England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Dagenham St Peter & St Paul

The Parish

The parish of Dagenham lies in southwestern Essex roughly 4 miles east of the ancient abbey town of Barking and forming a stretch of the county's coastline with the Thames Estuary. Dagenham is a place much changed by 20th century development, early maps show a small village with sat around a "T" junction east of the church, a short run from north to south with a longer run headed westwards. Nowadays Dagenham is an integral part of Metropolitan Greater London, a process that largely began in 1919 when the compulsory acquisition of the ancient manorial estate and the smaller hamlets was actioned to develop the massive Becontree Estate which now dominates the area. Contemporary with the shift from rural Essex to urban London the dominant economic elements shifted from traditional arable farming to industrial, a deep-water dock was built in 1887 and in the 20th century the Ford Motor Works was built, one of the largest car plants in England until its closure in 2002. Modern developments helped to speed this growth in urban development with the railway from London to Tilbury passing through and granting Dagenham 3 stations, in addition the main trunk road, the A13, has also been upgraded to a speedy dual-carriageway skirting the Thames. Traces of the "old rural Essex" may still be found in a short "air-gap" left on marshy ground between Dagenham and Hornchurch where Eastbrookend Country Park provides a little green oasis. That marshy ground contains the course of the Beam River which drains the east of the parish with much of the urban area drained sub-surface to the nearby Thames Estuary. Dagenham is sited between sea level and 20 metres above it in gently rising lands, not much exceeds that height for several miles. Dagenham was a large parish covering over 5,600 acres with a population that was growing, at the end of the transcript period it stood at around 2,300 parishioners but probably average closer to 1,400 based on the volume of marriages recorded. Dagenham is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Peter & St Paul's church stood at the western end of the small village that Dagenham once was, today that spot is where Crown Street becomes Church Street where the church sits opposite the Cross Keys Inn. Sadly very little of the church remains from the medieval period following the collapse of the tower and its spire onto the nave in 1800 destroying both in the process. Thankfully the 13th century Early English Gothic chancel survived intact to remind us of what was then lost, the chancel shows the characteristic lancet styled windows of that era in particular a group of 3 in the eastern wall. Also surviving was the 15th century Perpendicular north chapel. Following the disaster it took 5 years to rebuild the nave and western tower using much of the original material in doing so. The resulting tower was also completed with a spire but that lasted only a few years before being removed in 1921. The style of the tower was controversial with Pevsner describing is as "the most ignorant and entertaining Gothic", the curly battlements being a major curiosity. The church is well provisioned with parking outside the gates, the photographer less so as the site is beset by trees limiting heavily the points at which the church may be viewed, a head-scratching exercise which only produces unsatisfactory images.