New Stratford city

History of Stratford (By Jay)

Past History of Stratford

Within this information holds the past and future of an area that has never stopped changing from the start of its birth to a never-ending story.

Stratford has an incredibly interesting history therefore it can be briefly described as a village in the back waters of East London, separated by the river Lea from Middlesex a navigable waterway.

The bow bridge was built here in 1110, but not until the 1830s was reasonable stone bridge built. The river crossing from which both Old Stratford and Stony Stratford derive their names must have been replaced by a bridge, first mentioned in the 13th century, at an early date, although in the 1830s Baker claimed that the site of a ford could be identified immediately upstream from the bridge. In the early 17th century the bridge crossed the Ouse itself by a single span, which flanked on the Buckinghamshire bank by a causeway pierced by three groups of three arches, apparently built to carry water off the meadowland alongside the river. The bridge is said to have been partly destroyed in the Civil War and then to have become dilapidated. In 1801 an Act for paving, lighting and improving Stony Stratford also provided for the repair of the bridge, whose maintenance had, since the early 16th century, been the responsibility of a local charity. This measure was evidently insufficient, and in 1834 the two counties which shared responsibility for the bridge obtained another Act, under which a new bridge was built the following year. The Act provided for the cost of the bridge to be divided between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire; for tolls to be collected for 21 years; and for the charity which had previously maintained the old bridge to be discharged from this responsibility, Tolls were apparently taken at the bridge in the middle Ages.  


The village of Old Stratford grew up on either side of Watling Street close to the point at which it crossed the river Ouse into Buckinghamshire, where the larger settlement of Stony Stratford similarly developed alongside the Roman road. The second half of both names obviously refers to the river crossing, but the first half of 'Old Stratford' is a corruption, that not found before the 15th century, of what was previously known 'For Stratford' or West Stratford, referring to its position in relation to its larger neighbour; the notion that the village is in some sense older than Stony Stratford is mistaken it is actually younger developed.  In an early 17th-century map names the village old Stratford as 'Old Stow' and (an adjoining common field in Passenham as Little Stow Field); this form has not been found elsewhere.

Old Stratford has probably never been more than a suburb of its larger neighbour, although it has a focus of its own in the crossroads in the middle of the village. Until the building of the M1 motorway, this was the point at which the main route from London to Northampton branched off from Watling Street, and from which a route ran up the Ouse valley to Buckingham. The Northamptonshire section of Watling Street, from Old Stratford to Dunchurch, was turnpiked as early as 1707; a trust for the road from Old Stratford to Northampton was established in 1768; and the road from Buckingham to Old Stratford forming part of a route which continued to Newport Pagnell was turnpiked in 1815. The Maynard estate sold land to the trustees of the Old Stratford to Dunchurch turnpike in 1780 to enable the road to be widened. Even after the southern section of the M1, opened in 1959, largely superseded Watling Street as the main road from London to the Midlands, the crossroads at Old Stratford remained a busy junction until the village was bypassed in both directions in the 1980s.

In 1919 a public hall was built on Deanshanger road, near the crossroads as a memorial to those who had died in the first world war.

A number of old stratford residents pre-sumably always found employment in stony stratford, and this propartion no doubt raise with the expansion of the railway works at Wolverton in the later 19th century with the development of Milton Keyness new town. 

This picture in 1839 shows the view north from Stratford High Street showing Stratford railway viaduct and a windmill.



In 1875, the rector of Furtho described old Stratford as 'Sadly neglected place' Without a church or school, and this remained true of the rest of the 19th century.

This is a picture of old Stratford High street in 1890 back in the days:

Modern history of stratford


Massive changes happened when the railway was built, Stratford became a hub of the many railways in the east of london, which it contiunues to this day with transport links to outter areas of london aswell of tubes and light rail.


Stratford become major center for the Olympics in 2012, with the fantastic rail links that have built over a century, and the Olympic village will be built upon an area that resembles the old marsh lands of a century earlier, but soon to be a major International sporting center.


In 13th 2006 'WESTFIELD GROUP' the new stratford shopping center became the world's largest shopping center giving local people and tourist the vibe of the new stratford city modernization. 

Local voices

As a result of London winning the bid for the 2012 Olympics many promises were made, one of those promises was a rise in jobs especially in the borough of Newham. As you may or may not know, Newham is one of the poorest boroughs in the country and has been said to have one of the highest rates for youth unemployment. A study before London won the bid found that Newham is amongst the poorest boroughs in London. Poverty intensity in Newham is high. One in five people in Newham lived in households with below 30% of the national median household income compared with one in 16 in London and one in 25 in Britain. Crucially this study found that Newham was ranked 24^th for employment deprivation in England and second in London behind Lambeth. Well known politician Jack Straw told the House of Commons in the lead up to the 2012 games that “the games will transform one of the poorest and most deprived areas of London. They will create thousands of new jobs and homes. They will offer new opportunities for business in the immediate area and throughout London.” To see if this was actually the case and whether the games made good on promises such as Jack Straw I conducted an interview with a local university student James Mungai on his thoughts on the situation.

Interview with former Olympic employee James Mungai

How did you come across the opportunity to work for the Olympics?

“A couple months before the Olympics I was unemployed and couldn’t find a job my money was really low and I remember watching the news one night hearing there would be a lot of jobs going to help set up for the Olympics so I thought why not apply and thankfully I got the job soon as. After about a year out of work this was my first real job and to be honest the pay was better than I first thought. I’m originally from East Ham so Stratford is just a bus ride away I never would have thought growing up as a kid that the Olympics would take place in my area so any way that I could get involved I was going to jump at the chance, I guess you can say I helped create history” (laughs)

What did the job involve?

“It was mainly a lot of manual labour really; lots of lifting and stuff, working to get the venue sorted and a lot of the work were centred on the opening ceremony. There was a lot of overtime as well which you don’t get at most jobs so that really helped me out as well as I was trying to save up for a car. Seeing the opening ceremony live knowing that you helped create the set for it was really cool.”

What are some of the things you’ll take away from this experience?

I got the chance to get involved with the biggest event in the entire world that’s something you can tell the kids (laughs) As I worked most of the Olympic nights I got to see a lot of the events for free which was really really cool as I’m a big sports fan. I got to see a lot of my sporting heroes, as I am originally from Kenya seeing David Rudisha break the world record in the 800m was really special. I also got to see the legend that is Usain Bolt and was even lucky enough to get a picture with Mo Farah (as seen above)

Have you noticed any changes in Newham since the Olympics?

Yeah a massive one to be honest, a lot of money has been invested into the borough as a result of us getting the bid. Growing up in the borough there wasn’t much to do so I guess that’s why kids were resorting to crime but now there’s so many things to do it can keep them pre occupied. Stuff such as the new Westfield being built has helped out our image we’re seen as a more culturally vibrant place now as opposed to just being the ghetto.