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of Brentford |
some six miles west rom Hyde Park Corner. It derives its name
from its situation on the river Brent, which here falls into the
Thames, and also unites with the Grand Junction Canal It has
a station on the Southern Railway (L & S W section) and one on
the Great Western Railway, called Brentford Bridge Station, which
is close to Brent Bridge on the west of the town, and the District
Railway also has a station at Boston road on the Hounslow section
of its system. Kew Bridge Station, on the North London section of
the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, is on the eastern edge
of the town As Brentford is also on one of the principal main roads
leading out of London it can claim to have considerable advantages in
the matter of road, rail and water communications. Brentford has
been the county town for elections since 1701, and now gives its
name to the Brentford and Chiswick parliamentary division of the
county of Middlesex. It is also the head of a petty sessional
division and county court district, and is within the jurisdiction
of the Metropolitan Police and for ecclesiastical purposes is in
the rural deanery of Eating, the archdeaconry of Middlesex and the
diocese of London
The town consists mainly of one street, a mile and a quarter long,
which runs parallel with the river Thames, and is bounded on the west
by the Brent Bridge and on the east by Chiswick and Turnham Green.
The scenery of the river at this point is agreeably diversined by the
wooded island called Brentford Eyot, a long, narrow piece of waste
land, which is more or less thickly overgrown Kew Bridge gives access
to Surrey.
Opposite Kcw Bridge is a handsome drinking fountain, which was opened
by the late Duchess of Teck in 1879
Brentford can claim to be connected with more than one important event
in English history Edmund Ironside defeated the Danes here in 1016, when
many of the Saxons perished in the Thames, he was himself treacherously
slain a few days later, according to local tradition near the spot which
in later times became the site of the Red Lion Inn: in 1445 a Chapter of
the Order of the Garter was held at the Lion Inn, when Henry VI. created
two knights. On the 12th November, 1642, the Parliamentary forces under
Colonel Hollis were defeated by Prince Rupert in the streets of Brentford,
and John Lilburne, the Puritan, was taken prisoner.
More than one member of the peerage has taken his title from Brentford.
Patrick Ruthven, Lord Ruthven of Ettrick and Earl of Forth, was created
Earl of Brentford on the 27th of May, 1644, for his services in the engagement
at Brentford above referred to, in which he contributed much to the success of
the Royalist forces, he died at Dundee in 1651, at an advanced age, and all his
honours then expired. Subsequently, on the 9th March, 1689, William III.
conferred the same title on Marshal Frederic Schomberg, afterwards Duke of
Schomberg, but the title again became extinct on the death of the 3rd duke
in 1719.
As the chief town in Middlesex, Brentford is frequently mentioned in Latin
records as the capital of England. Many references to it are also to be found
in English literature, notably in Thackeray and Cowpcr, and Shakespeare, in
" The Merry Wives of Windsor," makes Falstaff disguise himself as "A Fat Woman
of Brentford". Thomson calls it a "town of mud" and Gay notices its "dirty streets",
to which Johnson and Goldsmith also allude. Samuel Pepys appears to have been
a visitor to the town in 1665-9, at about which date the town, and especially
the Inn of the Three Pigeons, was a popular resort with the citizens of London.
The remains of elephants, hippopotami and several species of deer have been
found in the neighbourhood and specimens of early stone implements and bronze
and iron weapons have also been met with.
Near Brentford, but in the parish of Isleworth, is Syon House, the magnificent
seat of the Duke of Northumberland C.B.E., M.V.O., J.P. which was granted by
Queen Elizabeth 1, together with the manor of Isleworth, to Henry Percy, 9th Earl
of Northumberland K.G. and has descended through heiresses to the present family.
The house stands on the site of the Bridgetine Convent of St. Saviour, St. Mary
and St. Bride, which was founded in 1415 by Henry V., the dedication stone being
laid by him in February, 1416. The foundation consisted of 60 nuns, 13 priests,
4 deacons and various other inmates of both sexes. Thomas Stanley, 2nd Earl of
Derby, was buried in this monastery in 1522 ; in 1532 it was suppressed, its
revenues then being estimated at a sum equivalent in the present day to about
£20,000. Agnes Jordan, the last abbess, was buried in 1545, at Denham, Bucks.
