Great Eastern Railway to Shenfield Heath Park


Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway from Liverpool Street to Shenfield runs north eastwards from Romford Station. The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line to Grays Leaves the line to the south east

Post to the west Romford
Post to the east Heath Park
Post to the north Gidea Park


Benjamin Close
New housing on the site of a builders yard

Brentwood Road
163-165 Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The hall is currently replaced.
Francis Bardsley Academy for Girls. The first school was started, in 1906, by Francis Bardsley in the centre of Romford to provide free education for local girls. It later moved to Brentwood Road. In the 1930 it became a selective grammar school and was renamed the Romford County High School for Girls.  Until 2003 the school was based on two separate sites; the Upper School here in Brentwood Road which was (built in 1910 and the Lower School in Heath Park Road. The two sites were joined by a long road in 2003 the Lower School Site was sold. The school gained Specialist school status in the Visual arts in 2004, and academy status in 2012.
Romford Evangelical Free Church. In 1888 a corrugated iron building, in Boundary Road was called 'The Gospel Mission Hall'. In 1897 the church bought the land on which the church now stands and was opened for worship in 1902. In 1963 new halls were built to the rear.

Great Gardens Road
This is named for Great Gardens Farm, which stood here. This was a dairy and poultry farm.

Heath Park Road
Frances Bardsley Lower School. This was built as Romford County High School for Girls in 1909-10 by Hickton and Farmer of Walsall. It was renamed in 1974 in honour of its founder, a prominent campaigner for education of girls. .he Upper School is in the Brentwood road and the two sites were around a quarter of a mile from one another, and joined by a long road. In 2003 the Lower School Site was sold and developed into houses and flats. The main school building was converted into 12 apartments and 2 duplex galleried houses and renamed ‘Academy Square’.

Hyland Park
This is on the site of a big house and estate. Hylands was developed in the 1920s by the French family, who were local publicans who bought it in 1920. It was an orchard and piggery and it was then converted into a trotting and racing track behind corrugated iron fencing. The first race meeting was held in 1925 and Hornchurch UDC tried to prevent it but was overruled by Minister of Health. The track was also used for athletics meetings. However it eventually closed down and became derelict. The local authority bought it in 1927 and laid it out as a Park. Cricket and football pitches were laid on the former trotting track. An avenue of poplars was planted as a windbreak, and a rose garden was planted on the site of a static water tank. The stone gate piers and gates at Osborne Road came from Grey Towers, a 19th castellated mansion demolished in 1931.  In the Second World War the area was used for allotments and there was some bombing.  The area was later reinstated with sports facilities.

Manor Road
Manor Hall. Church of God. The church is currently rebuilding the hall. This was the building of the Catholic Apostolic Church. Originated in 1867, when a house in High Street was registered for worship. Meetings were held in the Laurie Hall, Market Place, from 1869 until about 1894, when an iron church was built in Manor Road. In 1962 that church was re-registered as the undenominational Manor Hall


Park Lane
Raphael School. This is a private school which originated in 1935 as Clark’s College. The Colleges –which were a national chain - had been started by George E. Clark who had started evening classes and specialise in tutoring candidates for the civil service. The Romford College was in Junction Road and apparently moved here and changed their name. The building here was Park Lane Board School, opened in 1893, which was the first built by the school board. The school was reorganized in 1930 for juniors and infants. It was later called Edwin Lambert Junior and Infants School. It has now closed.


Princes Road
St Alban’s church. This was opened in 1890 as a mission of St.Andrew and became a separate parish in 1952. The church is filled with the work of contemporary artists. Glass doors at the entrance were engraved by Sally Scott and David Peace showing the shrine of St Alban, and St Alban. Inside is an organ, with green pipes decorated with red and blue bands and gilded mouths. Pilgrimage Window, with Our Lady of Walsingham designed by Patrick Reyntiens. Font, the cover of which is also connected with Walsingham. By Siegfried Pietzsch. Above the chancel arch, is Peter Eugene Ball’s Christus Rex. Above the altar are Angel Windows, designed by Patrick Reyntiens. Angels continue on the mural which fills vault where Mark Cazalet, painted the angels of the four elements of Creation and at the bottom of the mural the market, the buses and trains, a white van carrying the logo of the Romford Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Essex girls dancing round their handbags. Around the church, are the Stations of the Cross carved in European oak by Charlie Gurrey. Siegfried Pietzsch carved the statues of Our Lady and St Alban on each side of the chancel.  The Church has been awarded twelve Design Awards
Churchyard. Column of Remembrance in Portland stone by Jamie Sargeant. This sculpture bench, by John Pitt, in Portland stone, representing the Trinity, with the words ‘Come ye apart and rest awhile’ carved on vertical slabs. The seat is inscribed ‘And our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee’


Rushdown Close
Modern housing on the site of depot of builders merchants, Hall & Co. of Croydon., The depot was built in 1923 on the site of a gravel pit which they had opened in 1914 – seen as a risky venture into unknown territory.

Salisbury Road
Squirrels Heath Primary School. This was originally, Salisbury Road council school was opened in 1911. It was renamed in 1956. And a new school was built in 1974 on a neighbouring site.


Sources
British History online. Hornchurch. Web site
British History online. Romford. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Francis Bardsley Academy. Web site
Hall. A Century and a Quarter
London Borough of Havering. Web site
London Gardens Online. Web site
Romford Evangelical Free Church. Web site

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