Goodmayes Park and Orchard Playing Fields

Goodmayes Park and the Park Extension, now formally renamed Orchard Playing Fields, together form a large park. It was originally laid out in the early C20th as Goodmayes Recreation Ground along part of the course of the Mayes Brook. It was provided as a ‘lung' for the new Mayfield Estate, which was built in 1900 by Archibald Cameron Corbett, the Glasgow MP and developer, responsible for the development of much of Ilford, and who later became Lord Rowallan. The site of the park was given by Corbett to the Urban District Council; he also provided Seven Kings Park, (q.v.). Goodmayes was an area that was developed when the railway station opened in 1901 and is named after Goodmayes Farm, which had belonged to Barking Abbey; the farmhouse once stood within the site of Goodmayes Park. The park is bisected by Mayesbrook Road forming discrete north and south compartments. The Mayes Brook was dammed in the north of the park to create a pair of lakes, the south of which has an island. The 'lake' in the park adjacent to the development was created in February 1945 where there was a huge crater left by a V2 bomb. Avenues of horse-chestnut and lime flank the paths and many of the trees were planted on Armistice Day 1937 by Men of the Trees to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Similar tree-planting is found in other parks in Redbridge including Valentines Park and Clayhall Park (q.q.v). The park retains its gothic-style gates and stretches of railings that were produced by Hill & Smith, Brierley Hill, c.1930. The Goodmayes Park Friends Group was formed in 2009. In 2017 an orchard was planted in the area previously known as Goodmayes Park Extension, which in December 2018 was renamed Orchard Playing Fields, the culmination of a project to give this part of the park its own distinct identity. It was opened by the Leader of Redbridge Council, Cllr Jas Athwal.