Woodford, London

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This article concerns Woodford, a suburb of London. For other places or people with the same name, see Woodford (disambiguation).
Woodford
OS grid referenceTQ405915
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLONDON
Postcode districtE18
Post townWOODFORD GREEN
Postcode districtIG8
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London

Woodford is a suburban district in the London Borough of Redbridge, north-east London, England, on the boundary with the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Woodford may be divided into three areas: South Woodford, Woodford Green and Woodford Bridge, which gets its name from the Saxon ford over the River Roding. There are also areas known as Woodford Wells (north of Woodford Green), Woodford Side (towards Chingford) and formerly Woodford Church End (near St. Mary's).

History

The ancient parish of Woodford, also known as Woodford St Mary, formed part of the Becontree hundred of Essex.[1] The name Woodford was first recorded in 1062 as Wudeford or Wodeforda, meaning 'ford in or by the wood'.[2]. The ford in question traversed the River Roding, and was part of a way which ran from Abridge to London. The beginnings of Woodford can be traced to a medieval settlement which developed around the ford.[3]

Woodford was never a single village, rather it was a collection of hamlets, and has retained to some extent its portmantueau nature. London has been central to Woodford's development. The easy access to Epping Forest, a large forest near London where the Royals traditionally hunted has made it attractive to Londoners since the Fifteenth Century, when wealthy Londoners started to build mansions there. As a consequence, many of the recorded inhabitants would have been servants, and there is even evidence of Africans ('negroes') living in Woodford in the eighteenth century. In fact the domestic servants and wealthy Londoners may have quickly outnumbered the remnant of the local, original rural folk.[3]

An example of the kind of grand house typical of pre-19th century Woodford is Hurst House, also known as 'The Naked Beauty', which stands on Salway Hill, now part of Woodford High Road. Its central block was completed in the early 18th century, and its side wings were added later on in the same century. It was restored in the 1930s, only to be damaged by fire a few years later. The central block was again completely restored, with the minor wings you can still see added on.[4].

Historians have pointed out Woodford's historic roads as evidence of its 'residential nature', as these roads provided reasonably easy access to Woodford, but no further on. There were two roads to Woodford, the 'lower road' (now Chigwell Road) and the 'upper road' (now Woodford New Road). The 'lower road' was often beset by flooding from the Roding, as it still is today, and was continually considered to be in need of repair. In fact one of the illustrious persons to be inconvenienced by the road was King James I.[3].

The 'upper road', being less used than the 'lower road' was probably in a worse condition, and the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust undertook its repair and overhaul in 1721, and extended it to Whitechapel. The Trust did such a fine job it was given responsibility for the 'lower road' as well. In 1828, the Trust built the 'Woodford New Road' from Walthamstow to Woodford Wells, and was soon after connected to the newly built Epping New Road.[3]

However, the beginnings of the actual modern suburbanisation of Woodford can be traced to the opening of the Great Eastern Railway Line from Stratford to Loughton in 1856, on which Woodford became accessible by two stations, at Snakes Lane and George Lane (Woodford and South Woodford Stations respectively). The new convenience of transportation encouraged the growth of the daily commuter that is the archetype of the Woodford Resident today. Woodford soon became the residence of the well-to-do city worker, as attested by John Marius Wilson in his Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, written between 1870 and 1872

The increase of pop. arose from erection of houses consequent upon railway communication with London....[t]here are many fine mansions, and numerous good villas.[5]

In fact Woodford doubled its population in the middle and later decades of the 19th century due to the coming of the railway.[3]. Woodford soon grew to form an urban district, from 1894 (until 1934), under the Local Government Act 1894.[6] A good barometer of Woodford's rapid growth in this period is the erection of three churches in the area, a Congregational, Methodist and Church of All Saints, all built in 1874[7].

Woodford completed its suburbanisation in the period between the two Great Wars of the Twentieth Century. Available land was hungrily built on and the grand houses of the wealthy who had been building them for more than four hundred years were pulled down to make way for the middle class housing estates, typified by the three-to-four bedroom semi-detached house with front and back garden- in other words, the Woodford of reasonable affluence we recognise today. In the 1930s, 1,600 houses were being built in Woodford a year on average.[3]. The Central Line's extension to and past Woodford in the middle of the 20th century, utilising the existing overland train network, solidified Woodford's place in the commuter belt.[8]. In 1934 the urban district was abolished and its former area became part of the Wanstead and Woodford Urban District (from 1937 municipal borough).[9] The population of the Woodford parish was 2,774 in 1851, and had grown substiantially to 37,702 in 1951.[10]. In 1965 Wanstead and Woodford, together with Ilford, were grouped together to become the London Borough of Redbridge.[3]

Over the last thirty years, younger families have increasingly moved in from other areas, including some from the ethnic minorities more traditionally associated with areas more centrally part of East London, and have replenished the ageing post-war community. Throughout, Woodford has been known as a haven for Londoners retreating from the daily hustle and bustle of the city.


