St Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Little Ilford

Introduction

The small church of St Mary the Virgin was rebuilt in the early-18th century and stands on a corner site with a clinker and brick wall on Church Road and a low concrete post fence on Winifrede's Avenue, planted with a may hedge. The churchyard has a number of mature horse chestnuts and the gravestones in their original positions are set in grass, including a number of railed chest tombs such as that of Thomas Smith and family, and the 18th-century sarcophagus for the Hatch family of Claybury Hall, Woodford Bridge. An area of flower beds has been laid out as a small memorial garden.