Holy cow! We missed World Milk Day! 🐄🥛 Carts are being filled with milk churns ready for delivery in this photo of the Short Horn Dairy on Roden Street, Ilford, taken around 1887.

Super Science! ⚙️ Explore the history of science, technology and invention in the local area in our brand new STEM-themed trail through Redbridge Museum for Tech Ilford 2026! Best for ages 5+ 📅: Saturday 13 June 2026 🕒: 11am to 4pm (drop in) 📍: Redbridge Museum 🔗: visionrcl.org.uk/events/super...

On your marks! This race marked the official re-opening of Cricklefields Athletic Ground in Ilford following the Second World War, on this day in 1950 🏃‍♂️

The Saffron Walden Historical Society has announced the relaunch of its long-running Historical Journal, with a redesigned full-colour edition due to return in spring 2026. Find out more: www.balh.org.uk/news-relaunc... #WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll

Happy Bee Day from the Beehive Inn on Beehive Lane, Ilford, in this photo taken about 1902 🐝

Happy International Museum Day! Why not pay us a visit this week to celebrate? We’re open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 5pm. 🔗: visionrcl.org.uk/museum

Nope, not scribbles – this is the #EYAHandwriting of Catherine Tylney-Long of Wanstead House! ✍️💌 We had a brave volunteer attempt to decipher these secret 18th century letters from our archives a few years back… Can anyone else have a go?! @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social #ExploreYourArchive

To find out more about the end of the war, visit our exhibition on Redbridge and the Second World War to view original objects, photographs, and more from our collections until the end of August. 🔗: vrcl.uk/museum-ww2

Today marks VE (Victory in Europe) Day, when the Second World War ended in Europe. Street parties took place in the days and weeks following. This one for residents of Elstree Gardens & Fairview Gardens, Ilford took place on 19 May 1945 and included a Punch & Judy show, competitions, and a bonfire!

Walthamstow Hall School for daughters of missionaries, in Marsh St, Walthamstow from 1838-1882, then relocating to Kent. Co-founder Dorothea Foulger lived in Hoe St & died in Walthamstow #OTD 6 May 1852. Her memorial inscription at Abney Park Cemetery notes her 'ready sympathy & active benevolence'.

I have found much of interest in my cataloguing of deeds & documents at @redbridgemuseum.bsky.social like one from yesterday. In July 1897 the Great Eastern Railway bought a property called Mortimer House which became no. 6 Balfour Road. When I checked the occupier from 1899-1900 Kelly's... 🧵

Ravenings, on the corner of Green Lane and what is now Goodmayes Road, has always been a bit of a mystery and I can find few newspaper references to it. But why? "Ravenings farm, otherwise Stoop farm" Ah, that might be why then!

Give our hearty cheers to the O's. They need it. Once in Essex, Now in London, is available from bookshops (or online- the usual suspects) and features the 1935 great peace referendum thought up in in a teashop in Ilford High Street + 69 other chapters.

This sounds a really fascinating book. Sadly, I'll be at Orient on Saturday (when I'd rather be at Valence House!).

The Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health contain much fascinating information about the state of the area. In 1905, and probably many other years, drainage was an issue... The ones for Ilford can be found here: wellcomelibrary.org/moh/browse/?...

Just about five days to go. Saturday 2nd May 2026 at 2.00pm Valence Houe Museum Becontree Avenue Dagenham, RM8 3HT. The ‘official’ launch of ONCE IN ESSEX, NOW IN LONDON Check out the poster with all the detail. @colinruneckles.bsky.social @ilfordhistory.bsky.social

Wanstead should be proud of its connection with former Astronomer Royal James Bradley (1692–1762), says Dr John Fisher in the second of a series of articles celebrating the man who proved the Earth’s motion https://wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=15616

Find out more about Howards at Redbridge Museum!

Our volunteer Maya has been helping us complete the last stages of cataloguing the archive of Howard & Sons, a chemicals company operating in Uphall, Ilford from 1897 to 1980. Here she is marking business invoices with their unique reference numbers. #BusinessArchives #ArchiveVolunteers #Archive30

On National Tea Day, here are some of the tea-related objects on display at Redbridge Museum 🫖 Can you spot them on your next visit to us? Don’t forget to have a cuppa in the Library’s Hardback Café on your way out!

We will be in attendance...

On this day in 1944, a German Junkers Ju 188 bomber plane was shot down over Redbridge and crashed into 14 Seven Kings Road, where four occupants were killed. This oxygen bottle and other pieces from similar aircrafts are on display now in our exhibition 'Redbridge and the Second World War'.

Happy Friday! ☕️ Members of the Ilford Photographic Club take a break in a local café, about 1932.

