Stanford Rivers, Essex

Description
Stanford Rivers, a parish, with two hamlets known as Little End and Toot Hill, in Essex, 3 miles SW by S of Ongar station on the G.E.R. It contains Ongar Workhouse, and has a post office under Romford 1/2 money order office, Passingford Bridge; telegraph office, Ongar. Acreage, 4414; population, 982. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor belongs to the baronet family of Cunliffe-Smith. Littlebury, now a farmhouse, was formerly a manor house of considerable importance, and was held for some time by the Rivers family, who gave their name to the parish, and are said to have built the present church. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £616. Patron, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The church is a plain but ancient building chiefly in the "Norman style, consisting of chancel, nave, and a western tower of wood with spire. It has several ancient brasses and some memorials of the Petres and Stuarts. There is a Congregational chapel.