Dagenham

"DAGENHAM, a parish in the hundred of BECONTREE, county of ESSEX, 3½ miles (S. by W.) from Romford, containing 1864 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £19. 10. Mrs. Bonyinge was patroness in 1816. The church is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The parish is bounded on the south by the Thames. There is a small endowment for the instruction of children. A very destructive irruption of the Thames occurred here in 1707, the waters, rushing in by an opening made by the blowing up of a small sluice for draining the land, overflowed one thousand acres of rich land, and washed nearly one hundred and twenty acres into the river, where a sand-bank was formed almost half-way across its bed; in this state it remained nearly fifteen years, when the breach was stopped, and the land recovered by Captain Perry, at an expense of £40,000." [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England (1831) - copyright Mel Lockie 2016]

Places within this parish - Becontree , Chadwell Heath, Marks Gate