Barking & Dagenham Local History

Readers Appeal:

University of East London, Barking Campus 

If you have any memories OR photographs OR remember the layout of the old University of East London, Barking Campus OR before this please e-mail me direct.

I am currently working on a project concerning the former University site in Longbridge Road, Barking. This was formerly the South East Essex Technical College, and the North East London Polytechnic (NELP). This at present is being demolished to make way for housing!

I desperately need a plan of the site in its final academic years. This will go in the finished work. Does any one remember the layout? Perhaps a former student or tutor their?

Web Site

In its first year the site received over 5,000 hits! Far more than I ever envisaged when I came up with the idea.  This second year has also started off well! I thank all the people who have utilised these pages and found them useful.

All the items have been prepared by myself, and although many are my copyright I do not mind other's utilising details from them for personal usage only. If you are using them for other uses please contact me, details of copyright exist on the readers' service page. Some of the pictures are also my copyright, so please see the new Readers' Services page (link below). Please sign the Guestbook if you have found these pages of interest!

http://www.barkingdagenhamlocalhistory.net/readersservices.htm

General Information About The Site

The site itself, is intended to be of assistance to people interested in local history, throughout not only the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, but through the country, and who knows the world! It is my chance to give some of the information back to the people, which I have researched over the last 20 odd years.

An abridged version of the Barking Ministers' Account for the Manor of Barking, dated 1540, was added on 28/10/06. A Place Name Index for this was added early in 2007. These show the principal entries in the manuscript, both names and places. A searchable version will be available from myself.

On the 8th March 2007,  an abridged version of The Rental for Barking Abbey, dated 1456, for the northern part of the town was included. This does not include the following information: the page number in the Translation, the original folio number in the manuscript (Mss), the total properties owned by the landowner/occupier, his trade where known, or indeed the full Mss property details, in addition the total rent for each persons properties, although the unit rent is given here. As before these further details are available directly from myself if required. Unfortunately interest has not been sufficient for me to add the Rental for the southern part of the manor, which includes south Barking and Dagenham.

The 2004 Barking Town Shop Survey is available here, and a fully searchable version is obtainable on Microsoft Access. There are further surveys of Barking's shops which I took in 1988, 1993 and 1998, and these are available directly from me. Due to the amount work involved a fee will be charged if anybody requires these.

The Newspaper Index for the Borough has been updated (April 2008) and now includes articles from the year 1888 through to 2002, although, not exhaustive, is still a useful tool for those researching the Borough. It comprises chiefly of historical items, principal or unusual news stories and transport snippets. I formulated this between 1984-1986 spending long periods of time on the microfilm reader down in Valence Library Dagenham.  It too is available on Microsoft Access. It is good to know that this is proving very popular with readers, with well over 1500 hits alone in the first year. The local libraries themselves have found this useful!

Also available is a Place Name Index of The Survey of the Manor of Barking in 1609 in Word format (although does not appear here). The original of which was taken during the reign of James I.

A variety of photographs and documents are in my possession, and a 'Photographic Source & Document' Index has been placed on the site during March 2008. This again is not exhaustive of my collection! Many of these photographs are taken by myself from 1986-2008, and show Barking & Dagenham in a state of change. These include Barking Town, Dagenham Village, and other main regions; in addition most major buildings of the region over the last 20 plus years. A small range of these photographs is shown on the website to give readers' a notion of what my collection entails.

A selection of historical photographs is also available on the Borough. A section of these has been added covering both Barking and Dagenham. Another selection of modern views has been placed on the site in the Summer (2007), and augmented following readers' comments. The Dagenham pictures section was updated, May 2008.

The latest article to the site include items on the: History of Barking Reach (October 2007), Barking in the 1890s and The Manor of Barking from 1500-1750 (January 2008).

A large part of my collection comprises of Transport information for Barking & Dagenham. This includes: stagecoach, turnpike, tram, trolleybus, omnibus, bus & train timetables, maps, tickets, magazines and other ephemera. The latest addition was a selection of Transport Pictures from my ever expanding collection also in October 2007.

Other Information

Anyone with an interest in the Vickers surname from:  Sudbury (1800-1850s), Halstead (1840s-1880s), West Ham (1870s-1960s) , Rainham (1950s-1960s), Barking & Dagenham (1950s-present) may also find this site useful, as we may well be related, and they can contact me direct. 

Please e-mail me with any questions about the items on the website. I will endeavour to do my best to answer them at  MrIVickers@AOL.com.

                                                   Ian Vickers: Barking, November 2006.

                                                           Last updated,  July 2008.