With the consent of the Bishop of Hildesheim, Dietmar von Engerode built a chapel at his residence, presumably to provide for his unmarried daughters in the future. The small church was consecrated to the Virgin Mary and Heinrich from Lamspringe, a member of the Augustinian order, was appointed as the first provost. As the founder did not want to leave his lordship and bailiwick rights to the newly founded convent, Provost Heinrich informed Bishop Konrad in Hildesheim and managed to have the convent moved first to Burgassel and shortly afterwards to Wülfinghausen, where there is still a Protestant convent today.
The small chapel in Engerode was preserved and developed into a place of pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary, attracting large numbers of pilgrims who increased the wealth of the small church. In 1441 Bernhard von Bortfeld became head of the church in Engerode and in 1476 seized the entire property of the church and parish. He turned it into a manor with lower jurisdiction.
The head tax description of the Engerode court from 1678 lists 49 taxable persons. The seven Brinksitzer and three Häuslings families were poor people and had poor food. The economic situation for the inhabitants of Engerode only improved when the municipality bought the estate's land in 1841 and distributed it to the Brinksitzers.
The construction of the Reichswerke also changed the face of Engerode. Farmers were resettled, former agricultural land fell victim to ore mining and a camp for miners was built north of Engerode. The Hannoversche Treue Nord mine, located directly on the western edge of the village, was sunk in September 1938.
After ore mining became uneconomical, the shaft was filled in 1967. Today, the shaft hall houses the emergency vehicle and equipment of the volunteer fire department. The premises of the former mining pre-school serve as a village community room.
With a population of 250, Engerode is the smallest district of the village of West. The volunteer fire department, founded in 1876, the church community and the village community association are the main institutions in the village.
