Local History
Home | Who | Location | Links | Site Map || The London
borough of Havering was created in April 1965 by the merging of the former
Borough of Romford and the old Urban District of Hornchurch. These two towns had been linked before in history. From Saxon times until 1892 they were part of the Royal Manor of Havering, afterwards known as the Royal Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower whose charter had been granted in 1465. Some of the other villages that had came together under the name of Havering had not however been part of the Liberty. Upminster and Rainham were outside the Royal area. They formed part of Chafford Hundred during the centuries when this was an administrative unit of Essex. | King John kept his harriers (hounds for hunting hares) here; Edward VI was nursed here: Mary and Elizabeth lived here as children and Henry VIII often hunted in Havering. The last King to have slept at Havering Palace was the ill-fated Charles I. He stayed here on the way to meet his mother-in-law, Marie de' Medici, at Harwich on the 7th November 1638. The two long trains of coaches and horsemen, proceeded by twelve trumpeters, rode towards London. The Palace was not good enough for the Queen Mother of France by this time. She slept the night at Gidea Hall while Charles stayed at Havering. The next day he came to Gidea Hall and the procession continued on the journey back to London. |
Queen Marie Medici leaving Gidea
Hall, 1637
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| Havering Coat of Arms | Romford Coat of Arms |
| A tower to represent the old Palace of Havering, a bull's
horned head for Hornchurch, a shield in segments to represent the cross of
St. Andrew (St.Andrew's church was for centuries the parish church for the
whole Liberty), and the ring which, according to legend, Edward the
Confessor gave to a beggar with the words 'Have Ring'. |
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Site updated April, 1999 Copyright (c) 1998 Educational Computer Centre | email the centre |