Stratford 1855 Post Office Directory
History of Stratford in 1855
Stratford or Stratford Langthorne, the ford of the street or Roman way from London to Colchester, is a suburb of London, and lies on the banks of the navigable River Lea, and on the Eastern Counties Railway, of which the station is Angel Lane, whence the Northern and Eastern Railway and the Blackwall and Woolwich branch diverge. It is 3 ¾ miles from Shoreditch; is a ward of the parish of West Ham, and in the Union of that name, diocese of London, South Essex, and is also a metropolitan district, in the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal court and metropolitan police; it is united to the metropolis, at Stratford le Bow, by a bridge over the Lea. In 1851 the population was 10,586. The district church, dedicated to St John, built in 1833, is at the junction of the old Newmarket and Colchester roads; the Rev William Holloway is perpetual curate. In 1851 another church was erected, called Christchurch, situate in the High Street; the Rev Stopford Ram, incumbent. In 1135 an abbey for Cistercian monks was founded here, the abbot of which was a lord of parliament, and the income from which, at the dissolution was £573 15s 6d. There are considerable remains of the building. There are chapels for Roman Catholics, Baptists and Wesleyans, and schools on the National and British systems; also Industrial schools of the Whitechapel Union ( erected 1854), Forest Lane. Here is a police station. On the river are flour mills, chemical and print works, distilleries and other factories, Under Queen Mary I, a man and a woman were burned to death here for high treason and heresy. In 1692 George Edwards, the naturalist, was born here, and here he is also buried. In excavating the ground for the railway a stone coffin was discovered close to the surface of the earth, near Maryland Point, and which is now in the possession of the railway company.
Hudson’s Town is a part of Stratford, adjoining the railway station.