Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol6/pp317-322
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 16:22:43+00:00

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In the mid 19th century Wanstead parish comprised 2,002 a. (fn. 9) A local board of health was formed for the parish in 1854. In 1931 Wanstead urban district contained 1,679 a. (fn. 10) In 1934 it was united with that of Woodford and in 1937 the combined district became a municipal borough. Wanstead and Woodford became part of Redbridge in 1965. In general that year has been taken as the terminal point of this article.
Until the 19th century Wanstead retained much woodland, part of Epping Forest, small patches of which still survive at Bushwood and Snaresbrook. Wanstead Flats form a wide expanse of ancient heath. North of them are Wanstead Park and Wanstead golf course, which together form a remnant of a larger park formerly attached to Wanstead House, demolished in the 19th century.
Little is known of the medieval pattern of settlement and no buildings survive from that period. The original parish church of St. Mary was a few yards from the present building, which replaced it in 1790. In the Middle Ages Wanstead House, the manor-house, probably stood near the church, as it certainly did in later centuries. Before the 16th century it was of no great size. The manorial buildings of Cann Hall seem to have been even more modest. No other medieval buildings are known by name except Naked Hall, later Aldersbrook.
From the 16th century Wanstead House, under a succession of royal and titled owners, was greatly enlarged. In the 18th century it was rebuilt as a Palladian mansion dominating the parish. (fn. 26) By then, however, the village also was growing. Most of the houses lay north of the park, in the present High Street and in Wanstead (later George) Lane (now Eastern Avenue and Nutter Lane). There were some large houses at Snaresbrook, and cottages at Mobs Hole, a forest-side hamlet later called Nightingale Green. (fn. 27) Wanstead's communications with the outside world then depended mainly on the Leytonstone, Woodford, and Chigwell roads, which were controlled by the newly-formed Middlesex and Essex turnpike trust. (fn. 28) Leytonstone, leading to London, was approached by an unnamed avenue, now Cambridge Park. North of Leytonstone the main road (now Hollybush Hill and Woodford Road) led to Woodford and Epping, with a branch (now New Wanstead and Hermon Hill) to Chigwell and Ongar. Running south from Wanstead, across the park and the Lower Forest (Wanstead Flats), were several paths or tracks. Access to the east was by South (or Parsons, later Redbridge) Lane over Red Bridge to Ilford.
The houses built in Wanstead between 1860 and 1918 were larger on average than those in neighbouring suburbs, (fn. 71) and included a large proportion of detached and semi-detached types. Since 1918 the shortage of land and increasing urbanization have restricted house sizes, and have stimulated the building of flats, including a tall block at the corner of New Wanstead and High Street, and others in Eastern Avenue. In 1971 High Street was in process of redevelopment as the main shopping centre of Wanstead. The older buildings, many of them damaged by bombing, were gradually being replaced by modern blocks.
Modern development has preserved the lines of most of the old roads, though some of their names have been changed. During the early 19th century Long-Wellesley, the lord of the manor, made several attempts to close public paths across his park, but he was only partly successful. (fn. 72) An Act of 1816 authorized the construction of Blake Hall Road in place of a former track, and gave protection to certain paths in the park, including three which later became Overton Drive, St. Mary's Avenue, and Langley Drive. (fn. 73) The most important modern road is Eastern Avenue (1925), the arterial road to Southend and Colchester. (fn. 74) Its western end, at Wanstead, was formed by widening George Lane as far as Elm Hall and building an extension down to Red Bridge. Eastern Avenue, and its feeder Cambridge Park, cuts through the centre of Wanstead, and its heavy traffic has changed the character of the town.
The Commercial Travellers' school originated in 1845, when Robert Cuffley, himself a traveller, took the lead in raising funds to provide a school for the children of deceased or necessitous commercial travellers. (fn. 132) A house was bought in George Lane and the school opened there in 1847. By 1854 there were 135 children, and in 1855 the school was moved to Pinner (Mdx.), where it survived until 1967.
1. O.S. Map 2½" TQ 38, 39, 48, 49. See map above, p. 180.
3. See p. 174. Developments in Cann Hall after 1875 are treated under Leyton.
5. W.H.L., W. Ham Vestry Mins. 25 Feb. 1790.
6. See p. 167. Cf. H. Smith, Eccl. Hist. Essex, 247.
7. e.g. in 1613 (E.R.O., D/DQs 17) and 1723 (E.R.O., D/P 292/8/7).
9. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXV and LXXIII (surv. 1863–73).
