Place Name
This street, which follows the lay out of the once much longer Dunmow Road, changed its name in 1920. According to the Leyton History Society it is not named after a building, but a man, who rose from humble beginnings to become a prominent figure in the area. Edmund Matticott Hall was born in 1867 in Leytonstone to Matthew Hall, a cooper, and Annie nee Matticott. Edmund was christened on October 22, 1867. By the time he was four, Edmund was in the West Ham Union Workhouse and his father, an inmate of a workhouse in Tynemouth, Northumberland. A little over a decade later his father died in India. Fortunately by the time Edmund was 13 he had been taken in by a local family called Cook and given an education. When he was 24 he returned to the workhouse of his early upbringing, but this time as a Master’s Clerk. By now his mother was also working at the workhouse as an assistant matron. The following year Edmund joined the Leyton Volunteer Fire Brigade. Over the next few years he marries and has three children. By 1901 he was a Registrar of Births and Deaths. More children followed but he still had time for local interests and in 1911 he was made president of Leyton Allotment Holders Society. He was also a member of the Leyton Borough Council and a Justice of the Peace. In 1913 he became Chairman of the Council, and in total served on the Council for 23 years. Too old to sign up for war he remained an active member of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. In 1915 his nephew Frederick William Hall of the 8th Canadian Battalion was awarded the Victoria Cross for Valour when he was killed while bringing a wounded man back to the lines. In 1919, he became the Chief Officer of the Leyton Volunteer Fire Brigade, a position he held until his retirement in 1942. He died on February 20, 1943. The land on which the road was laid out was part of the Cann Hall manorial estate that once belonged to the Manby-Colegrave family who also give their name in various guises to many streets in the local area.
