Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol6/pp1-8
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 12:23:39+00:00

Document:
THE ORIGIN OF NORTH WOOLWICH.
The Origin of North Woolwich, p. 8. Manors and Other Estates, p. 8. Economic History, p. 14. Marshes and Sea Defences, p. 17. Forest, p. 18. Local Government, p. 18. Public Services, p. 23. Parliamentary Representation, p. 24. Churches, p. 25. Roman Catholicism, p. 31. Protestant Nonconformity, p. 32. Judaism, p. 38. Education, p. 38. Charities for the Poor, p. 42.
Roman remains, sufficiently numerous to prove a littoral settlement, have been found near St. Mary's church and at North Woolwich. (fn. 13) Until the later 12th century references to Ham ('low-lying pasture') do not distinguish between East and West Ham, and are therefore difficult to interpret precisely. (fn. 14) The Domesday evidence suggests that the main settlement then, as in Roman times, was in the south, and that the northern part of the parish was thickly wooded. (fn. 15) In 1086 the total recorded population of the two manors in East Ham was 72, indicating a substantial village. East Ham was not then greatly outranked in size by West Ham. It may have retained its relative position in the 12th century, when there was evidently much forest clearance in the parish, but between the 14th century and the 17th, while West Ham greatly increased in importance, East Ham seems to have stagnated or even declined. This was at least partly due to flooding in the later Middle Ages.
As late as 1670 there were only 79 houses in the parish. (fn. 16) The number increased to 94 in 1762 and to about 150 in 1796. (fn. 17) In 1801 the population was 1,165. It rose slowly to 2,264 in 1861. (fn. 18) Growth then became rapid, with industrial development on Thames-side, and suburban house-building advancing eastwards from West Ham. By 1891, having annexed Little Ilford, East Ham was a town of 32,713, and during the next 10 years it grew much faster than any other place of its size in England, to 96,018 in 1901. The peak population was reached about 1914, though the highest official figure, of 143,246, was recorded in 1921. Since the 1930s the population has decreased, partly as a result of wartime bombing, to 120,836 in 1951 and 105,682 in 1961. Since the Second World War many immigrants, mainly from the Commonwealth, India, and Pakistan, have settled in East Ham. In 1961 the resident population included 2,793 born outside the British Isles, or 2.6 per cent of the total.
Little is known of the later medieval pattern of settlement. The most important change in that period seems to have been the destruction by floods of the hamlet at North Woolwich. (fn. 19) The evidence for the existence of that hamlet includes the Domesday entry relating to Westminster Abbey's estate in East Ham (Hammarsh), and various later references, especially from 14th-century deeds. (fn. 20) Chapel field, mentioned in and after 1315, indicates the existence of a chapel then or earlier, and the foundations of that building were still visible in the 18th century. (fn. 21) Chapel field was in the larger or eastern detached part of Woolwich parish, just outside East Ham, (fn. 22) and it is clear that the hamlet lay across the boundary between the two parishes. One statement implies that this settlement was destroyed by a great flood in 1236 (fn. 23) but the process may have been more gradual, possibly culminating in the floods of the late 14th and early 15th centuries. From about 1500 the flooded lands at North Woolwich were being reclaimed, but until the 19th century they seem to have been used only for grazing, and not for habitation.
Lloyd, a wealthy business man working in London, was a type of resident already common in some Essex places near the city but previously rare here. Between 1750 and 1850 East Ham was attracting such men in increasing, though never large numbers, and this was naturally reflected in its buildings. Lloyd's nephew Ynyr Burges lived in an unnamed house in High Street South, which had been built about 1760 and which he enlarged in 1774. (fn. 59) Among other large houses probably dating from the later 18th century were The Limes and Wood House, both in High Street North; the latter was unusual in having a weather-boarded façade and may have been entirely of timber construction. At Potato (or Plashet) Hall, a house of the same period in Romford Road, the roof was surmounted by an octagonal lantern. (fn. 60) This seems to have been a favourite feature in the area, probably because of the view it could command of the river Thames and its shipping. The old Black Lion in High Street North and the White House in Plashet Grove were probably built in the early 19th century. (fn. 61) The Manor House at Manor Park (fn. 62) and Plashet Cottage in Katherine Road, (fn. 63) both associated with the Frys, were certainly of that period. East Ham House in St. Bartholomew's Road, (fn. 64) with its 'Greek' porch, dates from c. 1830, and the Green Man, at the junction of Plashet Grove and Katherine Road, is in the gabled Tudor style of the mid 19th century. Meanwhile East Ham was attracting cottagers of a new kind: Irish potato workers. (fn. 65) These men and their families were housed in short two-storey terraces: Irish Row in Romford Road, Bullyrag Row in Wakefield Street, Salt Box Row in High Street South, and others. (fn. 66) Of all the buildings mentioned in this paragraph only three survive: the Green Man, East Ham House, and the Manor House at Manor Park.
