158 DAGENHAM ISREACH. 



records of the abbeys and religious houses which had lands abutting 

 on the river we find continual mention of these under the term " inn- 

 ings," and the repairs were always keeping them well employed. 



Altogether, the walls or embankments, and these "innings," have 

 been reckoned by Dr. Smiles and others to run some 300 miles.^ 



In various parts of the river wall are openings through into the 

 meadows, so that the water could either be admitted or held back as 

 required. These, from the year 1 259, were known as " water gangs," * 

 and were, of course, guarded by a sluice gate. 



So important was the proper maintenance and upkeep of the 

 banks and sluices, both to the individual owners and the nation, 

 considered, that special privileges were p^ranted by the Crown for this 

 end. For instance, the Abbess of Barking, who also held lands here, 

 had license to cut wood or timber through the forest, even in the 

 fence months, for the repairs of breaches caused by inundation ; and 

 in later times, when the rriainteriance of the water-way became of still 

 greater importance, the various landowners were taxed to pay for 

 the upkeep." 



Notwithstanding this, we can scarcely wonder, seeing the 

 enormous extent of the long line of walls, that the care and vigilance 

 necessary has not at all times been constant. The ordinary wear and 

 tear, apart from negligence and bucolic supineness, has always been 

 tending to produce weak spots, with the inevitable result that 

 breaches have occurred as a consequence of such neglect. 



On both shores we have many records of such breaches, and the 

 consequent flooding of the lands on the Kentish, or rights bank 

 at Lambeth, Southwark, Bermondsey, Greenwich, Plumstead, Erith, 

 etc., and on the left shore from Wapping and Limehouse down to 



5 S^^le interesting notes on these " Earth-walls on the banks of the Thames " may be read in 

 Pehr. Kalm s " Account of his visit to England," etc., 1748, now translated for the first time, 8vo., 

 :8g2, pp. ^44-5 and 357. Kalm was a pupil of the great Linnaeus, and the notes mentioned are 

 evidence of his accuracy and careful observation : — " It was pleasant to go on this wall, and see 

 that when the water in the river stood at its highest, the land and meadows, together with the 

 ploughed fields immediately inside the wall, were much lower than the surface of the water in the 

 river. It was also at high-water a pleasure to see how great ships in the river were moving at .1 

 much higher level than the land itself, which at a little distance made a pretty appearance." 

 — Pehr. Kalm, July, 1748, p. 345. 



6 Vide Dugdale, "The History of Imbanking and Drayning," 1662 folio. In this work is a 

 vast amount of information, extending over a period of 350 years — from the 8th of Edward II. — 

 regarding those appointed to look after the works and repairs on both sides of the Thames, and 

 the Breaches and reclamations of " drowned " lands and marsh Lands. 



7 At a Session of Sewers held at Romford 36 Eliz. for the recovery of Havering Marsh, 

 then overflown and drowned, and for "preventing the like to Dagenham level, it was decreet! 

 that Dagenham Creek should be iminediately inned : and that whereas the said drowning had 

 been occasioned by a breach in the wail of Will. Ayloff of Hornchurch Esq.; he, the said 

 William to pay the summ of five hundred pounds ; and the Land-holders of Dagenham certain 

 rates by the .acre for all their marsh grounds lying in the said level ; viz., the Lanrls on Dagen- 

 ham side, against the .said Creeks at .£265, and the lands on the Havering levell the sum of 

 £,Txi." — DucDALE, pages 81-2. 



