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'''Chipping Ongar''' is a [[town]] in the [[Epping Forest (district)|Epping Forest district]] of [[Essex]], [[England]].
Ongar is located at the confluence of several old roads, being placed between Chelmsford and Epping on an east-west axis and between Dunmow and Chigwell (beyond which is London) on a north-south axis. To the the south-east lies Brentwood, on the old road to the former River Thames ferry crossing at Tilbury, though the building in the 1970s of the M11 and M25 motorways / highways means that Ongar is no longer a principal route for petrol tankers (and other less prominent vehicles) travelling from the current Dartford River Crossing and the Thames Estuary oil refineries.
The central portion of Ongar High Street comprises a widened main street of the type found in many older English towns whose status as 'market towns' is believed to have originated during the (little chronicled) Saxon period. The widened high street is used to permit some 'no charge' short term parking, which provides support to the local shops.
Ongar's role in local government was downgraded in 1974 with the abolition of Epping and Ongar Rural District Council. Shortly thereafter, as the baby boom generation grew beyond secondary education, the town's secondary school was closed down: it has morphed subsequently into a sports and leisure centre. Secondary school age children from the area are bussed to school in surrounding towns, notably Brentwood. However, Chipping Ongar Primary School, located on the Greensted Road at the southern edge of the town, soldiers on.
Several of the small private sector businesses that operated through to the closing decades of the twentieth have closed down or relocated as the economic focus of the region has been redirected, especially since the opening of the M11 motorway / highway in the 1970s, to larger towns in west Essex, especially Harlow and Brentwood. Local planning policies have focused increasingly on residential development, and Ongar, like very many of the smaller towns in the belt round London, can currently be viewed primarily as a dormitory town for commuters to London, Brentwood, Harlow and Chelmsford. However, the single track rail line that connected Ongar to Epping (and thereby to London) was closed down in 1994 (see below) and local area road development has not been a priority in recent decades. Ongar also retains a range of shops.
The town is known for [[Ongar tube station]], the most north easterly on the [[London Underground]] until closure of the single track Epping to Ongar section in [[1994]]. The electrification was removed, but the line now operates with a 1950s vintage dmu ([[diesel multiple unit]]), employing the services of enthusiasts / volunteers (currently an hourly service) on Sundays and some holidays. The line exists again as the [[Epping Ongar Railway]], but there is no connection with the London Underground services at Epping due to the lack of any suitable platform availability at Epping station which is operated by London Underground: only Ongar and North Weald stations are actually served by the trains.
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