In 1547 the body of Henry VIII. was rested here on its way to Windsor Castle,
and in 1541 Katherine Howard was detained here previous to her trial and
execution. Edward VI. gave it to the Lord Protector Somerset, on whose attainder,
and subsequently that of the Duke of Northumberland, it reverted to the Crown,
when Queen Mary restored those nuns who survived and were unmarried; but
Queen Elizabeth suppressed the nunnery a second time and granted it to the
9th Earl of Northumberland. Thereupon, in 1594, the society transferred itself
to Portugal and founded a new house on the banks of the Tagus, at Lisbon, where
the nunnery still remains, although in 1861 the 12 English nuns of the community
were received into a modern establishment at Spettisbury in Dorsetshire.
Algernon Percy, l0th Earl of Northumberland K.G. thoroughly restored the structure,
the work being carried out, it is said, under the direction of Inigo Jones : in
1665 Charles II. held his council here, on account of the Great Plague, and in
1692 the mansion was the residence of the Princess of Denmark (afterwards Queen Anne)
William IV. visited it July 3ist. 1832, and again in June, 1833, when he was
accompanied by Queen Adelaide. Syon House, as now existing, is much the same as it
was left by the Protector Somerset, and forms a stately quadrangular pile, three
storeys in height, with embattled parapets and square battlemented towers at the
angles, the whole being faced with Bath stone, and enclosing a garden court about
80 feet square ; the principal front has a colonnade extending along the lower storey
and in the centre a projecting bay rising to the full height of the house and forming
the entrance. The great hall is a spacious apartment, 66 feet by 31 feet, paved with
black and white marble and richly ceiled in stucco : adjoining the hall is a fine
vestibule, 34 feet by 30 feet, supported by twelve columns of "verde antique" marble:
in the dining room, 62 feet by 21 feet, are many family portraits by Reynolds and
Lawrence, and other rooms contain examples of Vandyke, Leiy and Kneller, some Dutch
and Flemish paintings by Van Eyck and others, one of which, "The Raising of Lazarus"
is especially curious; there is also a portrait by Albert Durer and works by other
early German masters : a gallery, 134 feet by 14 feet, extends along the whole river
front and contains many objects of art: in the centre of this front, on a raised
pedestal, is now placed the famous lion which for so many years surmounted the front
of Northumberland House at Charing Cross, which was pulled down in 1874. The mansion
is surrounded by extensive pleasure grounds, 75 acres in extent and partly skirting
the Thames; they were laid out by Lancelot ("Capability") Brown and contain some
very ancient mulberry trees, one of which bears the date 1546, and a double avenue
of limes, fine cedars and groups of cypress and acacia: the 5th Duke of Northumberland
entirely remodelled the grounds, constructing an artificial rockery for the cultivation
of Alpine plants, and built, from a design of Mr. Richard Forrest, a great range of
plant houses, 400 feet in length, with a central dome 65 feet high : in the kitchen
garden, covering about four acres, are fruit houses of equal size, and, speaking generally,
the gardens of Syon may be regarded as among the finest in the kingdom.
Boston House, formerly the seat of Colonel John Bourchier Stracey - Clitherow C.B.F.,
D.L., J.P. with grounds of thirty-six acres, partly bounded by the river Brent, was
purchased by the Brentford Urban District Council and opened to the public on
September 11th, 1924.
Brentford contains two civil parishes, New Brentford having been formed from Hanwell
and Old Brentford from Ealing. The district was formerly under the control of a Local
Board which was established in 1874, but it is now governed under the provisions of
the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73), by an Urban District Council.
By Local Government Board Order No. P.379, dated the 2ist May, 1885, the boundaries of
the district were altered by an interchange with the Ealing Urban District. By Local
Government Board Order No. 31108, dated the 25th June, 1894, part of the Urban District
of Acton was transferred to the Urban District of Brentford, and part of the Urban
District of Brentford to that of Acton. By the Chiswick Urban District Council Act,
1911, which came into operation on April ist, 1912, part of Brentford Urban District
and Old Brentford Civil Parish was transferred to Chiswick Urban District and Civil
Parish, and included in the Grove Park Ward of Chiswick.
