Place Name
In his book A Potted History of Ilford, Norman Gunby offers several potential reasons for how the ancient parish formerly in the Forest of Essex got its name. It is first mentioned as Cingheuvella in the Domesday survey of 1086; it appears in the Pipe Rolls in 1187 in the more recognisable format of Chiggewell, which may have come from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Cicca, literally meaning Cicca’s well. Alternatively it could be a corruption of the Old English word ceacge meaning gorse. Another theory suggests it was influenced by the nearby Chingford, meaning shingly ford; and finally it could refer to the King’s Well, the site of which is marked at Brocket Way, Chigwell on the 1898 Ordnance Survey map.
