Barking is a suburban town, part of Greater London and with Dagenham it forms the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Barking has a population of around 50,000 people and is 8 miles from London's West End. Wards include Abbey, where the ruins of Barking Abbey, built in AD666 can still be seen together with the Curfew Tower; Eastbury; Gasgoine and Longbridge. In 1726 the explorer Captain James Cook was married to Elizabeth Batts in the Parish Church of St. Margaret. From the fourteenth through to the mid-nineteenth century the town thrived on fishing and supplied the famous Billingsgate Market.