I went on an exploration around my area which ended up being a two-hour walk.
My stroll took me from Collier Row Road, up Whalebone Lane North, down Forest Road, along Hainault Road, and finally to Billet Road connecting back to Whalebone North.
I was tiring on the final leg of my journey, but on Billet Road, I came across a piece of hidden history among some roadside bushes and fly-tipping, near the junction of Billet Road and Hainault Road.
I had passed this area on the 296 bus almost every day.
But only a walk past the brick and concrete monument with a faded plaque on it caught my attention.
The plaque reads:
ST. CHAD’S WELL.
THE SITE OF ST. CHAD’S WELL FROM WHICH THE NAME CHADWELL HEATH IS DERIVED.
THIS TABLET WAS PLACED HERE BY THE ILFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL ON BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF ILFORD, TO COMMEMORATE THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN, 1951.
As a former archaeology student, I was intrigued by it and wondered how well the monument was remembered.
So, I did some digging.
And, boy, it led down some rabbit holes.
The monument is marked on Google Maps as a historical landmark.
A visitor added pictures and a comment from four years ago.
I decided to check out the Chadwell Heath entry on Wikipedia.
However, in Wikipedia, the toponymy of Chadwell Heath differs from the tablet’s comments, stating:
“The name ‘Chadwell’ was first recorded in 1254 as Chaudewell and means ‘the cold spring’.
“The name was first applied to a settlement on the Barking (later Ilford) side of the ancient boundary between Dagenham and Barking and it was also known as Chadwell Street, ‘street’ having the older meaning of a hamlet.
“In the 17th century the Blackheath Common in Dagenham parish was renamed Chadwell Heath.
“As the settlements merged the Chadwell Street name was lost in favour of Chadwell Heath.”
Trying to find ties to an eponymous ‘Chad’ or ‘St Chad’, one finds there’s a St Chad’s parish church in Chadwell Heath, predictably in St. Chad’s Road.
The church is dedicated to Chad, brother of Cedd, also a bishop and a saint.
So, who was Chad?
Chad was a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon monk, an abbot, then Bishop of the Northumbrians, and later Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey people.
According to Bede, Chad and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon introduced Christianity to the Mercian kingdom.
After his death, on March 2 672, likely from the plague, Chad was made a saint, not just in Anglican circles, but also in the Roman Catholic and the Celtic Orthodox churches, plus is mentioned as a saint in a new edition of the Eastern Orthodox Synaxarion (Book of Saints).
His feast day is celebrated on March 2.
What does Chad have to do with wells?
Apart from founding monasteries, evangelising, and building cathedrals, Chad apparently instructed wells to be dug for the relief of travellers, from which miraculous cures occurred.
Even the Spa Research Fellowship states that Chad is the patron saint of medicinal springs, although there is no evidence of his patronage over springs.
However, with the digging of wells being associated with Chad, it may explain the naming of St. Chad’s Well servicing a ‘cold spring’ in Essex without Chad having ministered in the area.
According to research by Pixy Led Publications, they note:
“A reputed medicinal well in Billet lane [sic], near Little Heath, which at one time much resorted to by persons with weak eyesight; for the special properties of the water were supposed to be beneficial to eyes…
“…it was often the custom among missionaries in far off days to baptise converts at some well or spring that happened to be handy.
“These wells frequently took the name of the holy man, and it is said that Cedde held a baptism at this spot, and because of the healing qualities of the water, and in memory of his brother Chad, whose fame had spread all over the country, it became known to future generations at St. Chad’s Well.”
On Google Maps, there are depictions of waterways near the well monument.
One straight line across the road looks like an irrigation ditch, while small creeks, whether intermittent or shallow, are behind the land by the monument.
What’s in a name?
However, there are some questions that need to be answered:
· Does the Wiki-fication of Chadwell Heath’s name need to be reconciled with the monument and history of St. Chad?
· Is it a coincidence that ‘Chaudewell’ and Chad’s Well are so close in appearance and sound?
· What is the meaning of ‘Chaudewell’?
The name Chad in itself has been modernised from the British Celtic name, Ceadda, which in turn is from the Proto-Brythonic (Welsh) *kad (“battle”).
There’s no name link to wells or cold springs.
Chaude is not the old or original form of Chad.
Could ‘Chaude’ have been a local appellation?
From records, while Chad did not minister directly in this part of Essex, his brother Cedd may have.
So, through his reputation while alive and after his death or via missionaries settling in the area, the well (in existence by 1254), church (founded 1886), and road (built c.1900) were named after him.
It’s also interesting that ‘Chaude’ is not an Old English word, but does exist in French, meaning ‘hot’ or ‘warm’ (in feminine form, the masculine form being ‘chaud’).
So how does Chaudewell go on to mean ‘cold spring’?
If you want ‘cold’ in Old English, that would be ‘cald’.
Derivatives include the West Saxon ‘ċeald’ from early Middle English ‘cheald’, ‘cheld’, or ‘chald’, themselves descended from the Proto-West Germanic *kald, and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”).
Perhaps ‘chaude’ was somehow misspelled from ‘cheald’? But the chances are low.
So, is there a discrepancy with the Wikipedia entry over the origin name of Chadwell Heath?
The locals in 1951 seemed to have a different understanding over the name.
If so, should the Wikipedia entry be updated to be more specific over the toponym of Chadwell Heath?
Either way, the council should dedicate some time and wherewithal to restore this 74-year-old piece of history.
We should celebrate this overlooked monument as not every town or area gets its own origin story etched in stone.
