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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Field and Ordinary Meeting in the Royal Liberty of Havering-atte
Bower.
Saturday, June 18th, 1887.
A large gathering (sixty or more) of members and friends of the Club assembled
at Chadwell Heath Station, about three o'clock on this beautiful afternoon, some
having travelled by road from Buckhurst Hill, Snaresbrook, etc., and others by
train. Here drags were in attendance, and the party, under the conductorship of
Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S, (with whom was Mr. E. J. Sage, a great authority on
the history of the neighbourhood, and the possessor of perhaps the finest collection
of views and memorials of it in existence), commenced a rapid survey of the more
interesting features of this once celebrated district. Chadwell is stated to have
derived its name from a well dedicated to Bishop Ceadda or Chad, a monk sent
from Lindisfarne to teach Christianity in Essex some twelve hundred years ago ;
the "well" still exists at Chadwell St. Mary at the foot of the hill on the marsh edge.
On the high road leading to Romford is the gateway of Whalebone House,
(Sketched by Miss S. Christy for Christy's "Trade Signs of Essex.")
where the lower jawbones of the right Greenland whale (Balaena mysticetus)
flank each side of the gate, a reminiscence of the days when whalers set out for
Spitzbergen from the Essex ports. These may be more than two hundred years
old, and have been painted often, hence their good preservation. The skull of
this mammal is the largest known, and these jawbones are about nineteen or
twenty feet long, and extend fifteen feet six inches out of the ground. The
British Museum of Natural History possess only a skull, and not a complete
skeleton, of this huge animal, so valuable for its blubber and whalebone. Near
this was the old "pike" (Whalebone Gate), abolished in 1866.
While waiting for some errant members of the party an excursion was made on
foot down the lane to Valence, which was examined by the kind permission of the
occupier. It is a most interesting example of a mediaeval manor house, with its
out-buildings, pleasure grounds, kitchen garden, and lawn, with old cedars—all
enclosed within a moat. This manor, in the parish of Dagenham, took its name
from the family of Valence, Earls of Pembroke, and was formerly held of the
Abbess of Barking by the fee of attendance on her with two horses when required
Among the many good "armigeri" families who have owned and lived here may