Do you know where the London borough of Redbridge gets its name from? Or that it was mentioned in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Or that school children in Redbridge are officially among the brightest in the country? Charlie Stong embarks on the great Redbridge fact hunt.

THIS week we have delved into the fact book to take a glance at Redbridge, its history and its residents.

The borough gains its name from a bridge over the River Roding. The bridge was made of red brick, unlike other bridges in the area which were originally made of white stone, but was demolished in the early 1920s to make way for Eastern Avenue.

Redbridge was mentioned in the first radio series of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but residents may be perturbed to know that this was only because it was home to Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, who according to Adams, was the worst poet in the universe.

But Redbridge residents can rest assured, the borough is these days more likely to home some of the country's finest poets if educational qualifications are anything to go by.

The borough ranks second in the country in terms of the number of GCSE students getting five or more A*-C grades in their exams.

Almost one in four Redbridge-ites are qualified to degree level, and 75 per cent of the population of the borough own their own homes.

In total there are 240,000 of us here, or, if you prefer, 42 people per hectare.

Three out of four of those people were born in England, with 60 per cent being white. The biggest ethnic minority groups are Indian (14 per cent) and Pakistani (six per cent). We are proud to be the ninth most diverse borough in the country.

A quarter of the suburban borough is made up of forests or parklands and it has 14 conservation areas.

Mayor Ken Livingstone will not be too pleased with us though, as almost half of us travel to work by car, with 39 per cent using public transport.

How the rest get to work is anyone's guess. In fact maybe many of them just do not bother. Five per cent of us are unemployed.

Surveys have shown that 70 per cent of us think we are in good health, while eight per cent think we are ill, classing ourselves as unhealthy.

In Redbridge there are 95,000 homes of which 40 per cent are terraced houses. The average price of a home here is £237,000. If you want a detached house it is likely to set you back £443,000, while a flat will cost you £179,000 on average.

In fact, Redbridge is an attractive place to live, with many celebrities and notables living here.

Jessie Wallace aka Kat Slater from EastEnders lives here, as does Transport and General Workers' Union leader Bob Crow. Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in the BBC comedy series Blackadder, went to school here, boxer Nigel Benn and EastEnders' Tamzin Outhwaite have also lived here and Jimmy Savile often DJd at the Ilford Palais in the 1950s.

Nick Berry and Letitia Dean, also from EastEnders, went to sixth form at Wanstead High School and Eva Hart, the last known survivor from the Titanic, lived here.

Johnny Weissmuller, who played the first Tarzan, practised his swimming in Valentines Park and there are even claims that the Small Faces' Itchicoo Park was based on Little Ilford Park in Manor Park.

Redbridge has also often been at the heart of British politics. War leader Winston Churchill was MP here and his seat is currently held by Iain Duncan Smith, another former leader of the Conservative Party.

And if you're interested, the Ordnance Survey grid reference for Redbridge is TQ425885.

l Do you know any interesting facts about Redbridge? If so, email cstong@ london.newsquest.co.uk.