DAGENHAM
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales...., by John Marius Wilson. circa 1866
DAGENHAM, a parish in Romford district, Essex; on an affluent of the Thames, and on the London and Southend railway, 2 miles WNW of Rainham r. station, and 3½ S by W of Romford. It includes the hamlets of Chadwell-heath and Beacontree-heath; and has a post-office under Romford, London, E. Acres, 6,608; of which 180 are water. Real property, £16,607. Pop., 2,708. Houses, 550. The property is much subdivided. The area includes 1,359 acres of Hainult forest, and extends to the Thames. An irruption of the Thames occurred here in 1703, inundating upwards of 5,000 acres of rich land, and washing nearly 120 entirely away. An embankment, for preventing any similar occurrence was formed by Captain Perry, at a cost of £40,473; and a stratum of bogwood, about 10 feet thick, with very little mixture of earth, was found, at the making of the embankment, to be about 4 feet below the surface of the soil. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £872. Patron, the Rev. John Farmer. The church has a brass of 1479; and is good. There are chapels for Wesleyans and Wesleyan Reformers. A school has £270 from endowment; and other charities £193.
Transcribed by Noel Clark
KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
DAGENHAM is a large parish, bounded by the Thames, the Rom (or Bourne brook) and the Ingerbury brook, with one station, called Dagenham, on the London, Midland and Scottish railway, and another at Dagenham Dock, on the same railway, 3½ miles south west from Romford, 4½ south-east from Ilford, and 12 from Whitechapel church, in the Romford division of the county,. Becontree hundred and petty sessional division, Romford county court district, Metropolitan police jurisdiction, rural deanery of Chafford, archdeaconry of West Ham and Chelmsford diocese. The town is lighted with gas, and a new sewerage scheme was carried out in 1933 at a cost of £150,000. By the Dagenham (Constitution of Urban District) Order, 1926, Dagenham became an Urban District, consisting of three wards, viz.: Chadwell Heath ward, Beacontree Heath ward and Dagenham ward: the Urban District Council consisted of 16 members, which number was increased to 23 in 1929. The Becontree estate consists of a large number of private houses erected by the London County Council. The church of SS. Peter and Paul is an ancient edifice of Kentish ragstone and brick, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and an embattled tower on the north side, the spire of which was removed in 1921, containing a clock and 6 bells, dated 1804; the bells were recast and rehung in 1933: the chancel dates from the 12th century: the nave was rebuilt in 1800, and this and the tower were restored in 1923: in 1878 the church was thoroughly restored, the floor lowered and the interior reseated; during the course of the work an ancient piscina and a cross-marked altar slab were discovered; two helmets and fragments of other armour also remain: the church was re-roofed in 1913 and the organ was installed in the following year: in 1930 the fabric of the church was again restored externally and internally: there is a fine old tomb with brasses, to Sir Thomas Urswyk kt. appointed Common Serjeant of the city of London, and subsequently, in 1455, made Recorder; he also represented the city in Parliament in 1461 and 1467, and was chief baron of the Exchequer from 1471 to 1479, in which year he died: the brass also commemorates his wife, 4 sons and 9 daughters; there is also a marble monument with effigies to Sir Richard Alibon kt, a justice of the King’s Bench from 1687 in the reign of James II. ob. 22 Aug. 1688: the stained east window is a memorial to the Rev. T. L. Fanshawe, of Parslowes, and there are other memorial windows: the church affords 350 sittings. The register dates from the year 1546. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £742, with 8 acres of glebe, and residence, in the gift of the Church Association Trust, and held since 1921 by the Rev. George Jones A.K.C.L. The vicarage house, close to the church, was built in 1665. St. Martin’s church in Goresbrook road, erected in 1931-32 at a cost of nearly £10,000, was consecrated in 1932, and consists of chancel, nave, north and south aisle and north and west porch, and a lady chapel: there are 450 sittings. The register dates from the year 1925. The living is a vicarage, with residence, net yearly value £400, in the gift of the Bishop of Chelmsford, and held since 1929 by the Rev. Ashley Douglas Turner B.D. of London University, A.K.C.L. St. George’s church is a temporary building in Rogers road with 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1929. The district is a Mission district in the charge of the Rev. Herbert Samuel James Marshall, who was appointed in 1929. There is a Methodist chapel in Heathway and another in Bull street. Osborne Hall Congregational church in Osborne square, was erected in 1931 at a cost of about £10,000, and has 400 sittings. There is a Baptist chapel in