Valence House Museum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Valence House Museum |
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Valence House Museum
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| General information | |
| Town or city | Becontree, London |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°33′30″N 0°08′03″E / 51.5583°N 0.1342°E |
Valence House Museum is a special place in London, England. It is the only old manor house left from five that used to be in Dagenham. This amazing building is made of wood and has a moat (a water-filled ditch) around part of it. You can find it in Valence Park in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Over many years, Valence House has been a family home, a town hall, a library, and now it's a museum!
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Discovering Valence House Museum
The museum has many interesting displays about the history of Barking and Dagenham. You can learn about what life was like in the area, including how people lived in the Becontree Estate after 1945. The museum also holds fun events for families and special visits for school groups.
Valence House Museum, along with its archives and local studies library, closed for a big renovation project in December 2007. This work was partly paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The museum reopened its doors in June 2010. A few days later, a special plaque was put up to celebrate the funding. The renovation also added a brand new building for the archives and local studies centre.
In March 2018, a cool exhibition opened at the museum. It showed restored items from the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation collection. Ray Harryhausen was famous for his stop-motion animation creatures in movies. This exhibition was inspired by a local man named Alan Friswell. He worked with Ray Harryhausen to help restore these amazing creatures.
Exploring Valence Park
The museum is surrounded by a large park called Valence Park. This park covers about 27.82 acres (11.26 km2). It was once part of the Valence House estate. The Dagenham Urban District Council bought the land for the park in 1926.
Valence Park is home to one of the Great Trees of London. This special tree is a Holm oak.
A Look at History
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A house was first built on this spot way back in the 13th century. Robert Dynes owned it in 1280. The names of later families who lived here are remembered in the road names around the park today. The name "Valence" comes from a wealthy French family who lived here in the 14th century. This included Agnes de Valence and her brother Aylmer, Earl of Pembroke. Their uncle became king of England, and that's how they came to live here.
In 1475, the estate became owned by the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. They owned it until 1867. Then, it was passed to the Church Commissioners. Later in the 1500s, a man named Timothy Lucye owned and lived in Valence House.
Valence House and Local Government
In 1921, the London County Council (LCC) bought Valence House and its land. They planned to build the large Becontree housing estate. During the construction of the estate, Valence House was used as the LCC's main office. Later, the Dagenham Urban District Council took over the building. In 1928 and 1929, they made the building bigger to use as offices and a council meeting room.
Valence House was the town hall for Dagenham until 1937. That's when the new Dagenham Civic Centre was finished. After that, Valence House became the main library for the area. Today, the house is a museum. It also has the Borough Archives and a Local Studies Library in a new building next door.
The building was given a special status in 1954. It was listed as a Grade II* listed building. This means it is a very important historic building.
