Video gallery

Big Blue Fence - ‘The Linford Road Story’

Memories of an extended East-End family from 1940 - 1966. Linford Road was a street off Wood Street in Walthamstow that was lost after the area was redeveloped in 1966. The Hiron family was bombed out of Stepney during the blitz and came to live in Linford Road in 1940, along with many other members of their extended, close-knit family. In total, 39 family members lived as neighbours across 10 different addresses on the road. Here, Rose Bennett, her son Eric, and her niece Rose Shirley talk about their unique family life during and after the war. Rose Bennett died on 8th January 2010. We are grateful that her family are happy for her story to be heard here as an precious record of an East End life. Recorded and edited by Penny Cliff in December 2009 as part of the Big Blue Fence Project in Waltham Forest.