Some verses written about 1850 refer to East Ham's 'dead flats … Marshes full of water rats, onions and greens, black ditches and foul drains'. (fn. 67) At that date, or a little earlier, the villagers still believed the parish to be haunted. (fn. 68) But it was beginning to lose its rural character. The first area to be thus affected was North Woolwich. In 1828 a philanthropist named Mills had tried to establish an industrial colony centred on a brickworks there. (fn. 69) This failed, but the opening of the North Woolwich railway (1847), (fn. 70) the Victoria Dock (1855), (fn. 71) and Henley's cable works (1859) (fn. 72) provided conditions more favourable to urban development. By the 1870s streets were being laid out on both sides of North Woolwich railway station, (fn. 73) and the transformation of the area was completed in 1880 by the opening of the Albert Dock. The houses built there during this period were crowded into long terraces, to accommodate the families of dock workers and sailors. The building of the King George V Dock (1912–21) necessitated the demolition of some of these houses. The area was heavily bombed during the Second World War, and since the war the East Ham section of North Woolwich has been largely redeveloped.
A mile north-east, still on the coastal fringe of the parish, the industrial village of Beckton grew up beside the great works of the Gas Light & Coke Co., opened in 1870. Here the workers lived in wellbuilt company houses, which are still in use. Between Beckton and North Woolwich was the housing estate of New Beckton. The first part of this was built in 1881, (fn. 74) and its street names commemorate persons and places that had been in the news during the previous decade, including Plevna (Street) and Cyprus (Place). Cyprus, as the whole estate was called for many years, was a squalid development, a long-standing nuisance to the local board because of its lack of main drainage. (fn. 75) Contemporary with it was another small slum area north of Vicarage Lane, at Bonny Downs. This pleasant name, taken from a field originally called Burnels Downs, (fn. 76) was also applied to one of the streets of the estate, which disappeared from the map when Bonny Downs Road and adjacent streets were redeveloped after the Second World War.
In the central and northern areas of East Ham the opening of railway lines by the Eastern Counties and the London, Tilbury, and Southend companies (fn. 77) had by 1860 prepared the way for rapid suburban development, and this started about 1880, when houses began to go up on the eastern fringes of the parish. (fn. 78) The Boleyn estate, east of Green Street House, commemorated by its street names not only Anne Boleyn, whose legendary connexion with the house is discussed below, (fn. 79) but also most of the other wives of Henry VIII. The houses there were also of the slum type, erected by builders who were continually contravening the by-laws. The area is now (1966) being redeveloped. The Woodgrange estate, at Manor Park and Forest Gate, was much better, and included some larger detached houses as well as terraces. The Manor Park side of it, from Durham Road to Romford Road, was mostly completed about 1883, and the Forest Gate side, from Hampton Road to Romford Road (so far as this lay in East Ham) a few years later. The developer was A. Cameron Corbett, who later built much of Ilford. (fn. 80) He operated on a large scale, and kept down his prices while maintaining a good standard.
South of Woodgrange, at Plashet, development began in 1883 with the sale of the Plashet House estate (between St. Stephen's Road and Plashet Grove). (fn. 81) This estate, with adjoining parts of East and West Ham, became known as Upton Park. By 1890 building was in progress in the whole Plashet area from Green Street to High Street North, including the estates of Plashet Cottage (Grosvenor, Eversleigh, and Spencer Roads), Plashet Hall (Sherrard, Halley, Strone, and Monega Roads), and Wood House (between Woodhouse Grove and High Street North).
Shortly before 1890 the Burges family, who were the largest landowners in East Ham, began to develop their estate, comprising some 400 a., mainly in the centre and east of the parish, but including sections in the south near St. Mary's church and in Roman Road. These developments went on steadily until the First World War, and were completed after the war. (fn. 82) Among them was the area between High Street North and Burges Road, and that to the south of St. Bartholomew's church.
The new estates at Upton Park and Plashet, and those on the Burges lands, were nearly all the same: long terraces of small but well-built dwellings for clerks and skilled workers. Most of the other houses built in East Ham between 1890 and 1914 were of similar type. The most important exception was at Manor Park, where some poor building took place between 1895 and 1899 on the Little Ilford Manor farm estate, part of which, in Grantham, Alverstone, and Walton Roads, soon became slums, which are now (1966) being redeveloped. (fn. 83) Council housing, before 1914, was represented by some 200 dwellings in cottage terraces, in Savage Gardens, New Beckton, and Brooks Avenue, off High Street South.
