PLACE NAME
One of four streets named after important periods in the history of Ilford (and Britain). By the 7thCentury, the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes had conquered and colonised most of the former Roman province of Britannia, and the country was now known as England. It was during Saxon times that an important abbey at Barking was constructed in about AD666 which for almost 900 years held much land in Barking as part of its demesne (land attached to a manor and retained by the owner for their own use). Its establishment stimulated the development of the little hamlet of Ilford along the High Road as processions of travellers heading to the abbey would stop off here. While the development of Ilford began in the Saxon period (when it was known as Ilefort), it remained a hamlet in the manor of Barking until the foundation of a hospital in the mid-12thCentury.
