Ardleigh Green


Ardleigh Green is an area of outer east London, England in the London Borough of Havering. It is centred east-northeast of Charing Cross. As with all parts of its borough, it is in the Historic County of Essex. This part of London is a strongly suburban and predominantly residential.

Amenities and natural geography

Ardleigh Green has a small set of shops and London Bus services to Hornchurch, Gidea Park and Romford. The area naturally drains to form the headwaters of a stream, The Ravensbourne which briefly flows, before joining the River Rom.

Toponymy

The place is an enlargement of a hamlet of Hornchurch, known only as Hardley Green in various orthographies until at least the early 17th century. With various hamlets, Hornchurch, Havering and Romford formed not a Hundred but a liberty, the Liberty of Havering. For many centuries the three old churches of these places remained of chapel and chapelry administrative status only, as the liberty matched the area of the ancient parish of Hornchurch, which provided a substantial living in the church.
The first written name Haddeleye and all later forms evidence a clear corruption or natural progression of an older form, meaning "heath clearing" or perhaps more specifically "clearing heather" from the Old English hæth and lēah. It was last referred to as "Hardley Green" in 1883, so appearing in that year's Ordnance Survey map.

Education

Ardleigh Green has a combined junior and primary school, as well as Havering College of Further and Higher Education.

Transport

The nearest railway stations are:
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