Wanstead Manor was a manor, historically in the English county 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 ...

and now in the

London Borough of Redbridge The London Borough of Redbridge is a London boroughs, London borough established in 1965. The borough shares boundaries with the Epping Forest District and the ceremonial county of Essex to the north, with the London Borough of Waltham Forest t ...

. It centred on the

manorhouse A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

Wanstead Hall Wanstead Hall was the manor house for the Manor of Wanstead, now in the London Borough of Redbridge but historically in the county of Essex. It was later demolished to make way for the construction of Wanstead House. History Tudor It was prob ...

, later demolished to build

Wanstead House Wanstead House was a mansion built to replace the earlier Wanstead Hall. It was commissioned in 1715, completed in 1722 and demolished in 1825. Its gardens now form the municipal Wanstead Park in the London Borough of Redbridge. History Construc ...

. The manor is said to have been granted to the monks of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

in Saxon times by Abbot Aelfric, though this cannot be substantiated from any documentary evidence. However, the location was clearly a prized site on the east side of London. In 1086 the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

states that Wanstead Manor was held from the Bishop of London by one Ralph son of Brian. Wanstead was then densely wooded, being situated within the

Forest of Essex The Forest of Essex was a royal forest that existed from around 1100 and was disestablished in the 13th century. Forests were legal institutions introduced by the Normans to denote an area where the King or another magnate had the right to keep ...

. It was part of the forest

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

Becontree Becontree ( or Both pronunciations are given as Received Pronunciation in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, but the form is prioritised (). The dialectologist Peter Wright wrote in 1981 that is the traditional pronunciation in the cockney ...

during the Middle Ages and later of the

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

"Walk".

References

Sources

* *Cornish, Alan. M.Sc. Wanstead Park - A Chronicle. (Originally published by the Friends of Wanstead Parklands in 1982, updated and republished by Wanstead Parklands Community Project in 2006.) *Starkey, David. ''Henry: Virtuous Prince''. London, 2008. *Ramsey, Winston G. & Fowkes, Reginald L. ''Epping Forest: Then and Now''. Battle of Britain Prints International Ltd., 1986.

External links

City of London websiteWren Conservation GroupThe Friends of Wanstead Parklands
{{LB Redbridge Manors in Essex History of the London Borough of Redbridge