BARKING  , a

market-town in the Romford parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the river Roding near its junction with the Thames, 8 m . E. of Fenchurch Street station and Liverpool Street station, London, by the London, Tilbury & Southend and Great Eastern railways . Pop. of urban district of Barking town (1891) 14,301; (1901) 21,547 . The church of St Margaret is Norman with perpendicular additions, and contains many monuments of interest . Barking was celebrated for its nunnery, one of the oldest and richest in England, founded about 67o by Erkenwald, bishop of London, and restored in 970 by King Edgar, about a hundred years after its destruction by the Danes . The abbess was a baroness ex officio, and the revenue at the dissolution of the monasteries was £1084 . There remains a perpendicular turreted gateway . There is also an ancient market-house, used as a town-hall .. Victoria Gardens form a public pleasure-ground, and there are recreation grounds . The Gaslight and Coke Company's works at Beckton are in the parish, and also extensive rubber works . At the mouth of the Roding (Barking Creek) are great sewage works, receiving the Northern Outfall sewer from London . There are also chemical works, and some shipping trade, principally in timber and fish .

Barking is a

suffragan bishopric in the diocese of St Albans .