Contents Page No. 6 Acknowledgements 7 List of Illustrations 10 Introduction - London's Metropolitan Essex 13 The Hundred 14 Map of the Hundreds of Essex 17 Dates and Times 19 Timeline 43AD - 1593 20 The Enigma of Boadicea 24 Wrong Turning 28 Not A lot of People Know That! 30 Detached Woolwich 32 Stratford Langthorne Abbey (West Ham Abbey) 34 Magna Carta 36 Frankpledge and the Waltham Hundred 37 Lucky Escape 42 Dark Deeds at Stratford 44 Tyndale's Friend of North Ockenden 46 The Rise and Fall of Barking Abbey 48 Waiting 50 The Great Standing 51 The Stratford Martyrs 52 Guess Who's Coming to Lunch? 53 So Was Shakespeare an Essex Boy? 58 Timeline 1600 - 1800 59 Remember, Remember 5th November 60 The Plotter of Barking? 62 Into Essex 64 Stand and Deliver 66 Breached 68 The Fairlop Oak 70 Gunpowder's Lot 72 Harvey's Sea Fencibles 74 Royal Small Arms Factory and a Small Island on the River Lea 76 Going, Going, Gone 78 The Lady on the Five Pound Note 80 Rocket Man 81 Sad Days at High Beech 82 The Biggest Fishing Fleet in the World In Barking! 84 PC George Clark - Buried in God's Little Acre 88 Christmas Day at the Workhouse 89 Poles Apart 90 Lost 'Doctor Livingstone I Presume' 91 Thames Barge 93 The Destruction of Hainault Forest 95 The Cathedral of Sewage 96 Denial 100 The Father to Nobody's Children 103 Triumph and Disaster in Bow Creek 108 The People's Forest 110 Thomas Willingale - The Lopper of Loughton 112 William Morris 114 Steam Trams to Portugal 115 Timeline 1800 - 1900 116 Disaster at Gallions Reach 118 Woolwich Ferry 120 When the Whales Came 121 Moby Dick, Whalebones and the Night Oliver Cromwell Died 124 The Greatest Show on Earth (In Ilford) 126 Britain's First Aerodrome (In Dagenham) 128 The Wilderness Eton Manor 130 The Three Week Election 132 Silvertown (1917) London's Biggest Explosion 134 Homes for Heroes 136 Mr and Mrs Robinson come to Dagenham 137 The Great Escape 141 Gone to the Dogs 144 Evacuation 146 From Kitchen Cabinets to Bombers 148 Churchill and the Lion - saved by M&B693 150 Jerrycans, Helmets, Bread and Parachutes 152 Matchbox Ghosts 155 Jim Peters-'I was lucky not to have died' 156 Wembley, World Cup Final 158 The Boy Done Good 159 Daggers, Orient and Spurs 160 Health and Safety 162 Churchill. The Honourable Member for Wanstead and Woodford. 164 A Pirate is a Pirate? 167 From Clapton to Chigwell to Clapton 169 Snatched from Essex 170 Pack of Cards 172 The Beckton Alps 174 Ten Steel Guardians 178 The Pentonville Five 180 Ships, Planes and Railways Trains 183 The Home of John Bull 184 Survivor 186 Stratford's Mills and Film Studios 189 Windmills on My Mind 190 Robert and Friends 192 Beyond Reasonable Doubt 195 Legacy 198 Select Biography 201 Timeline 1900 - 202 Index of some People, Places and Events 206 Essex Hundred Publications