Country Parks and Nature Reserves

Eastbrookend Country Park

Sunday 1 June 2008, 10am - 4pm

Eastbrookend Country Park provides local people with the chance to experience the pleasures of the countryside on their doorstep.

A beautiful reclaimed area of 197.6 acres of countryside to the east of Dagenham in the Dagenham Corridor between the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Havering (location map).

It is managed by the Parks and Countryside Ranger Service and is open throughout the year (car parks open dawn till dusk).

The paths are crushed, compacted hoggin and are suitable for some wheelchair users, please contact the Parks and Countryside Ranger for further accessibility information.

History of Eastbrookend

The area now known as Eastbrookend Country Park was once countryside and farmland.

Dagenham grew fast during the urban development boom of the 1920s and 1930s and this area was used to source gravel used to make concrete to build the huge Becontree Estate and the town that became Dagenham.

The gravel workings left Eastbrookend devastated and resembling a rubbish dump. The gravel pits were then used to dump rubble from the bombing of London during the second World War 1939-1945, and as a result Eastbrookend started to look like a bomb site.

The land was still being used as a dumping ground as late as the 1970s, until we decided that the land was worth reclaiming and that the land could be an ideal site for both people and wildlife.

Regeneration of Eastbrookend

The construction of Eastbrookend Country Park got under way in the 1990s.

During this time large scale earthmoving was undertaken to develop an interesting, undulating landscape on what was formerly land filled derelict land.

The landfill was capped with a layer of impermeable clay and topsoil, this was prepared for sowing with treated sewage sludge and large scale seeding was undertaken using wild flower grassland mixes that are particularly suited to poor soils.

More than 50,000 small trees (whips) were planted in fenced off compartments and a series of interconnecting footpaths were constructed across the whole site, using locally sourced gravel.

The park was opened in 1995.

Picture of the lake at Eastbrookend Country Park