To learn more about Vange's history there is an account written in 1935 that is a very interesting read. Vange Parish History.

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales by Rev. John Marius Wilson

The Reverend John Wilson edited these impressive topographical volumes between 1870 and 1872. They included a brief description of Vange.

VANGE, a parish in Billericay district, Essex; 1¾ miles WSW of Pitsea r. station.

Post town, Horndon-on-the-Hill, under Romford.

Acres, 2,250; of which 550 are water. Real property, £1,490. Pop., 160. Houses, 33.

Little V. Hall is the seat of D. Morin, Esq.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £310.* Patron, Major Spitty.

The church is tolerable.

White's gazetteer and directory

In the 1800s the publisher William White of Sheffield produced a small history of Vange in his yearly gazetteer and directory.

Reproduced here is the entry information for Vange from the 1848 edition.

VANGE, or Fange, is a small village and parish near the head of a small creek running up from East Haven, and having a wharf for barges, 4 miles north of the river Thames, 4 miles North East by East of Horndon-on-the-Hill, and 6 miles South by East of Billericay.

It contains 169 souls, and 1387 acres of land, including a small part of Canvey Island.

At the Conquest, it was held by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Ralph Peverell, and it afterwards passed to the Montchensy, Wattenhale, Newman, Tanfield, Baker, and Bayning families. It now belongs to various freeholders, some of whom are occupants.

The Hall is on a pleasant hill, half a mile north of the village.

The Church (All Saints,) is a small building, with a nave and chancel of one pace. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £14, and in 1831 at £302, is in the patronage of Sir Charles Smith, Bart., and incumbency of the Rev. J.A. Stewart, M.A., who has 60A. of glebe and a good residence.

The tithes were commuted in 1838 for £325 per annum.

The inhabitants of note are listed as:

Rev. James Arrott Stewart B.A., rector
John Adey, victualler, Barge
Absalom Such, victualler, Vange Bells
Elijah Wiseman Benton, gentleman

Farmers:

William Abbott, farmer, Little Hall
James Emberson Benton, farmer and barge owner
Henry Brown, farmer and salesman
William Burchell
Thomas Pocklington, Hall

Source: William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Essex 1848

White's Directories
The publisher William White of Sheffield issued a yearly series of gazetteer's and directories covering the United Kingdom. These began in 1826 in partnership with William Parson, but from 1831 were solely the work of White. William White continued to produce these until 1898 when his company was absorbed into Kelly's (Frederic Festus Kelly) trade directory, which continued into the twentieth century.

Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1894

VANGE (or Fange) is a village and parish, on a creek of the Thames, and on the high road from Grays and Tilbury to Southend, nearly 2 miles south-west from Pitsea station on the London, Tilbury and Southend railway, 9 north-east from Tilbury, and 12 south-east from Brentwood, in the Mid division of the country, Barstable hundred, Billericay union, Brentwood petty sessional division and county court district, and in the rural deanery of Orsett, archdeaconry of Essex and diocese of St. Albans.

The church of All Saints is a small building of stone and rubble in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel and nave, south porch and a small wooden bell turret on the western gable, containing one bell: the east window is filled with stained glass of ancient design. The register dates from the year 1558.

The living is a rectory, gross yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of Major Spitty D.L., J.P. and held since 189I by the Rev. Richard Henry Gash M.A. of the Queen's University, Ireland.

Robert L. Curtis esq. is lord of !he manor.

The principal landowners are Richard Dootson esq. Messrs. Withers and the trustees of Norwich Hospital.

The soil is heavy loam; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, beans and clover.

The area is 1,387 acres of land and 40 of water; rateable value, £1,904; the population in 1891 was 292.

Post Office. - John West, sub-postmaster. Letters from Stanford-le-Hope S.O. arrive at 10 a.m.; dispatched at 5 p.m. The nearest money order office & telegraph office is at Stanford-le-Hope. Postal orders are issued here but not paid.

A School Board of 5 members was formed 25 April, 1874 C. C. Lewis, Brentwood, clerk to the board & attendance officer.

Board School (mixed), built in 1885, for 120 children; average attendance, 98; Miss Elsie Reynolds, mistress.

Bell George
Curtis Robert L. Rectory
Gash Rev. Richard Henry M.A. Rectory

COMMERCIAL.

Bull John, farmer & landowner, Mountfitchet
Bailey Francis, Barge inn
Cox James, grocer & builder
Heywood William, grocer
Hockley Samuel, farmer, Vange hall
Lacey George, builder
Mansfield William, blacksmith
Rains George, chimney sweeper
Moss Alfred John, barge owner & farmer, Vange wharf & Hill farm
Stocks Charles, draper & prov. dlr
Vange Brick Fields (Robert L. Curtis, proprietor)
West John. shopkeeper, Post office
Wood James, Five Bells P.H

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