Ashburton Wood

Much of the land here was former marsh pastureland that was opened up to industrial development in the mid C19th after the railway from Stratford to North Woolwich was constructed, an undertaking by engineer George P Bidder. He then purchased the area between Bow Creek and Galleons Reach, part of which was sold for the Royal Docks. Factories began to be built along the riverside, attracted here not only by the rail and river links but also because it was outside the area governed by London's employment and building laws, such as the Metropolitan Building Act of 1844, which prohibited 'harmful trades' in London. As a result housing for the workforce was urgently needed, but what was built was often overcrowded and insanitary, bringing hardship and illness. Social and political activists, including James Keir Hardy, began campaigning to improve conditions in such areas.

Ashburton Wood is located on the former site of Ashburton Secondary Modern School. The first school here was Russell Road Board School for Boys, Girls and Infants (OS 2nd Edition 25 ins map, London VIII.64 1894/5), which opened in 1893 accommodating 1,568 pupils. From 1894-6 part of the site was used for a pupil teacher centre, until a permanent centre was opened on the adjoining site, later a higher elementary school. At that time land to the north was open land/Allotment Gardens, and residential streets were beginning to be laid out, such as a street called Sophia Road to the east of Freemasons Road. By 1914, further buildings had been built to the south and much of the area was housing, although the large area to the north remained as allotments, and industrial usage continued to the west of the school site: marked as Ceylon Mills in 1914 (OS 25 ins map revised 1914 Essex LXXXVI.10). By 1939 Russell Road elementary school had been reorganized for junior boys, junior girls, and infants. In 1932, the higher elementary school moved to Queens Road and its buildings here were re-opened as Ashburton Senior Boys School. During WWII its school buildings were badly damaged and in 1945 those that remained were combined with the buildings of the Russell Road elementary school to form Ashburton Mixed Secondary Modern School.

The school had a large playground to the south of the main building and after WWII a number of smaller buildings were constructed on the playground. To the west of the school was Ceylon Mills industrial factory; to the north were allotments dating from the late C19th, and to the north-east is Canning Town Recreation Ground (q.v.), which opened in 1894.The OS map at scale 1:1250, revision of 1969 (TQ4081SE-C) shows the area west of Ashburton Secondary Modern School still in industrial usage, with Upholstery Works and Engineering Works shown; this area is now covered with residential housing. The school closed in 1984, following which the buildings were demolished and the site cleared. It was subsequently planted as woodland to provide publicly accessible open space, with tarmac paths running through it and a nature trail with wooden sign posts highlighting wildlife that might be discovered here. London plane trees that were planted along the school boundary with Freemasons Road and Russell Road boundary remain within the woodland.