DAGENHAM BREACH. 1 59 



West Thurrock and Canvey Island. There is no need, however, to 

 detail all these. 



In some notes that I gave at our meeting at West Ham in June, 

 1886 (" Journ. Proceedings E. F. C," vol. iv., p. clxxxviii.), an instance 

 was given of the overflowing of the River Lea, and the Channel 

 sea, when the monks of the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne had to 

 leave that spot, and removed to Burgestede, near Billerica. Here, 

 at Dagenham, in 1376, a breach occurred, and the nuns of Barking 

 Abbey had to seek the shelter of higher ground. 



In 162 1 a breach again occurred here, which was stopped by 

 Cornelius Vermuyden,* who then " inned " the whole of Dagenham 

 Creek, and erected a kind of sluice at the mouth of the watergang. 

 This sluice' was a strong gate suspended on hinges, which opened 

 only outward, and closed as the tide rose and pressed against it. 



It was this sluice which blew up on the 17th December, 1707, in 

 consequence of a great flood of river water, coincident with an 

 extremely high spring tide,^"and a violent N.E. wind, and thus began 

 the Great Breach, which has made the name of Dagenham famous. 



Had this been promptly repaired, or a small dam made, it could 

 easily have been stopped ; for the gap was at first only fourteen or 

 sixteen feet across. But this was delayed, and the constant wash of 

 the waters in and out of the level each tide, soon widened jthe gap 

 to about 100 yards, and gulled or deepened it to twenty and thirty 

 feet in some places. 



Then the waters spread, and some thousand acres of land in the 

 Dagenham and Hornchurch levels were covered, passing up on the 

 west by Chequer's Lane and beyond Rippleside, branching out in a 

 northerly direction right through Dagenham village (two miles away 

 from the river), and beyond even that, along the course of the 

 Beam River. 



Throughout the winter the washing away of the soil continued ; 

 about 120 acres were scoured out by the tides, and the debris carried 

 into the river and deposited, thus forming a shelf or bank about a 

 mile in length, stretching halfway across the river, and threatening 

 a very serious impediment to the navigation. 



From Mr. William Boswell's little octavo volume entitled : " An 



8 A Dutch engineer, well known in after years in connection with the drainage and reclama- 

 tion of the so-called Bedford Level and Fen District. He was knighted for his services in 1629. 



9 A sluice proper opens like a gate, on hinges. A sluice gate which moves up and down in 

 groves on either side, like the ancient portcullis, is technically called " a clow." 



10 Every few years an abnormally high spring-tide will occur, which floods the lower districts 

 of Lambeth, etc., at the present time. 



