London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Local Studies Information Sheet no. 38
TRACING THE HISTORY OF HOUSES IN LBBD
Electoral registers
The LBBD Archives and Local Studies Centre at Valence House holds electoral
registers for Barking and Dagenham from 1900, with gaps for the two World Wars.
Before the mid-1930s the registers are on microfilm, the later ones being volumes
on the open shelves. The registers are arranged by ward, with street indexes at the
front of each volume from 1947 onwards (Barking) and 1952 onwards
(Dagenham). Separate street indexes are also available for the years 1931-39
(Barking) and 1936-39 (Dagenham). Until 1926 the Dagenham registers are in
surname order within each ward, due to the small population at that time.
Please note that some Barking and Dagenham postal addresses fall within the
Ilford constituencies, especially in the years before boundary changes in 1994.
Ilford electoral registers are held at Redbridge Archives and Local Studies Library,
Ilford (phone 020 8708 2417, e-mail [email protected] ).
Electoral registers record the names of those residents of each household eligible
to vote. From 1918 women aged over 30 who were householders, or wives of
householders, were able to vote in national elections. In 1928 women were granted
the vote at the age of 21, on the same terms as men. Some women, however,
appear in the registers before 1918 as eligible to vote in local elections. In 1969 the
voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.
Electoral registers can be used as a means of establishing when houses were
built. Eastbrook Drive, for example, first appears in the Dagenham electoral
register in 1956. The qualifying date was 10 October 1955, so the first residents of
this road must have moved in between 11 October 1954 and 10 October 1955.
Rate books
We hold a large collection of rate books for both Barking (from the 1700s) and
Dagenham (from the 1800s) until the 20th century. The early Barking volumes also
include Great Ilford and Chadwell wards. The books give names and addresses of
residents eligible to pay rates levied for local items of expenditure such as lighting,
highways and maintenance of the poor. The rate books are held off-site, and there
are gaps in our holdings. It is essential to make an advance appointment to
view rate books.
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Please turn over/. . .
Census returns
The census returns 1841-1911 can be accessed online (searchable by personal
name) via the Ancestry Library Edition and Find My Past websites, which can be
used free of charge at the Archives and Local Studies Centre.
The census returns are arranged in order of address, and list the residents of each
household at home on census night. For example, the 1901 census shows a 39
year-old bank manager named William Fisher living at 7, Monteagle Avenue,
Barking, with his wife Hannah and three children (reference RG13/1654 folio 85b).
Unfortunately, many addresses are not as precise as this, especially in the early
years when communities were relatively thinly populated. .
Building control plans
We hold a large number of building control plans. These are drawn for the purpose
of obtaining planning permission for new buildings or alterations to existing
buildings. There are many from Barking in the late 19th and early 20th century, for
example plans of 8 houses in Harpour Road drawn up in 1895 for E.H. Glenny &
Co (reference 3471). It is essential to make an advance appointment to view
building control plans.
Photographs
We have a large collection of photographs of Barking and Dagenham area, with
many individual streets recorded. These include many images of farms and large
houses that have long since been demolished. There are also photographs of
roads on the Becontree Estate in the 1920s and 1930s, with not a car in sight.
Ordnance Survey maps
The Archives and Local Studies Centre holds large-scale (1:2500, or 25 inches to
the mile) ordnance survey maps dating from the 1860s to the 1960s. Properties
and surrounding plots of land are often shown in great detail, including
outbuildings, ditches and even individual trees.
Tithe maps and schedules
We hold Tithe maps and schedules for Barking and Dagenham compiled in the
1840s, listing owners and occupiers of individual houses and plots of land.
However, very few local buildings from that period still survive.
Primary Sources held elsewhere
House deeds, which may be with your solicitor or building society, can offer a
wealth of information. They may include documents such as maps and wills from
the time that the land was first purchased, and they will give names of successive
owners. The Archives and Local Studies Centre holds a collection of deeds
indexed by place and personal name.
Secondary sources held in the LBBD Archives & Local Studies
Centre
Barratt, Nick: Tracing the history of your house (2nd edition 2006)
Readers’ Digest: The story of where you live (2005)
Clifford, Tony: Barking and Dagenham buildings past and present (1992)
Archives & Local Studies Centre, Valence House, Becontree Ave, Dagenham RM8 3HT
09.2014