Archival Research Name of Types of Location Access Additional Info Archive Files Essex https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/ Archives Online Essex Record Wharf Rd, ID, proof of address with signature. Office Chelmsford CM2 Thurs, Tues, Wed 6YT Sound and Essex Records ^ See Essex Sounds soundcloud - Video Office https://soundcloud.com/essex- Archive record-office (Essex) Barking and Diaries, oral Valence House Email: [email protected] or Dagenham histories, Museum telephone: 020 8227 2033 book appt. Archives and work Becontree Avenue before. Bring ID Local Studies documents Dagenham Service England RM8 3HT National Horticultural Kew ID, proof of current address for reader Archives and Richmond card gardening England records TW9 4DU University of Colchester The University of [email protected] to arrange visit Essex Recalled Essex Archives Oral History Wivenhoe Park Group, Colchester Hervey Essex Benham CO4 3SQ Sound Archive London Migration, 40 Northampton One proof of identity and one proof of Metropolitan parks, Rd, Farringdon, address – register online/in person Archives recreation, London EC1R 0HB sport, clubs TFL Rail – Romford to Shenfield – From Liverpool Street Brentwood / Ingrave – Historic town centre – Conservation area - Lots of churches: Johnstone Foundation School, Ingrave - Beautiful Things – community sewing shop – lots of classes and gatherings - Thorndon Golf Club - Brentwood Hard Court Tennis Club Essex Archives Online Essex Record Office – Searchroom Essex Sounds – soundscapes of Essex present and past https://www.essexsounds.org.uk/content/about/introducing-website Sound and video archive - https://www.essexrecordoffice.co.uk/research/sound-video- archive SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/essex-record-office Archive content Essex Sound and Video Archive Advent Calendar 2017 - Prim Coppin and the hard winter of 1947 (SA 44/1/12/1) Sounds of Brentwood Talking Magazine, February 2013 (SA 2/1/110/1) - https://soundcloud.com/essex-record-office/sets/sounds-of-brentwood-feb-2013 Canvey Island floods 1953 National Archives – Kew - Flood and tempest 1953: Waverley committee: report 1953-54. Ref: HLG 50/2500 (first report to make climate change a concern for government) - http://theconversation.com/1953-storm-surge-how-britains-worst-natural-disaster- kicked-off-the-debate-on-climate-change-71310 Canvey Island online community archive - https://www.canveyisland.org/ 1987 The Great Storm - BBC Essex material about the 1987 hurricane (SA 1/1955/1) – interviews https://soundcloud.com/essex-record-office/sets/1987-hurricane-sa-1-1955-1 Essex Archives Online – The Great Storm 1987 - Ref: SA 1/1955/1 (BBC Essex Radio news items on the tenth anniversary of the 1987 hurricane - 1997) - Ref: SA 1/209/1 (News Review of the Year 1987 – Radio inc. heavy snowfall Jan, floods July, hurricane Oct) - Ref: D/P 312/6/113 (Colour photographs of damage sustained by All Saints and St. James' Churches during the Great Storm, 15,16 October 1987 District Line Archives Barking and Dagenham Archives and Local Studies Service at Valence House Email: [email protected] or telephone: 020 8227 2033 book appt. before. Bring ID. Key diaries, oral histories: - Papers and oral history recordings of the sisters Vale, 1922-2005 - Oral histories of refugees and their arrival in Dagenham * - Barking Park Oral History Project * - Catch22 Barking & Dagenham: Stories of Becontree (see below for archive visit notes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ_hGjvkz04 Video recordings of residents of Becontree recalling what the estate was like and the move from London, slum clearance etc. 14:17 – ‘in the school holidays it always seemed like it was sunny, 18 years ago, we used to play in the street’ - Skip in the street, cricket in the street – could play in the street with no cars - Culture impacts memory of climate Further content: - Records of the Borough of Dagenham and its predecessors, 1926-1965 - Dagenham Urban District Council (1926-1965), relating to parks and allotments, drainage, public health, libraries, highways and street lighting, cleansing and salvage, sport, welfare, education, town planning, entertainment… - Records of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, 1965-present - the environment, events, health, housing, jobs, leisure, arts and libraries, museums and heritage, news and media, regeneration and transport. - Records of the 29th Barking Boy Scout Troop, 1952-1958 - Records of Barking Schools Football Association, 1950-1965 - Records of the Barking and Dagenham Allotment Holders' Society Limited, 1979- 1993 - Photographs of the Becontree Swimming Club, 1974-1996 - Records of Dagenham Cricket Club, 1951-1959 - Old Dagonians Association Collection, 1938-2000 - Papers of Allan Batley, 1887-1977 - Personal papers of Allan Victor Batley (1887- 1970), relating to his career as a horticulturalist, with particular references to his time as the superintendent of the Parks and Cemeteries Department of the Borough of Dagenham - Papers and photographs of Joan Foster, circa. 