For ecclesiastical purposes Brentford is divided into the four following parishes:
St. George's and St. Paul's, Old Brentford, which were formed from Ealing Parish;
St. Lawrence's, New Brentford, which was formed from Hanwell Parish, and St. Faith's,
which was foimed from St. Paul's. Old Brentford.
The church of St. George, High st. Old Brentford, which was originally erected about
1769, by members of the Trimmer family, was a plain rectangular structure of brick,
and was consecrated in 1828 as a church of a new ecclesiastical district, which was
formed on November i8th of that year, out of the parish of Ealing. In 1886 the old
church was pulled down and a new church of the same name erected at a cost of about
£7,ooo, which was consecrated in March, 1887. The new church is a building of Kentish
ragstone and brick, with Bath stone dressings, in the Decorated style. It was designed
by the late Sir A. W. Blomfield M.A., A.R.A., F.S.A. and consists of a chancel, with a
chapel, nave, aisles, south porch and an octagonal bell-tower with a peal of six bells
added in 1913 at a cost of about £1,000, through the generosity of the late Thomas
Layton esq. In the church is a painting of "The Last Supper" by Johann Zanffety R.A.
(Zoffany), which was presented by the artist about 1771. In 1920 an oak-screen was
placed in the nave as a war memorial, the cost, which was about £200, being raised by
public subscription: the King's and regimental colours of the Middlesex Regiment (Duke
of Cambridge's Own) hang in the chancel: the church also possesses a number of relics
of the Great War, 1914-18, including four German guns which were captured by the 8th
Battalion Middlesex Regiment and a drum which belonged to the 6th Battalion of the
regiment: the church has 700 sittings. The register dates from the year 1828. The
living is a vicarage, net yearly value £335, with 24 acres of glebe and a residence;
it is in the gift of the vicar of Ealing and has been held since 1895 by the Rev.
Thomas Selby Henrey, of Hatfield College, Durham.
St. George's Church Institute, Netley road west, has on the ground floor a parochial
library and a kitchen and on the second floor two large rooms, open every Wednesday
and friday night for clubs.
St. Paul's, Old Brentford, is an ecclesiastical parish which was formed on the i2th
July, 1864, from Eating parish. The church, which was erected in 1867-8, at a cost of
£7,000, is a structure in the Early Decorated style, consisting of a chancel, nave,
aisles, south porch and a tower at the south-west angle with a lofty spire and
containing a clock and two bells: the font, of alabasler and marble, on a Caen stone
base, has a canopy of carved oak, and was presented in 1890, in memory of Maria, wife
of the late Stephen Walker esq. of Park Lodge, Brentford: there are several stained
windows, all memorials, and a fine organ, procured at a cost of £1,000. In 1894 a
carved oak screen was presented by his children as a memorial to the late Stephen
Walker esq: the church affords 870 sittings. The register dates from the year 1868.
The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £340, with residence; it is in the gift
of the Bishop of London and has been held since 1921 by the Rev. Robert Beaty Dand.
St. Faith's is an ecclesiastical parish, formed by Order in Council from St.Paul's,
Old Brentford and Ealing, on the i3th August, 1907. The church, which was erected
at a cost of £8,150 and consecrated by the Bishop of London on the 13th July, 1907,
is a structure of red brick in the Gothic style, consisting of a chancel, nave,
aisles and side chapel and was the last completed work of the late G.F. Bodley esq.
