-east of Chipping Ongar, 8 miles (13 km) west of Chelmsford and 6 miles (10 km) north-west of Brentwood. The village o ...

, by which time it had become a Council School. In 1833 there had been seven day schools in Chipping Ongar, one of which was endowed, the others providing education through parent fees. There were also two boarding schools supported at the expense of parents, and two Sunday Schools; one supported by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, the other by Independent churches.''House of Commons papers'', volume 41, in Abstract of Education Returns (1833) In 1936, Essex County Council had established the Ongar County Secondary School in a neo- Georgian building fronting Fyfield Road, Shelley. The school expanded in the 1960s when it became Ongar Comprehensive School, but was closed in 1989. Its buildings were demolished to make way for a new residential development and new youth and adult education centres. Ongar Leisure Centre, a joint use sporting facility, was retained. Secondary school children were then bussed to schools in the surrounding towns, particularly Brentwood and

Shenfield Shenfield is a suburb of Brentwood, Essex, Brentwood in the Borough of Brentwood, Essex, England. In 2020, it was estimated to have a population of 5,396. History The former village, by the church and Green Dragon public house, pub, lies alo ...

. Twenty six years later in September 2015, the new secondary education school, The Ongar Academy, with no historic association to any previous Ongar school apart from being built on part of the site of the earlier Ongar County Secondary School in Shelley, opened adjacent to Ongar Leisure Centre on Fyfield Road.Flaig, Joseph
"Ongar Academy welcomes first ever set of year seven pupils"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 8 September 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2018

Transport

Since the closure of the Central line between Epping and

in 1994, there is no longer a daily commuter train service in the parish. The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

service to the parish is Epping which is served by the Central line. The closest

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, a group representing passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services previously provided by ...

service is from Brentwood, which is served by the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

and is operated by

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

(TfL). The former Ongar London Underground station now forms part of the heritage

Epping Ongar Railway The Epping Ongar Railway is a heritage railway in south-west Essex, England, run by a small number of paid staff and a team of volunteers. It was the final section of the Great Eastern Railway branch line, later the London Underground's Centra ...

Radio

There was a shortwave transmitter at Ongar. See Marconi station and the

Imperial Wireless Chain The Imperial Wireless Chain was a strategic international communications network of powerful long range radiotelegraphy stations, created by the British government to link the countries of the British Empire. The stations exchanged commercial a ...

References

External links

Ongar Town Council
{{Epping Forest Civil parishes in Essex Epping Forest District History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom