The Preston Story- Part 2

The second part of a series of four by Chris Coates 

                                                                  

We left the end of Part 1 of the Preston Story in the 18^th century, with the landscape scarcely changing over the previous 500 years. In the early 19^th century, the population grew slowly – in Preston and Uxendon together there were 64 people in 1831 and 105 in 1841. Preston was still very much a rural area, but not a contented one.

Preston and its surrounding area, 1832. (Extract from the Environs of London Map, 1832)

The agricultural depression after the Napoleonic Wars caused problems for both farmers and their labourers. Following the Enclosure Acts 1803 and 1823, the continuing fencing off of common land by large landowners caused problems for tenant farmers. An ‘Anti-Inclosure Association’ distributed manifestos throughout Harrow Parish and there was a petition to Parliament in 1802 and fence breaking incidents locally in 1810. In 1828, when there was a further outbreak of violence in the area, Harrow’s only fire engine and six crew were called into action at Uxendon as desperate workers burnt haystacks and threatened local landowners. 

Unrest continued and in 1830 local workers were active in the Swing Riots, a widespread protest across South East England, which used arson and machine breaking against the increasing use of agricultural machinery and the subsequent unemployment and lower wages. The Uxbridge yeomanry cavalry and the militia were mobilized to shield London when rioting spread to the Harrow area at the end of November 1830.

Swing rioters (in Kent), 1830. (Image from the internet)

Tenant farmers called for a reduction in rents. Lord Northwick, who held the manor of Harrow with land bordering Preston, accused local farmer Thomas Trollope, the novelist’s father, of conspiracy and had his crops seized. Anthony Trollope described Lord Northwick as 'a cormorant who was eating us up'. Northwick received a threatening ‘Swing Letter’ demanding a reduction of rent and warning that “our emisaris shall and will do their work - you have ground the labouring man too long”. The 1834 Report of the Poor Law Commissioners showed wages of agricultural labourers in Harrow district to be around 10/- per week or £26 per annum “supposing work is available all year round - which for most it is not “.

Despite poor wages, the area continued to attract migrant labour. In 1841, there were 415 migrant haymakers, mainly from Ireland, living in barns and sheds in Harrow. The 1851 census clerk for Preston and Uxendon notes these conditions for in-house migrant workers: “All persons entered as lodgers are those only who occupy generally part of a bed, at the usual charge of 1/6 per week, including washing and attendance, with a seat by the evening fire”. Some seasonal workers settled down in Preston. In 1851, the Irish family occupying Forty Farm cottage had a child born there, and there are Irish and West Country domestic servants elsewhere.

Preston House and tea rooms, 1912. (Brent Archives online image 331)

 

Early in the century, Preston House was built on Preston Hill near four cottages recorded therre in 1817. The census shows Preston House was initially a ‘country residence’ leased to various professional men, including a corn merchant, a surgeon, a cigar importer and a solicitor. Around 1880, Preston House was acquired by George Timms (d. 1899), who turned the grounds into the Preston Tea Gardens.

An advertising card for the Preston Tea Gardens, c.1910. (Brent Archives online image 6864)

The Tea Gardens flourished well into the next century and the building survived until the 1960s when it was demolished for flats. By 1864, the four cottages were replaced by a pair of Victorian villas, now 356-358 Preston Road – the oldest surviving houses in Preston. They must have had a fantastic view over the surrounding countryside, to Harrow-on-the-Hill.

356 and 358 Preston Road. (Image from Google Streetview)

Further down Preston Hill, Hillside Farm was also hosting the 'Rose & Crown' beershop in 1851, run by the farmer’s wife, Sarah Walker, and her daughter. Hillside Farmhouse was also demolished in the 1960s, but Hillside Gardens recalls its location. Lyon Farm remained in the hands of tenant farmers with its profits going to the Harrow School that John Lyon founded [see Part 1]. The Uxendon Manor Estate had sold Preston Farm to the Bocket family some time before 1799 and it was held by various people until last farmed by the Kinch Family, after whom Kinch Grove is named, in the 20^th century. By 1820, the Wealdstone Brook at the bottom of the Hill had a ford and a footbridge, making the route to Kingsbury more accessible.

