A look back at the biggest local stories from this day 20, 40 and 60 years ago.

1957:

Rumours that Harold Hill Community Association has irregular accounts and a report that Romford Council was going to sue for non-payment of rates were entirely untrue, the association’s chairman Mr E. G. Keighley told the Recorder.

“Financial irregularity is the first thing that springs to people’s minds when they hear an organisation has not paid rates”, he said.

“But there has been no irregularity so far as I know.

“We are not being sued.

“The borough treasurer, who is auditing our accounts, would soon have told us of irregularities.”

Mr Keighley thought the accounts had not been returned through an administrative oversight at the town hall.

But the accounts were not with Romford’s borough treasurer, they had not been audited by him, according to a Romford Council spokesman.

When Mr Keighley heard this, he was surprised.

“We haven’t got them either, I thought the borough treasurer had them. I will take it up with him.”

1977:

Heroine Maria Marshall brought a workman back to life when his heart stopped beating after he fell 40ft from a factory roof.

Quick-thinking Mrs Marshall, a nurse, of Junction Road, Romford, managed to revive the fall victim by massaging his heart and giving him oxygen.

The man, scaffolder David Bickell, 32, was then taken to the Neuro Surgical Unit at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, where he was “improving”.

The life and death drama happened at Plessey’s factory in Ilford, where Mrs Marshall,, 33, is a senior nursing officer.

Mr Bickell, of Hackney, fell from a three-storey building, landing only feet away from the factory medical unit.

Nurse Marshall raced outside to help.

She said: “I was only doing my job.”

1997:

A boy who died after apparently tripping over into the path of a car in busy Hornchurch Road, was being chased by a gang of thugs, his grief-stricken friends claimed.

But Romford police said although there were suggestions some older youths were chasing 13-year-old Daniel Hennessy, “no criminal offence was disclosed” after their investigation/

The tragedy happened at around 9pm on a Saturday.

Police say Daniel, from Hornchurch, suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to Oldchurch Hospital, Romford.

He was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived.

Daniel’s friends blamed a 30-strong gang with members aged 13 to 19, which, they said, had been terrorising youngsters for more than a year.

One friend said that Daniel, who went to Campion School, in Wingletye Lane, Hornchurch, was in Harrow Lodge Park when the gang approached.