Barking Side, Essex; population 1828; 9 miles from London by road, 2½
miles north by east from Ilford Station of the Great Eastern Railway.The village is merely
a gathering of a few small houses along a crossroad, and a few others by a scrubby green;
the inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture.Barking Side is in
Barking parish, though 6
m. from the town. In 1841 it was divided from
Ilford, and is now
an ecclesiastical district. The Church, small and neat, is of brick, transition Norman to
Early English There are still green lanes and walks, but the place has now little to
interest a stranger. Formerly the road skirted the pleasantest part of Hainault Forest,
and here was the site of the famous East End saturnalia, Fairlop Fair. The fair was held
originally under the spreading branches of a great oak, about a mile east of the Maypole
Inn. Its reputed founder was a Mr. Daniel Day, an opulent block-maker of Wapping, who
about 1725 commenced to give an entertainment, under the great oak, to his tenants and
friends, at his midsummer rent collection. Day was a local celebrity, and the gathering
seems to have grown into a fair before his death in 1767. After that, the mast and
blockmakers of Wapping regularly visited the fair, which was held "on the first
Friday in July," riding there in two or three fully rigged model ships, mounted on
carriage frames, each drawn by 6 horses, with postilions and outriders, and attended by
music.
The power of holding it was taken away by the Disafforesting Act of
1852, which allotted the site to the Crown. The fair, however, lingered on till the ground
was actually enclosed, four or five years later. Even now, on "the first Friday in
July," the block-makers of Wapping visit Barking Side in their ships, drawn by six
horses, and after skirting the scenes of their old revels, dine at the Maypole or one of
the neighbouring inns.
[Handbook to The Environs of London :
James Thorne 1876]
Church Records:
- Holy Trinity, Mossford Green
Baptisms 1840-1908, Marriages 1842-1904, Burials 1840-1939 : ERO
- St. Cedd, Clayhall
Parish created 1961
- St. Francis, Fencepiece Road
Mission church opened 1890, parish created 1956 from Holy Trinity
- St. George, Woodford Ave
Baptisms and Marriages 1932- date : Not deposited
- St. Lawrence, Donington Ave, Newbury Park
Baptisms 1935-1971, Marriages 1940-1966 : ERO
- St. Augustine (Roman Catholic), Cranbrook Rd. North
Formed 1928
- Dr. Barnardo's Village Home (Girls)
Baptisms 1919-1973 : Barnardo
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Holy Trinity
from an original photograph
by Martin Williams
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Barnardo's Church
from an original photograph
by Martin Williams
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The Barnardo's Church, Girls Village Home
Picture from Joan Renton's postcard collection
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