Thames Tributary – Wantz Stream - Crowlands
Thames Tributary – Wantz Stream
The Wantz may rise in this area and flow south towards the Beam River and the Thames.
The Great Eastern Railway Line from Liverpool Street to Shenfield runs north westwards from Chadwell Heath Station
TQ 49228 87815
Area on the outskirts of Romford with some housing but mainly facilities like schools and industrial sites
Post to the north Romford
Post to the south Becontree Heath
Post to the west Whalebone Lane
Braithwaite Avenue
Named for John Braithwaite responsible for laying out the Great Eastern Railway onto which the road backs.
Crow Lane
Crowlands. An area named for John Crowland who lived here in 1480. A hamlet called Crowlands was on the junction of Crow Lane and Jutsums Lane by 1514
Housing was built here in the 1930s but previously this lane was narrow, winding and dirty. It has many works at the eastern end - mainly scrap, waste recycling, removals and transport works of many kinds.
Jutsums Recreation Ground, small local park
Jutsums Lane
Crowlands railway station was proposed in 1900 on the Great Eastern Main Line here. It was to have been sited west of the road bridge. The platform was partly constructed, but the station never opened. The idea was reconsidered in 1935 but again the station did not open. Foundations can be found on the embankment
Grangewood Plastics Packaging Factory founded 1924 makes all sorts of packaging but mainly black plastic refuse sacks.
Crowlands. This is grassland on the site of a former gravel pit later used as a tip and then later capped and re-seeded. There are wet depressions but the drier parts have a mix of grasses which have been grazed by horses. There are also a range of small common flowering plants. There are breeding skylarks, meadow pipits and reed buntings.
Railway Line
Great Eastern Main Line. Built between Mile End and Romford in 1839.
Signal Box east of Jutsums Lane. closed in 1949.
Overhead electrification depot east of Jutsums Lane. Opened in 1949 as part of the Shenfield Electrification scheme
Obelisk. Coal duty –Metropolitan Police boundary marker. On the north side of the line. Erected in 1851 and on the boundary of London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Havering. This is 6 ft high of granite tapering on a stone base. The Inscribed face is towards railway line.
Rosslyn Avenue
Hartley Brook Church
Terling Road
All Saints’ Roman Catholic School and Technology College. Built 1954 by Sterret and Blouet as Bishop Ward School. It is a long two-storey range in concrete with a curved roof. There is a later Science Centre built 1991 by Living Architects and a Music and Drama Centre by Curl La Tourelle Architects, 2003.
Vignoles Avenue
Named for Charles Vignoles who was responsible for laying out the Great Eastern Railway onto which the road backs.
Wood Lane
Crowlands Golf Centre .The Golf Centre now manages this sports complex.
Ford Sports and Social Ground. Home of Ford’s football team and it also has a running track.
Wood Lane Sports Centre. This was a Barking and Dagenham Centre sold in 2010.
Aqua driving range. The Wantz Lake is cited as a source of the Wantz Stream and serves as a balancing reservoir to control flooding. It is aartificially banked, with vegetation growing in cracks within the concrete. The Lake forms part of the golf driving range
Trees an area of young trees and scrub to the west. There are rows of hybrid black Poplars at the northern and eastern boundary of the golf driving range.
Pitch and putt area. Area of amenity grassland but with a strip of neutral grassland with tall herbs
A hedge runs along the west side of the site and is thought to be part of the ancient boundary hedge of Hainault Forest mentioned in 1301. It runs along the course of the Wantz Stream and has a diversity of trees and shrubs. It turns south-west along the Borough boundary turns north-east and then along the southern edge of Crowlands, where it breaks up into a series of isolated bushes.
Allotments
Wantz stream - Downstream of here the stream runs underground through Central Park, and only appears above ground again south of Dagenham Church.
Robert Clack School. Built by Essex County Council as a Secondary Technical School in 1955. It has since become a comprehensive school with a science specialism.
Coal post. On the south side of the road alongside a bridge at the junction of Wood Lane and Rush Green Road
Bridge over the Wantz at the junction of Rush Green Road. Coat of arms displayed on it.