11. The topography favours the interpretation of Wanstead as meaning 'hill place': P.N. Essex (E.P.N.S.), 109.
12. e.g. J. Speed, Map of Essex (1610).
14. J. Rocque, Environs of London (1744–6), sheet iv; E.R.O., D/CT 384 (Tithe Map, 1841); J. E. Tuffs, Story of Wanstead and Woodford, 28. For the tenement called Sayes see below p. 323.
15. E.R.O., D/CT 384; D/DCw P47; D/DCy P3, pp. 115, 119, 154, 160. See also above, p. 175.
16. Cf. W. Eastment, Wanstead through the Ages (1969 edn.), 113–14; Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 94.
17. Rocque, Environs London (1744–6), sheet iv.
18. M. Christy and M. Thresh, Mineral Waters and Medicinal Springs of Essex, 11–12.
19. V.C.H. Essex, iii. 198.
20. Ibid. i. 438, 497.
21. E 179/107/13 m. 23d. Most of those assessed were probably in Wanstead.
23. Lysons, London, iv. 241.
24. Census Reps. 1801 sqq.: cf. V.C.H. Essex, v. 5, 64.
25. Some of the ward boundaries cut across the parish boundaries.
26. J. Rocque, Environs Lond. (1744–6) sheet iv; Chapman and André, Map of Essex (1777), sheets xvi, xxi.
27. Cf. Eastment, Wanstead, 110–11.
29. E. Nat. vii. 104; E.R.O., Q/CP 1, f. 32; P.N. Essex, 99.
30. E.R.O., Q/CP 3, ff. 4, 140; J. E. Oxley, Barking Vestry Mins. 161; E.R.O., D/P 292/8/7, 19 May 1755 sqq.; ibid. 292/8/10, 24 Nov. 1811 sqq.
31. Eastment, Wanstead, 99; cf. E.R.O., Q/SR 331/28: refs. to the 'newbuilt bridge'; E.R.O., T/P 94/1.
32. Ilford Official Handbk. (1958), 22; Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 110.
33. D. Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, ed. G. D. H. Cole, i. 5–6.
34. Lysons, London, iv. 241.
35. Morant, Essex, i. 31; D.N.B. s.v. Dashwood, F., baron le Despenser.
36. Named on Rocque's map (1744–6); cf. D.N.B. s.v. Pound, Jas.
37. Eastment, Wanstead, 49, 55, 83–90; E.R.O., Library Vert. Folder, 'Wanstead Grove, the seat of the Hon. Anne Rushout'.
38. E.R.O., T/P 94/7; Architectural History, xiv. 27.
39. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 39, 81; J. Oliver, Map of Essex (1696).
40. R.C.H.M., Essex, ii. 250; Tuffs, op. cit. 122.
41. Eastment, op. cit. 100; R.C.H.M., Essex, ii. 249.
42. R.C.H.M., Essex, ii. 249.
43. Named on Rocque's Map (1744–6); Eastment, Wanstead, 96.
44. Pevsner, Bdgs. of Essex (1965 edn.), 413; R.C.H.M. Essex, ii. 249. (Elm House, i.e. Hall).
45. Eastment, Wanstead, 98; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1926 and earlier edns.); Char. Com. files.
46. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 40, 99.
47. E.R.O., D/DB T545; Eastment, op. cit. 106.
48. E.R.O., Vert. Folder, Newscutting signed W.H.B.
49. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/9, 14 Aug. 1791; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1870, cf. 1878); O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXV (surv. 1863–9).
50. Gents. Mag. Feb. 1806, 188. Their reopening was recorded in 1755: E.R.O., D/DU 546/2.
52. E.R.O., D/DCw M10 and 11.
54. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/10, 14 Nov. 1821.
55. As distinct from 'houses', 'residences', or 'mansions': E.R.O., D/CT 384.
56. E.R.O., D/DCy P3 (map 1815–16); O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXV and LXXIII (surv. 1863–73).
57. Pevsner, Bdgs. of Essex, 413.
58. This charity is associated with the Weavers' Company, who under a Scheme of 1968 may admit any poor person.
59. Probably named from the family of Jeremiah Harman (fl. 1813): E.R.O., D/P 292/8/10, 8 Mar. 1813. The Harmans also held land in Walthamstow: see above, p. 259.
60. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXV and LXXIII (surv. 1863–73); Kelly's Dir. Essex (1878 and 1882).