Farms at Preston in the 1890s. (Extract from a large-scale Ordnance Survey map)

At Uxendon Manor, life had settled down after the tumultuous events of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, with the Page family still owning the farm until 1829 when the land passed to Henry Young (d. 1869), the junior partner of the Page's solicitor - with some suspicion that he had obtained the lands fraudulently!  The original Manor House was demolished and a new farmhouse built just a little further north [now 18-20 Uxendon Hill]. The farm drive led west to a gated entrance lodge. In the 19^th century, this was the only building on Preston Road between Preston House at the top of the hill and Wembley Farm [built around 1805] at the junction with East Lane.

Forty Farm, with the farmer showing off one of his horses, c.1910. (Brent Archives online image 1205)

In 1850, the tenant farmer John Elmore made Uxendon a venue for steeplechases and was well known for its "sensational water jump”, while Forty Farm was famous for horses. By the 1880s, Forty Farm was also known as South Forty Farm because a new farm, North Forty Farm, had been built [now Newland Court on Forty Avenue]. Part of the fields on the southern slopes of the hill behind the farm became Wembley Golf Club in the 1890s – the course stretching up over Barn Hill pond.

I wonder how many golf balls were lost in there!

The Harrow-on-the-Hill cutting, London & Birmingham Railway, 1838. (Image from the internet)

It was the arrival of the railways which started the slow change of the area from countryside to suburbia. The world’s first main line - the London to Birmingham Railway, built by Robert Stephenson and opened 1837, carved its way through Harrow Parish and soon a network of railway lines crossed the district. Horse drawn buses ferried passengers from villages like Preston to Wembley station, known from 1882 as Wembley and Sudbury. The 1881 Census shows several railway workers - railway plate layers, clerks and train drivers – living in cottages along East Lane to what is now North Wembley Station. Some settled, but others moved on as the network grew.

An 1890s map showing how railways were shaping the Preston of today. (Extract from an O.S. map, c.1895)

In 1863, the first Underground railway opened. By the 1870s, it was expanding north-west from Baker Street via Willesden Green to reach Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1880. The construction of the Metropolitan Railway effectively destroyed Forty Green, although South Forty Farm continued into the 20th century. Further changes were underway – following the 1894 Local Government Act, Preston broke its historical connection with Harrow and became part of the newly formed Wembley Urban District. No longer ‘rural’ – at least officially. 

A Metropolitan Railway steam locomotive, early 1900s. (Image from the Wembley History Society Collection)

Towards the end of the century, and especially after the development of the Wembley Park pleasure grounds in the 1890s, the Preston area began to be seen as a pleasant location for other leisure activities. Uxendon became popular with shooting enthusiasts. By 1900, the Lancaster Shooting Club was established there and the celebrated Bond Street gunsmiths Holland & Holland had a shooting ground nearby. An Uxendon Shooting School was set up behind the rebuilt farmhouse, roughly where Alverstone Road is now, and had a 120 ft high tower for hurling targets. It survived until 1932 when the Metropolitan Line extension from Wembley Park to Stanmore cut across the land and housing development started on the site.

Uxendon Shooting Club, c.1910, showing the rebuilt farmhouse. (From the collection of the late Geoffrey Hewlett)

When the Olympic Games were held in London in July 1908, the ground was sufficiently important to be used for Olympic clay pigeon shooting competition. The shooting club, which was a two-mile walk from the nearest station, joined local residents in petitioning the Metropolitan Railway Company to open Preston Road Halt on the opposite side of Preston Road to the current station in May 1908. [A proposal for a station in 1896 was rejected because there were not enough residents]. 

Clay bird shooting competition at Uxendon, 1908 Olympic Games. (From the “Daily Mirror”, 7 July 1908)

The station’s status as a halt meant it was a request stop and initially many trains failed to slow down enough to enable the driver to notice passengers waiting on the platform. Eventually, the booking office clerk was instructed to wave a red flag from the platform when passengers turned up.

Houses on Preston Road, c.1920 [note the unmade road and gas street lamp!]. (Brent Archives online image 329)

Preston Road Halt triggered the first commuter development in the district. Several large Edwardian-style houses [a few of which survive] were built along Preston Road opposite the Avenue from 1910 to 1912, and the Harrow Golf Club opened just south of the station in 1912. The photograph below shows a view across what would become the Preston Park estate. The Clubhouse was demolished during the development of Grasmere Avenue in the 1930s.

