~!RECTORY. J ES~EX. STANFLRD-Ll':-HOPE. 581

Post Office.-William Barker, sub-po~:~tmaster. Letter~ Wall Letter Box, cleared -t·55 p.m. daily & 10.55 a.m. from Rochford, , arrive at 6.30 & 10.30 a.m. snndays Box cleared at 10.30 a.m. & 4·55 p.m.; on sundays, Pniblic Elementary School (mixed), enlarged in 1894 for 1:0.55 a.m. Th~ nearest money order & telegraph 130 childrpn; average attendancP, go; Erne,.,t LPslie offic-e is at Rochford, 2 miles distant Jenner, master; Mrc;. Mer:

STANFORD-LE-HOPE is a village and pari~h, of more than £3,000, of which about £1,ooo ·was con­ on Mucking Creek, near Hope Reach, on the Thames, tributed by the rector: this work included the re­ and on the road from Grays to Southend, with a station on newal of the nave and chancel roofs, re-flooring thl' the London, 'filbury and Southend railway, which has a nave and aisles, the raising of the tower 20 feet and branch here to Thames Haven for cattle, and is 6 miles the erection of five new stained windows: during the -north-east from Tilbury Fort, 6 north-east from Grays, restoration a curious fresco was uncovered, conjectured t6 south-east from Romford and 27 from London. The to represent "J·lcob's Dream: " the church was rl'­ parish is in the South Eastern division of the county, opl'ned April 29, 1878, by the Bishop of St. Albans: tht­ Barstable hundred, Orsett union and petty sessional divi- pinnacles on the tower were renewed in 1884. Vestries and aion, Grays county court district, and in Orsett and a lych gate were erect-ed in 1891, and in 1901 an organ Grays rural deanery, Essex archdeaconry, and diocese of was provided at a cost of £65o: the first part of a Chelmsford. The church of St. Margaret, standing on chancel screen was erected in I9II at a cost of £1:26: a rising ground, is a building of stone in the Norman, the church affords about 350 sittings. The register of Early English and Decorated styles, consisting of chan- baptisms and burials dates from 168o; marriages, 1688. ~1. nave, aisles, south porch, each with an eastern The living is a rectory, net yearly value £450, with 28 -chapel or chantry, and an embattled tower with pin- acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of trustees, nacles, on the north side, containing a modern clock and held since 1902 by the Rev. James Russell. There .and 6 bells, hung in 1884 in place of 5 others, three is in Branksome avenue the novice house of the Society -()f the old bells are dated 1694, 1703 and 1734 : the of Divine Compassion. The Catholic church, in South­ chancel is a fine specimen of the Decorated period of end road, is dedicated to St. Joseph and will seat 250 Edward Ill. and retains three sedilia and a piscina: a people. The Wesleyan chapel here was erected in 186g, reredos was erected in 1898 as a memorial of the Dia- and that belonging to the Peculiar People in 1870. 111ond Jubilee of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. at The Salvation Army has a hall in London road. Art a cost of [.6o: a very fine arch, partly filled with ex- and technical instruction classes are held at the -eellent oak screen work, opens into the north chapel: school. Charities : Mrs. Elizabeth Davison left in 1789 in a niche in the north wall of the chancel, b£>neath a [.1,292 7s. 4d. in Bank of England Reduced 3 per crocketed ogee arch, is an altar-tomb of Perpendicular Cents. the interest to go towards the education of poor date, which has formerly borne a brass effigy and in- people in the Protestant religion; this now (1914) scription, now lost: the nave is separated from the amounts to £38 r5s. 4d. John Paine in 1798 left £Ioo aisles by arcades or Early English and Decorated work in 3 per Cents. to be distributed in bread and money. and the south aisle has a panelled roof of massive oak Downe's Charity (se.e Mucking) amounts to [,x per and a door of like character: the south chapel, inclosed I year. A market- is held on alternate Tuesdays. A by a strong and high latticed gate, is appendant to the piece of land called the Poor's Field, rented at £x, has -manor of Hassingbrook; at its eastern end is a corbel belonged to the parish from time immemorial. The of the ancient altar stone and a plain piscina: the Vine House and Orchard, Fobbing, brings in £6 per "basement of the tower was formerly a chantry, and the year, nnd Earl'& Hope, Stanford, £2 per year. The 'brackets supporting its altar remain: the font, restored trustees of the Mashit-er family and the trustees of in 1878, is an exceedingly beautiful design of Early the late John George Eve are the principal landowners. English date, much mutilated, as is also its ancient The soil is light; subsoil, gravel and sand. The chit'f oaken canopy: the south chapel is crowded with the crops are wheat. and beans. The area is 2,616 acres of monuments of the Fetherstons, from x6qo to I77.t• and land, much of which is marsh, 6 of inland and 662 of of their successors, the Scrattons, to 1841: on the east tidal water and 2<;0 of foreshore; rateable value, wall of the chancel is a memorial to Richard Champion [.13,132; the population in 19II was 2,545 in the civil -esq. ob. 1599, and an inscription slab to Thoma" Alleyn and 2,228 in the ecclesiastical parish. S.T.P. a former rector, ob. 1677: in the north aislE' By Local Government Board Order, No. 54,633, was buried, Dec. 11, 1721, Jacob Rousignac M.A. and which came into operation April 1, 19Io, part!t of in 1718, his wife Magdalen: outside the wec;;t wall of Horndon-on-the-Hill and "Mucking were added to Stan­ the charch is an elaborately-decorated tomb, with a ford-le-Hope for civil purposes. canopied slab affixed to the wall, inscribed to Jame~ About :r mile east are two whar~es at wh- Adams esq. of NPw Jenkins, who died 9 Oct. 1765: t'an be discharged. f>'~NIINGH_..~ "the charch was thoroughly rPstored in 1877-8, at a cost Parish Clerk, Waiter Wade. p