RAINHAM
Rainham, Essex, on the Ingrebourn, about a mile from
its outfall in the Thames at Rainham Ferry; 5 miles east of Barking on the road to Grays,
12½ miles from Whitechapel and a Station on the London and Southend Railway: population
1122. Inns, Phoenix, by the station, a comfortable house, with outlook over the Thames;
Angel; Bell.
The village extends for some distance along the London road, here a
crooked street lined with old-fashioned houses and occasional gardens, large coal yards
and wharfs by the brook, which forms a creek navigable by lighters to the bridge, and the
old church with a large old red-brick house by it, just off the main street. Rainham is
the centre and port of an extensive district of market gardens, and a considerable trade
is done in carrying potatoes and the like by the lighters to London and bringing back coal
and manure. The neighbourhood is pleasing, the cottage gardens abound in flowers, and the
walks along the uplands north and east afford bright glimpses of the Thames and the
Kentish hills.
The Church (St. Helen and St. Giles, a unique conjunction) was given by
Richard de Lucy, Grand Justiciar of England, 1179, to his Abbey of Lesness, and probably
was built, or rebuilt, about that time. The body of the church is late Norman, with
windows of later insertion. The low massive square tower is Early English, and has heavy
buttresses and modern brick battlements. A doorway south of the chancel has a late Norman
arch, with good chevron moulding and grotesque heads to the small caps. The chancel arch
is Norman with plain mouldings. The pier arcades have square shafts and dentil mouldings
to the caps. The only noteworthy memorial is a late 15th century brass of a civilian and
his wife, without an inscription. Charles Churchill, the poet, was curate to his father,
who was rector of Rainham, about 1756-58 and is said to have opened a school here, which
was not successful.
At Rainham Ferry, at the mouth of Rainham Creek, are wharves and the
Three Crowns Inn. Here is the City rifle range, much used by London volunteers.
[Handbook to The Environs of London : James Thorne 1876]
Church Records:
- St. Helen and St. Giles, Broadway
Baptisms 1570-1944,
Marriages 1583-1942,
Burials 1583-1952 : ERO
Monumental Inscriptions :
EoLFHS Publications
- Our Lady of La Salette (Roman Catholic), Rainham Rd
|
