Post memories: Anti-racism activist Ted Parker

» Ted Parker’s first experience of racism came as a six-year-old being told tales about his father discovering the horror of the concentration camps during the Second World War.

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Can you help Linda find her 1950s Dagenham pen pal?

Almost 60 years after two teenagers exchanged letters across the Atlantic, American Linda Westfall is looking for her former Dagenham pen pal.

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War evacuee reunion for first time in 70 years

In a nostalgic reunion, a World War II evacuee met the daughter of the family she stayed with for the first time in more than 70 years.

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Post Memories: Dagenham’s Eastbrook listed as one of best heritage pubs

This week, CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, published a book highlighting 270 hidden gems of British pub architecture, and the Eastbrook pub in Dagenham is one of them.

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Barking and Dagenham heritage scheme to add Blue Plaques

English Heritage’s Blue Plaque scheme, which commemorates notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked, is being introduced to the borough.

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Post Memories: Former Barking and Dagenham Post editor recalls first day as budding reporter

Terry Hopley, who grew up in Sheppey Road, Dagenham and became editor of the Dagenham Post, has released a book about his colourful life called Whatever’s Going to Become of Us?

In this extract Terry, now 75, recalls the beginnings of his journalistic career in 1954.

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The hidden histories of the Barking and Dagenham Fanshawe family portraits

»It has been 150 years since the last Fanshawe family lived in the borough, but on Saturday their centuries-long ties here were celebrated in an art exhibition at Valence House.

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Post Memories: The changing landscape of Barking and Dagenham over the centuries

With a vast forest populated with deer only the king was allowed to hunt and a lake so deep Henry VIII was able to sail his whole navy on it, the borough’s landscape some 500 years ago would be unrecognisable to the modern eye.

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Post Memories: A history of conflict in Barking and Dagenham

Conflict defines our collective histories, whether we are embroiled in battle as comrades in arms or as sworn enemies, and the county of Essex has seen more than its fair share of fighting.

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70 years ago 12 Barking and Dagenham people died in air raid

Today marks 70 years since Barking and Dagenham suffered a devastating World War II air raid which killed 12 local residents.

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19th century water pump vanishes from Chadwell Heath

Mystery abounds in the unexplained disappearance of a water pump that dates back to the mid 19th century.

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Pictures of ‘Bygone Barking and Dagenham’ wanted

Dig out your old photo albums! Root through the attic for those forgotten pictures! And send your shapshots into the post.

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History: Extraordinary Barking and Dagenham women who made history

As the world prepares to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, assistant archivist at Valence House, Clare Sexton, tells the Post about extraordinary women from history.

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History feature: Old court stories from Barking and Dagenham and beyond

Tony Richards workes as a reporter on the Barking Advertiser, the Post and the Ilford Recorder in the 1950s. Here the 76-year-old recalls some of the court stories he and his colleagues covered, together with a few that have made headlines over the years.

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History: Rebellious visionary who helped set up Dagenham’s first libraries

Charismatic with a sparkling personality, intellectual, eccentric, bullish, rebellious and critical. All these words have been used to describe John O’Leary, the man responsible for introducing the very first libraries to Dagenham in the early 1930s.

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History: Midwives in Barking and Dagenham in the 1940s and 1950s

Hit BBC series Call the Midwife, which returned for a second season last month, portrays the hard working lives of midwives in 1950s East End London.

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