Crondon Park

Description

Remains of moat. Formerly Crondon Park was owned by the Bishops of London and had belonged to the See of London since before the Norman conquest. Originally there were stables, a bakehouse, chapel, hall, lodge, gatehouse on the Stock side of the park, 2 fish ponds. The site is visible as a platform above the valley floor. The fish ponds are dry, the dams being eroded by horses.
Until the end of the 19th century Crondon Park was part of Orsett Hamlet, a detached part of Orsett parish. It belonged to the See of London since before the Norman conquest, though part had been granted by Edward the Confessor to Eustace, Count of Boulogne in 1048. "One of the earliest documents is a licence from King John to William, Bishop of London, to enclose a park at Crondon and this is dated 30 November, 1204". In 1209 it is probable that John stayed at the recently erected Manor House at Crondon. There is a reference to a deer leap at Crondon in 1275. The Bishops' Registers show that the Bishops were often here in the early 14th century. Documents in the Petre collection refer to repairs to the roof of the stable in 1344-1345, repairs to the bakehouse in 1362, to payments for glazing windows of the chapel and for tiling roofs of the chapel and hall and in 1395 there were repairs to the beams on the wall "between the lodge and the Lord's Chapel". In 1402 repairs were made to "the gatehouse on the Stock side of the 'park'". In 1556 Crondon Park Manor House was described as a "fayre lodge, timbered and tiled and two fish ponds and the keeper dwelleth in the lodge". In 1546 Henry VIII acquired Crondon Park and granted it to Sir William Petre. From the mid 16th well into the 17th century, disparking of part of the park was carried out, it being leased to farms. In 1768 Morant described it, "Crondon Park was formerly a Park, but for some years has been turned into farms". A note in the Catholic Register records that the chapel was preserved until 1832. The house was then demolished and no traces of the park remained, though a footnote added that some remains of walls were left "and some fine trees are still growing near the modern farm house". Orsett Hamlet was transferred from Orsett to Stock in 1881. <2>
Double moat?, sub circular. Brick, floor tile, roofing tile, stone and pottery. Entrance by dam(?). In pasture, water supply from springs. 2 fish ponds. (Essex HER)

Comments

Not marked on OS maps and not in PastScape. Now a golf course so landscape unreadable. Appears to have been a significant residential manor of the Bishop of London, with deer park. Missed by Thompson in his gazetteer of bishops' residences.