Thames Tributary Mayesbrook - Mayesbrook Park

Thames Tributary Mayesbrook
The Mayesbrook continues to flow south towards the River Roding

TQ 466 852

Post to the north Goodmayes Park
Post to the west Longbridge Road Loxford Water
Post to the south Mayesbrook Park


Bradfield Drive
Named after the coastal village in Norfolk. This was part of the Leftley estate but has local authority housing built in the 1950s.

Davington Road
Dorothy Barley Junior and Infants’ School. Opened by Barking Education Committee 1933

Fitzstephens Road
Housing on the site of Sports Ground for Erkenwald Comprehensive School, closed 1990

Goodmayes Lane
Parkside Community Association and Theatre.
Goodmayes Lodge
. Sheltered housing for London Borough of Redbridge.

Hepworth Gardens
Named after an area of Norfolk. This was originally part of the Leftley estate but taken over by Barking Council for social housing.
Hepworth Green – amenity open space
Hepworth House – medium rise tower block, built by the local authority in the 1950s in red brick with a flat roof.

Lodge Avenue
St.Cedd’s church. Church of England.

Longbridge Road
Academy Central. New housing on the site of the old university buildings.
University Of East London, Barking Campus – the name the area was known as from 1992. At the heart of it was the old South East Essex Technical College and school of art built in 1935-6 as an addition to the Becontree estate – but built by Essex County Council who took over the site from the London County Council. Part of the campus was then also a secondary school South East Essex Technical High School. The main building was by John Stuart, the Essex County Architect and it was asymmetrical H-plan brick building, with a cupola and with cast-stone decoration by E. J. & A. T. Bamford. Over the entrance doors were keystones with beasts of the British Empire: springbok, elephant, bear and kangaroo, inside were balconies carved with the architects, artists and engineers of western civilization and on the parapets the trades and industries of the world. During The Second World War it was used by the Army and the Royal Air force. The secondary school moved out in 1960 and following reorganisation of the London Boroughs it was renamed Barking Regional College of Technology in 1965 and taken over by the local authority. In 1969 it became the Barking Campus of the North-East London Polytechnic with input from three London boroughs. In 1988 the Polytechnic of East London became autonomous and took over ownership of the site. In 1992 it became the University of East London who have now sold it to Taylor Wimpey. . The main building is now branded as "Mayesbrook Manor",
Civil Engineering building - this was a three-storey concrete-frame by Harold Connolly, the Essex County Architect, from 1965.
Learning Resource Centre, by Sidney J. Harris, Borough Architect, 1978. With pre-cast panels of exposed aggregate and a lecture theatre block
Student Residences 1992-3 by Team Design and Build.
Robin Hood Pub. a Neo-Tudor pub half-timbered and gabled by T.F. Ingram, built ion 1930 which included a concert hall, winter garden, tearoom and children's playground. Demolished

Markyate Road
Markyate Library. Designed 1938-40 by J C.C. Shaw, Barking Borough Architect. It is on a corner site with an octagonal reading room. second storey added 2002

Marlborough Road
Erkenwald Tuition Centre. Special education centre for non-attenders, plus a home tuition service.

Mayesbrook Park
Laid out by Barking Borough because the London County Council provided very little open space for Becontree Housing Estate. The LCC gave Barking Council the site in 1934. The plans for its layout were however only partially carried out, but there were football, cricket and hockey pitches, a putting green, lawn tennis courts, a boating lake, pavilions, bandstand as well as some formal planting. In the Second World War it was used by the army. There are sports facilities in the northern part, including an Athletic Track.
Mayesbrook – the brook runs through the park and is being reconfigured for public access, wildlife and flood prevention measures.
Manor Farm was alongside the Mayesbrook in the area of Hepworth Gardens which borders the park on the west side. It had previously been known as Jenkins which was one of the oldest manors in Barking and which was a tenement of Barking Abbey. It probably took its name from a man named Jenkyns, who was a vassal of the Abbess. In 1567 it was sold to Henry Fanshawe and it stayed with his family until 1714 when William Humfreys, a Lord Mayor of London bought it and rebuilt the farm house in the Queen Anne style. This was called Barking Manor and was demolished in 1768 and replaced with a farmhouse called Jenkins Farm, am d later called Manor Farm. It was demolished in 1937.

Southwold Drive
Named after the seaside town in Norfolk. This was originally part of the Leftley estate but taken over by Barking Council for social housing.

Westrow Drive
Named after sir Hamilton Westrow Hulse (his wife had been a Ms. Westrow) from whom the Leftley brothers bought this land in 1932 for development. This was part of the estate built by the Leftley brothers in the 1930s and marks its eastern boundary.

Woodbridge Road
Roughly follows the route of what would have been the access road to manor farm

Comments

Dominic said…
Just one correction -the student residences on the UeL site have already been demolished, not even reaching their 20th anniversary.

Construction of new housing developments there has been ongoing

There is now a Lidl supermarket on the site of the Robin Hood pub

Also the lake in Mayesbrook Park is apparently a WW2 bomb crater - and the area is known locally as "Matchstick Island". I did once know why, but have now forgotten.
Edith said…
Gosh - Dominic that was quick - I posted it and went down the shop - and there you were!
I wondered what had happened to the 'other buildings' on the UEL site. I drove all round it and couldn't make out what was there and what wasn't behind the hoardings. Do you know what has happened the other teaching buildings - I remember visiting the Civil Engineering block about 15 years ago, and also going to a dreadful lecture there about Docklands buildings.
Edith.
Telbert said…
Matchstick island gets its name from the original shape of it(a small "island"connected to the surrounding land by a stick shaped peninsular). The lakes were dug out for the agregates to be used in the building of the Becontree Estate(1923?) Wagons were loaded on the island & were taken along a roadway (the stick) to where they were needed. There was also two sets of rails along the central reservation of Becontree avenue &iirc Valence Avenue for transporting building materials. There are some photos of this on the web.
Barbara said…
We used to live in Studley Road in Becontree until about 1950. But while there we kids used to go on the underground with jam jars and home made fishing nets from bamboo canes and bits of old stockings. We caught tiddlers and carried them in our jars full of water on the underground trains. Nobody stopped us or thought of the health and safety aspect! I think the train fare was 3d - old money and probably kid's half fare.

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