place name
From an ancient manor once on the site of the present 17thCentury Alderton Hall. It is first referenced in 1062 in a charter of Edward the Confessor as Ælwartun, later spellings include Alezvardtun in 1246 and Alwardeton in 1250. The name comes from an Anglo-Saxon personal name and the Old English word for town, tun, together literally Ælwar’s town. Consisting of 4½ hides (about 150 acres – a hide being enough land to feed a family) plus a further 10 acres. Alderton was one of the largest estates in Loughton in the 11thCentury, and was likely the main centre of population. The present hall dates from about 1600 and is one of the earliest surviving manors in Loughton. It later appears as Alditton Hall on Chapman and Andre’s map of 1777. Between 1895 and 1914 a few houses had been built on the north side of Alderton Hill, but there were still many vacant sites in the town. This street appears on the 1897 Ordnance Survey map as Alderton Hall Road, but by the 1960s had been given its present name.
