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Elmhurst Gardens is an oblong municipal park laid out on land once part of Elmhurst Estate, acquired by Woodford UDC in 1921. The gardens were opened in July 1927 as Woodford Recreation Ground. The land was purchased from Mr Lister Harrison of Elmhurst, having been separated from the house and remainder of the estate by the railway in 1856. The gardens have notable beech, oak and lime, and retain much of the original layout as well as a picturesque brick sundial and small pavilion, and an area of formal planting with seats.
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Fairlop Waters Country Park is part of the larger Fairlop Plain. The famous Fairlop Oak was reputedly the largest tree in Hainault Forest, the site of a famous fair held on the first Friday in July until c1892 although the oak itself had been blown down. The open ground was created when part of The King's Wood was cleared in 1853 and divided by the Crown into three farms. Part of Forest Farm became a WWI balloon station, which may have saved it from development, and Hainault Farm had an RFC landing ground. In 1938 part of the land was sold to the Corporation of London who had plans drawn up to build City Airport here. In WWII it became RAF Fairlop, after which it was sold to Ilford Borough Council and used for gravel extraction. Gravel pits were flooded to create lakes and it was then opened as a country park and golf course. There are now 3 lakes, one of which is used for boating.
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George Green is a remnant of village green within Epping Forest and was once part of the grounds of Wanstead House (Wanstead Park). In the late C19th a small triangular drinking fountain was erected by the parishioners of Wanstead to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897), which has been moved a number of times as a result of road widening schemes. Today George Green is an open green space maintained by the Corporation of London's Conservators of Epping Forest, crossed by a single diagonal path and with a few trees, including three notable Spanish chestnuts (C17th-18th), ash and horse chestnuts.
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Goodmayes Hospital is the former West Ham Asylum, which was opened in 1901 by Cllr Abednigo Bishop, Mayor of West Ham Borough Council. Built on an eminence facing south, the Asylum gave views to Ilford and the building was lit by Ilford Council's Generating Station. The main hospital is surrounded on the east, south and west by a large heart-shaped terrace with a low brick perimeter wall and the approach is from the south-east in Barley Lane where there is a late C19th lodge, with iron screen and gates opening to the landscaped drive. The perimeter wall of the airing courts remains. A short horse chestnut avenue to the south of the main building dates from c.1900 and the grounds contain notable robinia, horse chestnut, holly and ash, with an understorey of rhododendron and holly in the gardens. Also within the hospital grounds are playing fields and the remains of a recreation ground adjacent to the Happy Valley, a wooded dell along the west side of the hospital ground near Aldborough Road.
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The public park was laid out in 1901 to provide a green 'lung' for the new Mayfield Estate, built by developer A Cameron Corbett, who donated land for the park to the UDC. The area grew up following the arrival of the railway in 1901 and is named after Goodmayes Farm, which once stood on what is now the park. The park is divided by Mayesbrook Road into two compartments, that in the north having a pair of lakes. One lake was created in 1945 from the crater left by a V2 bomb. The park has avenues of horse-chestnut and lime trees and retains its gothic-style gates and stretches of railings. In 2018 the area known as Goodmayes Park Extension was renamed Orchard Playing Fields.
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Hainault Forest Country Park was formed from former Hainault Forest land cleared from c1853. Formerly part of Waltham Forest, its name may be a corruption of Hyneholt (community wood) referring to the practice when poor widows were allowed to gather free wood here in winter. Once part of Barking Abbey lands, it reverted to the Crown after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1851 2800 acres of woodland were cleared and the land then mostly used for farming, with only small areas of woodland left. In 1902/3 800 acres of woodland and farmland of Foxburrows Farm were purchased by the LCC and opened to the public in 1906. Foxburrows Farm buildings had been rebuilt in 1856 and were later converted for use for park offices and refreshment facilities. In 1939 further land was purchased to extend the public open space. Later managed by the GLC, the park became the responsibility of LB Redbridge in 1986.
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Named after Richard Hert who lived here in 1270, the original Hart House next to Woodford Green was built in 1617 for Sir Humphry Handforth, Master of the Wardrobe to James I who is said to have been entertained here when hunting nearby. The house was later owned by the Onslow family, and then by naturalist Richard Warner (1713-75), author of 'Plantae Woodfordiensis' (1771), who is reputed to have grown the first flowering gardenia here. After Warner's death Harts was owned by the Clarke Jervoise family. There are some remains of the former estate within a private garden, such as the C18th Icehouse and ruins of a former chapel/mock abbey incorporating C18th and mediaeval fragments. The present Harts House dates from 1816; it became Harts Hospital and is now converted into a private nursing home. Only a small part of the grounds remains due to the private housing development that has since overtaken the site.
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Holy Trinity Barkingside Churchyard is among the oldest burial grounds in Barkingside, now closed to burials. The church is marked on early C19th plans as 'Mosfoot' parish church. In the churchyard are numerous headstones, and a few chest tombs and monuments; the earliest surviving grave dates from c.1790. The churchyard is adjacent to Barkingside Cemetery; it has notable horse chestnut and willow, and the boundary to Mossford Green has a low brick perimeter wall and simple iron entrance gate with arch/light. The present church, a yellow brick building in Norman style, was rebuilt in 1839-40 to designs of Edward Blore, and extended twice since. The chancel was added in c.1898, and the north and west vestries were added in the C20th.
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Ilford Animal Cemetery dates from the late 1920s, after the land was purchased for the PDSA Sanatorium in 1927. Shortly after this the first animal was buried at the request of its owner, since when thousands of family pets have been buried here, as well as military animals including those awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal for war service. Now closed for burial the cemetery was restored in 2007 and is maintained as a historical site. The PDSA Paws Forever Tribute Garden was laid out together with a Garden of Remembrance designed by Bob Flowerdew and opened in June 2008.
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Ilford War Memorial Committee was established in November 1918 to create a suitable memorial to the men of Ilford who had died in WWI. Following a popular vote as to the form of war memorial, money was raised and a site purchased adjacent to the then Ilford Emergency Hospital for the Memorial Gardens, the erection of a memorial monument, and a new children's wing for the hospital to be entered through a Memorial Hall containing the names of the war dead. The monument with bronze statue of a soldier by N A Trent was unveiled in November 1922, the Hall and Children's Wing completed 5 years later. The memorial garden is laid out formally with rose beds in a cruciform shape, circular island beds set in the lawn, shrubbery areas, hedging and lines of lime trees. The Children's Wing was demolished after the closure of the hospital in 1993 but the neglected Memorial Hall was preserved and has since been restored.
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Knighton Wood, together with the adjacent Lords Bushes in Essex, is a remnant of ancient woodland of Epping Forest. Knighton Wood was enclosed in the C18th and remained in private ownership until 1930, when it was returned to the forest as public open space. From 1863 the Knighton Estate was owned by Edward North Buxton, a leading campaigner for Epping Forest. He laid out his grounds around the house. His fine gardens included exotic species and shrubs, a 1.5 acre lake with Pulham Rock Bank at the western end. Knighton was known for its spring show of rhododendrons and daffodils.
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Little Heath Green is a triangular site, a remnant of the village green here, which dates back at least to the C14th. The pattern of roads today follows the original settlement pattern. Until 1909 there was a village pond on the Green, which is now surrounded by relatively recent trees. The houses around the green are generally 2-storey domestic buildings ranging from 200 years old to recent date. A timber signpost that was locally listed has since disappeared.