My time for the last week or so has been taken up with revision to allow me to gain my PhD (hopefully this will happen tomorrow around 4 pm). Alas this has not left me time to comment on a couple of events I’d planned to post about. Yesterday, the 10th saw the 150th birthday …
Category Archives: Dagenham
Thomas Esbroke’s last will and testament.
I finally managed to get the free time to track down a the will of Thomas Esbroke that I’ve previously mentioned here. As it happens I tracked down a copy of a copy, which I then copied, so quality is not wonderful. The image is under the cut, the transcript I posted before seems to …
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Wantz – again
Some further digging in the archives today has revealed some confusion as to the source of the Wantz Stream. One news paper clipping from 1951 gives the source as “just south of Hainault” later stating “Six hundred years ago it was called the Wythendenbroke. Later it was known as Wisdom River.” The book, The Dagenham …
The Eastbrook connection
As I mentioned in the last post, the Eastbrook family are belived to have taken their name from the East Brook (now Wantz stream). Digging in the archives at lunch tuned up a copy of the will of one Thomas Esbroke, head of the household, a farmer and churchwarden in Dagenham in the 1550s of …
The Wantz stream
To the East part of Dagenham is an area known as Eastbrook. The name coming from the Eastbrook family, who in turn probably took their name from the local stream, then called the east brook. The family were in Dagenham from the 1280s until the 17th century, however the name lives on. The stream on …