Did you know...?
- Romford grew up on the Roman Road between London and Colchester, close to
the Roman military station of Durolitum.1
- The name Romford probably comes from the
Old English for 'broad (roomy) ford'.
- Henry III granted Romford the privilege of holding a market in 1247.2
- Romford was once famous for the making of leather breeches, hence the
Essex proverb: "Go to Rumford to have your backsides new bottomed."3
- The 17th century poet Francis Quarles was born in Romford in 1592 and
lived there as a child.4
- The comic actor William Kemp stayed at Romford during his morris dance
from London to Norwich in 1599.5
- Thomas Blood, who in 1671 almost succeeded
in stealing the Crown Jewels, lived in an apothecary's shop in Market Place.6
- The landscape gardener Humphrey Repton
lived at Hare Street (modern Gidea Park) for 35 years until his death in
1818.
- The brewers Ind Coope (now part of Allied Breweries) began in Romford in
1799.7
- The First World War poets Edward Thomas and
Wilfred Owen both trained with the Artists' Rifles at Hare Street (modern
Gidea Park).
- In the 1930s there was an air service
between Romford and Paris.
- In 1949 Romford Football Club reached the first Amateur Cup Final to be
played at Wembley.
- The Beatles played Romford twice in 1963 - first at the ABC, then at the Odeon.
1 Romford Record, No. 6 (1974), pages 59-62.
2 Ibid., No. 10 (1978), page 44.
3 Ibid., No. 8 (1976), page 13.
4 Ibid., No. 9 (1977), pages 33-40.
5 Ibid., No. 15 (1983), pages 14-17.
6 Ibid., No. 8 (1976), page 5-11.
7 Ibid., No. 9 (1977), page 45-46.
8 Romford, Collier Row & Gidea Park,
plate 44.
