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Wanstead () is an area in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge to the east and Manor Park to the south, with Leytonstone and
Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a town within the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London. The town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and South Woodford to the east, Leyton and Leytonstone to the south, and Tottenham to the west. At ...
to the west. It is located 8 miles northeast of Charing Cross. Historically an
ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in the Becontree hundred of
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, it was granted urban district status in 1894, and formed part of the Municipal Borough of Wanstead and Woodford between 1937 and 1965, when it became part of the London Borough of Redbridge. Wanstead was a key part of the M11 link road protest from 1993 to 1995, which ended with the construction of the A12 that runs through the town. The area contains a number of open spaces that are part of Epping Forest, including the grasslands of Wanstead Flats and the woodland of Wanstead Park. Wanstead Park was the site of a suspected Roman villa, and later Wanstead Hall, the manor house of Wanstead Manor. The park, with artificial lakes, was formerly part of the estate of a large stately home Wanstead House (1722–1825), built by Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney.


History


Toponymy

The place name is probably of Saxon origin and is first recorded in a charter of 1065 as Wenstede. The English Place-Names Society derives the name from the
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
words ''waenn'', meaning a hill or mound, and ''stede'', a place or settlement. According to an alternative explanation, the first element means "wain" or "wagon", but the meaning of the full compound is not clear. A place in Essex, in 1460, has a name spelt as "Waynsted".


Astronomy

In 1707 the astronomer James Pound became rector of Wanstead. In 1717 the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
lent Pound Huygens's 123-foot focal length object-glass, which he set up in Wanstead Park. Pound's observations with it of the five known satellites of Saturn enabled Halley to correct calculations of their movements; and Newton employed, in the third edition of the ''Principia'', his micrometrical measures of Jupiter's disc, of Saturn's disc and ring, and of the elongations of their satellites; and obtained from him data for correcting the places of the comet of 1680. Laplace also used Pound's observations of Jupiter's satellites for the determination of the planet's mass; and Pound himself compiled in 1719 a set of tables for the first satellite, into which he introduced an equation for the transmission of light. Pound trained his sister's son, James Bradley, and many of their observations were made together, including the opposition of Mars in 1719, and the transit of Mercury on 29 October 1723. Their measurement of Ξ³ Virginis in 1718 was the first made of the components of a double star and was directed towards the determination of
stellar parallax Stellar parallax is the apparent shift of position (''parallax'') of any nearby star (or other object) against the background of distant stars. By extension, it is a method for determining the distance to the star through trigonometry, the stel ...
. In 1727, Bradley embarked upon a series of observations using a telescope of his own, erected at the rectory in Wanstead, now the site of Wanstead High School. This instrument had the advantage of a large field of view and he was able to obtain precise positions of a large number of stars that transited close to the zenith over the course of about two years. Combined with observations from his friend Samuel Molyneux's house at Kew in Surrey, this established the existence of the phenomenon of aberration of light, and also allowed Bradley to formulate a set of rules that would allow the calculation of the effect on any given star at a specified date.


The George public house

Although current building is from 1903, The George has been a pub on the site since at least 1716. Set in to the side of the pub is a plaque dating from 1752, which was formerly part of an older pub building. The plaque is inscribed with the eccentrically spelled verse: : ''In Memory of'' : ''Ye Cherry Pey'' : ''As cost 1/2 a Guiney'' : ''Ye 17 of July'' : ''That day we had good cheer'' : ''I hope to so do maney a Year'' : ''R C 1752 D Jerry'' There are various local legends explaining this curious plaque, including a tale of the theft of a cherry pie by local workmen who were caught and fined half a
guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, CΓ΄te d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
(52.5p). However the most likely explanation is that it was placed there by the landlord of 1752, David Jersey (corrupted by centuries of repainting and re-cutting the inscription to D Jerry on the plaque), commemorating a feast which included a huge cherry pie. Monstrous pies were a feature of 18th-century Essex rural festivals; the Galmpton Gooseberry Pie Fair in Devon is still in existence, and other inns around the edge of Epping Forest were famed for pies (rabbit pie at The Reindeer, Loughton, now Warren House, and pigeon pie at The King's Head, Chigwell). Wanstead was well known for its cherry orchards as late as the 1830s, when they were mentioned by poet
Thomas Hood Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs (poem), The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for ''The London Magazine'', '' ...
, who lived in Wanstead 1832–5.


