Ilford

History

The only complete skull of a mammoth discovered in the United Kingdom was unearthed in 1864 close to where Uphall Road is today. The skull can now be seen in the Natural History Museum and a cast of the skull and other prehistoric animal remains can be seen at Redbridge Museum, Central Library, Ilford. Redevelopment has destroyed much of the evidence for early Ilford, but the oldest evidence for human occupation is the first- and second-century BC Iron Age earthwork known as Uphall Camp. This was situated between the Roding and Ilford Lane and is recorded in 18th-century plans. Roman finds have also been made in the vicinity. A nearby mound called Lavender Mount existed into the 1960s, when it was removed during building work at Howards chemical works. Excavation has shown that Lavender Mount may have been a 16th-century 'beacon-mound'. Archaeological discoveries are displayed at Redbridge Museum. Ilford straddled the important road from London to Colchester. The Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust controlled and maintained the road from 1721. The River Roding was made navigable for barges as far as Ilford Bridge from 1737. This was founded in 1879 by Alfred H. Harman, a photographer from Peckham, who established the business in a house in Cranbrook Road making gelatino-bromide 'dry' plates. The Exchange is the main shopping centre. By 1653, Ilford was a compact village of 50 houses, mostly sited north and south of the current Broadway and the population of the Municipal Borough of Ilford peaked in 1951 at 184,706, declining to 178,024 in 1961 before being absorbed into Redbridge and Greater London in 1965. At the 2001 Census the combined populations of the Ilford North and Ilford South constituencies was 196,414. John Logie Baird, who invented the television,…

Geography

The town is bounded in the west by the North Circular Road, Manor Park and the River Roding, with Chadwell Heath and Romford to the east and Barking to the South. The Alders Brook is a tributary of the Roding that marks the boundary between Newham and Redbridge. Climate data for Ilford is taken from the nearest weather station at Greenwich, around south south west of the railway station:

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  55,134
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  53,216
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  52,203
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  49,263
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  46,988
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  42,330
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  39,673
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  39,149

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2020-09-08
  2 km WSW of Pitstone, United Kingdom
• M 3.3 — 2019-02-27
  3 km SE of Dorking, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2018-07-05
  1 km S of Ewhurst, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2018-06-27
  5 km W of Capel, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2018-04-01
  4 km E of Holmwood, United Kingdom