Great Warley
Great Warley is a village in the Borough of Brentwood in Essex, England. It is located south-west of the centre of Brentwood. It is situated to the far south-west of the county, on the B186 road near to the Greater London boundary and the M25 London Orbital Motorway. Great Warley was formerly a civil parish.
History
The meaning of the name Warley is uncertain. The -ley element means a glade or clearing in a wood. The first element may indicate a weir, or may come from waer, a Saxon term for a treaty.The Domesday Book of 1086 lists three estates or manors at a vill called Wareleia in the Hundred of Chafford in Essex.
| Land held by | Households | Land and resources | Livestock | Valuation | Owners |
| Bishop of St. Paul of London | 5 villagers. 2 smallholders. 2 slaves. | Ploughland: 2 lord's plough teams. 3 men's plough teams. Other resources: Pasture 100 sheep. Woodland 700 pigs. | - | Annual value to lord: 7 pounds in 1086; 6 pounds when acquired by the 1086 owner; 6 pounds in 1066. | Tenant-in-chief in 1086: London, bishop of. Lords in 1086: Humphrey; Tezelin the priest. Lord in 1066: Gyrth. |
| Abbey of St Mary, Barking | Households: 9 villagers. 10 smallholders. 5 slaves. | Ploughland: 2 lord's plough teams. 6 men's plough teams. Other resources: Pasture 100 sheep. Woodland 200 pigs. | Livestock in 1086: 8 cattle. 11 pigs. 150 sheep. 1 beehive. | Annual value to lord: 7 pounds in 1086; 7 pounds when acquired by the 1086 owner; 7 pounds in 1066. | Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Barking, abbey of. Lord in 1086: Barking, abbey of. Lord in 1066: Barking, abbey of. |
| Land of Swein of Essex | Households: 3 villagers. 8 smallholders. 1 slave. | Ploughland: 2 lord's plough teams. 2.5 men's plough teams. Other resources: Meadow 3 acres. Woodland 150 pigs. | Livestock in 1066: 3 cobs. 7 cattle. 17 pigs. | Annual value to lord: 5 pounds in 1086; 4 pounds when acquired by the 1086 owner; 4 pounds in 1066. | Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Swein of Essex. Lord in 1086: Swein of Essex. Lord in 1066: Godric. |
The Domesday Book itself does not otherwise distinguish between the names of the three Warley manors. The manor owned by Barking Abbey became known as Warley Abbess. The manor owned in 1086 by Swein later became known as Warley Franks, after being owned by two men called Frank in the 13th century. The manor owned by the Bishop of London became known as Little Warley.
The Warley area became the two parishes of Little Warley, covering that manor, and Great Warley, covering the two manors of Warley Abbess and Warley Franks. The parish of Great Warley was also sometimes called Warley Magna, Warley Wallet, or West Warley.
Great Warley's original parish church, dedicated to St Mary, stood towards the southern end of the parish, south of the modern A127 road. The church immediately adjoined Great Warley Hall, the manor house of Warley Abbess. The first recorded rector was John le Norreis in 1247. The ancient parish of Great Warley was seven miles north to south but only one mile across at its widest part, and was separated from Little Warley in the east by a stream that passes through Bulphan Fen on its way to the Thames.
Great Warley Common at one time ran from the village and connected with the outskirts of Brentwood, as shown by Chapman and André's 1777 Map of Essex. The common, along with Little Warley Common, were owned by George Winn, who started selling off the land for development, including 116 acres for Warley Barracks and another 172 acres for residential development. In 1855, the new ecclesiastical parish of Christ Church was set up, covering northern parts of Great Warley, along with parts of South Weald and Shenfield civil parishes to serve the new residents. The old church at St Mary's had been reported as totally inadequate for the growing population in 1851, with the rector's sister-in-law, Sarah Clay, donating £1,000 to build the new church.
By 1876, 1,416 people lived in the parish, of which 1,004 were in the new church parish of Christ Church. This area was a suburb of Brentwood, which became known just as Warley to distinguish it from the villages of Great Warley and Little Warley, which two civil parishes it straddled.
In 1858, the chancel at St Mary's collapsed, so remodelling work commenced under the guidance of Samuel Sanders Teulon which was completed in 1860. However, with the village centre moving further away from the church, it fell into disrepair, and a new "interim" church was built from wood in the grounds of "Fairfields", home of Rector Bailey. The first service was in 1892 attended by 140 parishioners, although the old church was continued to be used for funerals.
In 1904, a replacement St Mary's Church opened on a new site closer to the modern centre of the village, after a local resident Eveline Heseltine donated the site and £5,000 towards the cost of the new building.
Administrative history
Great Warley was an ancient parish in the Hundred of Chafford. From 1836, the parish was included in the Romford Poor Law Union, a group of parishes which collectively administered their responsibilities under the poor laws. From 1872, poor law unions formed the basis for rural sanitary districts which took on public health and local government functions for rural areas, administered by the existing board of guardians of the poor law union.The Local Government Act 1894 converted rural sanitary districts into rural districts with elected councils and also established elected parish councils. Great Warley was therefore given a parish council and included in the Romford Rural District. At this time, the parish covered an area of. In 1901 it had a population of 1,900.