Sources
Coal posts. Web site
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Web site
Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham
Robert Clack School. Web site
The Wantz may rise in this area and flow south towards the Beam River and the Thames.
The Great Eastern Railway Line from Liverpool Street to Shenfield runs north westwards from Chadwell Heath Station
TQ 49228 87815
Area on the outskirts of Romford with some housing but mainly facilities like schools and industrial sites
Post to the north Romford
Post to the south Becontree Heath
Post to the west Whalebone Lane
Braithwaite Avenue
Named for John Braithwaite responsible for laying out the Great Eastern Railway onto which the road backs.
Crow Lane
Crowlands. An area named for John Crowland who lived here in 1480. A hamlet called Crowlands was on the junction of Crow Lane and Jutsums Lane by 1514
Housing was built here in the 1930s but previously this lane was narrow, winding and dirty. It has many works at the eastern end - mainly scrap, waste recycling, removals and transport works of many kinds.
Jutsums Recreation Ground, small local park
Jutsums Lane
Crowlands railway station was proposed in 1900 on the Great Eastern Main Line here. It was to have been sited west of the road bridge. The platform was partly constructed, but the station never opened. The idea was reconsidered in 1935 but again the station did not open. Foundations can be found on the embankment
Grangewood Plastics Packaging Factory founded 1924 makes all sorts of packaging but mainly black plastic refuse sacks.
Crowlands. This is grassland on the site of a former gravel pit later used as a tip and then later capped and re-seeded. There are wet depressions but the drier parts have a mix of grasses which have been grazed by horses. There are also a range of small common flowering plants. There are breeding skylarks, meadow pipits and reed buntings.
Railway Line
Great Eastern Main Line. Built between Mile End and Romford in 1839.
Signal Box east of Jutsums Lane. closed in 1949.
Overhead electrification depot east of Jutsums Lane. Opened in 1949 as part of the Shenfield Electrification scheme
Obelisk. Coal duty –Metropolitan Police boundary marker. On the north side of the line. Erected in 1851 and on the boundary of London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Havering. This is 6 ft high of granite tapering on a stone base. The Inscribed face is towards railway line.
Rosslyn Avenue
Hartley Brook Church
Terling Road
All Saints’ Roman Catholic School and Technology College. Built 1954 by Sterret and Blouet as Bishop Ward School. It is a long two-storey range in concrete with a curved roof. There is a later Science Centre built 1991 by Living Architects and a Music and Drama Centre by Curl La Tourelle Architects, 2003.
Vignoles Avenue
Named for Charles Vignoles who was responsible for laying out the Great Eastern Railway onto which the road backs.
Wood Lane
Crowlands Golf Centre .The Golf Centre now manages this sports complex.
Ford Sports and Social Ground. Home of Ford’s football team and it also has a running track.
Wood Lane Sports Centre. This was a Barking and Dagenham Centre sold in 2010.
Aqua driving range. The Wantz Lake is cited as a source of the Wantz Stream and serves as a balancing reservoir to control flooding. It is aartificially banked, with vegetation growing in cracks within the concrete. The Lake forms part of the golf driving range
Trees an area of young trees and scrub to the west. There are rows of hybrid black Poplars at the northern and eastern boundary of the golf driving range.
Pitch and putt area. Area of amenity grassland but with a strip of neutral grassland with tall herbs
A hedge runs along the west side of the site and is thought to be part of the ancient boundary hedge of Hainault Forest mentioned in 1301. It runs along the course of the Wantz Stream and has a diversity of trees and shrubs. It turns south-west along the Borough boundary turns north-east and then along the southern edge of Crowlands, where it breaks up into a series of isolated bushes.
Allotments
Wantz stream - Downstream of here the stream runs underground through Central Park, and only appears above ground again south of Dagenham Church.
Robert Clack School. Built by Essex County Council as a Secondary Technical School in 1955. It has since become a comprehensive school with a science specialism.
Coal post. On the south side of the road alongside a bridge at the junction of Wood Lane and Rush Green Road
Bridge over the Wantz at the junction of Rush Green Road. Coat of arms displayed on it.
Sources
Coal posts. Web site
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Web site
Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham
Robert Clack School. Web site
Comments