The most notable public building erected during this period was the town hall, completed in 1903, which stands at the junction of Barking Road and High Street South. It was designed by Cheers & Smith (fn. 84) and is built of dark red brick, lavishly ornamented with buff terra-cotta in a variety of early Renaissance styles. (fn. 85) The two frontages are set back behind trees and the angle between them is emphasized by a tall clock-tower. Adjoining the town hall are other municipal buildings erected a little later in similar styles and materials. The dominance of the clock-tower has been somewhat lessened since 1962 by the eight storeys of the new technical college on the opposite side of High Street South. The Methodist central hall, further east in Barking Road, formed part of the same group until its demolition in 1969. Other important churches built before 1914 are St. Michael's, Little Ilford (Romford Road) (1898–1906), St. Barnabas', Manor Park (Browning Road) (1900–9), and St. Bartholomew's, East Ham (Barking Road). St. Bartholomew's (1902–10) which replaced St. John's (High Street North) (1866, demolished 1925), was rebuilt in 1949–53 after war damage. East Ham's largest Anglican church, St. Stephen's, Upton Park (Green Street) (1887–94) was also bombed and was not rebuilt.
Between 1914 and 1939 there was little building. During the Second World War the borough suffered heavy bombing, especially in the south, and after the war the corporation undertook extensive redevelopment. (fn. 86) This includes Priory Court, Priory Road (1953), containing 96 flats in a multi-storey block, adjoining the old Boleyn estate, (fn. 87) and Durban Court, Katherine Road (1960), a 6-storey block with clinics on the ground floor and 30 flats above. (fn. 88) The largest scheme, completed in 1965, was the redevelopment of North Woolwich, providing 488 new dwellings. (fn. 89) This included the closure of the short roads linking Albert Road and Woodman Street; the building of small 'town squares' dominated by five-point blocks of 8-storey flats and closed by small blocks of flats and houses in Albert Walk; a local shopping precinct at the junction of Woodman Street and Pier Road; and the re-location of certain industries. The corporation also erected a number of new schools between 1945 and 1965. Plashet secondary school, Plashet Grove (1951), and the new technical college, High Street South (1962), both on confined sites, are multi-storey blocks of glass and concrete. The Langdon Crescent schools (1951–3), on the other hand, are low brick buildings, loosely grouped on an extensive site. A few churches have been erected since 1945, usually to replace older and larger ones, or those destroyed by bombing. Among them is the Wakefield Street Congregational church (1959).
The southern boundary of the ancient county of Essex followed the Thames everywhere except at two points, where it curved inland, leaving two pieces of the parish of Woolwich (Kent) on the north bank of the river, separated by a tongue of East Ham. Until the 19th century these detached parts of Woolwich were usually described as 'Woolwich in the parts of Essex' or something similar. (fn. 131) The term North Woolwich appears to have been applied first to the railway of that name, opened in 1847, (fn. 132) but soon came to be used for the whole coastal area on the north bank of the river opposite Woolwich.
Hasted, in his History of Kent, suggested that the detached parts of Woolwich originated through a connexion with Hamon dapifer, who in 1086 was sheriff of Kent and also held land at Woolwich and neighbouring places in that county. (fn. 133) He cited no evidence, apart from Domesday Book, to support his theory; but he was almost certainly right.
There is little doubt that in 1086 Hamon dapifer held the whole of Woolwich including the detached parts. Woolwich is mentioned by that name only once in Domesday: Hamon held in demesne 63 a. 'which belong to (pertinent in) Woolwich'; and which before the Conquest had been held by William the Falconer. (fn. 136) Pertinent in is an appropriate phrase to describe a detached part, and the size of this tenement is remarkably similar to that of North Woolwich detached part No 1. Hamon also held, under Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the manor of Eltham. This large manor undoubtedly included much of Woolwich, (fn. 137) probably including detached part No. 2.
At Woolwich, including the detached parts, Hamon was thus lord of the manor as well as sheriff. If, before his time, the detached parts had belonged to Essex, he would have had both a motive and an opportunity to add it to his own county of Kent. At this period the financial perquisites of a shrievalty were great, and some sheriffs made unscrupulous use of their opportunities. (fn. 142) Hamon's contemporary, Baldwin, sheriff of Devon, seems to have tampered with the boundary between Devon and Cornwall in his own interests. (fn. 143) What is known of Hamon's character strongly suggests that he was quite capable of doing the same. Domesday Book records several encroachments by him upon the lands of his Essex neighbours, including the king, and in one case his refusal to render a customary due. (fn. 144) His highhandedness as sheriff of Kent is implicit in his gift of the church of Dartford, which belonged to the king's manor there, to Rochester cathedral. (fn. 145) While absolute proof is lacking, it seems likely that the Woolwich boundaries, north of the Thames, were the result of a similar piece of aggression by this 11th-century baronial sheriff. The anomaly continued to exist until 1965, when North Woolwich was incorporated in the London borough of Newham.