63. Ibid.; E.R.O., Sale Cat. A 494.
66. E.R.O., T/P 94/9; ibid. Sale Cat. A 1076. It had been part of the manor of Aldersbrook: see above, p. 167.
67. E.R.O., T/P 94/7; A. N. Harrisson, Hist. Park Ward, Wanstead, 13.
69. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 110.
70. S. Tiquet, It happened here, passim. In the whole borough of Wanstead and Woodford 509 houses were destroyed.
71. V.C.H. Essex, v. 50.
72. W.H.L., Hiram Stead, 'Materials for the Hist. of Wanstead House etc.', ff. 64, 129; E.R.O., T/B 39.
73. Woodford and Ilford Roads Act, 56 Geo. III, c. 8 (local and personal); Proc. Woodford Antiq. Soc. ii. 16.
74. Redbridge Official Guide (1969), 47.
75. T. de Laune, Present state of London, 435.
76. Universal Brit. Dir. (1791), i. 605.
77. Johnstone's Lond. Dir. (1822–3), 22, 38; Robson's Lond. Dir. (1833), 29; Robson's Dir. Essex (1840); White's Dir. Essex (1848), 265; V.C.H. Essex, v. 23; Proc. Woodford Antiq. Soc. ii. 16–17; Eastment, Wanstead, 123–4.
79. V.C.H. Essex, v. 29.
81. Ibid. 72; Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 121.
82. V.C.H. Essex, v. 72; Pevsner, Essex, 413.
83. T. de Laune, Present state of London (1692).
84. G. Brummell, Local Posts of London, 1680–1840, 81.
85. Brit. Postal Guide (1856).
86. Post Office Guide (1917).
87. Inf. from Regional Director, London Postal Region; London Post Offices and Streets (1950).
89. Kelly's Leytonstone, Wanstead etc. Dir. (1893).
90. Kelly's Dir. Essex (1902, 1912).
91. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/11, May 1864; inf. from N. Thames Gas Board.
92. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 112; East Ham B.C. Mins. (1912–13), 742.
93. V.C.H. Essex, v. 75; Tuffs, op. cit. 112.
95. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/6, 29 June 1713.
96. Inf. from Metropolitan Water Board.
97. E.R.O., T/P 94/7; see also Wanstead and Woodford Official Guides (1954, 1964).
98. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/6, 19 May 1729.
99. E.R.O., D/P 292/8/7, 3 Apr. 1758; 292/8/9, 22 Dec. 1777, 7 Dec. 1778.
100. Wanstead Par. Mag. Jan. 1874; Eastment, Wanstead, 169–70; E.R.O., T/P 94/15; Express and Independent Almanack (1893), 88.
101. Inf. from Essex County Fire Brigade.
102. E. Nat. vi. 105; Wanstead Par. Mag. (1910). The site was then in Wanstead, but boundary changes later took it into East Ham.
103. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 111.
104. Inf. from the Secretary, Wanstead Hosp.
105. Tuffs, op. cit. 90.
107. Kelly's Dir. Essex (1845): Julia Scales.
109. Inf. from Essex Co. Library.
110. The opening of Wanstead Library (pamph. 1969).
111. A. Hadley, Wanstead Friends' Mag., 26; Tuffs, op. cit. 96.
113. W.H.L., Hiram Stead, 'Materials for the Hist. of Wanstead Ho. etc.', f. 129.
114. G. Berridge, The First Century (1966).
115. Ibid. 39; Eastment, Wanstead, 143.
116. Berridge, op. cit. 42; Eastment, op. cit. 146.
117. W.H.L., H. Stead, 'Materials', ff. 150, 163.
118. Ibid., f. 161. For other cultural bodies and activities see Eastment, Wanstead, 148–51.
120. D.N.B. Bradley, J., Pound, J.; Eastment, Wanstead, 130–7. For other notable rectors see below, p. 333.
122. Tuffs, Wanstead and Woodford, 61–2.
124. Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 279.
125. D.N.B.; Eastment, Wanstead, 142.
127. White's Dir. Essex (1848).
128. W.H.L., Hiram Stead, 'Materials for Hist. Wanstead House', f. 142.
129. White's Dir. Essex (1863); Kelly's Dir. Essex (1862 sqq.).
130. See plate f.p. 325.
132. Paragraph based on: inf. from the Secretary, Royal Pinner Sch. Foundation; E.R.O., Excursions in Essex (extra-illus.), ii. 196 (newscutting, n.d.). Some records of this school have been deposited with the Greater London Council Record Dept.
133. Kelly's Dir. Essex (1882).
134. Kelly's Dir. Leytonstone etc. (1926), A25.

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