R.A: a stained glass window was erected in the Lady chapel to the memory of those
connected with the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: it affords 600 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1907. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value
£290; it is in the gift of the Bishop of London, and has been held since 1912 by the
Rev. George William Tuohy M.A. of Oxford University. The church of St. Lawrence,
High St. New Brentford, which is near the bridge at the west end of the town, is a
very old church, which was rebuilt in 1764, but little of the original structure
remains now, with the exception of the tower. The present building consists of a
chancel, nave, aisles, side chapel and an embattled western tower, containing six
bells which were re-hung in 1902, and one of which is supposed to be amongst the
earliest bells cast in England. The interior of the church was restored in 1889
and a new vestry and parish room erected, and in 1913 the church was restored at
a cost of £313 and a side chapel added. Tn the church is a memorial to Maurice
de Berkeley, a benefactor of the church, who was buried here in 1189. A much defaced
brass, dated 1528, preserves the memory of Henry Redman and his wife Joan: there
is also an elaborate monument, with effigies kneeling at a faldstool, to John Midleton
and his wife, 1624; William Noy, Attorney-General in the reign of Charles I. and
originator of the famous tax called "ship money" who died on the 6th August, 1634,
was buried in the chancel; there is a monument by Flaxman to Dr. Ewin, d.1804; another
by Westmacot to James Clithcrow, d.1805, and others to the Clitherow and Hawtey
families. On the south side is a memorial window to the Rev. Francis Brooking Briggs
MA. vicar, 1856-88: in 1921 an oak screen was placed in the side chapel as a memorial
to those who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: there arc 600 sittings. The register
of burials dates from 1570, that of marriages from 1618, and that of baptisms from
1619. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £331, including glebe (£66) and
residence; it is in the gift of the rector of Hanwell, and has been held since 1911
by the Rev. Arthur Ernest Edwards m.a. of Queens' College, Cambridge. The vicarage
house was rebuilt in 1890.
The Roman Catholic church, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, in Boston Park road,
was built in 1866 and seats 300 persons: in 1921: an oak altar and two marble tablets
were put up in memory of those connected with the church who fell in the Great War;
their names are inscribed on the tablets: the organ has been rebuilt and the interior
re-decorated.
There are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels and a Congregational chapel, founded
in 1781, with 350 sittings: the Wesleyan chapel, Windmill road, erected n 1889 at a cost
of about £6,000, is a building of Kentish rag, in the Gothic style and will seat 1,100
persons: in 1922 an alabaster and stone tablet was erected in memory of those who gave
their lives in the Great War. In 1903 large Sunday schools for 500 children were built
at a cost of £5,000.
In Old Brentford is the Vestry Hall. In Brentford is the Police Court and the Weights
and Measures Office, which form one building, and which is known as the Police Court.
The Vestry Hall, in Halfacre, which was erected in 1899, at a cost of £8,000, is a
structure of red brick with terra-cotta facings and contains offices and board rooms,
which are used for parish purposes and for the sittings of the County Court.
The Public Library, which was established on January i6th, 1890, in a temporary
building, was subsequently transferred to a new building which was opened by Andrew
Carnegie esq. on the 9th May, 1904. It contains over 25,000 volumes, including a
reference department, with a collection of local books, photographs and maps relating
to the town and district. The Museum, which contains much that will appeal to those
who are interested in the history of Middlesex in general and of Brentford in particular,
is open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. except on Tuesdays, when it is only
open from 10 a.m. to i p.m. and 5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Amongst the most interesting features
of the Museum are the Crooke collection of prehistoric stone implements and the Layton
antiquities which are almost unique in extent and character. The Layton collection
comprises, amongst other things, 12,135 volumes.
The Urban District Isolation Hospital, Clayponds lane, was erected in 1891 at a cost of
£2,900, and will hold 48 patients.
The market day is on Tuesday and fairs are held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of May and
the 12th, 13th and 14th of September.
A garden produce wholesale market was established at Kew bridge in 1893 at a cost of
£8,000 and an additional covered market was erected in 1905-6 at a cost of about
£45,000: farther land for extension was acquired in 1921 and the total capital expenditure
to date is £83,928.
The town is supplied with water by the Metro politan Water Board, from its pumping
station at Hampton. At the entrance of the town as it is approached from Chiswick
is a chimney which was erected by the Grand Junction Water Works, whose successors
at the present day are the Metropolitan Water Board. This chimney is nearly 150 feet
in height and has upwards of 120 iron circular steps fixed in the brickwork: there
are eight engines, by which, when they are working together, 12,000,000 gallons of
water are propelled daily to the Board's main at Paddington. The town is lighted
with gas by the Brentford Gas Company, which was formed in 1821 and has its works
here. In 1922 the Gas Company erected a bronze tablet on a granite base in the wall
of the gas works in the High street as a memorial to the members of their staff who
fell in the Great War, 1914-18.
