North Weald Bassett
North Weald Bassett, or simply North Weald, is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 6,448 and the built up area had a population of 4,348.
A market is held every Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday at North Weald Airfield. The market used to be the largest open air market in the country but reduced its size over the years.
Geography
North Weald Bassett is approximately north-east from the centre of London. The parish abuts the outskirts of the towns of Harlow to the north and Epping to the south-west, and is split between these post towns for postal addresses. The parish includes the village of North Weald and the hamlets of Foster Street, Thornwood, Thornwood Common, Tyler's Green, and Hastingwood.It is rural, with large sections of parish land at the south-west used by North Weald Golf Course, and North Weald Airfield and, an operational general aviation aerodrome which was an important fighter station during the Battle of Britain, when it was known as the RAF Station RAF North Weald.
Latton Priory was a small priory of Augustinian Canons Regular, the remains of which are a Grade II* listed building. Paris Hall is a 16th-century Grade II* listed house.
History
In 1086 North Weald was one of the most thickly wooded places in Essex. Peter de Valognes' manor in North Weald was said to contain woodland sufficient for 1,500 swine, showing how wooded the area was.The 'wood of Henry of Essex' in North Weald was mentioned in 1248. In 1260 Philip Basset, Henry's successor as lord of the manor, complained that many robberies were being done in this wood near the road between Ongar and Waltham, and he secured the king's permission to assart 6 acres of the wood.
Norden's Map of Essex, 1594, does not show North Weald as a densely wooded parish. In 1777 there was apparently no woodland there apart from Weald Hall Coppice. This is specially interesting in view of the survival of large woods in neighbouring parishes. Weald Hall Coppice still survives, and there is also a small wood at Canes farm. North Weald formed 1,739 acres of the Ongar Hundred.
The ancient manor houses were Weald Hall, near the centre of the parish, Canes, Marshalls and Paris Hall at Hastingwood. In addition to the four manor houses there were probably substantial medieval dwellings at Tylers Green, Bowlers Green, Bridge Farm, and possibly one or two other places. The parish church, St Andrew's, which dates from the 14th century, is ½ mile east of Weald Hall.
Apart from the church the oldest existing building in the parish is probably Tylers. This is a timber-framed and plastered house consisting of a central block with a gabled cross-wing at each end. It may date from the 16th century but there is some evidence that the central block was an earlier open hall with a screens passage at its south-west end. The 'King's Head' at Weald Gullet is a timber-framed building probably of the same period. It was restored about 1927. Two ancient timber-framed cottages which formerly stood on the north side of the main road near the end of Church Lane were destroyed in a German air raid in 1941.
Until the 17th century the Epping-Chelmsford road was probably the most important in the parish. In 1786 a petition was presented to the Epping Highway Trust by the people of North Weald asking that the road should be taken over by the trust. An Act of Parliament for this purpose was passed in the following year. A toll-gate was erected at the junction of the main road and Woodside. The gate-keeper lived at first in a rented cottage but a toll-house was built about 1818. This still survives: a single-story building of brick, now plastered, with a tiled roof.
In 1801 North Weald, with 620 inhabitants, was one of the more densely populated parishes of the area. In the 19th century the population followed the trend normal in rural Essex until about 1861: there was an increase to 886 in 1831 and a subsequent slight decrease. But between 1861 and 1901, when the agricultural depression was depopulating most villages, the population of North Weald rose from 842 to 1,135. This was clearly due to the coming of the railway in 1865. New places of worship in the 19th century were the Congregational chapel in Weald Bridge Road, built about 1830 but closed about 1874, the Chapel of Ease at Hastingwood, the Iron Mission Church at Thornwood, and the Wesleyan churches at Thornwood and Weald Gullet. The original school was relinquished in favour of a larger building and the new school was extended in about 1842 and again in 1871.
In 1865 coach travel in this area was superseded by the opening of the railway through Epping to Ongar, with a station at North Weald. This brought London within easy reach. This line was electrified in 1957 but closed to regular passenger traffic in 1994. Beyond Ongar public transport was poor until the introduction of motor buses. There are now infrequent bus services to Epping, Ongar, Brentwood.
North Weald was late in getting its own post-office, probably because it was served directly from Epping. In 1883 a day mail was established at North Weald. A telegraph office was set up in 1886. The telephone service was introduced in 1920.
The population rose very little during the first 20 years of the 20th century, and was only 1,239 in 1921 with the Post Office Radio Station established at Weald Gullet in 1921. There was an increase to 1,642 in 1931 and then a burst of building lasting until the Second World War. A few council houses were built before 1939. In the 1940s, the North Weald Bassett Parish was formed and North Weald was removed from the Ongar Hundred and placed, along with Thornwood, Hastingwood and various other small villages in the parish.
Since 1945 three large housing estates have been built. In 1953 the estimated population of North Weald was 3,200-an increase of almost 100 per cent. on 1931. The iron mission church at Thornwood was replaced in 1923 by a brick church and in 1931 the Wesleyan church at Weald Gullet was rebuilt. In 1939, however, the Wesleyan church at Thornwood was closed owing to lack of support. A village hall was built in 1928, on the south side of the village. In 1967, the village hall was rebuilt.
Governance and demography
The parish was part of Ongar Rural District from 1894 to 1955 and Epping and Ongar Rural District from 1955 to 1974. The parish is run by a parish council, with its offices in the village of North Weald.As at the 2001 census the population was 6,039 and 51.5% female, with an average age of 39. There are 2,387 households, with an average household size of 2.45.
Parish Council
The village Parish Council is based in Thornwood and is responsible for maintaining allotments, local cemeteries, and public spaces, and providing first-stage planning scrutiny of developments and applications.Since 2017, Cllr Alan Buckley has chaired the Parish Council, and the deputy Chair is Shirley Hawkins.
The Council is not elected, but rather residents apply to join and then are appointed to the body once a vacancy is published.
As of July 2024, the council has 14 members, with one vacancy. It is controlled by Independents. The Council formerly had several Conservatives elected to serve on it, however most left, leaving just one Conservative.
Below is a list of Parish Council chairmen for North Weald Bassett since 1934. The longest consecutive serving chairman was Cyril Hawkins who served for 11 years until his death in 2017. However, Harry Waterman served 12 non-consecutive years as chairman.
District Council
North Weald has voted for Conservatives at every district council election since 1968 except twice - 1973 and 2024. Until 1979, the parish was split into two district council seats - North Weald, and Thornwood and Hastingwood. Each had just one representative.In 1979, this changed, and the entire parish and its villages were incorporated into a single two-member seat. In 2002, the boundaries were changed splitting the Parish up again into three seats. North Weald village would remain as a two-member seat and cover the entire village and Tyler's Green. Thornwood was incorporated into a new two-member Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common seats, whilst Hastingwood, Foster Street, and Harlow Common were adopted into a new Hastingwood, Matching & Sheering Village single-member seat.
In 2024, boundary changes saw the seat reformed under the original parish boundaries with Hastingwood, Thornwood, and North Weald brought under a single seat, but with three members. The 2024 district council election was notable in that it produced the first Independent councillor for the village since Harry Waterman in 1973 who won the most votes by a considerable margin. This election also saw the Conservatives' worst performance since the 1960s. As a result, of the three candidates elected, the one who secured the least votes will face re-election in two years time, followed by the next lowest candidate in three years time, whilst the highest scoring candidate would have a full four-year term.
The seat is currently represented by Cllr Tom Bromwich, Cllr Nigel Bedford, and Cllr Leslie Burrows.