THE RIVER-WALLS OF ESSEX. 283
From time to time Commissioners were appointed to view
and report on the condition of the walls or to order repairs
where necessary. During the fifty years' reign of Edward III
there are records of such in 1321, 1324, 1354, 1368 and 1376.
They probably indicate that the older walls were then becoming
worn down or neglected and that local flooding had ensued
which demanded urgent action. [The serious results of long-
continued neglect of repair were seen in the breach of the
river-wall at Dagenham in December 1707, which cost altogether
some £80,000 to seal off and which resulted in the formation
of an inland lake of some 40 acres in extent where before had
been grazing ground!]
In 1397 a Charter granted by Richard II speaks of "the
overflowing of water" as a chief contributory cause of the
then poverty of Stratford Langthorne Abbey. This indicates
either a serious breach of walls then existing or the need of
additional walls as subsidence of the land went on.
The presence of so-called "counter walls" between the several
marshes of West Ham, as shown on the 18th century marsh-
maps, indicates that these marshes were "inned" at various
dates : indeed, the "new marsh" and the "new inned field"
referred to in the Stratford Abbey Rental of 1538 must have
been then of comparatively recent "inning." It is probable
that the Cistercian monks of Stratford Langthorne Abbey6—an
Order noted for its agricultural activities—would readily under-
take the erection of successive river-walls in their district, as
opportunity offered, so as to increase the acreage of meadow
land during their four centuries of ownership. In this
connection a Grant of Henry VIII, in which a certain marsh
in East Ham is mentioned which the late Abbot of Stratford had
recovered from the "overflowing of the water," clearly indicates
a marsh which had not long before been "inned."
Successive erection of the river-walls at various dates would
explain the distinctive names given to sections of the walls :
for instance, within the area of the modern Borough of West
Ham occur names such as "Warewalla" (mentioned in 1199—
1200), Priors Wall (mentioned in 1330), Coverlee's Wall (men-
tioned in 1337), Bulleswall (mentioned in 1398), Pulle Wall
[possibly a corruption of the last-named] (mentioned in 1538),
Wilan Wall, Stampitts Wall and Sowlande Wall (all mentioned
in 1538), Green Wall (1742), Three Mills Wall (1741), and, in
more modern times, Long Wall and Short Wall.
6 Founded in 1135.