Hornchurch
Major Settlement in the Parish of Hornchurch
Historical Forms
- ecclesia de Haweringis 1163 OxonCh
- church of Haveryng(e), Havering commonly called Hornchurch 1391 Pat 1392 Pap
- Monasterium Cornutum 1222 ERxxix 1240 FF 1272 Pat
- Horn(e)church 1233 HPD
- Hornedechirche 1291 Coroner
- Hornedecherche 1311 ADvi 1360 Ct
- Hornyngecherche 1383 Oath
- Thornchyrche 1493–1500 ECP
- Herne church 1604 EAvii
Etymology
Various explanations of this name have been advanced.It has naturally been associated with the figure of a bull's head with horns now affixed to the eastern gable of the church, but there is no evidence that this figure is older than the end of the 18th century. Previous to that we only have reference to 'leaden horns' (Gough's Camden (ii, 42) 1789) or 'certaine points of leade fashioned like hornes' (Holland's Camden (441) 1610). The first mention of a bull's or ox's head and horns is a reference to their repair in 1824 (Gentleman 's Mag. xcviii, Pt. i, 305). The only early association of a horned bull's head with Hornchurch is to be found in a figure on the Prior's seal of 1384–5, a seal which apparently did not exist in 1267 (HPD vi). The relation of the figure on the seal to the name of the church is obscure. The church may have been so called because decorated with horns (cf. OE horn-raced , horn-sele , used of halls so adorned) and it is possible that the emblem on the seal was in the nature of a rebus upon the name 'horned- church.' We may perhaps compare the name and knocker of Brasenose College, Oxford, but that name is almost equally obscure. (Cf. EAS vi, 7–9.)
Monasterium cornutum is the Latinised form of the original name, whatever its exact significance.