Old Dagenham Village

A brief history

In 697AD, the King of the East Saxons (Essex) made a land grant to the newly established abbey at Barking.

This land included several settlements including a place called Dakenham (farmstead of a man called Daecca).

Probably very small and insignificant, Daeccas-ham vanishes for over 500 years.

In about 1205, Dagenham and possibly its church is mentioned again. By this time Dagenham seems to have become a small but thriving village.

Like many other villages along the River Thames its lands were divided into 3 parts.

In the south were the marshes where cattle and sheep were grazed and reeds grown for thatching.

To the north, on the heavy clay lands was Hainault Forest, part of the Royal Forest of Essex and a place to graze cattle, sheep and pigs and collect firewood.

In the centre was Dagenham Village built on the drier gravel lands surrounded by small farms. This was the best farming land in Dagenham.

Dagenham Village was a long thin settlement. The main road was originally Dagenham Street, later renamed Crown Street. It and ran from the Parish Church of SS Peter and Paul's east until it met the north-south road to Rainham.

The village continued south on a street called Spark Street, later Bull Lane.

Maps show that Dagenham Village did not alter much between the medieval period and the 19th Century.

By this time, most of Dagenham's farmland had become market gardens supplying London with fruit and vegetables. Dagenham became particularly famous for its rhubarb crop.

Modern transport arrived in Dagenham in the form of railways. In 1885 a new railway station opened just north of the village. A bus service was not provided until the 20th century.

The big changes that altered the character of Dagenham Village and eventually led to its destruction came in 1921. In that year the London County Council began to purchase land in Dagenham, Ilford and Barking for a housing estate.

The new estate, called the Becontree Estate covered the farmlands of Dagenham and surrounded the village.

Thousands of Londoners flooded into Dagenham and the character of the area changed forever.

Much of the old village remained intact until the 1960s and 1970s. However, a serious housing shortage eventually forced the wholesale demolition of the surviving village houses.

All that remains today is the Parish Church, the Vicarage, the Cross Keys Public House, the minor hall (once the first school in Dagenham), the teacher's cottage and a few solitary shops.

Contact

Local Studies Centre

Valence House Museum

Becontree Avenue

Dagenham

RM8 3HT

Tel: 020 8270 6896

Fax: 020 8270 6897

Email: localstudies@lbbd.gov.uk|