Ongar Poor Law Union, Essex Genealogy

History
A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded parish workhouses in operation at Lamborne (for up to 40 ) Navestock (25) and Willingale Spain (12). The Ongar workhouse was built in 1830 at Stanford Rivers. Serving an incorporation of nine parishes, and accommodating around 100 inmates, it was one of the last workhouses to be built before the great Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Its most distinctive feature was its central hub, from whose windows the workhouse master could obtain a clear view of the inmates in their various exercise yards. This was still a relatively novel feature — other early examples can be found in the Caistor workhouse of 1801, and the Thurgarton Incorporation workhouse of 1824. However, at Ongar, the hub projected only at the rear of the main building.

Ongar Poor Law Union formally came into existence on 8th April 1836. In 1837, the new Ongar Union purchased the existing workhouse building from the incorporation for the sum of £4,416. Over the following three years, it was enlarged to increase its capacity to over 200 in the 3-storey building. A workhouse school was built in 1871 in addition to the building of a Workhouse infirmary( a conversion of an existing building with additional storey and extension). The workhouse closed in 1920 and the then inmates were moved to the workhouse in Epping. In 1926, the building was taken over by Piggott Brothers, a tent and flag manufacturers.

Constituent Parishes
Abbess Roding, Essex Beauchamp Roding, Essex Berners Roding, Essex Blackmore, Essex Bobbingworth, Essex Chipping Ongar, Essex Doddinghurst, Essex Fyfield, Essex Greenstead (near Ongar), Essex High Laver, Essex High Ongar, Essex Kelvedon Hatch, Essex Lambourne with Abridge, Essex Little Laver, Essex Moreton, Essex Navestock, Essex Norton Mandeville, Essex Shelley, Essex Shellow Bowells, Essex Stanford Rivers, Essex Stapleford Abbotts, Essex Stapleford Tawney, Essex Stondon Massey, Essex Theydon Mount, Essex Willingale Doe, Essex Willingale Spain, Essex

Records
• Essex Record Office, Wharf Road Chelmsford CM2 6YT. Relatively few records survive. Holdings include: Guardians' minute books (1836-1930); Relief order books (1911-12, 1922-31).

Websites
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ongar/Ongar.shtml