Harold Wood history - area named after King Harold

This week, the Recorder is looking back at the history of Harold Wood - which was once a king’s forest and much later expanded with the help of its train station.

The earliest written record of the area dates back to 1237 as "Horalds Wood", named after King Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, who held the manor of Havering‑atte‑Bower before 1066.

The "Old Tin Church" in Church Road, Harold Wood in 1908 (Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)

Also know as Harold Harefoot, the king hunted deer in the forest that covered the Harold Wood area at this time.

Some of the original roads also take their names from the earliest recorded kings of England.

The area remained largely rural until the 19th century, with farmland and woodland dominating the landscape.

Harold Wood’s transformation began with the arrival of the railway.

Harold Wood Station in 1965 (Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)

The Harold Wood Estate Company purchased 300 acres of Gubbins Farm in 1866 and secured a deal with the Great Eastern Railway for the construction of a station in Gubbins Lane.

The first train stopped at Harold Wood station on February 1, 1868 and, just over a decade after, it received upgrades in the form of a more substantial entrance in Oak Road.

Another early community landmark was the corrugated‑iron "old tin church", which opened on Church Road in 1871 and ushered in a "new era" in Harold Wood, according to Havering Libraries.

Harold Wood Hospital from the air in the 1930s (Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)

A permanent brick church, St Peter’s, was built eventually built in Gubbins Lane in the 1930s, supported by the Matthews milling family.

A private property called the The Grange would eventually become The Grange Convalescent Home for Children after it was sold in 1909, and was later developed into Harold Wood Hospital.

During the Second World War, the facility was used as an emergency medical service hospital for those in the military and civilian air raid casualties.

Inside the ward at Harold Wood Hospital c. 1950s (Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)

The hospital became part of the NHS in 1948, and later closed 2006 - before being bulldozed for a new housing development called The Comptons at the end of last year.