THE DERIVATION OF PLACE NAMES IN NEWHAM

BECKTON

Named after Simon Adams Beck, governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company, which built a gasworks at Beckton in 1868-69.

CANNING TOWN

"Place Names of Essex" repeats the derivation from a manufacturer called Caning who had a factory in the area in around the mid 19th century. We have never been able to identify this manufacturer and prefer the Victoria County History's "a name of unknown origin."

CYPRUS

Derived from the Mediterranean island, of which Britain took over the administration from Turkey in 1878. This area was developed in the early 1880s.

FOREST GATE

Derived from the gate which stood (until the mid 19th century) across what is now the Woodgrange/Woodford roads to prevent cattle straying from the Lower Forest onto the main Ilford road.

MANOR PARK

The name was first given in the 1860s/early 1870s to a housing development on the grounds of a Manor House in north-west East Ham. The name was gradually applied to subsequent developments in the adjacent parish of Little Ilford and has now largely supplanted the latter as a place name.

MARYLAND (properly MARYLAND POINT)

Attributed to a 17th century Stratford man (thought to be a Richard Lee) who emigrated to Virginia and held an estate on the Maryland side of the Potomac River near a place called Maryland Point. He subsequently returned and bought property in his native town. The attribution has never been finally established.

NEWHAM

The name chosen for the new London Borough formed in 1st April 1965, largely by the amalgamation of the former county boroughs of East Ham and West Ham under the terms of the Local Government Act of 1963.

NORTH WOOLWICH

The detached part of the parish of Woolwich north of the Thames. An anomaly of "Kent in Essex" dating from the late 11th century until rationalised under the Local Government Act of 1963 into the new London Borough of Newham.

PLAISTOW

In common with several other places in England the name is derived from the Saxon root "plegstow" meaning a play.... Commonly indicating habitation round a green.

SILVERTOWN

The habitation which originally developed round the works of H. W. Silver in the 1850s.

STRATFORD

The "street by the ford" - a ford over the River Lea.

UPTON PARK

The name originally applied to the housing development on the grounds of the former Plashet House in north East Ham in the 1880s. As with Manor Park, the name was subsequently applied to later developments.

(Originally from local studies notes No 36, published by Newham library service)