The London/Essex boundary - Aveley
Boundary London/Essex/Havering
Comes south east to meet the top of a patch of woodland and goes down its western boundary but before reaching the southern boundary it turns sharply south west across the wood to emerge at the south west corner. It then travels south a short distance from the edge of a rectangular stretch of water and continues south past it. Before reaching Moor Hall it turns sharp east and goes round three sides of a rectangle enclosing another stretch of water east of Moor Hall. It then turns south west and goes on to enclose the Hall and another building south of it. It crosses a path going to the Hall, turns south, crosses another path and turns south west meeting and eventually following the path as it goes west.
(These features are all totally different on the more modern map)
Rural area with some old farms and manor houses among the landfill sites
Post to the south Aveley
Post to the north Warwick Woods
Sites on the Essex side of the boundary
Bretts
Bretts Manor House. 14th century moated farmstead with 15th door and two 15th windows in the hall, There is said to be a secret passage to Bellhuis. The house was recorded in 1349 and later known as Bretts Place. It has two storeys, with roughcast over timber framing and brick. The upper floors had oak windows. The external present appearance of the house is modern except for the doorway. The moat is on the north and east sides.
Bretts was an ancient manor
Kennington Park
Clay pit turned into park by the operator. Now part of Belhuis Country Park as Williams Fishing Lake.
Golf Course
Sites on the London, Havering, side of the boundary
Moor Hall farm. Used to be a manor house. Sarson stone. Marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1805, earlier ‘Morehall’ 1333, that is "manor house on the moor or marshy ground', from Middle English ‘more’ and ‘hall’
Ten burial chambers dating from the late Bronze Age (8th -7th B.C.). Small pits, each with a burial urn, placed side by side with pots for food and drink plus tools in the form of flint flakes and blades. There were also traces from the early Iron Age activity in the form of circular and semi-circular ditches marking a farming community. There was also a triple ditch enclosure probably a defensive structure from the 1st B.C. also some Roman remains including non-local pottery. The ditches marking field boundaries and enclosures followed the pattern of those from the late Iron Age -small working areas with sand and gravel quarrying next to the farm. A Roman field system, dated from the 2nd -4th A.D but this farming complex was abandoned at the end of the Roman period.
Rectangular enclosure. Excavations showed that this was one of the few medieval ground features traced. It is in the same field as the Neolithic ring ditch
Long Pond – a bit of Capability Brown landscaping
Sources
Evans, Bygone Dagenham and Rainham
Osborne. Defending London
Pevsner and Cherry. Essex
Comes south east to meet the top of a patch of woodland and goes down its western boundary but before reaching the southern boundary it turns sharply south west across the wood to emerge at the south west corner. It then travels south a short distance from the edge of a rectangular stretch of water and continues south past it. Before reaching Moor Hall it turns sharp east and goes round three sides of a rectangle enclosing another stretch of water east of Moor Hall. It then turns south west and goes on to enclose the Hall and another building south of it. It crosses a path going to the Hall, turns south, crosses another path and turns south west meeting and eventually following the path as it goes west.
(These features are all totally different on the more modern map)
Rural area with some old farms and manor houses among the landfill sites
Post to the south Aveley
Post to the north Warwick Woods
Sites on the Essex side of the boundary
Bretts
Bretts Manor House. 14th century moated farmstead with 15th door and two 15th windows in the hall, There is said to be a secret passage to Bellhuis. The house was recorded in 1349 and later known as Bretts Place. It has two storeys, with roughcast over timber framing and brick. The upper floors had oak windows. The external present appearance of the house is modern except for the doorway. The moat is on the north and east sides.
Bretts was an ancient manor
Kennington Park
Clay pit turned into park by the operator. Now part of Belhuis Country Park as Williams Fishing Lake.
Golf Course
Sites on the London, Havering, side of the boundary
Moor Hall farm. Used to be a manor house. Sarson stone. Marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1805, earlier ‘Morehall’ 1333, that is "manor house on the moor or marshy ground', from Middle English ‘more’ and ‘hall’
Ten burial chambers dating from the late Bronze Age (8th -7th B.C.). Small pits, each with a burial urn, placed side by side with pots for food and drink plus tools in the form of flint flakes and blades. There were also traces from the early Iron Age activity in the form of circular and semi-circular ditches marking a farming community. There was also a triple ditch enclosure probably a defensive structure from the 1st B.C. also some Roman remains including non-local pottery. The ditches marking field boundaries and enclosures followed the pattern of those from the late Iron Age -small working areas with sand and gravel quarrying next to the farm. A Roman field system, dated from the 2nd -4th A.D but this farming complex was abandoned at the end of the Roman period.
Rectangular enclosure. Excavations showed that this was one of the few medieval ground features traced. It is in the same field as the Neolithic ring ditch
Long Pond – a bit of Capability Brown landscaping
Sources
Evans, Bygone Dagenham and Rainham
Osborne. Defending London
Pevsner and Cherry. Essex
Comments