KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF ESSEX 1933
RAINHAM (from ryne, a watercourse, and ham, a village) is a village and parish, with a station on the London, Midland and Scottish railway (London, Tilbury and Southend section), 3½ miles north-west from Purfleet, 12 by rail from London, 7½ north-west from Grays and 5 east from Barking, in the Romford division of the county, Orsett petty sessional division, Chafford hundred, Romford rural district and county court district, and in Orsett and Grays rural deanery, archdeaconry of West Ham and Chelmsford diocese ; the village forms a considerable street on the London road and the Ingerbourne brook. Over the latter is a bridge, and there are several quays on the creek, at its junction with the Thames. The church of SS. Helen and Giles (the only one in England dedicated to these saints jointly in this order) is an ancient structure of flint and stone of the 12th century, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a low but massive embattled tower containing 3 bells, one dated 1618 and the others 1670: the nave is divided from the aisles by three heavy semicircular arches on either side, resting on square columns, with circular shafts at the angles: a grand Norman arch, highly enriched with chevron moulding, opens into the chancel, the windows of which have been greatly disfigured: the tower is constructed of coursed rubble, with ashlar coigns, and is entered from the nave by a plain semicircular Norman arch, one tall lancet and three Norman windows lighting its basement: on the south side of the chancel is a narrow priest’s doorway of Norman date: the font is ancient and there are brass effigies on the floor to a civilian and his wife, c. 1500: there is also a marble slab on the west wall commemorating the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: the church plate includes an Elizabethan cover to chalice (1563), cup (1652) and paten (1713) : the church was thoroughly restored in 1898-1910, reseated, new choir stall added, chancel windows reopened and a new organ provided, at a total cost of £2,500: there are 240 sittings. The registers date regularly from the year 1665, but about 1890 earlier registers dating from 1570, but very incomplete, were discovered and restored. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £353, with residence, in The gift of the Martyrs’ Memorial Trust, and held since 1933 by the Rev. Thomas Edward Fowler. The brilliant satirist and poet, Charles Churchill, of Trinity College, Cambridge, was once curate here, and in describing in verse the effect of his rural discourses. says: "Sleep at my bidding crept from pew to pew." Here is an undenominational chapel, built in 1889, and a temporary (iron) Roman Catholic church, served from Barking. There is a cemetery of about acres, formed in 1899, at a cost, including mortuary chapel, of £3,200; it is under the control of the Parish Council acting as a burial board. In accordance with the directions of various ancient benefactions, amounting to £10 5s. yearly, bread is given to the poor every Sunday; 10s. for preaching a sermon on Ascension day, 2s. to the reader of the Litany, and 1s. for the parish clerk on the same day. Robert Westley Hall-Dare esq. D.L., J.P. who is lord of the manor, Sir Richard Fiennes Barrett-Lennard bart. J.P. and the War Office are the principal Landowners. The soil is loamy ; subsoil, gravelly. The chief crops are vegetables, great quantities of which are grown for the London markets. The area is 3,240 acres of land, 11 of inland and 116 of tidal water and 24 of foreshore; the population in 1931 was 3,897.
Post, M. O., T. & T. E. D. Office, 12 Broadway (letters should have Essex added)
Post & M. O. Office, 192 Upminster road
Cemetery, Upminster road
Fire Station, Upminster road
Police Station
Railway Station (L. M. & S)
Motor omnibuses to & from Grays throughout the day