[1] The name of the parish arose because the principal manor was held by the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds from before the Norman Conquest to the Dissolution.

[4] After the dissolution of the monasteries the manor was in the hands of Sir Brian Tuke and was included when he sold Pyrgo to King Henry VIII in 1544 although Navestock and Stapleford were both subsequently leased to George and Walter Cely, relatives of John Cely who had previously been Paler of the Park of Havering Palace at Havering-atte-Bower.

In September 1927, the village was the scene of the murder of Police Constable George Gutteridge, who was shot at the roadside by two car thieves, Frederick Browne and William Kennedy, who were later hanged for their crime.

[7] The parish is mostly rural and agricultural with a scattering of farms and cottages, much of it is Metropolitan Green Belt protected land.

[8] The village itself is a straggle of mostly 20th-century housing stretching for about a mile along the elevated Romford to Ongar road from the boundary with Havering-atte-Bower.

[6][9] Apart from the village of Stapleford Abbotts, the parish includes the hamlets of Bournebridge, Nuper's Hatch and a small part of Passingford Bridge.

It consists of at least 60 properties centred on Nuper's and Lyng's Farm, in particular the neighbourhood and linear development of Tysea Hill.