It’s Christmas Jumper Day! Are you going for a novelty jumper or a more traditional one, like this jumper featured on the cover of a 1940s knitting pattern purchased from a shop on Ilford Lane 🧶

Our new volunteer Maya has been listing our Kenneth More Theatre programmes and has found one for a production of The Wizard of Oz from Spring 1986. Follow the yellow brick road to Redbridge Drama Centre this Christmas to see The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: visionrcl.org.uk/events/the-w... #PantoDay

Our August Newsletter is now up on the website to read (and enjoy!). We're all over the map this time with articles about Redbridge, Gants Hill, Goodmayes, Valentines Mansion, Barkingside, and Ilford. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Our final meeting of 2025 is this coming Monday 8th December where we will have a talk from Georgina Green about Jane Austen, a quiz, and mince pies! Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library in Ilford, 7 for 7:30pm.

No, I know this isn't Ilford...but it's still a wonderful way of cruising round late 18th century London courtesy of Richard Horwood's map of 1892-9. www.romanticlondon.org/explore-horw...

Something I found for my talk last night on Parks & Recreation was this wonderful piece about South Park, literally in the same month that the park was opened in May 1902. A 'regular quarrel on the water'? The solution - ensure that boating and model boats were given separate parts of the lake.

A lovely piece from our collection for today’s #Museum30 theme of Stitch – a ‘Friendship Cloth’, owned and used by the donor’s grandmother, Sylvia Ashbridge of Grove Park, Wanstead, who had friends visiting for tea sign and embroider (or embroidered herself) their names from around the year 1870. 🪡

As we mark Remembrance Day this weekend, find out more in our exhibition and film, Redbridge and the Second World War: youtu.be/Lmy0kOTTHA4 Find out more about Redbridge and the First World War: redbridgefirstworldwar.org.uk

To remember Ilford citizens killed in the war, a memorial plaque and book was unveiled in Ilford Town Hall in April 1949. This is now available to view at Redbridge Heritage Centre.

Next Monday!

County boundaries weren't always as neat as we'd like them to be. The area around Meppershall in Bedfordshire was particularly complicated giving rise to this cartographical equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders: HARTFORD SHIRE intermixed with BEDFORD SHIRE The Limits uncertain #MappyMonday

Happy Halloween! Watch out for all things creepy crawly in your travels tonight 👀 These spooky spiders were handmade by local resident Gladys Harrison and now live very harmlessly in our museum store! 🕷️

The next talk in the series is, well you can see - it's one of mine and I'll be speaking on the subject of Parks & Recreation. 7 for 7:30pm start on Monday 10th November in the Gloucester Room in the library in Ilford.

Today is Ilford’s Charter Day – when the town officially became a Borough by Royal Charter on this day in 1926 📜 Crowds lined the streets to welcome the Duke & Duchess of York who visited Ilford to mark the occasion. 🔗 Visit 'Village to Suburb' at Redbridge Museum to discover more: vrcl.uk/museum

A wonderful blog about our collections and display on Redbridge's Jewish stories by Dr Rachel Lichtenstein 👇

Recently spotted on Ilford High Road – the F. W. Woolworth ‘ghost sign’ still in place beneath the new Superdrug store signage being installed this week. Woolworths opened in Ilford in 1912. In 1938, the exterior was renovated in the attractive white Art Deco style that still stands today.

We have just joined BlueSky! Since our foundation in 1880, we have reproduced an unrivalled selection of historic maps, plans and views of London. We also publish books and monographs containing original research. See more of what we have to offer at: londontopsoc.org

On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush docked in Essex, the first of many ships and planes bringing around 500,000 Caribbean migrants to Britain from 1948 to 1971. Discover the stories of Redbridge’s Windrush generation in this new permanent exhibition at Redbridge Museum. 🔗 visionrcl.org.uk/museum

Our next talk will be given by our president Jef Page and commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of J.M.W. Turner. 13th September in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library after the AGM.

Do you have a #LocalHistory you'd like to tell? Why not share it through the BALH's website! Whether it's a podcast, blog piece, 10-minute talk or other format, we have a range of ways of sharing your stories. Find out more, here: www.balh.org.uk/blog-ways-to... #WeAreLocalHistory

I wrote an article about an early theatre plan for the Ley Street / Balfour Road site - think C&A and Wilko. Of course only now - by accident - do I find the plans for the public library that was in the running for that site a couple of years later. Sigh.

A great action shot of Woodford Rugby Club players in 1983! 🏉 The Club was formed in 1924 and used a pitch next to the Woodford Wells Cricket Club in Monkhams Lane, Woodford. They later moved to a ground in Highams Park, where they still play today. #NSHD2025 @sportingheritage.bsky.social

Our next talk will be given by our president Jef Page and commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of J.M.W. Turner. 13th September in the Gloucester Room, Redbridge Central Library after the AGM.

Just the other week I visited the Fuelling the Railway Revolution exhibition at the rather wonderful #AucklandProject #MiningArtGallery (Bishop Auckland, County Durham). Amazing how quickly steam-driven railways spread across the country.