In the following year's census it housed an Inspector, his family, a servant, and eleven unmarried PCs. During the construction work on the present station unearthed mammoth bones from around 90,000 BC, now in the Newham Heritage Centre collection (www.newham.gov.uk/libraries-ar...).

Great Ilford and Little Ilford have both been in the Metropolitan Police District since 1848. We have this picture of the station yard from New Year's Eve 1910 (complete with tricycle and ghostly Victorian children).

*** New from the IHS *** Our December Newsletter is now available to be read & downloaded on our website. Lots of great articles on Newbury Park bus shelter, HMS Wager, South Park, Dame Maggie Smith and more. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Our next talk with be given by IHS Secretary Janet Seward on 1000 years of Ilford in Fact and Fiction. 7:00 for 7:30pm on Monday 13th April in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

Fancy a Spring walk around Mayfair? 11am on Saturday 18th April. Meet just round the corner from Bond Street Tube Station in South Moulton Street. Cost? A mere £3.

Ilford Police Station was first built on Ilford Hill in 1860 (📸: 1880). In 1906 it was replaced with a new building (📸: 1980) on the same site. The station on Ilford Hill was closed in 1995 when the current one (📸: 2001) opened on the High Road. #EYACrime @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Debden war memorial tablet. St. Mary the Virgin and All Saints Church, Debden, Essex. First and Second World Wars. #LestWeForget

Wandering around the back alleys in the City this morning I stumbled across the plaque marking where Garraway's Coffee House was sited in Change Alley. Not only a coffee house, it was used for property auctions and I know of at least 7 auctions held in the early 1800s for property in Ilford. 1/2

Our next talk with be given by IHS Secretary Janet Seward on 1000 years of Ilford in Fact and Fiction. 7:00 for 7:30pm on Monday 13th April in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library.

To find out more about Sylvia Pankhurst, visit our website about her life ➡️ sylviapankhurst.com or visit our display at Redbridge Museum.

The River Roding Trust has completed its biggest river restoration project to date, bringing 280 metres of river back to life on the Alders Brook. Paul Powlesland reports https://wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=15651

Harbrow were responsible for both the early church in Grosvenor Road before The Vine Congregational Church was built later, and the Mission Room in Beehive Lane funded by Mrs Ingleby of Valentines.

Meanwhile, for listings of local history societies in the UK, @balhnews.bsky.social has this helpful guide: www.balh.org.uk/societies-az #Skystorians

Mrs Sarah Raymond #1760costume is in the building! Big thanks to Pawel & Jean for sharing her for #WomenInHistory @Valentines 22Mar 12-5 What was her daughter’s connection with LordMansfield #KenwoodHouse? Timed talks 12, 1.30 2.30 3.30 dancing fun creative crafts Oh! artists’ studios are open too!

Happy Mother’s Day! 👩‍👧‍👦 Here are two happy mums with their newborns at the Ilford Maternity Hospital (later part of King George Hospital), Newbury Park, about 1952.

The chimney of Ilford’s Dust Destructor comes down in this picture taken on 14 March 1957. The Dust Destructor, based on Suffolk Road in Newbury Park, was an incinerator for household waste and was built in 1916, not without controversy amongst locals.

On School Archives Day, here’s a peek at Ida Watson’s school report for the Autumn Term 1908 at Aldersbrook Girls’ School, Wanstead. Ida’s teacher remarked that her personal conduct in class was “fairly good” but that “fidgeting [was] the chief fault”! Can anyone relate?

The Friends of the River Roding’s Wanstead and Woodford local group are on a mission to restore the river and its tributaries, one bag of rubbish and one forgotten stream at a time. Derek Seume reports wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=15293

The Derek Keene #London #Lecture 2026 is open for (free) booking! Join us on Weds 24 June to hear Thomas Asbridge on the #BlackDeath in London, drawing on his new book. The lecture forms a focal point of our annual @ihr.bsky.social #SummerSchool, this year focused on #London 'Sickness & Health'.

Dear everyone, As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included. A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.

Tonight!

Looking in the British Newspaper Archive in connection with a Facebook post, I found the advert proclaiming the opening of what appears to be the first branch of J. Sainsbury in Ilford in Sept 1897 next to the Methodist Church in the High Road. Photos - www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/se...

Local schoolchildren perform in the Redbridge Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall, March 1976.

That’s what we like to see – readers of all ages ready for a good book sale at Fullwell Cross Library, 1977. Happy World Book Day! 📚

‘A Dirty History of Photography’ is now available to read at Redbridge Heritage Centre. Please book a research session to view the Ilford Limited archive.

We were pleased to receive @michellehenning.bsky.social’s exciting new book ‘A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire’, largely based on research into the Ilford Limited archive held at Redbridge Heritage Centre.