Toponymy Emerson Park is named after Emerson, the eldest son of William Carter of Parkstone, Dorset who bought land in the area for property development in 1895. Prior to suburban housebuilding, it was the manor of Nelmes which was recorded as
Elmes in 1333.
Economic development The railway came to the parish of
Hornchurch with the
Great Eastern Railway opening a station at Harold Wood in 1868 and the
London, Tilbury and Southend Railway at Hornchurch in 1885. Both were some distance from the village of Hornchurch. The Emerson Park Stores was converted to a club for the Hornchurch
Liberal association, with an official opening on 16 June 1910.
Residential estates In 1894 the Nelmes estate, in the parish of Hornchurch, is listed as comprising two houses, three farms, market gardens and other land, totalling . In 1895 the southern part of Nelmes manor, comprising , was sold by Benjamin H Newman to William Carter. In the next ten years 200 homes of the Emerson Park Estate were constructed by Homesteads Limited. The houses were large,
detached and typically situated on plots of an acre. There was some variety in the houses and the original sales prices ranged from £300 to £1,000. In 1901 the northern portion of Nelmes manor, comprising , was sold for the Great Nelmes Estate. The estates were subject to
restrictive covenants which prevented an increased density of housing. In 1930 a development of 76 homes on the Wych Elm Farm was proposed which would have a density of nine semi-detached homes per acre and would be sold at £1,000 per pair. This was opposed by residents of the Emerson Park and Great Nelmes estates. The arbitration of the case resulted in detached properties of six per acre sold at £650 facing the Emerson Park estate to the west and semi-detached properties at the higher density to the east.
Nelmes manor house Nelmes manor house was built by in 1540 by
William Roche, who was Lord Mayor of London. Roche had purchased two manors in
Havering that had been held separately, Gobions in Romford and Nelmes in Hornchurch. Nelmes was held by the Roche family and then sold to the politician
Robert Naunton in the 1620s. The manor was held by the Naunton family and then sold to the postal administrator
Thomas Witherings around 1646. The land was used for The Witherings neo-Georgian style housing development. Part of the moat appears to have been retained. Capel Nelmes, a 16th century outbuilding, survived and was
grade II listed in 1972. The 17th century conduit house which provided water to Nelmes also survives and was grade II listed in 1974. ==Governance==