Place Name
Remembers the former manor of Newbury. The name was first recorded in the early 14thCentury and was so-called because it was one of the areas in the locality to come into the possession of Barking Abbey. The religious order, which was founded in the 7thCentury, had been taking ownership of the surrounding lands for many years. In AD687 Œthelræd, kinsman of Sebbi, king of the East Saxons, gave the newly-founded abbey of Barking land comprising of 40 hides in Ricingaham, Budinham, Deccanham (Dagenham), Angenlabesham, and the field in the wood called Widmundes felt. Over the centuries it collected much more. A reeve, a medieval overseer, of Newbury is mentioned sometime around 1321 and again in 1441. All that ended when Henry VIII made his land grab during the dissolution of the monasteries. In 1546 the estate was surrendered to the Crown who sold it, along with the manor of Downshall, to Sir Richard Gresham. The financier in turn sold them to a Bartholomew Barnes and from there it passed through numerous owners until, in 1891, some 170 acres were put up for sale and bought by J H Mitchell. Building development had started by 1900.
