WOODFORD (ST-MARY), a parish in the hundred, of BECONTREE, county of ESSEX, 8 miles (N. E. by N. from London, containing 2699 inhabitants. Woodford, so called from the ford in the wood, or forest, where is now Woodford-bridge, is a beautiful village, situated on the confines of Epping Forest, on the main road from London to Newmarket, which passes through it: the houses are in general detached, and irregularly arranged on the undulating declivities of a rising ground, beautifully interspersed with trees, and disclosing at intervals mansions of a superior character, which are principally occupied by wealthy merchants of the metropolis. In different parts of the parish some fine and extensive views into the counties of Essex and Kent present themselves. A nearer communication with the metropolis has been recently opened, by the construction of a new road from the highest part of the village, near the Castle Inn, which passes through the forest into the Lea Bridge road. The custom of Borough English, by which the younger son inherits, prevails in this manor. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Commissary of London, concurrently with the Consistorial Court of the Bishop of London, rated in the king's books at £11. 12. 1., and in the patronage of the Hon. W. T. L. P. Wellesley. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, was erected on the site of the former, in 1817, at an expense of nearly £9000, defrayed partly by subscription, and partly by rate: it is situated in the lowest part of the village, on the west side of the London road, and is an elegant edifice in the ancient style of English architecture, with a square embattled tower; the aisles are separated from the nave by six pointed arches carried up to the roof, which is of open wood work, supported on eight pillars, and surmounted in the centre by an octangular lantern tower; the east window is of stained glass, and divided into three compartments, containing figures of our Saviour, the four Evangelists, St. Peter, and St. Paulj there are some good monuments. In the churchyard is a splendid Corinthian column of marble, about forty feet in height, erected to the memory of the family of Godfrey, which flourished many years in Kent; also a tomb with a column entirely covered with ivy, of picturesque appearance, and a remarkably fine old yew tree. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school, in which about one hundred and thirty children of both sexes areeducated, of whom fifty are clothed, is supported by voluntary contributions. This parish is entitled to send two boys for gratuitous instruction to each of the schools founded at Chigwell, in ] 629, by Dr. Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York; it has also the perpetual right of presenting two boys to Christ's Hospital, London, granted by Thomas Foulkes, in 1686. In 1828, a parochial library was established in the village. At Woodford Wells is a mineral spring, formerly in high estimar tion, but now little resorted to.