200 years since the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway today! So what you want to do is to read how the railway came to Ilford, right? Of course you do...pp 15-19 in our April '22 Newsletter. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Chingford station c.1900. Built in 1878 to replace the station near Chingford Green, it was soon a popular destination for tourists visiting Epping Forest. In 1882 Queen Victoria travelled by train to Chingford station for the ceremony at High Beach dedicating the Forest to the people. #Railway200

It's here! Sign up for History Day 4 Nov 2025. #HistDay25 Together with @senatehouselib.bsky.social we are celebrating all things history with collections from galleries, libraries, archives, museums & more. Find out what it's all about and book your free spot. www.history.ac.uk/library-digi...

And if anyone is interested in what @vch-home.bsky.social has to say about our area, the links to the text can be found on our website. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/articles--re...

Our Co-General Editor, @adamchapman.bsky.social, joined us in 2013. Since then, we have published just over 40 books and Adam has edited or co-edited 37 of them. The most recent is our 250th #BigRedBook, Westmorland volume 1. Join us on Wednesday to learn more.

Kelly's Directory always had photographs of local buildings. Here's some of the ones for Ilford that Kelly's Directory for 1899-1900 had in it.

Today is the Autumn Equinox, marking the arrival of a new season. This photo from our collection shows the lengthening shadows and falling leaves in Valentines Park, Ilford, in 1987 🍂

The Empire Kinema (later Cinema) opened on Ilford Lane in April 1913. It was destroyed by a fire started by wartime incendiary bombing on 17 September 1940. The building was later demolished and the site lay disused for many years. 🔗 Find out more in our upcoming exhibition: vrcl.uk/museum-ww2

Joshua Abbott is preparing to publish Modernism Beyond Metro-land, a book documenting 20th-century architecture in London’s suburbs. In the third of a series of extracts, the spotlight is on Snaresbrook’s Hermitage Court. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=14112

I've written a blogpost for the British Association for Local History (BALH), about our scoria bricks research, www.balh.org.uk/blog-scoria-...

In local history research here are always things that make you wonder what was going on...like this. In the 1860s Little Newbury is on the west side of Ley Street. In the 1890s it has now moved to the east side of Ley Street! Nope, no idea at the moment...and Nut Cottage?

In 1979, Gearies School in Gants Hill, Ilford, celebrated their 50th birthday by producing a school magazine about the school’s history, with contributions from present and former pupils. Here are three 'Poems Dedicated to Teacher' from the magazine 🍎 #EYAEducation @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social

Great talk by Dr Neil Houghton last night on the Jeffries Murder in 1751 to get our year off to a flying start. Today...is all about admin. Lots of subs to account for and bank, and membership lists to update!

On this day in 1940, the Blitz began – a fierce bombing campaign by German aeroplanes flying over Britain from September 1940 to May 1941. 📸 Bomb damage at South Woodford Station, 14 October 1940 🔗 Find out more in our upcoming exhibition about Redbridge & the Second World War: vrcl.uk/museum-ww2

The new season of meetings of the Woodford HS gets underway this coming Thursday 11th up at All Saints Church in Inmans Row at 2:30pm, with a talk about Walthamstow.

Fast approaching - next Monday!

The libel action brought by one Ilford man against another in late 1904 made the national press. I have to say I love the language - "You dirty dog. You ought to be chucked into the Roding!" The case ended with one farthing being awarded to the plaintiff - costs being paid by both men.

Our first talk of the new season is on Monday 8th September when Dr Neil Houghton will be speaking on the subject of The Jeffries Murder in Walthamstow. And we're back in the Gloucester Room in Redbridge Central Library - 7 for 7:30pm.

‘Redbridge and the Second World War’ opens soon on the 1st floor of Redbridge Central Library, Ilford. Visit our website or follow this account to stay tuned for more updates. 🔗 vrcl.uk/museum-ww2

Something is in the works! You may have noticed our 1st floor exhibition area blocked off while we install our upcoming exhibition on Redbridge and the Second World War. Here are some sneak peeks behind the scenes as we carefully place objects from our collections into the displays!

To celebrate the Friends joining Bluesky today, here are some glimpses of blue sky at Valentines #Redbridge #HistoricHouse

Colourful new #Walthamstow mural by #Dreph in Wood St next to the gym near Barrett Rd.

This day August 12th (1987) the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) at Enfield closed. The original Royal Small Arms Factory, (maker of the Lee Enfield Rifle) was built in 1816 on a marshy island between the River Lea and the River Lea Navigation. More BATTLEFIELD ESSEX.

Our Newsletter for April 2025 is now up on our website and free to read/download. 60 years of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford Charter Day & Pageant from the 1920s and 30s, Valentines Mansion, and a century of Eastern & Woodford Avenues. ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...

Follow the link for a membership form. Only £15 for individuals or £20 for a couple living at the same address. A bargain! ilfordhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/...