DAGENHAM
Including Dagenham East, Dagenham Heathway and Dagenham Village
(See also Becontree)

Dagenham, Essex, 2½ miles northwest from the Rainham Station of the Great Eastern Railway (Southend line); population, including Becontree Heath, 2879.

Dagenham is a long straggling village, chiefly of cottages, some pretty good, some decent, but too many poor, low, and dirty thatched mud huts. The Church, near the east end of the village, has a modern brick nave, an old chancel with a triple lancet east window, and Dec. windows on the south; but all altered: the others are modern. The tower is in part old, but cased with brick, and has a tall slated spire. An inscription, "Wm. Mason, architect, 1800," records the date and perpetrator of the alterations. The interior has tall pews and galleries. Langhorne the poet was for some time curate here.

Becontree Heath, which gives its name to the hundred, is 2 miles north of Dagenham. The heath is enclosed, and is a collection of mean houses, with a beer-shop and Wesleyan chapel. Dagenham Common, the last of the open heathland, fell under the Enclosure Act of 1862. The occupations are chiefly agricultural, a considerable portion of the land being marsh.

Dagenham Breach, or, as it is now called, Dagenham Lake, is an inlet of the Thames, above 1½ miles in length, with an area of nearly 60 acres, formed, as its name implies, by a breach in the Thames wall. After several unsuccessful attempts to close the breach, the task was undertaken by Capt. Perry, who had already distinguished himself by somewhat similar works in Russia. After five years of persevering labour in the face of the most trying difficulties, including the failure of more than one contractor, he restored the embankment, and drained the land, except the portion now known as Dagenham Breach, or Dagenham Lake.

Mrs. Elizabeth Fry used for some years (1826 onwards) to spend her summers in a cottage by Dagenham Lake, "surrounded by trees, mostly willows, on an open space of lawn, with beds of reeds behind them, and on either side covering the river bank."

[Handbook to The Environs of London :
James Thorne 1876]

Church Records:

• St. Peter and St. Paul, Church Lane
  Baptisms 1598-1968, Marriages 1598-1967, Burials 1598-1959 : ERO
• St. Martin, Goresbrook Rd
  Built 1925
• Holy Family Church (Roman Catholic), Oxlow Lane
  Formed 1930
• St. Peter (Roman Catholic), Goresbrook Rd
  Formed 1926
• Methodist Chapel, Heathway
  Marriages 1934-1966 : ERO

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