WANSTEAD
Including Aldersbrook (also mentioned under Little Ilford) and Snaresbrook

Wanstead, Essex, lies on the right of the Chigwell road, between it and the river Roding, about 3 miles beyond Stratford, and 6 miles from Whitechapel church by road; ½ mile southeast of the Snaresbrook Station of the Great Eastern Railway (Ongar line). Population 5119, but this includes the hamlet of Snaresbrook, and 647 persons in the infant Orphan Asylum, 209 in the Merchant Seamen's Orphanage, and 74 in Woodhouse Asylum. Inns, George; Nightingale

The little rambling village is very pleasantly situated towards the southern extremity of Epping Forest, only the long level waste, known as Wanstead Flats, lying beyond it, west of it is Leytonstone, north Woodford.

Wanstead appears to have been a Roman station. In 1715, in digging holes to plant an avenue in Wanstead Park, the workmen came upon a Roman pavement, which they traced about 20 ft. from north to south and 16 ft. from east to west. It was formed of small square coloured tesserae, had in the centre a figure of a man on horseback, and a border of scrollwork about 1 ft. wide. At other times foundations of buildings, fragments of pottery, silver and brass coins, etc., have been found. Within the park stands Wanstead Church (of the Virgin Mary), built 1787-90, at the cost of Sir James Tylney-Long in place of the old parish church, which was small, inconvenient, and dilapidated. The new church, which was designed by Thomas Hardwick, is of Portland stone, a plain rectangular cube, with, at the west end, a tetrastyle Doric portico, and a small cupola-crowned Ionic turret. The interior is in like manner coldly classic, as classic architecture was then understood. But it is well and even elegantly finished; the nave is separated from the aisles by Corinthian columns, and the east window is filled with painted glass.

On the west of Wanstead Park, divided from it by the road to Snaresbrook, remains what looks like a wild bit of the Forest, but having avenues across it, the chief nearly a mile long -no doubt relies of the old avenues of Sir Josiah Child's planting. The larger avenue, known as The Avenue, is a favourite resort of East-end holiday-makers and school parties, who come here during the summer months in vans and other vehicles in prodigious numbers, and amuse themselves with swings, donkey and pony races, and a variety of sports. Some of the trees are large, but the best timber trees have been felled.

The village lies north of Wanstead Park, about the Green and Grove, and the lanes running off towards Barking Side, Snaresbrook, and Woodford. New houses have land been built wherever land could be obtained, some large and good, but the greater part of moderate size, and many small. The country though much altered, is still rural, sylvan, and in places almost forestal. On the north side of the Green a new church (Christ Church) was built in 1861, and enlarged and a new tower and spire added in 1871. It is a very good village church, of stone with slated roofs; early Dec. in style, with plate tracery to the nave window; comprises nave with wide aisles, chancel, tower at the northwest, with octagonal stone spire, and south porch. The east and west windows are filled with painted glass.

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

Church Records:

• St. Mary, Overton Drive
  Baptisms 1640-1863,
  Marriages 1641-1838,
  Burials 1641-1863 : ERO
• Christ Church
  Built 1861 as chapel-of-ease to St. Mary
• St. Gabriel, Aldersbrook Rd
  Baptisms 1903- date,
  Marriages 1914- date : Not deposited
• Our Lady of Lourdes (Roman Catholic), Cambridge Park
  Formed 1919