Barking

Barking, an irregular straggling market-town of Essex, on the left bank of the Roding, 7 miles NE. of London. It has a fine old church, but scarce any remains of its ancient abbey (founded 670), once one of the richest and most important Benedictine convents in the kingdom. It was burnt by the Danes in 870, but was splendidly rebuilt about the middle of the 10th century by King Edgar. The Abbess of Barking was one of four ladies who held the rank of baroness in right of their office. Market-gardening, the manufacture of jute, and fishing give employment to the inhabitants, (1891) 14,301 in number. A flotilla of fishing-smacks belongs to the town, their harbour being Barking Creek, at the mouth of the river. Near this point the sewage of the Metropolitan Board of Works empties into the Thames.