Harrow Golf Club, Preston Road, early 1920s. (Brent Archives online image 8947)

The absence of a full-time station and the purchase of unused fields for staff sports clubs by companies like Debenhams and Selfridges, kept Preston as a rural area into the early 20^th century. Preston Road was still a twisting country lane and the Wealdstone Brook could be described as ‘one of the most perfect little streams anywhere, abounding in dace and roach’. 

"Pretty Preston Road" - postcard of a rural scene from the early 1900s. (Brent Archives online image 328)

However, in 1915, an employee at the Metropolitan Railway Company coined the name “Metroland” – and things started to change – which we will look at in Part 3, next weekend.

Chris Coates.

The Preston Story - Part 1

The first part of a new local history series, by Chris Coates of Preston Community Library.      

Preston is often seen as one of the quieter parts of Wembley – just a 20^th century development of suburban housing. This series of articles will look at some of the people, events and social changes that shaped its long history, and produced a 21^st century Preston with as diverse a community as any other area of Brent.

1. Preston Road and its station, part of the 20th century suburb. (Photo by Derrick J. Knight, from an internet blog)

Preston Ward’s political boundaries are a triangle formed by the apex of the Metropolitan and Bakerloo Underground lines, with Wembley Park Drive as the southern border. But Preston as a community stretches north to meet Kingsbury and Kenton and this reflects its origins as a rural area in the parish of Harrow, centred on the cluster of farms and buildings at the junction of what are now Preston Hill, Preston Road and Woodcock Hill, west of the Lidding or Wealdstone Brook. This first article looks at the early period up to 1800.

2.  John Rocque's 1744 map of London and its Environs includes Preston, and the road to it, on its northern edge!

The first definite record of Preston is in 1220, the name coming from the Old English preast and tun, meaning the farm belonging to the priest.  Preston was a township in 1231 but by the mid-15^th century had only 2 farms, and a few cottages. It was linked to an even smaller settlement, Uxendon, on the east bank of the Wealdstone Brook, which was first recorded in 1257 as Woxindon, probably meaning "Wixan's Hill". The Wixan were a 7^th century Saxon tribe from Lincolnshire, who came to settle in what became Middlesex.

Uxendon manor house was located near what is now the junction of Uxendon Hill and Wykeham Hill. During the 14-15^th centuries, the estate was extended to include Preston Farm [also known as Preston Dicket] on the west bank of Wealdstone Brook and another settlement called Pargraves at what is now the junction of Elmstead Ave with Forty Lane – then called Flax Lane. 

Most local landowners accumulated property through inheritance and family connections, but Harrow from early times had also attracted London merchants and courtiers. In 1376, the Uxendon manor passed to Sir Nicholas Brembre, a powerful City of London and national figure, who owned considerable estates elsewhere. He was twice Lord Mayor of London, a customs officer for the Port of London under Geoffrey Chaucer, and a strong supporter of Richard II, knighted for accompanying him to face the rebels at Smithfield during the Peasants Revolt in 1381.

3. King Richard II speaking with the peasants at Smithfield in 1381. (Image from the internet – thanks, BBC Bitesize!)

Nicholas Brembre was Richard’s chief ally in London, but his ties to the ill-fated King ultimately resulted in his downfall. Accused by Richard’s opponents of corruption, tyranny and finally treason, he was executed in 1388 (either by hanging or beheading, it depends on which account you read!). Brembre’s confiscated properties in Uxendon and elsewhere were given to his brother-in-law, Thomas Goodlake, whence they passed by marriage in 1516 to the Bellamy family.

The Bellamy family had remained staunchly Roman Catholic after the Reformation and sheltered Catholic priests on the run. The manor house held a secret chamber under the stairs with an underground escape route to a barn nearby. A priest who died at Uxendon was buried under a pseudonym at Harrow Church. Anthony Babington, identified by security services as a principal conspirator in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth I, was arrested there in 1586 and the Bellamy family were arrested for treason. Catherine Bellamy, the mistress of Uxendon, and two of her sons died in the Tower, and a third son was executed.

A fourth son, Richard, moved to Uxendon to take over the estate, but the family continued to be investigated and in 1592, while imprisoned, his daughter betrayed the presence of a Jesuit priest, Robert Southwell, in the manor. He was arrested and executed.