1. O.S. Map 2½", sheets TQ 47, 48. See maps below, pp. 6, 48. Some preliminary work on this article was done by Mr. J. M. Montgomery.
2. For this part of the boundary see V.C.H. Essex, v. 184.
4. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXIII (1863–73 edn.).
7. Ibid. 1961. For E. Ham's civic arms, which were unofficial, see E.R. xxiv. 59–60.
9. Chapman and André, Map of Essex, 1777, sheet xxi.
10. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1656–7, 456 and later refs. to: ibid. 1673, 67.
11. Cf. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXXI (1870–82 edn.); E. Ham U.D.C. Map, 1901. For Ham creek c. 1890 see plate f. p. 22.
12. Excursions in Essex (1818), i. 183; A. Stokes, E. Ham, 123.
13. V.C.H. Essex, iii. 137–8.
17. Lysons, London, iv. 147.
18. These and the following figures are from the Census Reports.
19. For the floods see p. 17.
20. Cat. Anct. D. vi. C 3285, 5756 etc. (see index s.v. Woolwich).
21. Ibid. 4909, 4165; Morant, Essex, i. 39.
23. Lysons, London, iv. 558n.
24. Chapman and André, Map of Essex, 1777, sheet xxi; cf. E.R.O., T/M 18 (dated 1764) and 21–5 (c. 1775) which show the centre and east of the parish; E.R.O., D/P 156/28 (1800), shows the whole parish; cf. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXIII (1863–73 edn.).
25. Cal. Close 1447–54, 350.
26. A. P. Crouch, Silvertown, 55; W.A.M., Lease Bks. lxiv. 31b: lease of 1846 mentions a military road.
27. E.H.L., E. Ham U.D.C. Mins. 19 Nov. 1896.
28. Jews farm appears on Chapman and André, Map of Essex, 1777, sheet xxi. It was probably the home of the Jew recorded in E. Ham in 1766: Guildhall MS. 9558, f. 169.
29. Stokes, E. Ham, 114.
30. E.R.O., D/DPe M15, f. 30.
32. For Plashet cf. p. 15.
33. K. Fry and R. E. Cresswell, Memoir of Eliz. Fry, i. 170; E.H.L., E. Ham Loc. Bd. Mins. 9 Mar. 1880.
34. P.N. Essex, 464, 82.
35. Cf. E.R.O., Sage Coll. No. 860.
36. E.R.O., T/M 18; K. Fry, E. and W. Ham, 277.
37. Middlesex and Essex Highways Act, 8 Geo. I, c. 30; J. Mynde, Map of Mdx. and Essex turnpike roads, 1728.
38. V.C.H. Essex, v. 187.
39. E.R.O., Q/RUm 1/13; K. Fry, E. and W. Ham, 277.
41. E. Ham Municipal Diary, 1928–9, p. 181.
42. Katharine Fry, however, spelt her name thus.
44. Stokes, E. Ham, 134 and pl. f.p. 118.
45. E.H.L., Photos. (Public Houses).
46. Ibid.; E.R.O., Sage Coll. No. 859; Stokes, E. Ham, pl. f. p. 48.
47. O.S. Map 25", Essex, LXXIII. 16 (1893–5); E.H.L. Photos. (Public Houses).
49. The following account of the house is based on: Fry, E. and W. Ham, 174–5.
50. Katharine Fry's Bk., ed. J. Vansittart, 15, 67–8, 107–9, etc.
51. Ibid., f. p. 64.
52. E.H.L., Photos. (Houses), and sketch by Katharine Fry (1879).
54. E.H.L., Photos. (Houses); Stokes, E. Ham, 146.
56. E.H.L., E. Ham B.C. Mins. 14 Apr. 1908.
60. E.H.L., Photos. (Houses): cf. A. Stokes's Panoramic Map of E. Ham.
61. Ibid. The White House had an earlier door-hood, perhaps brought from elsewhere.
63. K. Fry and R. E. Cresswell, Memoir of Eliz. Fry, ii. 98.
66. E.H.L., Photos. (Streets); A. Stokes's Panoramic Map of E. Ham.
67. Stokes, E. Ham, 166.
69. A. P. Crouch, Silvertown.
73. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXXI (1870–82 edn.).
