Place Name
As the name suggests, it leads to Abbey Wood, which was just a small part of the extensive landholdings of Barking Abbey, the greatest and most prestigious Benedictine nunnery in England at the time that Henry VIII decided to embark on his land grab against the Roman Catholic Church in the early 16thCentury. The abbey was founded sometime around AD666 by St Erkenwald with his sister St Ethelburga, as the first abbess. Endowments of land made by the manor of Barking, which included Ilford and Dagenham. David Mills in A Dictionary of London Place Names writes: “An indication of its prestige and importance in medieval times is that it included among its abbesses no less than three queens, two princesses, and the sister of Thomas Becket.” Those queens were Alftrudis, widow of King Edgar; Maud, wife of Henry I; and Matilda, wife of King Stephen. In addition William the Conqueror stayed at the abbey following his coronation. It was shut down in 1539 and its buildings were demolished, the stone and other materials was used for the royal properties at Dartford and Greenwich.
