The Fryent Country Park Story - Part 4

The fourth in a series of guest posts by local historian Philip Grant

 

Welcome back, to our wander through the history of one of Brent’s best open spaces. If you missed the previous instalment, please “click” on Part 3 (which has “links” to Parts 1 and 2).

 

1. A view across the fields at haymaking time, with Kingsbury and Stanmore Common beyond.

The story so far has brought us up to the early 20^th century. The hay trade, which had been the main source of income for Kingsbury’s farmers, was declining by this time. In part, this was due to the import of cheaper foreign hay, but the introduction of motor vehicles was also having an increasing impact. New uses had to be found for many of the local pastures. Some, like Fryent Farm, had switched to keeping dairy cattle. 

George Withers, at Little Bush Farm, had become a breeder of, and dealer in, polo ponies. You might not imagine our area as a centre for playing polo, but in the early 1900s there were at least two local polo grounds. The Kingsbury Polo Club occupied land that is now the site of Roe Green Village, and part of Roe Green Park. There was also a polo ground, with stables and fields for the ponies, centred where Greenhill Way now stands (which is why the road across this hill is called The Paddocks!). The First World War put an end to the polo clubs, after their ponies were requisitioned by the army in 1915.

 

2. Little Bush Farm, in a postcard from c.1920.  

(Courtesy of the late Geoffrey Hewlett)

After the war, the spread of suburban housing would bring about greater changes. When Wembley Park was chosen, in 1921, as the site for the British Empire Exhibition, Blackbird Hill, Church Lane and Forty Lane were all converted from narrow country byways to wide modern roads, to make the exhibition easier to reach. This better access to the area also attracted property developers. In 1923, Wembley Golf Course was purchased by Haymills Ltd, who were soon building streets of detached homes on the southern slopes of Barn Hill.

 

3. The cover of the 1922 "Metro-Land" booklet.  

(Wembley History Society Collection at Brent Archives)

Around 27 million visitors came to the British Empire Exhibition in 1924/25. Many were attracted by the pleasant countryside, close to London. The Metropolitan Railway was already promoting the districts along its line as “Metro-Land”, a healthy place to live, from which the man of the house could commute “to town”. Wembley Council could see the danger of overdevelopment, and in 1927 purchased 50 acres at the top of the hill from Haymills, to be Barn Hill Open Space.

In 1929, the Metropolitan Railway announced that it would build a branch line from Wembley Park. Construction began on this Stanmore Line in January 1931 [“click” on the link for full details]. The route curved around Barn Hill and through Uxendon Farm, which had already been demolished to make way for it, on its way to Kingsbury.

 

4. Uxendon Farm, about to be demolished in 1929.

 (Brent Archives online image 0498)

Haymills had already purchased more land, to the north of the hill, from Preston Farm. These were the fields known as Upper and Lower Hydes, and Bugbeards – the latter may seem an odd title, but this field name was first recorded in the 15^th century, and a document from 1642 lists five men in Harrow Parish with the surname Bugbeard! In 1934, Haymills stopped building in the area, and sold their undeveloped land to George Wimpey & Co. 

On the Kingsbury side of our future country park, Masons Field in Old Kenton Lane had been sold to the London General Omnibus Company in 1927, for a sports ground. Just along the lane, another field beside the Junior Mixed and Infants’ School (now Kingsbury Green) was acquired by Kingsbury Council as a recreation ground. Little Bush Farm had closed by 1930, while Hill Farm had become a horse-riding establishment, the Premier School of Equitation.

5. Hill Farm and its pond, in Salmon Street, c.1920.  

(Brent Archives online image 0480)

Having established the Barn Hill Open Space, Wembley’s Parks Committee had to make sure it was looked after. In March 1935, a report from the Council’s Surveyor referred to an annual loss of “decayed and rotting trees”, and suggested a regular programme of tree planting. One of his proposed schemes for Barn Hill was to ‘plant approximately 4 dozen Lombardy Poplars in the form of an avenue leading from the top of the hill to the gate on the east side adjoining Town Planning Road No.17 (Kingsbury).’ Some of those poplars are still a skyline feature.

