Dagenham Heritage

Dagenham became the eastern half of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in 1965. Like its Barking sibling it has been settled by people since pre-historic times. It's first know resident being the 'Dagenham Idol' - sometimes fondly known as 'Dagenham Dave' - a carved wooden figure which is over 4,000 years old (on display in Valence House Museum). This was found buried in the liminal lands of the marshes where the Gorsebrook flows towards the Thames. The Gorsebrook also formed the ancient boundary with Barking. To the east the River Rom - known as the Beam in Dagenham, due to the Beam Bridge built for better access to Romford - is the historic boundary with Havering.

Dagenham was named in Saxon times (as was Barking) as Dacca's homestead ('ham'). Both Barking and Dagenham were early Saxon settlements in the East Saxon area, now known as Essex. Most of the land fell under the lordship and control of the Abesses of Barking Abbey, until its dissolution in the 1500s.

The Church of St Peter and St Paul was established early in the thirteenth century for the residents of Dagenham, it was largely rebuilt in the early 1800s after the tower collapsed, and remains the focal point of the old village today. A map of Dagenham Village from 1653 shows the 'Crossed Keys' in Church Street. The oldest parts of this building were constructed during the fifteenth century and it was restored by Charrington's Brewery in 1962. It was known as the Queen's Head for a period from 1700.

Many of the ancient buildings of Dagenham have been removed, including most of Crown Street, during the 1960s and Old George's (Tudor) House removed in 1914. Dagenham has one remaining Manor House - Valence House - named after its medieval residents Agnes and her brother Aymer de Valence - children of the Earl of Pembroke. The majority of the current building dates from the seventeenth century but earlier buildings are also incorporated and the manor was established by the thirteenth century.

Other Manors have left their names behind at: Mark's Gate, Parsloes Park and Porters Avenue. Cockermouth was near Chequers Lane - where the public house has named the locality rather than the the old manor.

Dagenham stretches narrowly, northwards to Hainault Forest via Chadwell Heath, whilst its central part bulges with the Becontree Estate (built over one hundred years ago as council housing) and Beacontree Heath - the probable meeting place of the Hundred Court until 1465. Dagenham tapers southwards to the Thames, where much of the area was industrialised in the nineteenth century - when Samuel Willliams built Dagenham Dock and its station. Industrialisation continued in the twentieth century when Ford Motor Works purchased land from Williams and further eastwards along the Dagenham stretch of the Thames. The film Made in Dagenham portrays the female sewing machinists strike of 1968 - which went some way towards Barbara Castle's Equal Pay Act.

The site of the chemical works, close to Dagenham East Station, is a major area of regeneration - where the Film Studios is emerging and set to provide many new forms of employment and opportunities for Dagenham residents and beyond. Meanwhile new housing developments stretch alongside the Ford Works at Beam Park and Dagenham Green.