Wennington Village Green

There are records of the hamlet of Wennington in 969AD and there was a church here by 1042-4, when Edward the Confessor, who then owned the manor of 'Winintuna' confirmed the parish as belonging to Westminster Abbey. The manor was later subdivided into separate manors of Wennington Hall, Leventhorpe and Noke. The C12th stone and flint parish church of St Mary and St Peter (q.v.) is located to the west of The Green, with Wennington Hall, the former manor house, at some distance to the east. A house of that name still exists today on the site of the earlier manor house, but is a C19th building remodelled in the C20th. Wennington Hall was held in the C14th by Sir John Gildesburgh, Speaker in the parliament of Richard II. The hamlet, in an area of farmland and marshland has remained a small rural community into the C20th, now having some 300 inhabitants. Until the 1890s there were only a few houses, including Wennington House (demolished in 1953) and Landthorpe or Lenthorpe House, both built in the early C19th. Terraces of smaller houses or cottages were built near the church in the early 1890s, including New Cottages, Halldare Cottages and Laundry Terrace. The village school was built in 1887 next to the churchyard and accommodated 60 children, which the village had outgrown by 1906; the school eventually closed in the 1960s.

Wennington Green dates from the 1920s, a relatively modern village green, which provides a square of public open space adjacent to the main road into the village, an ancient route that has existed for centuries. Prior to this the land on either side of Wennington Road was open, although allotment gardens to the east of the church and rectory are marked on the OS Map of 1920. The Green was created when the houses that surround it on three sides were built, semi-detached properties provided by the council c.1924, and some private houses completed c.1928. A square of undulating land planted with grass and a few small trees, the Green has an ornamental sign inscribed 'Wennington Village' on a stepped concrete plinth. It has been used for village activities, including Coronation celebrations on 2nd June 1953.

On 19 July 2022 Wennington Village suffered a devastating wildfire on the hottest day of the year, one of a number of wildfires around the country widely acknowledged to be the result of climate change. A number of houses on Wennington Road were destroyed and some residents sheltered in St Mary and St Peter's Church, which was undamaged although it was filled with smoke and the graveyard vegetation was burned. As a result of the fire it was proposed to register the Green as a protected space following a visit to Wennington by London’s Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience, Dr Fiona Twycross, in May 2023.

In 2024, with support from the Open Spaces Society, Havering Council adopted Wennington Green as a Village Green under the Commons Act 2006 as amended by the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013.  The Deed of Dedication took place with a bronze plaque unveiled during the celebration on Saturday 20 July 2024 which has been added to the existing Wennington Green wrought iron sign.

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