ROMFORD
Including Collier Row, Rush Green, Gidea Park, Harold Hill, Noak Hill & Squirrell's Heath

Romford, Essex, a market town on the Colchester road, and a station on the Great Eastern Railway, 12 miles from London by road or railway. Population of the town 6355, of the parish 8239, of whom 373 were inmates of the Union Workhouse. Inns: White Hart (a good house), and Golden Lion, High Street; Swan, Dolphin, Lamb, etc., Market place. The name is derived from the ford over the Bourne (called by some writers the Rom), a shallow stream which flows through the middle of the town and falls into the Thames at Dagenham.

Romford had a market as early as 1247. The first mention of the manor is in a record of 1299, when it was held by Henry of Winchester, a Jewish convert. Until about 1780 Romford was a chapelry of Hornchurch, but is now a distinct parish. With Havering-atte-Bower and Hornchurch, originally one parish, it formed the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, was governed by its own high steward and justices, and possessed a separate jurisdiction, courts, including prerogative court for wills, session, and commission for trying felons within the liberty.

The town stretches for over a mile along the great Essex road, and is crossed near the centre by another principal street, which leads south to Hornchurch and Rainham, and north to Havering. The main street, narrow in the middle, expands towards the ends, the western half forming the High Street, the eastern the Market place, the cross street being named South Street on one side of the High Street and North Street on the other. Several additional streets have been formed within the last few years, especially south of the town and about the railway station, High Street and Market-place contain some good shops, an unusually large number of inns and public-houses, and a few public buildings. The Market place extends from west of the church to the extreme east end of the town, cattle-pens being fixtures in the open street.

The original chapel of Romford, built about 1323 some distance east of the town, was taken down in 1407, and a larger one erected on the site of the present church. Romford Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Edward the Confessor, is a Dec. building, with window tracery inclining to Flamboyant, designed by Mr. J. Johnson, and consecrated Sept. 19, 1850. It is built of hammered Kentish rag with Bath stone dressings, and comprises nave with aisles, chancel with chapels, and on the south tower a stone spire 160 feet high, and a stone porch. The tower contains a good peal of 8 bells.

St. Andrew's church, at the east end of the town, was erected from the designs of Mr. J. Johnson, in 1863, when the ecclesiastical district of St. Andrew was created. The church is a neat late Dec. building of Kentish rag and Bath stone. Not far from it is a Cemetery with a small Norman chapel and lich gate.

[Handbook to The Environs of London :
James Thorne 1876]

Church Records:

• St. Edward the Confessor,
  The Market Place
  Baptisms, Marriages & Burials 1561- date : Not deposited
  Baptisms 1561-1846,
  Marriages 1561-1837, Burials 1561-1855,
  Copies at ERO
  Monumental Inscriptions : EoLFHS Publications
  
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green Rd, Squirrel's Heath
  Baptisms 1926- date,
  Marriages 1939- date,&
  Burials 1926- date : Not deposited  
• Good Shepherd, Collier Row
  Baptisms 1934- date,
  Marriages 1935- date : Not deposited
• St. Andrew, St. Andrews Rd
  Formed 1863
• St. George, Chippenham Rd, Harold Hill
  Formed 1939
• St. John the Divine, Mawney Rd
  Baptisms and Marriages 1928- date : Not deposited
• St. Michael & All Angels,
  Main Road, Gidea Park
  Baptisms and Marriages 1930- date : Not deposited
• St. Thomas, Noak Hill
  Formed 1841
• The Ascention, Collier Row
  Formed 1880 as mission church, parish created 1927
• St. Edward (Roman Catholic), Park End Rd
  Baptisms 1852- date,
  Marriages 1857- date : Not deposited
• Congregational Chapel, Hornchurch Lane
  Baptisms 1812-1818 : PRO
• Congregational Chapel, South St
  Baptisms 1779-1854, 1904-1943,
  Marriages 1904-1943,&
  Burials 1781-1855 : ERO
• Methodist Chapel, Victoria Rd
  Baptisms 1936-1961 : ERO
• Primitive Methodist Circuit
  Baptisms 1861-1916 : ERO
• Romford Baptist Chapel
  Marriages 1937-1943 : ERO
• Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
  Baptisms 1835-1837 : ERO

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