Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 the built-up area had an estimated population of 6420. In 1961 the parish had a population of 1673. Origin of the name The name "Ongar" means "grass land" (akin to the German word Anger). "Chipping" is from Old English cēping, "a market, a market-place", akin to Danish "købing" and Swedish "köping"; the same element is found in other towns such as Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury, Chipping Barnet and Chipping (now High) Wycombe. History Ongar was an important market town in the Medieval era, at the centre of a hundred and has the remains of a Norman castle (see below). The Church of England parish church, St Martin's, dates from the 11th century and shows signs of Norman work. A small window in the chancel is believed to indicate the existence of an anchorite's cell in medieval times. The Gothic Revival architect C. C. Rolfe added the south aisle in 1884. St. Andrew's Parish Church in Greensted, west of Ongar, is believed to be the oldest wooden church in the world. David Livingstone lived in Chipping Ongar on the High Street in 1838. The civil parish of Chipping Ongar was abolished in 1965 when the new parish of Ongar was created, also incorporating the former area of the Greensted and Shelley civil parishes. The parish was part of Epping and Ongar Rural District until 1974 when it became part of the Epping Forest District. Several of the small private-sector businesses that operated through to the closing decades of the 20th century have closed down or relocated as the economic focus of the region has been redirected, especially since the opening of the M11 motorway 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 green belt around London, can be viewed primarily as a dormitory town for commuters to London, Brentwood, Harlow and Chelmsford. However, the single-track railway branch line that connected Ongar to Epping (and thereby to London), operated by the London Underground, was closed in 1994. Ongar has a range of retail shops.