 

6. Part of the Kingsbury U.D.C. 1926 Town Planning Scheme map. 

 (With thanks to Gareth Davies)

Proposed future main roads were something that local Councils had to include in the town planning schemes the government asked them to prepare in the 1920s. Kingsbury had been a separate Council area, until it became part of Wembley Urban District in 1934. Its T.P. Road No.17 was built in 1934/35, and named Fryent Way. Another of the new roads included in the 1926 scheme would have run from Slough Lane, by Bush Farm, to Fryent Way, and the kerb stones for that junction are still in place, just south of Valley Drive! All of the land between the Stanmore Line and Salmon Street was zoned for future housing development.

 

7. Bush Farm in a postcard from c.1930. (Brent Archives online image 0479)      

By the end of 1935, Wimpeys already had a planning application approved to build two new streets, with 362 houses, between Uxendon Hill and Fryent Way. As the map extract below shows, housing development was also spreading northwards on the other side of Barn Hill. Salmon Estates Ltd had put in an outline application to build homes at 8 per acre, on all the land beyond Salmon Street zoned for housing. Then, in January 1936, they submitted detailed plans for houses on both sides of Fryent Way, north from the junction with The Paddocks.

8. Extract from the 1935 O.S. map, showing Salmon Street and the Hill Farm land due for development.

The rapid spread of suburban housing around London had given rise to the idea of a “Green Belt”. In 1934, Parliament gave Middlesex County Council powers to acquire land for this purpose, and during the following year it worked out, with local councils, how such purchases could be financed. The area which is now our country park was identified as land suitable for such a scheme.

In early 1936, the County Council put a compulsory purchase order on the Wimpey’s land north of Barn Hill. There was a court battle over how much compensation the developer should receive. When this was settled in 1938, Wembley Council contributed 25% of the cost, and the fields were added to its Barn Hill Open Space, with some used as sports grounds.

In March 1936, Wembley’s Planning Committee “disapproved” the Salmon Estates planning applications, on the grounds that the land was now reserved for open space purposes. Again, it was 1938 before the purchase of the fields in Kingsbury Parish from All Souls College was finalised, and they became Middlesex C.C.’s Fryent Way Regional Open Space. As part of the Council’s policy, the existing farm tenancies on the land were allowed to continue.

You may think that this is the end of the story, and that things have stayed the same on our open space since the late 1930s. However, there will be more to discover next weekend, if you wish to!

Philip Grant

LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 1

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 2

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 3

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 4

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 5

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 6

History of Fryent Country Park – Bunker Special

We saved the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre - now help conserve its habitats this Sunday

The Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre, loved by generations of Brent children, was saved from closure when Thames 21 took over its running.

The extensive grounds need regular conservation to maximise habitat provision and volunteers are needed this Sunday, August 21st, 10am - 2pm to work on forming glades.

The extensive woodlands around the Centre (red circle)

This is the notice from Thames 21

INTERESTED IN CONSERVATION? Be part of a new Friends of the Welsh Harp group at this first Conservation Day.

This exciting new group will support the activities of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre and you will learn how to manage the habitats in the area.

All welcome. Under 16’s need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.   Please bring a packed lunch.  Meeting location will be at the Education Centre.

We are going to be continuing forming glades as we did during the first successful event. Thank you to all of those who made that event a success! A glade is an open area within a woodland. A lot of the glades around the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre are choked with ivy, as a consequence, biodiversity is not as high as it could be at ground level within the woodland.

If the temperature is a lot cooler, we may tackle some small blackthorn trees intruding on an area which should be wild grassland.

The Centre is at the end of Birchen Grove, off Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury, NW9 8RY Go through the large green gates and it is on the left past the allotments. Buses 182, 245 and 297 to Blackbird Hill get off at Lidl/McDonalds.  83 bus get off at Tudor Gardens.

A very unpleasant Lidl surprise for local customer

A Chalkhill resident has complained to Lidl customer services after what he claims was an unjust and humiliating experience at the supermarket’s branch in Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury.

A very unpleasant surprise.