4. Robert Southwell, Jesuit priest and poet. (Image from the internet)

The family continued to be prosecuted and imprisoned over the next 10 years until Richard Bellamy relented and conformed. The estate, now over-mortgaged to pay recurrent fines, was sold to another local family with Catholic sympathies, the Pages, who had become leading landowners in the Wembley area. Two priests from the wider Page family in Middlesex were also executed.  When a special tax was raised in 1642 to ‘meet the distress of the Army and people in the Northern parts’, Catholics and aliens were required to pay double – but none were found in Harrow. 

From the late 14^th century, the northern farm on Preston Hill [then known as Clay Lane] belonged to the Lyon family and one of the most notable residents from the early period was John Lyon, 1514-1592, the founder of Harrow School. He was a man of considerable wealth, owning land in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Marylebone and Essex. He was active in local affairs and had good political connections – despite managing to stay on good terms with his troubled neighbours, the Bellamys.

5. Rev. Elsley (a local historian whose research aided our knowledge of John Lyon) at Lyon Farm house in 1936.
(From the Wembley History Society Collection - Brent Archives online image 8972)

John Lyon was also a philanthropist and was already paying for the education of 30 poor local boys when in 1572, possibly through his friendship with Elizabeth I’s Attorney-General, he obtained a Royal Charter for the foundation of a free grammar school. He wrote precise detailed instructions about how the School should be administered, even down to what games the boys could play! – and no girls were to be admitted.

Lyon ruled that the poorest applicants should be preferred for entry to the school – but as parents had to provide books, writing materials and candles, as well as ensuring children were well-dressed – most of the rural poor of Wembley and Harrow must have been ruled out! However, the schoolmaster could accept enough fee-paying boys from outside the area to provide his own wages. In time, those students became the majority, changing the nature of the School and thwarting Lyon’s original intentions 

6. A memorial to John Lyon, and a brass commemorating John and Joan Lyon, in St Mary’s Church, Harrow.
(Both images from the internet)

Lyon left his house and lands as an endowment for the foundation and upkeep of the School, plus scholarships for 4 boys to go on to university - though the provisions of the will did not become operative until after death of his wife Joan in 1608. Work on the original School house [which can still be seen on Harrow on the Hill] started then and was completed 1615. Lyon left other charitable bequests for the local poor and for the upkeep of local roads, notably the Harrow and Edgware Roads, and for roads from Preston, to the Harrow Road at Wembley and through Kingsbury to the Edgware Road. The John Lyon’s Charity still makes grants to benefit young people in NW London, but the separate Roads Trust ended in 1991.

After Lyon’s death, the School rented his farmhouse - described in 1547 as a beautiful building - to a succession of farmers [including the Bellamy and Page families], but by the early 18^th century the farmhouse and lands were said to be in poor condition and the farmhouse was rebuilt in red brick. In the mid-19^th century, it was occupied by the wonderfully named Thomas Sneezum.  The mid-20^th century saw the farmhouse gifted by the Perrin farming family to Wembley Borough Council, who demolished it in 1960 and John Perrin Place – a council housing estate – was built on the site.

7. A view of John Perrin Place, c.1966. (Brent Archives online image 10283)

John Lyon’s support in maintaining key routes for the transport of people and goods was crucial at this time when the hamlets in Preston were linked together by rough tracks, whose upkeep was always a bone of contention. Local roads were also constantly shifting course. The enclosure of common land, usually to change its use from arable to meadow for livestock, resulted in many changes - as when Richard Page obstructed the old road and altered the route of Clay Lane (now Preston Hill) through Preston East Field - clearly seen in this map.

8. Preston as it appears on a map from 1819. (Based on the Greenwood map)

During the Civil War, Middlesex generally supported the Parliament and Sir Gilbert Gerard of Harrow on the Hill raised a regiment. However, a Richard Page of Uxendon fought in the Royalist Army at the battle of Newbury 1644, was knighted and then followed the King to Oxford. On 27 April 1646, Charles fled Oxford in disguise and a plaque in Harrow commemorates where he stopped to water his horses – although this seems an unlikely route! 

