Editing Wanstead

{{Short description|Area of East London}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox UK place
| official_name            = Wanstead
| static_image_name        = Wanstead fountain (18384688258).jpg
| static_image_caption     = Wanstead drinking fountain, built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee
| map_type                 = Greater London
| region                   = London
| country                  = England
| london_borough           = Redbridge
| constituency_westminster = [[Leyton and Wanstead (UK Parliament constituency)|Leyton & Wanstead]]
| post_town                = LONDON
| postcode_area            = E
| postcode_district        = E11
| dial_code                = 020
| os_grid_reference        = TQ405885
| coordinates              = {{coord|51.577792|0.028589|display=inline,title}}
| population               = 11,543
| population_ref           = (2011 Census. Ward)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=13689022&c=Wanstead&d=14&e=62&g=6335837&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&o=362&m=0&r=1&s=1476788846182&enc=1|title=Redbridge Ward population 2011|access-date=18 October 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics}}</ref>
}}
'''Wanstead''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ɒ|n|s|t|ɛ|d}}) is an area in [[East London]], England, in the [[London Borough of Redbridge]]. It borders [[South Woodford]] to the north, [[Redbridge, London|Redbridge]] to the east and [[Forest Gate]] to the south, with [[Leytonstone]] and [[Walthamstow]] to the west. It is located 8 miles northeast of Charing Cross.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.foxtons.co.uk/local-life/e11/|title=Foxtons -- Local Life E11|date=12 July 2021}}</ref>

Historically an [[ancient parish]] in the [[Becontree Hundred|Becontree hundred]] of [[Essex]], it was granted [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|urban district]] status in 1894, and formed part of the [[Municipal Borough of Wanstead and Woodford]] between 1937 and 1965, when it became part of the London Borough of Redbridge. Wanstead was a key part of the [[M11 link road protest]] from 1993 to 1995, which ended with the construction of the [[A12 road (England)|A12]] that runs through the town.

The area contains a number of open spaces that are part of [[Epping Forest]], including the grasslands of [[Wanstead Flats]] and the woodland of [[Wanstead Park]]. Wanstead Park was the site of [[Wanstead Roman Villa|a suspected Roman villa]], and later [[Wanstead Hall]], the [[manor house]] of [[Wanstead Manor]]. The park, with artificial lakes, was formerly part of the estate of a large stately home [[Wanstead House]] (1722–1825), built by [[Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney]].

==History==
===Toponymy===
The place name is probably of Saxon origin and is first recorded in a charter of 1065 as Wenstede.  The English Place-Names Society derives the name from the [[Old English|Anglo-Saxon]] words ''waenn'', meaning a hill or mound, and ''stede'', a place or settlement. According to an alternative explanation, the first element means "wain" or "wagon", but the meaning of the full compound is not clear.<ref>The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, 4th edition. Eilert Ekwall 1990</ref> A place in Essex, in 1460, has a name spelt as "Waynsted".<ref>Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; year: 1460; top line of the second entry; image: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no800/bCP40no800dorses/IMG_0606.htm</ref>

===Astronomy===
In 1707 the astronomer [[James Pound]] became [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of Wanstead. In 1717 the [[Royal Society]] lent Pound [[Christiaan Huygens|Huygens]]'s 123-foot focal length object-glass, which he set up in [[Wanstead Park]]. Pound's observations with it of the five known [[satellites of Saturn]] enabled Halley to correct calculations of their movements; and Newton employed, in the third edition of the ''Principia'', his micrometrical measures of Jupiter's disc, of Saturn's disc and ring, and of the elongations of their satellites; and obtained from him data for correcting the places of the [[comet of 1680]]. [[Laplace]] also used Pound's observations of Jupiter's satellites for the determination of the planet's mass; and Pound himself compiled in 1719 a set of tables for the first satellite, into which he introduced an equation for the transmission of light.

Pound trained his sister's son, [[James Bradley]], and many of their observations were made together, including the [[opposition of Mars]] in 1719, and the [[transit of Mercury]] on 29 October 1723. Their measurement of [[γ Virginis]] in 1718 was the first made of the components of a [[double star]] and was directed towards the determination of [[stellar parallax]].