Schools and education

The Royal Commercial Travellers Schools were sited in Wanstead from their foundation in 1845 by John Robert Cuffley until their move to Pinner in 1855. The schools at Wanstead provided housing, food, clothing and education for up to 130 children of commercial travellers who had died or became unable to earn their livelihood. The Royal Merchant Navy School was founded in St George in the East,
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1827 before moving to Hermon Hill, Wanstead in 1862. The new building provided for 300 orphans of Merchant Navy seamen. It moved again to Bearwood House near
Wokingham Wokingham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 38,284 and the wider built-up area had a populati ...
in 1921. The building then became a convent refuge for women and girls and later Wanstead Hospital. The Royal Wanstead School was by the Eagle Pond, Snaresbrook up to about 1970. It subsequently became the site of a Crown Court. Wanstead is home to a large comprehensive school, Wanstead High School. Primary schools in Wanstead include Wanstead Church, Our Lady of Lourdes RC, Aldersbrook and Nightingale. From 1957 until 1987 Wanstead had a secondary Modern School called Nightingale Secondary Modern School. There was also Nightingale Primary School on the site which is still in existence. These schools were within the boundaries of Ashbourne Avenue, Colvin Gdns. and Elmcroft Ave. Forest School, Walthamstow is close to Eagle Pond and Snaresbrook Crown Court.


Places of worship

The church of St Mary the Virgin, Wanstead was completed in 1790. It is now a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, and contains a large monument to Josiah Child. It was followed in the 1860s by both the Anglican church of Christ Church and Wanstead Congregational Church. Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead the local Catholic Church in Cambridge Park was opened in 1928.


Politics

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
represented Wanstead as MP from 1924 to 1945 when Wanstead formed part of the Epping Constituency, and also when Wanstead lay within the Woodford Constituency, from 1945 to 1964. During this period he served as
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
(1940–1945) during much of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and again in peace-time, from 1951 to 1955. There is a bust of Churchill in Wanstead High Street.


Military activity

During the Second World War the tunnels of the as-yet-to-be-commercially used Wanstead underground station were utilised for aircraft production. Wanstead Flats was used for Anti-Aircraft batteries protecting London, Barracks for Pre-D-Day troops and a Prisoner-of-War Camp subsequently. Due to terminal moraine (left by glaciers) the soil was relatively infertile.


Underground stations

Wanstead has two London Underground stations at either end of the High Street that runs through the town; Snaresbrook and Wanstead on the Central line.


Sports

Wandstead F.C. and Woodford and Wanstead F.C. are based in the area.


Notable residents

* Clive Burr, drummer (ex-Samson/Iron Maiden) * Charles Bressey, civil engineer * Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and favourite of
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
, had a house here, in which he died, much to Elizabeth's intense sorrow, on 4 September 1588, three days before the Queen's 55th birthday *
Thomas Hood Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs (poem), The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for ''The London Magazine'', '' ...
, poet * Peter Goddard, physicist and journalist * Rodney Gordon, architect *
William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...
, Quaker, founder of the
Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...
. * James Holden (locomotive engineer) * Sir Edward Phelips, Speaker of the House of Commons 1604-1611 * James Pound, astronomer. * Max Raison (1901–1988), cricketer * Harry Roberts, criminal * Richard Brinsley Sheridan, dramatist, lived in the right-hand house of the Georgian Terrace in the High Street near to the George * Mark Stephens (solicitor), lawyer, mediator, writer and broadcaster * Colin Ward, social historian, writer and anarchist * Jessie Wallace, actress, lived in Wanstead * Tom Watt, actor * Joseph Wilton, sculptor


See also

* Wanstonia * Wanstead and Woodford Guardian * Wanstead Sewage Works


References

* Pewsey, S (2005), The Wanstead Cherry Pie Stone, Wanstead Historical Society


External links

*
Parish of WansteadWanstead Village DirectoryWansteadium
{{London Districts Areas of London Districts of the London Borough of Redbridge District centres of London