9. The plaque at the site of King Charles's Well, Grove Hill, Harrow-on-the-Hill. (Image from the internet)

After Charles’s execution, Richard fled to the Court of the future Charles II in The Hague. In the 1660 general election, John Page of Uxendon stood against Gerard who was now campaigning for the return of the monarchy. Following the Restoration, later that year, Uxendon Manor remained in the Page family until 1829. In 1661, Parliament introduced a new tax, assessing wealth by the number of fireplaces in a person’s home. Kenton, Preston and Uxendon were assessed together with only 22 homes liable for Hearth Tax – of these, Mr Page had the largest number – 10 hearths.

Preston grew slowly, in the mid-17^th century, there were 5 buildings, including a new farmhouse, Hillside Farm. 100 years later, there were 9 buildings, including Preston’s first pub! - the Horseshoe Inn, licensed from 1751. Around the same time, a second Uxendon manor farm was built and Forty Farm was expanded at Forty Green. However, the coming of the railways in the 19^th century would change everything – and we will look at that next week.

Please feel free to add your memories, questions or comments in the box below.

Chris Coates.

Preston Road 20mph zone - a few days left to respond

Click on image to enlarge (also available on Council website

Residents and businesses living around Preston Road have until Friday December 15th to respond to a consultation on introducing a 20mph zone on Preston Road.

Consultation letters have gone out with a reply envelope but responses can also be made online HERE

The proposal (click on bottom right corner to expand):

15.00 Water Supply Problems Kingsbury and Wembley-Update

Affinity Water have posted this information on their website


Carlton Avenue/Preston Road HA9, Belverdere Way HA3, Church Lane NW9 8 - We have successfully repaired the burst water mains and anticipate full restoration of your water supply within the next 30 minutes.

Salmon Street NW9 - repairs are on going to fix the burst water main, we will provide an update as soon as one becomes available.

Should you experience any discoloured or aerated water, which is not uncommon following a mains interruption, we recommend that you leave a mains fed tap running for approximately 5-10 minutes. Discolouration of the water is caused by small particles of iron which are within the mains and disturbed during interruptions. Cloudy water is caused by air that becomes trapped in the mains, neither of these are harmful to your health.

Where it has been necessary to excavate the area we will continue to work with the local Highways Authority to return the road surface area to normal  and ensure that the road or footway is safe for all vehicle and pedestrian traffic. This may mean that we have to maintain the site and any necessary traffic management until this is the case.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident and thank you for your patience today.
This message will be updated after 17:30.

---

During this time we ask you not to use any electrical appliances, that require a water supply, like washing machines or dishwashers, and to conserve water from storage tanks during the time your water supply is interrupted.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.


Follow this link to their website for updates AFFINITY

---

Ain't no use to sit and do nothing, babe... U3A is all right!

The Kenton and District branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A)  will have its first meeting is on Wednesday 26th March, 10am at the Century Bowling Club in Logan Road, Wembley (off Preston Road). 

The U3A is a member run, self financing organisation that runs courses, activities and social events for those who have finished with full time employment.

The new group will initially have groups for current affairs, genealogy and family history, cookery, music, board and card games and more.  Additional interest groups will be set up according to demand from members.

The video below gives more information on U3A

 

Poetry for all, up and down the Preston Road, in and out of the library...

A message from Preston Community Library

If you have time please come, and encourage others to come, to Preston Community Library at 235 Preston Road,  this Thursday any time between 1 to 4 pm for what is probably a unique poetry event.   

It will take place not just at 235 Preston Road but at various shops and other premises  in  Preston Road.  

Geraldine had a brilliant  idea to bring poetry to the many people working in Preston  Road.  We have been gathering together not just poetry in English,  on this year's theme of water, but in  many Asian and European languages.  

We are taking  them to shops and other premises in Preston Road so they can be read first in the other language and then in English. There has been such an enthusiastic response.    Many have offered us poems in other languages.  Someone has even offered to write a poem for us.

We have nursery rhymes for the pre-school children as well as humorous poetry.  There really is something for everyone for all age groups and nationalities.  

Hope to see you there.

Moazzam Begg to speak in Wembley next week

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has opened a new bookshop, gallery and information centre at 202 Preston Road, Wembley.

Moazzam Begg, former Guantanamo Bay detainee will be talking talking about his book Enemy Combatant, at the bookshop on Thursday 6th April at 6.30pm.

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed  will be talking about his book The Crisis of Civilization, on Wednesday11thMay at 6.30pm.

For more about the IHRC follow this LINK