British History Online has this record of the various owners and residents: The manor of GIDEA HALL, from which the modern Gidea Park is named, laid north-east of Romford town; it was destroyed in 1930 In 1250/1251 the daughter of Simon of Gidea Hall (Gidiehulle) held two tenements in the manor of Havering, of 1 virgate and ¼ virgate respectively. Since these were large virgates her total holdings were probably about 150 acres Around 1355, Sir John of Havering held Gidea Hall, East House, in Romford, and other lands, comprising a total of 501 acres. The Gidea Hall section of this estate had previously belonged to John of Abbenach In 1376 Gidea Hall and East House were held by William Baldwin, saddler of London, to whom they had been granted by Robert of Havering Robert Chichele, a London merchant, and brother of Henry Chichele, later archbishop of Canterbury, was holding Gidea Hall in 1412. By then the estate also included the manor of Bedfords In 1441 it was held by Robert Saltmarsh and his wife Christine who sold it in 1452 to (Sir) Thomas Cooke (d. 1478), a London draper who was lord mayor in 1462. He also bought the manor of Bedfords and Earls in Havering, and that of Redden Court in Hornchurch. During an eventful career he was twice imprisoned, but he retained the estate, which descended in his family until the 17th century. The Cookes became the leading local gentry; notable among them was Sir Anthony Cooke (d. 1576), tutor to Edward VI and father-in-law of Lord Burghley [ source https://jaysteeleblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/giddy-hall/ ]