WHAT is the connection between a lad born into a poor Jewish emigrant family from Poland and two of this borough's major supermarkets?

The answer can be found in Walthamstow author Dr Jim Lewis's newest book, London's Lea Valley: More Secrets Revealed.

The tale of Jacob Cohen is just one of a host of fascinating tales illustrating how the Lea Valley was a cradle for so many developments.

Cohen, born in Whitechapel in 1898, later moved with his family to Hackney where his father established himself as a jobbing tailor.

By the time he left school at 14, young Jacob had little to show for eight years in education and his prospects looked poor.

After a spell in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, he emerged with no work lined up. But his life was changing.

He used his demobilisation grant to hire a barrow, buy up unwanted food from the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) and set up stall in Hackney.

He soon had barrows in several east end markets.

In late 1924, Jacob (Jack) Cohen met TE Stockwell, a partner in a tea importing business, and arranged buy some his stock in bulk.

A brand name was established for the tea using the initials of his supplier and the first two letters of his own name TESCO.

The rest is history, though the leap from barrow boy to millionaire was not an instant one.

It was 1931 before Cohen bought his first conventional shop. By 1939, though, he had more than 100 trading under the name of Tesco.

After the Second World War, he took another leap of faith, setting up his first self-service store in a small shop in St Albans, Hertfordshire. It grew into a multi-million pound empire.

As Jim Lewis sums up: "Sir Jack Cohen died in 1979 after establishing a retail business that would change the shopping habits of the public forever.

"The name Tesco lives on as a fitting tribute to this entrepreneurial man, and the head office of the company he formed is located in the Lea Valley at Cheshunt, a few miles north of Well Street Market, where it all began with a demobilisation gratuity."

London's Lea Valley: More Secrets Revealed, is published by Phillimore and Co (£14.99).