The Brentford Drainage and Sewage Works, which were established by the old Local
Board, were completed in 1884, at a cost of about £30,000, from plans by Messrs.
Gotto and Beasley, of Westminster. The sewage is pumped from a collecting well in
the Town Meadow to the sewage tanks in Ealing road, a distance of more than one
mile, where it is deodorized and precipitated, and then flows over filtering beds.
the effluent water being discharged into the river Thames by a culvert carried along
Claypond lane. The process of drying the sludge is effected by means of filter presses,
constructed at a cost, including buildings, of about £5.000.
The area of New Brentford is 206 acres of land, 12 of water, 2 of tidal water and 1
of foreshore; rateable value, £15,148 The area of Old Brentford is 861 acres of land,
12 of inland and 10 of tidal water and 14 of foreshore; rateable value, £123,659.
The population of the town of Brentford in 1921
was as follows:
New Brentford .............. 1,889
Old Brentford ............. 15,143
Total ................ 17,032
Brentford used to have approx 50 public houses
along the High Street
If you click over to Frank Ovens Page--Frank Ovens Home page
A couple of interesting pieces from my Sister-in-Law - Janis Biddle nee Holland
on the barges. It is called How Canals built Town. The canals have been an important part
of history for 200 years. The canal-building boom of the late 18th century saw the town became
the ending point of the Grand Junction Canal, linking the Thames with the Midlands. Part of the
Grand Junction Canal from near Brentford to the town of Uxbridge was opened on the 3rd instant
for coals and all sorts of merchandise to be navigated there on; comprising upwards of 12 miles
of this great undertaking. "The opening of this part of the canal was celebrated by a variety
of mercantile persons of Brentford, Uxbridge and Rickmansworth and their vicinities forming a
large party attended by a band of music, with flags and streamers and several pieces of cannon,
in a pleasure boat belonging to the Corporation of the City of London, preceding several barges
laden with timber, coals and other merchandise to Uxbridge". Within five years, the main traffic
on the canal was coal, grain,flour and ashes. The Grand Junction, now part the Grand Union Canal
utilises the River Brent which was upgraded for navigation below the Hanwell Flight of Locks. Two
loops were replaced by cuts and locks on the west side of the river above Brentford and in
Brentford itself the river flows in a loop to the east of the dock. Brentford Basin became
extremely busy and the canopied warehouse on the towpath side remains. Just above Brentford
Gauging Lock, the towpath crosses a swing-bridge over the entrance to the Fellows, Morton &
Clayton basin known as Joshua's Hole. At the gauging lock, the weight and type of cargo carried
by craft was calculated and an appropriate fee charged. From here the canal continues on the
river to Thames Lock. A terminable flood during Jan 14th and 15th 1841 led to serious damage
and loss of life. It followed the sudden thawing of the river, which had been frozen for two
months, trapping upwards of two dozen narrowboats moored at Brentford. The boats were finally
making their preparations to return home when the flood struck, later found to be have been caused
by the bursting of the dam at the Walsh Harp reservoir, the feeder for the Regent's Canal. Near
where the Grand Union meets the Thames but not connected with the canal system - is Brentford
Dock built in 1859 as the terminus of Brunel's Great Western and Brentford Railway branch. It
had extensive coal wharves and provided an interchange between GWR and the Thames. The dock
closed in 1964 and the housing development was built in 1970s. Brentford Lock and Depot were
used to transfer freight between Thames barges and canal narrow boats up until the 1960s. The
extreme winter conditions of 1962-3 froze many of the country's canals, however, and dealt the
traditional canal trade a blow from which it never fully recovered. British Waterways continued
to operate three pairs of narrowboats between Brentford and the Rose's lime juice factory in
Hemel Hempstead until 1972. The depot itself survived as a storage and transfer station moving
freight off the Thames and onto lorries. But by the 1980s even this trade had all but dried up
as docks across the capitol closed down and Brentford Depot fell into decline.
I hope this is some interest to your page as it has brought back many memories of my dad working
on the barges.
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