but they were taken down in 1825, and their site is now occupied by about 200 cottages, &c., called New Romford, or Waterloo road, New road, &c.  The Gas Works were established in 1825, by Mr. G. M. Bell, the present manager, who sold them in 1846, to a company of proprietors, in eighty £100 shares.  The Excise Office is at the Sun Inn, and Mr. J. H. Acott, is the supervisor.

The CHURCH, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St Edward the Confessor, is a spacious building of stone and flint, with a nave, chancel, north aisle, and a tower at the west end, containing six bells and a clock.  It is commonly called the Chapel, and appears to have been built about the year 1407, when a Pope's bull was obtained, empowering the inhabitants to bury their dead in the cemetery here, instead of carrying them a distance of five miles, to the ancient mother church, at Hornchurch.  (See page 374.)   In the east window is a representation of Edward the Confessor, in painted glass, which was renewed in 1707.  Against the south wall is an alabaster monument to the memory of Sir Geo. Hervey, Kt., and his lady, whose effigies are represented kneeling.   On the north side of the aisle is the monument of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall, with effigies of himself and lady in kneeling attitudes, and several Latin inscriptions, supposed to have been written by his daughters.  A verbose epitaph, in 42 lines of English rhyme, records the virtues of the "Right Worshipful Sir Anthony Cooke, Kt.," who died in 1576.  Another handsome monument, is in memory of Alex. Black, Esq., who died at Gidea Hall, in 1835.  In catholic times, a Guild and Chantry were founded in this church; the former valued at £4.10s.2d., and the latter at £13 per annum, at the Dissolution.  Before the erection of the present church, there was a small chapel at Noke hill, built about 1323,¹ nearly half a mile south of the town.  When the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford, as appropriators and patrons of the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, granted parochial rights to Romford, in 1407, they reserved to themselves all the tithes, and their peculiar jurisdiction, throughout the whole liberty; but from time to time, and entirely at their opinion, they grant to the perpetual curate, a lease of the vicarial tithes of this parish; the benefice having no ecclesiastical endowment, and being valued in 1831, at only £54, arising from Easter offerings and surplice fees.  The living is now styled Romford Vicarage with Noke hill Curacy, and valued at £540.  It is held by the Ven. Anthony Grant, D.C.L. archdeacon of St. Albans; and is in the patronage of New College.   The tithes have been commuted for rent charges.  The town having greatly increased its population, during the last twenty years, the want of additional church room has long been felt, and about four years ago, the inhabitants opened a subscription, for the erection of a Chapel of Ease, at the south end of town;² but after expending about £400 in raising foundation walls, &c. they abandoned the work, because their subscription were not aided by grants from Government and the Church Building Society.   HAVERING-WELL CHAPEL, which belongs to the Independents, has a small endowment, and was founded about 1794, and rebuilt in 1812.  The Rev. S. H. Carlisle is the minister.  In North Street, is another Independent Chapel, erected in 1847, at the cost of about £500.  The Rev. J. Morison is its first minister.   Here is also a Wesleyan Chapel,

¹ The chapel was not in Noke Hill, but in the area now know as Oldchurch.   It was decidated to St. Andrew, and was first mentioned in 1177.
2 The new chapel was to be built not at the south end of town, but at the east end, on the site now occupied by Coronation Gardens.