Dagenham, Essex
Historical Description
Dagenham, a village and a parish in Essex, on an affluent of the Thames, and on the London, Tilbury, and Southend railway, on which there is a station, and 3½ miles S by W of Romford. The parish includes the hamlets of Chadwell Heath and Beacontree Heath, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Romford. Acreage, 6556 of land and 241 of water; population, 4324. The area includes 1359 acres of Hainault Forest, and extends to the Thames. An irruption of the Thames occurred here in 1703, inundating upwards of 500 acres of rich land. The reclamation of the land, and the reconstruction of an embankment for preventing any similar occurrence, were done by Captain Perry at a cost of £40,000; a stratum of bogwood about 10 feet thick, with very little mixture of earth, was found at the making of the embankment about 4 feet below the surface of the soil. A portion of the unreclaimed land now forms a lake of over 40 acres in extent, which is much frequented by anglers. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; value of commuted tithes, £852 with residence. The church, which is an ancient building of brick and stone in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, contains some interesting tombs and monuments, one being to Sir Richard; Alibon, Lord Chief-Justice under James II.. and another tn Sir Thomas Urscoick, recorder of London, knighted by Kin½ Edward on the field of battle, May 5, 1471. There is a Congregational chapel at Chadwell Heath, a Wesleyan Reform chapel at Beacontree Heath, and a Wesleyan chapel in the village of Dagenham. There is an endowed school with £300 a year, and there are some valuable charities.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Essex | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Dagenham St. Peter and St. Paul | |
Hundred | Becontree | |
Poor Law union | Romford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Dagenham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Dagenham (St. Peter and St. Paul))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.
The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.
Maps
Online maps of Dagenham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Essex online: