The first mention of Buckhurst Hill is in 1135, when reference was made to "La Bocherste", becoming in later years "Bucket Hill", originally meaning a hill covered with beech trees.[2] It lay in Epping Forest and consisted of only a few scattered houses along the ancient road from Woodford to Loughton. Before the building of the railways, Buckhurst Hill was on the stagecoach route between London and Cambridge, Norwich, Bury St Edmunds and Great Dunmow. Originally it was a part of the parish of Chigwell; there was no road connecting the two communities and in order to get to church, parishioners had to ford the River Roding at Woodford.[3] The Parish Church of St John was built in 1838 as a chapel of ease but Buckhurst Hill did not become a separate ecclesiastical parish until 1867.[4] St John's National School was also built in 1838. The lord of the manor gave a site next to the church; the building cost £209, most of which was donated by the church congregation.[5] The opening of Buckhurst Hill station in 1856 saw a rapid expansion in the population of the area; nearly six hundred new houses had been built near the station by 1871, leading to the opening of the Prince's Road school in 1872. Some of the land for this expansion was enclosed from Epping Forest, before this practice was halted by the Epping Forest Act 1878.
Loughton Rugby Union Football Club has its clubhouse and pitches on Hornbeam Road at the south of the town. Buckhurst Hill F.C. is on Roding Lane at the east of the town.
Buckhurst Hill Cricket Club plays in the Shepherd Neame Essex League, and fields four Saturday XIs, two Sunday XIs, and teams in a junior section. The club plays at two cricket fields: one off Roding Lane at the east of the town; and one at the edge of Powell's Forest (part of Epping Forest), off High Road at the north of the town.
Educationedit
Primary schools include Buckhurst Hill Community (BHCPS), St John's (Church of England) and Whitebridge.
Roding Valley High School in Loughton provides secondary level education for the area. It was formed by the merger of three schools: Loughton County High School for Girls, Buckhurst Hill County High School (for boys) and Epping Forest High School.
^"Town population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
^Reaney, Percy Hide (10 June 2017). The Place-Names of Essex. The University Press. ISBN 9780521075053 – via Google Books.
^[A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred. W R Powell (Editor), 1956 (pp 18–22) http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15534]
^"Chigwell: Churches - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
^"Chigwell: Schools - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
^"Chigwell: Introduction - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
^"Epping Forest District Council: History of the District". Archived from the original on 6 June 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
^"BUCKHURST HILL PARISH COUNCIL - About Buckhurst Hill". www.essexinfo.net.
^"Central Line timetable". May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
^"London Overground Timetables". May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
^"Stops in Buckhurst Hill". Bus Times. 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
^Kneale, Kenneth (1992); Essex Heritage, Leopards Head Press, pp.3-14. ISBN 0904920232
^Morris, Richard; "Sir William Addison (1905-1992) – a retrospective" in Loughton and District Historical Society: Newsletter 165, March/April 2005, pp.3-5