In 1934, a County Review Order abolished the Romford Rural District and split the civil parish of Great Warley. The northern, covering the village itself, the Warley suburb of Brentwood, and the surrounding more wooded landscape on higher ground, was transferred to the parish and urban district of Brentwood. The remainder, covering the more low-lying area of open farmland including the area around Great Warley Hall and the site of the original parish church, was transferred to Hornchurch Urban District. The part transferred to Hornchurch continued to form a civil parish called Great Warley despite no longer including the village itself, but after 1934 it was classed as an urban parish and so was ineligible to have a parish council. The civil parish of Great Warley was abolished in 1965 when Hornchurch Urban District was abolished and its area became part of the new London Borough of Havering in Greater London.
In 1993, the boundary between Brentwood and Havering was locally realigned to the M25 motorway in the west and the London, Tilbury and Southend line in the south by the Essex and Greater London Order 1993. This transferred back to Essex most of the pre-1934 Great Warley civil parish that had been in Greater London.
Geology
The village sits on London Clay with an outcropping of Bagshot sands.Governance
Parliamentary constituency
Great Warley comes under the parliamentary constituency of Brentwood and Ongar, which current MP Alex Burghart has held since 2017.Local authorities
Great Warley sits within the non-metropolitan county of Essex, governed Essex County Council and the non-Metropolitan Borough of Brentwood, which is governed by Brentwood Borough Council. The village is within the Warley ward.Buildings, structures and attractions
The main part of Great Warley village is covered by a conservation area, which was first designated in 1975. Historic England have thirty two listed buildings in Great Warley.Consecrated in 1904, the Grade I listed parish church, St Mary the Virgin is noted for its Art Nouveau interior, and replaced the original St. Mary's church that was eventually taken down in 1923. A little further to the south is The Kilns Hotel in the building locally known as The Brick House which dates back to the 16th Century and is Grade II listed.
In 2024, work was started on Hole Farm Community Woodland, a 100 acre woodland and visitor centre developed by National Highways and Forestry England due to open in 2025.
Warley Place is a nature reserve and is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this site was the home and garden of the leading horticulturalist, Ellen Willmott, described by Gertrude Jekyll as 'the greatest living gardener', who planted many plants from all over the world, some of which still survive. The site remained derelict after Willmott death, after a development for the site failed until the site was leased to the Essex Wildlife Trust in 1977, who uncovered the structure of the garden. The site has been Grade II listed since 1987.
Listed buildings and structures
| Listing name | Image | List entry number | Grade | Date first listed | National Grid reference | Reference |
| Apple Tree Cottage | 1293155 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58554 91258 | ||
| Blake House | 1197259 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58318 90683 | ||
| Boyles Court | 1206439 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 57788 91558 | ||
| Boyles Court Cottages - 2 & 3 | 1197204 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58252 91178 | ||
| Boyles Court Cottages - 4 & 5 | 1280225 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58252 91178 | ||
| Boyles Court Cottages - 6 & 7 | 1197205 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58252 91178 | ||
| Barn at Boyles Court Farm | 1197206 | II | 5 September 1988 | TQ 57848 91443 | ||
| Stables at Boyles Court Farm | 1206447 | II | 9 Dec 1994 | TQ 57861 91412 | ||
| Blenheim House, Headquarters of the Royal Anglian Regiment | 1205940 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 59248 91507 | ||
| Chapel of the Royal Anglian Regiment and Essex Regiment | 1197197 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 59240 91416 | ||
| Brick House Hotel | 1263167 | II | 7 Jan 1955 | TQ 59457 88864 | ||
| Church of St. Mary the Virgin | 1197210 | I | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58888 89990 | ||
| Lych Gate at the church of St. Mary the Virgin | 1206677 | II* | 16 March 1993 | TQ 58922 89995 | ||
| Fairsteads | 1297229 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58862 90177 | ||
| Great Ropers | 1206489 | II* | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58597 91517 | ||
| Game Larder at Great Ropers | 1280198 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58597 91534 | ||
| Hill Cottage | 1293162 | II | 13 Nov 1989 | TQ 58766 91518 | ||
| Hole Farmhouse | 1250606 | II | 14 Sep 1979 | TQ 58564 89798 | ||
| Hulmers | 1250605 | II | 7 January 1955 | TQ 59435 88917 | ||
| Oak Beam Cottage | 1206628 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58351 90648 | ||
| Post Office | 1293148 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58283 90657 | ||
| K6 Telephone Kiosk adjacent to the Post Office | 1297214 | II | 9 Jan 1989 | TQ 58289 90652 | ||
| Stony Hills Farm | 1297215 | II | 9 Dec 1994 | TQ 57708 90524 | ||
| The Red House | 1197260 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58307 90680 | ||
| The Squirrels | 1208575 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58096 90318 | ||
| Thatchers Arms | 1208559 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58324 90718 | ||
| Thatched Cottage | 1205387 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 57970 90392 | ||
| Two Door Cottage | 1197209 | II* | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58367 90668 | ||
| Wallets | 1197211 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58323 90639 | ||
| Warley Elms | 1297230 | II | 20 Feb 1976 | TQ 58799 90098 | ||
| Warley Place | 1000746 | II | 1 Jul 1987 | TQ 58371 90979 | ||
| South Lodge to Warley Place | 1197261 | II | 21 Oct 1958 | TQ 58329 90741 |
Sports
Great Warley has a cricket field, the De Rougemont Cricket Ground, formerly the Great and Little Warley Cricket ground, and a golf course, Warley Park.File:Warley Park Golf Course, Great Warley, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 16987.jpg|Warley Park Golf Course, Great Warley
File:Cricket Clubhouse, Great Warley, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 50665.jpg|Cricket Clubhouse at De Rougemont Cricket Ground, Great Warley