Early on Monday morning a  member of staff approached A and accused him of shoplifting. No attempt was made to search A or say what evidence existed to prove the allegation.  The incident took place in front of the public and a checkout assistant joined in saying that A was ‘always shoplifting’ although there had been no previous incident or allegation against A who is a regular customer.

The incident caused A great distress and brought on a fit of nervous tremors in the store. He says that a proper process should have been followed in which the police would be called and video tape or witness statements sought and his person searched before a charge was brought.  This would have given him the opportunity to defend himself.

Instead he was addressed in what he says was ‘ a very aggressive and arrogant manner’ and told that he had been shoplifting and must leave the store or the police would be called.

A, who says he feels a ‘strong sense of injustice’, wants local people to be warned by what happened to him and is seeking an apology from Lidl.

Lidl Press Office have not responded to a request for their reaction.

Digging up Kingsbury’s secrets at Blackbird Hill

My Aunt Muriel was a farm labourer at different farms around Kingsbury and Edgware so I am pleased to publish this Guest Blog by local historian Philip Grant about a dig at Blackbird Hill Farm just around the corner from where she used to live.

 We still need to save Brent's remaining farm building at Old Oxgate Farm in recognition of  Brent's agricultural past.

 

Blackbird Farm House c1880  (Brent Archives)

Planners are often criticised for the developments they allow to be built, but sometimes they deserve some praise. For two weeks from Monday 9 September, behind the blue hoardings opposite the Lidl supermarket on Blackbird Hill, archaeologists from UCL will be working to uncover clues from the past of a historic site. A block of flats will be built soon where the “Blarney Stone” (formerly “The Blackbirds”) public house stood, but for hundreds of years before the pub was built in the 1950’s, there was a farm here.

When the controversial planning application to redevelop the pub was submitted in 2010, Brent’s planning officers identified that this was a site with archaeological potential. A desk-based assessment of this potential was required as part of the application documents, and after representations were made on behalf of both Brent Museum and Wembley History Society, officers recommended that a proper excavation should be carried out on the part of the site before the new development could go ahead.

Blackbird Farm was only an old farm, so why is this excavation so important? In 1952, an old “mansion” opposite Kingsbury Green was demolished to make way for blocks of Wembley Council flats (Mead Court). After the bulldozers had cleared the site, bits of old pottery, some medieval and two large fragments of Roman amphorae, were found in the heaps of earth. Had they been buried for up to 1,900 years, or were they items collected only a century or two before by a previous occupant of the property? It was too late to find out, and a key opportunity to learn more about our distant past was lost.

There were farm buildings on the “Blackbirds” site from at least the sixteenth century, and there may be even older material buried here which could tell us about the lives of Kingsbury’s earliest inhabitants. Blackbird Hill was part of a track which was known as “Eldestrete” (the old road) in Saxon times. When the nearby St Andrew’s Old Church was built around AD1100, rubble from the Roman period was used in its walls, so there may have been a building in this area nearly two thousand years ago.

An extract from the 1597 Hovenden Map, showing the farm, then called Findens and the surrounding area (note that north is on  the right hand side, not at the top).(Source and copyright: The Codrington Library, All Souls’ College, Oxford) 

 Although part of the farmyard site was destroyed when the pub was built, there is an area close to Old Church Lane which is relatively undisturbed, and that is where the archaeologists will be excavating. There is no guarantee that they will discover anything of significance, but this is the last chance to find whatever is there before an underground car park is constructed for the flats. 

Whatever is found, properly identified and interpreted, will help to fill gaps in our knowledge of local history.

Wembley History Society and Brent Archives had hoped to arrange with the archaeologists for an open afternoon, when local people could come and see the “dig” for themselves. Unfortunately this has not proved possible, as this is an active construction site, with other contractors at work, so the developer will not allow public access for safety reasons. We will make sure, however, that any information about what is found is made publicly available, so that the efforts of local planning officers and heritage enthusiasts to bring about this excavation are not wasted.

You can discover more about the history of the Blackbird Farm site in an illustrated article from the Brent Archives online local history resources collection HERE