Chaplin road. The Salvation Army have barracks in Dagenham avenue. There is a Roman Catholic church (temporary) in Goresbrook road. There are mission halls at New road and Bull street. There are two branch libraries, one in Becontree avenue and another in Heathway, containing jointly 52,000 volumes; a site for a large central library has (1933) been purchased near “Five Elms.” The Sanatorium (formerly the Smallpox Hospital) was built by the West Ham Corporation at a cost of £49,488, on the outskirts of the parish, one mile distant, and provides accommodation for 128 patients. The Romford Joint Hospital Board erected in 1901 an Isolation Hospital; in 1907 it was extended, the total cost being £14,500; it will hold 78 patients; in 1925 the nurses home was extended and a new block for patients added. York house, Frizland lane; a new branch training home for the Essex County Nursing Association (Dagenham branch), was erected at a total cost of £5,000, and was opened by H.R.H. the Duchess of York in 1931. It provides for 15 nurses. King George hospital in Five Elms road, erected at a cost of £8,500, was opened in 1931 by Brig.-Gen. R. B. Colvin C.B., T.D., B.A., J.P. (lord lieutenant). This hospital is a branch of the King George hospital at Ilford, and is used for out-patients and casualty cases only. Uphill’s charity of £150 yearly, left by Jacob Uphill, of Dagenham, standard bearer to William and Mary, Queen Anne and George I. who died Feb. 26, 1717, aet. 59, formerly expended in clothing children and in gratuities to them, is now administered under a trust; other charities, including a bread charity, left by John White, gent. who died Feb. 2, 1673, are distributed yearly. Ford’s charity consists of £1.000 in Three per Cents.; the dividends are expended by the trustees in the purchase of blankets and flannel for distribution to poor old men and women of the parish who are over 6o years of age. Comyns almshouses were reconditioned in 1932 at a cost of £500. Dagenham has much marsh land and on Dec. 17th 1707, a very high tide blew up the sluice, broke through the dyke, flooded 1,000 acres and swept 160 acres into the river; after much difficulty and a lapse of fifteen years, the breach was stopped by the famous Captain Perry, at a cost of £40,000. To the left of the road leading to Dagenham reach is Dagenham gulf, a lake formed by a portion of the unreclaimed land 40 acres in extent. The works of the Ford Motor Co. Ltd. are situated here. They are the largest motor car works in Europe and cover a site of 600 acres, stretching from the bank of the Thames to the Southend arterial road. The London County Council are the principal landowners. The soil is shingly; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are wheat, potatoes and market garden produce. The area of the Urban District is 6,728 acres, including 68 of water, 144 of tidal water and 28 of foreshore; the population of the civil parish and Urban District in 1931 was 89,362. The population of the wards in 1931 was Becontree Heath, 31,324; Chadwell Heath, 8,092; Dagenham 49,946. The population of the ecclesiastical parish in 1921 was 5,240.
BECONTREE consists of a large housing estate built by London County Council, and is partly in this parish and partly in Barking, with a station at Heathway on the London, Tilbury and Southend section of the London, Midland and Scottish railway (also served by trains on the London to Upminster section of the Districy railway), 2½ miles north and 1½ south-east from Chadwell station on the London and North Eastern railway; it was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1922 and gives its name to the hundred and to a petty sessional division; meetings held at Stratford; it is in the rural deanery of Barking, archdeaconry of West Ham and diocese of Chelmsford: St. Mary’s church in Grafton road is a temporary building, built in 1927 and has 350 sittings. St. Mary’s was constituted a Peel district in 1927. The register dates from the year 1927. The living is a vicarage, with residence, net yearly value £385, in the gift of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, and held since 1932 by the Rev. Hartley S. Brook L.Th. of Durham University. St. Peter’s church in Warrington road is a temporary building, built in 1931, and has 150 sittings. The register dates from the year 1931. The living is a vicarage, with residence, net yearly value. £400, in the gift of the Bishop of Chelmsford, and held since 1931 by the Rev. Cyril Walter Nye B.A. of Pembroke College, Oxford. The church of St. Thomas, although used by the people of Becontree, is actually in Ilford, and will be Found under that heading. The churches of St. Elizabeth and St. Alban, although used by the people of Becontree, are actually in Barking, and will be found under that heading. There are Baptist chapels in Wood lane and Becontree avenue, and the Salvation Army have barracks in Becontree avenue.
BECONTREE HEATH is a small hamlet of this parish, to the east of Becontree. There is a Methodist chapel here. The Dagenham Fire Brigade have a station here.