1920-1970 - Weather tables with notes on the flora and fauna observed by William Gretton, 1773 - Papers of B. P. Mansfield, circa. 1940-1980 - letters, printed ephemera and photographs, career of Basil Patrick Mansfield as the captain of a tug boat for Samuel Williams & Sons Ltd at Dagenham Dock - Diary of Vivian Bevan Todd, 1937 Potential Community Groups: - Valence House gardens – managed in part by the Romford Division of the Essex Beekeepers Association - https://romfordbeekeepers.wordpress.com/ - Romford Beekeepers hold a meeting on the first Thursday of every month at Chadwick Hall, Main Road, Gidea Park RM2 5EL. - Barking Park (opened in 1898) – indoor bowls club // allotments - Barking and Dagenham free activities and clubs: https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Events-Programme-Libraries-and- Childrens-Centres-09-Mar-2020.pdf e.g. Golden Years – Thames View Library (Barking IG11 0LG) / Knit and Natter – Valence Library (Dagenham RM8 3HT) University of Essex Archives - Hervey Benham Sound Archive - 1400 tape cassettes, rich source for local history research, covering many aspects of Colchester and Essex life. - Colchester Recalled Oral History Group - an archive of recorded memories about Colchester & District over the past 120 years - stored at Albert Sloman Library – University of Essex London Metropolitan Archives - The Corporation of London archives contain papers relating to the management of open spaces bought and preserved for recreation and sports, notably Epping Forest (CLA/077). - London’s Green Heritage [LMA reference: GLC/RA/E2/13/005] - 1950 film made by the London County Council and documents a visit to County Hall, a map of the parks of London, a visit to parks, sports played in these parks also feature - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fl8E_Xv_BU - Archives relating to Migration, settlement and activities of new communities Valence House archives visit Becontree estate, Dagenham, was the largest estate in the world. Constructed in the interwar years 1921-1935. In 1935 had a population of around 100,000 people in 26,000 homes. Built to rehouse people from London’s East End, displaced by slum clearance. New parks built, gardens and hedges, huge, wide roads. The land was originally market gardens and countryside. The Essex Weather Book, Ian Currie, Mark Dawson and Bob Ogley, 1992 - 1913 – ‘hailstones as big as hens’ eggs’ - 1976 – ‘we appointed a minister of drought’ - ‘the North Sea has brought, and always will bring, the greatest suffering’ Eye on the Hurricane, Bob Ogley and Kevin Reynolds, 1989 - ‘The great storm of October 16, 1987 has already passed into folklore’ (easily forgotten, mythicised) Religion vs science – changing attitudes towards weather and climate > - Teddy Taylor – MP for Southend East – first to call for a govt enquiry into the lack of warning from weathermen - ‘People like us who go to church and enjoy reading the old testament appear to have greater vision of possible disaster than those who merely reflect upon the implication of weather forecasts’ - ‘we saw in our road that the Almighty had not singled us out’ ‘The wind that changed our landscape’ – page 4 - Ours is a benevolent land. Land of soft horizons, of productive fields and gentle, welcoming landscapes: Our homes nestle comfortably in the fields of an ancient countryside threatened only by the works of men, for Nature on the whole has been kind to this fair corner of England where her excesses are mostly but minor aggravations. When changes come they occur slowly, we adapt our minds and our lives to absorb them’ - Nostalgic/rose tinted view compared to The Essex Weather Book - Close connection to the land/place/weather/memory - Hurricane seen as a ‘Godly act of terror’ - ‘By comparison, man now sees himself as a creature of feeble means’ – Romantic view – in awe of the ‘forces of Nature’ Catch22 Barking & Dagenham: Stories of Becontree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ_hGjvkz04 B0356/1 Pat and Barbara Felten 2013 ‘When it used to freeze up in the winter, we used to put socks over our shoes and skate all over it’ ‘They used to have loads of fish there [the river], and when we had a heatwave and the water would be drained out and the fish laid on the surface’ BD356/2 Harold Smith - Used to court girls in the park – where fruit and veg would grow - Right on the edge of the countryside – lots of camping trips BD25/1 Papers of the Sister Vale (1922-2005) Kathleen Vale, Alexander ‘playing in the gardens and in the street, plenty of fresh