Wanstead, Essex
Historical Description
Wanstead, a parish, with a village and Snaresbrook hamlet in Essex, on the river Roding, 1½ mile NW of Ilford station, and about a furlong from Snaresbrook station on the G.E.R., and 7 NE of London. It is within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court and the Metropolitan Police District, and is in the Eastern Metropolitan Postal District. Acreage, 1914 of land and 50 of water; population, 26,282. The manor belonged in the late Saxon times to St Paul's, London; was held at Domesday by R. Fitzbrien; and passed to the Huntercombes, the Herons, the Crown, Lord Rich, the Earl of Leicester, the Mildmays, the Childs, the Tylneys, and the Wellesleys, and now belongs to Earl Cowley. A Roman pavement and other Roman antiquities were found in the park in 1735. There are numerous good residences. Wanstead Park has an area of about 184 acres, and contains some beautiful pieces of water, a heronry, and a large rookery. It is under the control of the corporation of London, and was opened to the public in 1882. Wanstead Flats form a large open space, which has been drained, levelled, and partly planted with trees and shrubs. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £712 with residence, in the gift of Earl Cowley. The church was rebuilt in 1790, and is a building of brick cased with Portland stone in the Classic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisle, W porch, and a Doric portico surmounted by a cupola. A chapel of ease was built in 1861, and enlarged in 1867, and it acquired a tower and spire in 1868. There are Congregational, Free Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels, a Friends' meeting-house, and a large infant orphan asylum. Snaresbrook is noticed separately under that heading.
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 | Wanstead St. Mary | |
Hundred | Becontree | |
Poor Law union | West Ham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wanstead from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wanstead (St. Mary))
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 Wanstead 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: