19 Facts About Dagenham

Dagenham is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Dagenham remained mostly undeveloped until 1921, when the London County Council began construction of the large Becontree housing estate.

In 1965 Dagenham became part of Greater London when most of the historic parish become part of the London Borough of Barking.

Dagenham was chosen as a location for industrial activity and is perhaps most famous for being the location of the Ford Dagenham motor car plant where the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 took place.

Dagenham has been historically defined by its Ancient Parish boundaries, which were subsequently re-used by the Municipal Borough of Dagenham up until 1965.

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The parish of Dagenham was formed in the medieval period to serve - along with parish of Barking - the people of the huge manor of Barking, which was owned by the Nunnery of Barking Abbey.

Dagenham included a significant part of the now mostly lost Hainault Forest.

The "Dagenham Breach" widened over time to a width of 400 feet, allowing the Thames to strip the top layer of marsh clay from the flood plain and deposited it as a mud bank in the Thames where it became a danger to shipping.

Dagenham was formerly home to the famous annual whitebait feast.

Thereafter it became an obligatory ritual of government for the entire cabinet to come to Dagenham and celebrate the security of the Thames and over time this simple but hearty meal based on Whitebait and local Essex Ale grew more lavish, including turtle, grouse, champagne and a range of other luxury food and drink.

In 1931 the Ford Motor Company relocated from Trafford Park in Manchester, to a larger new plant in Dagenham, which was already the location of supplier Briggs Motorway Bodies.

Dagenham was an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Becontree hundred of Essex.

In 1965 the Municipal Borough of Dagenham was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Barking, which was renamed Barking and Dagenham in 1980.

In 1205 Dagenham was large enough to have a chaplain, and the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul was probably built at around that time.

Dagenham was still an undeveloped village, when building of the vast Becontree estate by the London County Council began in the early 1920s.

Dagenham East was the location of the Dagenham East rail crash in 1958.

The current population of the former Borough of Dagenham could be approximated from the population of the current wards which together most closely match the area, but the former boundary between the borough and neighbouring Barking, with which it merged in 1965, no longer corresponds to any ward boundaries.

Dagenham has a King George's Field in memorial to King George V The park was renamed in 1953 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Dagenham has many other parks such as Valence - and Parsloes .