74. E.H.L., E. Ham Loc. Bd. Mins. 8 Mar., 14 June 1881.
78. The following details of housing estates are taken from E.H.L., E. Ham Loc. Bd. Mins., 1879 f. and U.D.C. Mins. 1895 f.
80. V.C.H. Essex, v. 251.
81. Fry, E. and W. Ham, 274.
82. Inf. from Major Y. A. Burges. See also p. 14.
84. Pevsner, Buildings of Essex, 166.
85. See plate f. p. 15.
86. See also p. 24.
87. E.H.L., Pamph. E/EAS/301. 45: Priory Court, Official Opening.
88. Ibid. Durban Court, Official Opening.
89. Ibid. Redevelopment of N. Woolwich, Official Opening.
90. For fuller details of some of the railways see p. 62.
91. E. Carter, Hist. Geog. Brit. Rlys. 63.
92. Railway Mag. x. 440; Stokes, E. Ham, 113.
93. V.C.H. Essex, v. 72.
98. E.H.L., E. Ham Loc. Bd. Mins. Jan. 1884, May 1885; Kelly's Dir. Essex 1890, p. 209.
99. Tramways Orders Confirmation (No. 2) Act, 1898, 61 and 62 Vict. c. 202 (local act); Tramways Orders Confirmation (No. 3) Act 1900, 63 and 64 Vict. c. 200 (local act); E. Ham Municipal Diary, 1925–6, p. 163; V.C.H. Essex, v. 28; for photographs of E. Ham tramcars see Museum of Transport, Clapham, and E.H.L. Photos.
100. V.C.H. Essex, v. 28.
101. Kelly's Dir. Essex, 1908, p. 246; E.H.L., E. Ham B.C. Mins. 24 Nov. 1908, and 12 Dec. 1911.
102. London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, 23 Geo. V, c. 14.
103. T. de Laune, Present State of London (1692); G. Brumell, Local Posts of London, 1640–1840, 75.
104. Brit. Postal Guide, 1856.
105. Ibid. 1873; O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXIII (1863–73 edn.); Kelly's Dir. Essex, 1878; Stokes, E. Ham, 129, 132; E.H.L., Photos. (G.P.O.).
107. E.H.L., E. Ham U.D.C. Mins. 5 Feb. 1895.
108. Nat. Telephone Jnl. Oct. 1907, 135; G.P.O. List of Telephone Exchanges, 1913.
109. G.P.O. List of Telephone Exchanges, 1919, 1927, 1937.
111. White's Dir. Essex, 1863; G.P.O. Guide, 1886.
113. Nat. Telephone Jnl. Oct. 1907, 135.
121. Stokes, E. Ham, 137.
122. Ibid. 132; V.C.H. Essex, ii. 608.
123. E.H.L., E. Ham U.D.C. Mins., 6 Apr., 5 Oct. 1897.
124. V.C.H. Essex, v. 58.
125. E. Ham U.D.C. Mins. 19 Mar., 18 June 1895.
126. E. Ham U.D.C. Map 1901.
127. E. Ham B.C. Mins. 14 Mar. 1905, 4 Sept. 1906.
128. E. Ham B.C. Mins. 8 Feb., 14 June 1910, 26 Oct. 1915.
129. E. Ham Guide, 1964; cf. Dagenham: V.C.H. Essex, v. 272.
130. Architects' Jnl. 24 Dec. 1953; Stratford Expr. 11 Dec. 1953; Newham Recorder 14 Jan. 1965.
131. Cf. Cat. Anct. D. vi. C 4754, C 5756.
132. For this railway see p. 5.
133. Hasted, Kent, i. 441.
134. Tithe Redemption Com., Woolwich Tithe Award.
135. O.S. Map 6", Essex, LXXI (1870–82 edn.).
136. V.C.H. Kent, iii. 251b; cf. D. Douglas, Domesday Monachorum of Christ Ch. Canterbury, 103.
137. Lysons, Lond. iv. 559.
138. Cf. V.C.H. Kent, iii. 251b; V.C.H. Essex, i. 500–3.
139. I. J. Sanders, English Baronies, 6; Bk. of Fees, 654 662–4, 668; V.C.H. Essex, iv. 151.
140. Bk. of Fees, 668.
141. Sanders, English Baronies, 5–6; Wilts Inq. p.m. Edw. III (Index Libr.), p. 136.
142. Cf. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 625.
143. W. G. Hoskins and H. P. R. Finberg, Devonshire Studies, 19 f.
144. V.C.H. Essex, i. 429, 559, 569.
145. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, i, p. 111. The gift was subsequently confirmed by William II.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.