156 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Land Co., there have been other occupiers of the house than the Watkinses.
Mr. N. A. Macnamara, who was there in 1853, was followed by Mr. Bolton,
while, in 1883, Mr. Chas. Henry Jackson was the occupier.
In White's History, Gazeteer and Directory of Essex, 1848, Gt. Gales
Hall is given as the residence of Wm. Jas. Wood Watkins, cattle dealer,
but in the 1863 edition the following occurs:—
James Watkins, Gt. Gales, farmer.
For some time after it came into the hands of the Woodford Land Co.,
the house remained empty. Subsequent occupants have been Mr. E. E.
Johnson, Mr. Langford Osborne, and Mr. Alec Hutchison, the present
owner and occupier, whom I have to thank for permission for us to see
the house and grounds.
The farmhouse attached to Great Gales was taken down five years
ago. It had been occupied for many years by Mr. J. T. Ward, the dairy-
man, of South Woodford.
After our President had expressed the thanks of the party to the owner
for his permission to inspect his premises, the visitors left Great Gales
and made their way along Roding Lane to Claybury Hall Farm, on the
boundary between Woodford and Great Ilford parishes, where, as appears
noted on an old map, a boy was bumped, during a perambulation, at the
gateway to the farm. It had been intended to inspect the gardens of
this house, but a second storm broke at this juncture and the party sought
shelter in a cart shed until it passed.
The next place of call was Hill Farm, a small farmstead, apparently
of late 18th century date, now occupied by a dairyman who farms no
less than 725 acres of grassland and meadow in the immediate neighbour-
hood. The visitors were interested to see how the newly drawn milk
was cooled, filtered, bottled and the card discs fitted in the necks of the
bottles, all by machinery. Mr. Crouch's notes on this property are given
below.
Whether this house is the same as the Hill House that always went
with Monkhams and the reputed manor which was granted by the King
in 1547, for four different years between 1547 and 1555 to John Lyon,
Master of the Grocers Company, and Mayor of London in 1554-6, is doubt-
ful. It may be so, but there is no proof.
I think it is the farm occupied by Mr. Edward Musgrove in 1797, and
who was still there at the time of the Eye Survey of 1804, and which
later, in 1829, was occupied by Hy. Oldershaw.
It was certainly owned by Harriot Croasdail in 1832, and then con-
sisted of 100 acres 2 roods and 10 poles, with, in 1836, Samuel Cornell as
occupier, the rent being £133. This is the Harriot Croasdail who at
one time owned Great Gales Farm.
It is now owned by Capt. Lyon of Ferndown, Dorset, nephew of the
late Mr. Geo. T. Benton, who sold Ray House to Bryant and May.
From here, as time was passing rapidly, speedy way was made to
Hermon Hill, where Mr. and Mrs. Crouch had kindly offered hospitality
to tea.
On the way the site of the old water-mill on the Roding, in the Chigwell
Road, was pointed out. This mill was in existence in 1609; a document
in the possession of our Hon. Treasurer, Mr. J. Avery, proves that it had