Valence House Museum
Museum · Dagenham, England
Valence House Museum stands on Becontree Avenue, RM8 3HT, in a manor house still partially surrounded by a moat. The council states that admission is free and that the collection runs to nearly 30,000 items. The operator publishes Tuesday to Thursday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and notes that the museum building closes 12 to 1pm daily while the grounds and tearoom stay open; the Tulip Tree Tearoom opens Tuesday to Thursday, and Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm. Chadwell Heath on the Elizabeth line is about 1.1 km away and Becontree on the District line about 2 km.
History
The house is listed at Grade II* as NHLE 1064404, first listed 28 June 1954, with the statutory address Valence House, Becontree Avenue. Named highlights of the collection are the Dagenham Idol, on loan from Colchester and Ipswich Museum, whalebones believed to be from the lower jaw of a Common Greenland Whale, and the Fanshawe family portraits. The site houses the Barking and Dagenham Archives and Local Studies Centre, whose council records run back to 1558, and the grounds carry a herb garden and a Second World War Dig for Victory garden with a replica Anderson shelter.
Visit
Valence House Museum, Becontree Avenue, Dagenham, London RM8 3HT
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