Horndon-on-the-Hill is a small village mostly built on the top of a hill, and surrounded by fields and farmland. It has a population of around 2000 and is situated in Essex, about 20 miles east of London.

The Doomsday Book lists Hornon-on-the-Hill as Horninduna. This name appears on a Saxon coin of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066AD) and suggests that Horninduna was once the site of a late 10th-centuary Royal Anglo-Saxon mint, one of just three in Essex.

For most of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was a popular wool trading village, that bought many travellering merchants and traders to the village.

The groupings of buildings, including weatherboarded cottages and brick houses from many different eras over the centuries, flow together in a natural way.

Historical Treasures

All the main buildings are situated on the main road at the top of the hill, indicating that Horndon was once a linear village. The road at the bottom of the hill is now a dead end, due to it being blocked off when the new A13 was built [erm, roads aren't built are they] in the 1980s. There is a turning point, about a mile before the end of the road.

For a small village horndon has many historical buildings, including one Listed building.

High House is An English Listed Building displaying the following Commemorative plaque issued by Thurrock Heritage:

Philip Conrad Vincent

1908 - 1979

inventor and designer

of the legendary

Vincent motorcycle

lived in this house.

Wool Trading

Situated on the main route from East Anglia to Kent and the channel ports. There is also documentation of ferries crossing the Thames from Tilbury dating back to 1399. Giving the village a wealth of history and making the village an ideal place for trading.

Old Market Hall

Now known as The Woolmarket is a 16th-century building with three small casement windows underneath an old tiled roof, with timber gable ends. It was used as an auction room for the wool trade where sales were held each year and attracted buyers from overseas.

Many travelling merchants, including the Dutch, moored their vessels at near by Mucking or Fobbing and travelled to the woolmarket to trade in wool.

When the wool industry started to decline in the mid-seventeenth century, the owner; William Kingston used it to house poor widows and as a public meeting place until its closure in 1955, due to being ruled unfit for further habitation.

In 1969 the local authority granted £10,000 for its restoration. After the completion it was re-named The Woolmarket, and is now used as a village hall for various meetings and functions.

Pubs and Hotel

There are two pubs and one hotel in the village: The Swan Public House and The Bell Inn. Both were built during Horndon's prosperous wool trading era, to accommodate the many travelling pilgrims, wool merchants and tradesmen. They have both retained their original names. Hill Top Hotel and Resuarant is situated next to High House; the listed building, and between the two pubs.

The Bell Inn

The Bell Inn, dating from the fifteenth century has won numerous awards for it's food, wine and beer.

It is a pub with a rather unusual custom of attaching a hot cross bun to the ceiling beams each Good Friday. This custom started on Good Friday 1901, when Jack Turnell became the new landlord of the Bell and marked the occasion by hanging a hot cross bun from a beam in the saloon bar/Restaurant. This tradition has continued, with another tradition added to it; the oldest available villager hangs the bun. Due to rationing during the wars years, the buns from that time are made of concrete.

There is a darker side to the Bell’s history. During Mary Tudor's troublesome reign, a local landowner; Thomas Higbed, was accused of heresy. He was put on trail, found guilty and sentenced to be burned at the stake, which took place in an area at the rear the Bell.

A plaque on the Bell Inn's wall states:

This just shall live

by faith in Hebrews 10:38

On 26 March 1555

Thomas Higbed

a gentleman of

Horndon House,

was burnt at the stake in

in the courtyard of

the Bell Inn for his

protestant faith.

The Swan

Built in the fifteenth century, around the same time as The Bell Inn the Swan takes it's name from the wild swans on the Thames marshes.

Today part of the Swan's moderations, is the bar, which is completely covered by old one pennies, underneath glass.

In Horndon’s busy and prosperous trading times of the 15th and 16th century the courtyard and stables, of the Swan would be full of coaches, carts and wagons, the vehicles of travelling traders.

Churches

The parish church of St Peter and St Paul was built in 1315 and stands on the site of a much earlier building. The oldest part of the present building was consecrated in 1230.¹ Inside the church there is a wonderful fifteenth century belfry frame constructed of large timbers jointed by wooden pegs.

In the days before clocks or watches, a bell was rung at dawn signifying it was time to rise, and rang again for curfew at dusk.

It is alleged, though not proven, that Anne Boleyn is buried in the graveyard. This story stems from Anne’s parents having connections with nearby Corringham.

The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1890. In October 1990 the Chapel celebrated its centenary of worship in the current Chapel. The first meetings were held in 1866 and in 1885 the first wooden weatherboard building was constructed. Although the Methodist history goes back further than that, in 1850 when one woman started delivering tracts.²

Schools

There is an old private school house, which has been converted into a residential home. A one building CofE³ primary School which was built in 1847 as a National School. With other buildings added over the years, including portacabin classrooms in the 1960s as the local population grew. The school has now been replaced with a new school, the original building of the old school is used for a school nursery group.

Amenities

Horndon currently⁴ has just two shops; The Village Butchers and Country Fayre, which consists of a newsagents, general store, off-licence and a post office, which is attached to the shop, but situated at the rear.

While most of Thurrock have had their traditional BT⁵ red phone boxes replaced with modern phone boxes, Horndon is one of the few places that still has the old red ones.

Although most of the gardens of the houses are of a reasonable size, there is an allotment for those who require more growing space.

A Locally established and well known Father & Son Blacksmiths, took over the area where some old stables were in the 1950s.

Feast and Fayre

There is a local society, which promotes preservation and appreciation of the compact village.

Originally founded by Royal Charter in the thirteenth century, the Feast and Fayre was revived in 1974. Every year since then on the last weekend of June the main road of the village is closed for its annual Feast and Fayre, which attracts many visitors to the village. Each year a different theme is used for the two-day event, which includes craft and charity stalls from local charities and organisations as well as home made cakes, Street Entertainment, Music and plenty of food and a fun run as well as some locals and visitors dressed in the chosen theme.