Place Name
Laid out over the estate of Valence House, when the Becontree Estate was built by the London County Council between the wars and was, at the time, the largest estate of public housing in the world. The name comes from the Anglo Saxon period and means Beohha’s tree. Trees became popular in place names as they acted as a convenient assembly point, and this one was situated on nearby Becontree Heath. Becontree was originally one of the Hundreds of Essex, taking its name from Becontree Heath in the parish of Dagenham. It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Beuentreu, which by the 12thCentury had mutated into Beghentro and then. in 1238 Bekentre and Brcontre in 1594.