In 1727, Bradley embarked upon a series of observations using a telescope of his own, erected at the rectory in Wanstead, now the site of [[Wanstead High School]]. This instrument had the advantage of a large field of view and he was able to obtain precise positions of a large number of stars that transited close to the zenith over the course of about two years. Combined with observations from [[Kew Palace#Fortreys and Capels|his friend Samuel Molyneux's house]] at Kew in Surrey, this established the existence of the phenomenon of [[aberration of light]], and also allowed Bradley to formulate a set of rules that would allow the calculation of the effect on any given star at a specified date.

===The George public house===
[[File:"Cherry Pey" plaque in Wanstead.jpg|thumb|The plaque on the side of The George pub, commemorating a cherry pie]]
Although current building is from 1903, The George has been a pub on the site since at least 1716.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The history of Wanstead's high street|url=https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/12902540.the-history-of-wansteads-high-street/|access-date=2021-08-28|website=East London and West Essex Guardian Series|date=25 April 2015 |language=en}}</ref> Set in to the side of the pub is a plaque dating from 1752, which was formerly part of an older pub building. The plaque is inscribed with the eccentrically spelled verse:

: ''In Memory of''
: ''Ye Cherry Pey''
: ''As cost 1/2 a Guiney''
: ''Ye 17 of July''
: ''That day we had good cheer''
: ''I hope to so do maney a Year''
: ''R C 1752 D Jerry''<ref>[http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=630 Plaque details] accessed 24 April 2007.</ref>

There are various local legends explaining this curious plaque, including a tale of the theft of a [[Cherry pie (dessert)|cherry pie]] by local workmen who were caught and fined half a [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]] (52.5p). However the most likely explanation is that it was placed there by the landlord of 1752, David Jersey (corrupted by centuries of repainting and re-cutting the inscription to D Jerry on the plaque), commemorating a feast which included a huge cherry pie. Monstrous pies were a feature of 18th-century Essex rural festivals; the [[Galmpton, Torbay|Galmpton]] Gooseberry Pie Fair in Devon is still in existence, and other inns around the edge of Epping Forest were famed for pies (rabbit pie at The Reindeer, [[Loughton]], now Warren House, and [[pigeon pie]] at The King's Head, [[Chigwell]]). Wanstead was well known for its cherry orchards as late as the 1830s, when they were mentioned by poet [[Thomas Hood]], who lived in Wanstead 1832–5.

===Schools and education===
The Royal Commercial Travellers Schools were sited in Wanstead from their foundation in 1845 by [[John Robert Cuffley]] until their move to [[Pinner]] in 1855. The schools at Wanstead provided housing, food, clothing and education for up to 130 children of commercial travellers who had died or became unable to earn their livelihood.<ref name="royalcommercialtravellersschools">{{cite web|url=http://www.royalcommercialtravellersschools.org.uk/history.html|website=royalcommercialtravellersschools.org.uk|title=History|access-date=8 October 2018}}</ref>

The Royal Merchant Navy School was founded in [[St George in the East]], [[London]] in 1827 before moving to Hermon Hill, Wanstead in 1862. The new building provided for 300 orphans of [[Merchant Navy]] seamen. It moved again to [[Bearwood House, Sindlesham|Bearwood House]] near [[Wokingham]] in 1921.<ref name="merchantnavy">{{cite web|url=http://www.merchantnavy.org.uk/about.htm|website=merchantnavy.org.uk|title=About|access-date=8 October 2018}}</ref> The building then became a convent refuge for women and girls and later [[Wanstead Hospital]].<ref name="british-history">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42785|title=British History Online &#124; The core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles|website=british-history.ac.uk|access-date=8 October 2018}}</ref>

The Royal Wanstead School was by the Eagle Pond, Snaresbrook up to about 1970. It subsequently became the site of a Crown Court.

Wanstead is home to a large comprehensive school, [[Wanstead High School]]. Primary schools in Wanstead include Wanstead Church, Our Lady of Lourdes RC, Aldersbrook and Nightingale.

From 1957 until 1987 Wanstead had a secondary Modern School called Nightingale Secondary Modern School. There was also Nightingale Primary School on the site which is still in existence. These schools were within the boundaries of Ashbourne Avenue, Colvin Gdns. and Elmcroft Ave.

[[Forest School, Walthamstow]] is close to Eagle Pond and Snaresbrook Crown Court.

