DAGENHAM BREACH.
159
West Thurrock and Canvey Island. There is no need, however, to
detail all these.
In some notes that I gave at our meeting at West Ham in June,
1886 ("Journ. Proceedings E. F. C," vol. iv., p. clxxxviii.), an instance
was. given of the overflowing of the River Lea, and the Channel
sea, when the monks of the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne had to
leave that spot, and removed to Burgestede, near Billerica. Here,
at Dagenham, in 1376, a breach occurred, and the nuns of Barking
Abbey had to seek the shelter of higher ground.
In 1621 a breach again occurred here, which was stopped by
Cornelius Vermuyden,8 who then "inned" the whole of Dagenham
Creek, and erected a kind of sluice at the mouth of the watergang.
This sluice9 was a strong gate suspended on hinges, which opened
only outward, and closed as the tide rose and pressed against it.
It was this sluice which blew up on the 17th December, 1707, in
consequence of a great flood of river water, coincident with an
extremely high spring tide,10 and a violent N.E. wind, and thus began
the Great Breach, which has made the name of Dagenham famous.
Had this been promptly repaired, or a small dam made, it could
easily have been stopped ; for the gap was at first only fourteen or
sixteen feet across. But this was delayed, and the constant wash of
the waters in and out of the level each tide, soon widened, the gap
to about 100 yards, and gulled or deepened it to twenty and thirty
feet in some places.
Then the waters spread, and some thousand acres of land in the
Dagenham and Hornchurch levels were covered, passing up on the
west by Chequer's Lane and beyond Rippleside, branching out in a
northerly direction right through Dagenham village (two miles away
from the river), and beyond even that, along the course of the
Beam River.
Throughout the winter the washing away of the soil continued ;
about 120 acres were scoured out by the tides, and the debris carried
into the river and deposited, thus forming a shelf or bank about a
mile in length, stretching halfway across the river, and threatening
a very serious impediment to the navigation.
From Mr. William Bosvvell's little octavo volume entitled: "An
8 A Dutch engineer, well known in after years in connection with the drainage and reclama-
tion of the so-called Bedford Level and Fen District. He was knighted for his services in 1629.
9 A sluice proper opens like a gate, on hinges. A sluice gate which moves up and down in
groves on either side, like the ancient portcullis, is technically called "a clow."
10 Every few years an abnormally high spring-tide will occur, which floods the lower districts
of Lambeth, etc., at the present time.