Facts about Chigwell
Chigwell History
In medieval sources the name Chigwell appears with a variety of spellings including “Cinghe uuella” and Chikewelle”. Folk etymology has sought to derive the name from a lost “king’s well”, supposed to have been to the south-east of the parish near the border of what is now the London Borough of Redbridge. There were several medicinal springs in Chigwell Row documented by Miller Christy in his book History of the mineral waters and medicinal springs of the county of Essex, published in 1910. The 18th-century historian Nathaniel Salmon stated that the “-well” element in the name derives from Anglo-Saxon weald.
Chigwell Education
Schools in the area include Chigwell Primary School, Limes Farm Infants School & Nursery, Limes Farm Junior School, Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, West Hatch High School and Chigwell School, an independent school, which was founded from a bequest by Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York, in 1629, among whose past pupils are William Penn, who later went on to found Pennsylvania, and actor Sir Ian Holm. The diarist John Aubrey recorded that it was at Chigwell School that Penn had a mystical vision, which influenced his later conversion to Quakerism. The original 17th-century schoolroom where Penn was taught still stands and is now the school library.