=== Places of worship ===
[[File:St Mary the Virgin, Wanstead (6).jpg|thumb|St Mary the Virgin church]]
The church of [[St Mary the Virgin, Wanstead]] was completed in 1790. It is now a Grade I [[listed building]], and contains a large monument to [[Josiah Child]].<ref>{{NHLE|num=1081008|desc=Church of St Mary|access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref> It was followed in the 1860s by both the Anglican church of [[Christ Church, Wanstead|Christ Church]] and [[Wanstead United Reformed Church|Wanstead Congregational Church]]. [[Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead]] the local Catholic Church in Cambridge Park was opened in 1928.

==Politics==
[[Winston Churchill]] represented Wanstead as MP from 1924 to 1945 when Wanstead formed part of the [[Epping (UK Parliament constituency)|Epping Constituency]], and also when Wanstead lay within the [[Woodford (UK Parliament constituency)|Woodford Constituency]], from 1945 to 1964. During this period he served as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Timeline of the first premiership of Winston Churchill|(1940–1945)]] during much of the [[Second World War]], and again in peace-time, [[Third Churchill ministry|from 1951 to 1955]]. There is a bust of Churchill in Wanstead High Street.

==Military activity==
During the Second World War the tunnels of the as-yet-to-be-commercially used Wanstead underground station were utilised for aircraft production.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Wanstead Flats was used for Anti-Aircraft batteries protecting London, Barracks for Pre-D-Day troops and a Prisoner-of-War Camp subsequently. Due to terminal moraine (left by glaciers) the soil was relatively infertile.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

==Underground stations==
Wanstead has two [[List of London Underground stations|London Underground stations]] at either end of the High Street that runs through the town; [[Snaresbrook tube station|Snaresbrook]] and [[Wanstead tube station|Wanstead]] on the [[Central line (London Underground)|Central line]]. [[File:Wanstead Underground station, entrance.jpg|thumb|Wanstead London Underground station]]

==Sports==
Wandstead F.C. and Woodford and Wanstead F.C. are based in the area.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.essexallianceleague.com/clubs/wanstead/|title=Wandstead F.C. |access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/woodfordandwanstead|title=Woodford and Wanstead F.C. |access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref>

==Notable residents==
{{Further|:Category:People from Wanstead}}
* [[Clive Burr]], drummer (ex-Samson/Iron Maiden)
* [[Charles Bressey]], civil engineer
* [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Robert Dudley]], Earl of Leicester and favourite of [[Elizabeth I]], had a house here, in which he died, much to Elizabeth's intense sorrow, on 4 September 1588, three days before the Queen's 55th birthday
* [[Thomas Hood]], poet
* [[Peter Goddard (physicist)|Peter Goddard]], physicist and journalist
* [[Rodney Gordon]], architect
* [[William Penn]], Quaker, founder of the [[Province of Pennsylvania]].
* [[James Holden (locomotive engineer)]]
* [[Edward Phelips (speaker)|Sir Edward Phelips]], Speaker of the House of Commons 1604-1611
* [[James Pound]], astronomer.
* [[Max Raison]] (1901–1988), cricketer
* [[Harry Roberts (criminal)|Harry Roberts]], criminal
* [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]], dramatist, lived in the right-hand house of the Georgian Terrace in the High Street near to the George
* [[Mark Stephens (solicitor)]], lawyer, mediator, writer and broadcaster
* [[Colin Ward]], social historian, writer and anarchist
* [[Jessie Wallace]], actress, lived in Wanstead
* [[Tom Watt (actor)|Tom Watt]], actor
* [[Joseph Wilton]], sculptor

==See also==
*[[Wanstonia]]
*[[Wanstead and Woodford Guardian]]
*[[Wanstead Sewage Works]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Pewsey, S (2005), The Wanstead Cherry Pie Stone, Wanstead Historical Society

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.parishofwanstead.org/ Parish of Wanstead]
*[http://www.wansteadvillagedirectory.com/ Wanstead Village Directory]
*[http://www.wansteadium.com/ Wansteadium]

{{LB Redbridge}}
{{London Districts}}

[[Category:Areas of London]]
[[Category:Districts of the London Borough of Redbridge]]
[[Category:District centres of London]]