Notable residents include two of Britain's most famous 20th century politicians. Winston Churchill, the towering, irrepressible figure of Britain's wartime spirit, and his Labour Party Rival,Clement Attlee, the quiet, seemingly unremarkable man who replaced him as Prime Minister in 1945, have strong Woodford connections. Winston Churchill was the Member of Parliament for Woodford (along with Epping) in 1924 and continued to serve Woodford for more than forty years, until he stood down in the 1960s.[11] His close rival and eventual usurper, Clement Attlee, was the Prime Minister of the first Labour post-war government, and presided over the creation of the modern welfare state. He retired to Woodford, living in a modest but pretty semi-detached house at 17 Monkhams Avenue, near to Woodford Underground Station, where a blue plaque commemorates his residence.[12]

Apart from politicians, Woodford also has connections with major cultural figures. The first is the celebrated writer, artist, craftsman (as well as socialist) William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a nineteenth century revivalist movement dedicated to restoring England's artisan traditions. Morris' influence on home design is still felt today. He spent seven years of his childhood living at Woodford Hall between 1840 and 1847. Woodford Hall was demolished at the turn of the Twentieth Century, on the site where the Woodford Parish Memorial Hall is now situated on Woodford High Road.[13].

Another famous writer who lived in Woodford is James Hilton, who wrote the successful novels Goodbye Mr Chips and Lost Horizon (in which he coined the term Shangri La) in a semi-detached house at 42 Oak Hill Gardens. A blue plaque commemorates his residence at the house[14].

Moreover, the Clergyman Sydney Smith was born in Woodford in 1771[15]. Smith became a prominent Vicar and Reformer, but he is now most famous as a great wit of the early nineteenth century. He was a part of the brilliant intellectual circles of his day, and once said of the verbose, over-talkative historian Macaulay, [H]e has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.[15] He is still an immensely quotable man. On his position as a Clergyman in Yorkshire, he remarked My living in Yorkshire was so far out of the way, that it was actually twelve miles from a lemon.[15]. However the wily old Rev Smith was no cobwebby preacher, but indeed knew much about life. For instance, he compared marriage to a pair of shears, so joined that they can not be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.[15]. Moreover, Smith knew a thing or two about food, his rhyming recipe for salad dressing (Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl/And, scarce suspected, animate the whole) makes him a household name in America to this day[16]. None of this is surprising when you consider another famous saying of Rev Smith Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of every thing.[17]


Woodford also has connections with the leading Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. Pankhurst was a long time resident on Charteris Road, close to the Woodford Underground Station. She had been introduced to the area by George Lansbury, co-founder of the Labour Party and grandfather of Angela Lansbury. Previous to her residence in Charteris Road, Sylvia Pankhurst had challenged the moral codes of her day by living infamously in sin with an Italian radical on 126 High Road, opposite the Horse and Well Pub. She renamed the cottage Red Cottage in homage to the leftist activities she carried out from there. She erected an anti-air-warfare monument in protest to the bombing of the people of Ethiopia under the orders of Mussolini on the site of the cottage (the cottage was pulled down in the 1930s).[18]

Religion

The parish church of St. Mary's is known to have existed by the 12th century and is located on the High Road in what is now South Woodford. The medieval church was substantially rebuilt in brick in the Gothic style in 1816. The interior is modern, the church having been gutted by arsonists in 1969.

Politics

ksamkofjakosdmf Woodford is divided between three parliamentary constituencies including Chingford and Woodford Green which is currently represented by Conservative Iain Duncan Smith, who was the party's leader from 2001 to 2003. Chingford and Woodford Green is separated from Ilford North by the Central Line, whilst a small part of South Woodford is in Leyton and Wanstead constituency. Previously the local constituency was Wanstead and Woodford (1974-1997) and before that Woodford (1945-1974) which was represented by Winston Churchill between 1945 and 1964. Churchill is commemorated by a statue on the green at Woodford.

Notable individuals associated with Woodford

This is a comprehensive list of notable individuals from all three constituent parts of Woodford.

Transport and locale

Nearest places

The nearest London Underground stations are Woodford and South Woodford on the Central Line.

See also

References

  1. ^ Vision of Britain - Woodford parish (historic map)
  2. ^ Mills, A., Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names, 2001
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Woodford - Introduction | British History Online
  4. ^ see A History of the County of Essex Vol. 6, WR Powell (Ed.)see http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42791
  5. ^ Woodford Essex through time | Local history overview for the place
  6. ^ Vision of Britain - Woodford Urban District
  7. ^ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42791#n156
  8. ^ Line facts | Transport for London
  9. ^ Vision of Britain - Wanstead and Woodford UD/MB
  10. ^ Vision of Britain - Woodford population
  11. ^ see Churchill, The Member for Woodford, David A. Thomas, Routledge, 1994
  12. ^ Search Blue Plaques : Blue Plaques : Research & Conservation : English Heritage
  13. ^ J. W. Mackail, Life of William Morris, 2005, Chapter 1, Electric Book Company
  14. ^ Heritage plaques in Waltham Forest
  15. ^ a b c d A Memoir of the Rev Sydney Smith By his daughter Lady Holland, 1855
  16. ^ How to Use Over 130 Spices, Herbs, Condiments, Flavorings to Enhance All Your Dishes and Add Zest to Any Menu, 1955
  17. ^ Lecture IX delivered at the Royal Institution, 1804-06
  18. ^ Sylvia Pankhurst - Sexual politics and political activism, Rowbotham, Winslow UCL, 1996 and http://www.sylviapankhurst.com/who_is_sylvia/sylvia_in_woodford.php

External links

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