County Borough of East Ham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

East Ham
East Ham Town Hall
Geography
Status Local Government District (1878 - 1894)
Urban district (1894 - 1904)
Municipal borough (1904-1915)
County borough (after 1915)
1894 area 3,324 acres (13.5 km²)
1965 area 3,324 acres (13.5 km²)
HQ East Ham
History
Created 1894
Abolished 1965
Succeeded by London Borough of Newham
Demography
1901 population 96,008
1961 population 105,682

East Ham was a local government district in the far south west of Essex from 1878 to 1965. It extended from Wanstead Flats in the north to the River Thames in the south and from Green Street in the west to Barking Creek in the east. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District.

East Ham Local Government District was created in 1878, when the parish of East Ham adopted the Local Government Act 1858, and formed a local board of nine members to govern the area. In 1886 the local government district was extended to include the civil parish of Little Ilford, and the board was increased to 12 in number. The Local Government Act 1894 reconstituted the area as an urban district, with an elected urban district council of 15 members replacing the board. In 1900 Little Ilford parish was abolished and its area absorbed into an enlarged East Ham. In 1904 the district was incorporated as a municipal borough, with a borough council consisting of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors replacing the urban district council.[1] In 1915 the borough gained independence from county administration as a county borough, against the objections of Essex County Council.[2] The size of the borough council was increased to ten alderman and thirty councillors, representing ten wards in 1919.[1]

The borough included most of the current-day London Borough of Newham east of Green Street including Little Ilford, Manor Park, East Ham and Beckton. It excluded North Woolwich, as historically this was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, in the County of London. The borough ran its own tram services until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.[3] The borough ran its own fire brigade which was absorbed into the London Fire Brigade in 1965. East Ham's Town Hall now serves as Newham Town Hall.

The county borough, along with the County Borough of West Ham, was abolished and became part of the London Borough of Newham in 1965 when Greater London was created. For the benefit of historians it should be noted that, although the County Borough was administratively independent from Essex, it did form part of the county, and so like the other Essex authorities incorporated into Greater London, the majority of its public records up to 1965 are held in the Essex County Record Office in Chelmsford. Discussions are continuing between county and London Borough archivists which may lead to the return of records to their originating districts.

Population of East Ham from 1801 to 1911

Year[4] 1801 1851 1861 1881 1891 1901 1911
Population <2000 <2000 2,858 10,706 32,713 96,018 133,487
Dwellings n/a n/a 497 1,930 5,818 17,937 25,694

[edit] Gallery

Entrance to town hall. Note the EH around the doorway for East Ham.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b East Ham: Local government and public services, A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 18-24, (British History Online), accessed February 6, 2008
  2. ^ New London County Borough, The Times, March 13, 1914
  3. ^ Reed, J., London Tramways, (1997)
  4. ^ Alfred Stokes East Ham from village to County Borough
  • Local Government Act 1894
  • London Government Act 1963

[edit] External links