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Pigot's Essex 1832-3 Trade Directory
HORNCHURCH is a village and parish, in the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower; 14 miles from London, two from Romford, and situated about four miles and a half from the river Thames. It is a place unimportant to the commercial traveller, and to the curious stranger it possesses but little worth his detention.
The church is a venerable pile, with a handsome spire, about 170 feet in height, and from its elevated site may be seen at a very great distance. At the chancel end of the church is a piece of carved work of a bullock's head, the horns of which are gilt : the appearance of this figure is attempted to be accounted for by the custom, arising out of a charter granted by Henry II, which takes place every Christmas day, of wrestling for a boar's head; but why the head of the latter animal has obtained a preference over the former is not explained. The living is a vicarage, in the incumbency of the Rev. George Stacey. The parish of Hornchurch is rather extensive, containing about 6,500 acres of land, and a population, by the official returns for 1831, of 2,186 inhabitants; being an increase, in 30 years, of 855 persons.
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