Dr Barnardos At Gwynne House

A Memory of Woodford Bridge.

My Grandfather spent some time here in the early 1900s as a Barnardos boy put in care from Highbury via Dr Barnardos in Mile End in London, he stayed here until he was old enough to be moved on to a naval college in Norfolk in order to train for the Royal Navy. He had a hard childhood. When he went up to Norfolk he got so hungry he had to eat raw swedes and turnips growing in the fields. In order to teach the boys to swim they threw them in the sea - sink or swim.

I read that this house is so named because this was actually the house of Nell Gwynne, famous actress and famous for her "oranges", one of King Charles' lady loves. It had quite extensive grounds but in the latter part of the 20th Century they were carved up and built over.