The museum is located in the old Ind Coope Brewery on the High Street. For some of the ladies, the brewery brought back many memories from smells of the hobs to family members working there. We were greeted by Monica and a team of volunteers who help to run the museum.
Monica guided us through the musuem with tales of how it took 40 years for Havering to get a museum and the many stories linked to the borough. The museum is well laid out in pods which focus on different areas of the borough. We learnt about the many royal connections of Havering-atte-Bower and how Colonel Blood of Romford stole the Crown Jewels but managed to charm his way out of a sentence and was pardoned by Charles II. We learnt about the brewery's history and how rumour has it that barrels used to be smuggled on the barges along the river to Gallows Corner. Interestingly, the river runs under the main street in Romford and still floods the store rooms of the shops. We learnt about the history of Romford Market and the many archeological finds in the area. We particularly enjoyed the memories that are recorded by residents from the past.
Afterwards, the amazing team of volunteers set up tea and cake for us in the museum and brought us behind the scenes to see where the historical artefacts are kept. We learnt about keeping the store at a constant temperature and the need to be vigiliant with bugs around the artefacts.
http://www.haveringmuseum.org.uk/
