Local history resources 

Early history of Barking and Dagenham 

• Stone Age 

  Hand axes and other flint implements from the Paleolithic Era (around 10,000 years ago) have been found at various sites in the Borough, including Chadwell Heath, Ripple Road, Gale Street, Five Elms, Beacontree Heath, Goresbrook and the Beam Washlands.

   

• The Dagenham Idol 

  The most remarkable object from the Neolithic period (between c4000 and 2000 BC) is the Dagenham Idol, uncovered in 1922 in marshland just south of Ripple Road. It is carved from Scots Pine and is around 4,300 years old, making it almost 1,000 years older than Stonehenge and one of the earliest examples of human representation in Europe.

  The Idol is believed to have been an offering to the gods to increase the fertility of the land. Buried beside it was the skeleton of a deer, possibly sacrificed for the same reason.

  The Dagenham Idol is currently on loan to Valence House Museum from Colchester and Ipswich Museums, so why not visit Valence House and see it for yourself?

   

• Bronze Age and Iron Age 

  We now go forward to the Bronze Age (c2000-700BC) and Iron Age (c700BC-43AD).
  
  The Barking Riverside Timber Trackway, a raised timber path dating from 1510-1250BC, provided a dry route through the marshes. In 1950 a Bronze Age axe head was discovered in Selinas Lane in Dagenham.

  In 2004 late Bronze Age and early Iron Age pottery was found at Blackborne Road, Reede Road and the Dagenham Park School site. A dig carried out in 2003-4 alongside the Heathway in Dagenham revealed a late Bronze Age settlement of roundhouses surrounded by a defensive ditch.

  Large quantities of burnt material indicated that it had been destroyed by fire at one time. The Iron Age people of this area belonged to the Trinovantes tribe. They lived in fortified settlements such as the fort at Uphall, to the north of Barking, which dates to 500BC.

   

• Roman times 

  In AD43 the Romans invaded Britain and quickly imposed control over the native Celtic population. The Romans built a road from London to Colchester which crosses the borough as the present Chadwell Heath High Road.

  Roman finds in Barking include pottery, a coin of the Emperor Magnentius, and a tombstone in memory of a man named Doccae which had been re-used in a 7th century building. Doccae is the first named inhabitant of the borough.

  In 1932 a stone coffin and fragments of Roman pottery were excavated in Ripple Road, Barking, and 4 years later Roman pottery and a brooch were discovered during house building work in Westrow Drive. A cemetery with a stone coffin and many Roman pots was uncovered at Marks Gate in 1936, and Roman vessels were also discovered during the building of the Becontree Estate in the 1920s and 1930s.

  The construction of the former Goresbrook Leisure Centre in 1995 revealed the remains of a Roman rectangular ditched enclosure, possibly a military fort, with 4 cremation burials within its boundary.

  Excavations of 2005 and 2006 at the Beam Washlands site in Dagenham, carried out as part of works to strengthen flood defences, produced Neolithic and Iron Age material, plus evidence of continuous settlement for 300 years during the Roman period.

  Particularly exciting was the discovery of kilns used to fire pottery vessels, including jars and dishes, with nearby post holes possibly marking pottery workshops and drying structures.

  A Roman cemetery containing around 20 cremation burials was also discovered on the highest ground of the site.