The farm was half a mile east of the River Lea and a shorter distance west of the Dagenham Brook.

Lea Bridge Farm had originally been called Black Marsh Farm. The River Lea floodplain was fertile but difficult to cross. A local archaeological report identified ’very dark grey sandy clay’. There were two ancient routes - the Black Path and another track from Marsh Lane, used by commoners sending cattle to the marsh Lammas lands for summer grazing.

A third track, the forerunner of the turnpike, reached Black Bridge over Dagenham Brook, near to the later site of the Hare and Hounds Pub.

When the Lea Bridge turnpike road across Leyton Mars...

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Source: Waltham Forest Echo