Philip Grant, of
Wembley History Society, begins a new weekly series.
Long before Wembley Park, there was Wembley. Wemba lea (Wemba’s clearing) was
first recorded in a document in AD825. My fellow local historian, Len Snow, enjoyed saying that football fans, with their
chants when going to the Stadium, were singing its correct name.
The clearing is thought to have been just north of
the Harrow Road (in the Triangle / Wembley Hill Road area). But who was Wemba?
Probably one of the many immigrants, known as Saxons, who crossed the North Sea
in the 7th or 8th century. Although some were invaders,
most came with their families to start a new life as farmers in southern
England. Wemba’s lea was in Middlesex (the land of the middle Saxons), and in
825 was part of around 12,000 acres in Harrow given by King Beornwulf of Mercia
to Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury. This was to make up for land that had
been stolen from him by the previous King!
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1. A Saxon farmer, and extract from a map
depicting this area in Saxon times. (Images from the internet)
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As Wembley was just a tiny settlement then, within
the much larger Parish of Harrow, there is little in the way of records about
it for the next few centuries. By the 1100s, there was a slightly larger number
of people living nearby in Tokyngton (the farm of Tocca’s sons), and it had a
chapel. The parish church was at Harrow-on-the-Hill, so Wembley’s farmers were
saved the longer walk to Sunday services.
In 1247, the two areas were brought together as
‘the manor of Wymbley’. The “Lord” of the Manor was actually a woman, the
Prioress of Kilburn. Her Priory would have received rents from tenants, as well
as food, from the land it held in Wembley and Tokyngton. Although it changed
over time to Oakington, the original name was revived when a new Church of
England parish was set up in 1925. I am indebted to its first vicar, Rev.
H.W.R. Elsley, whose well-researched book, “Wembley through the Ages”, provided
details used in this article.
The manor system was very important in medieval times,
and all tenants of land were meant to observe the laws, and make sure that
their neighbours did the same. They had to attend regular Manor Courts - these
are entries from its 14th century records. In 1315: ‘Appointed John
Godwyne taster for Wembele’ (his duty was to check the strength of beer). In
1321: ‘Alice Germayne, of Wembele, has blocked a watercourse, to her
neighbours’ damage’ (she would be fined if she failed to put this right). In
1337: Alice le Carpenter, Ralph de Wembely and five others ‘in mercy for
selling and brewing ale contrary to the assize’ (the taster had been busy!).
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2. Making beer in Medieval times. (Image from the internet)
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Over the next 200 years, the Page family emerged as
one of the wealthiest in this part of Middlesex. They were farmers, but also
rented out land to sub-tenants. After King Henry VIII made himself Head of the
Church in England, he dissolved Kilburn Priory in 1536, and forced the
Archbishop of Canterbury to hand over his large Harrow estates in 1545. Some of
the land Henry seized was sold to tenants, such as John Page of Wembley.
In the 18th century, the Page families
of Wembley, Harrow and Uxendon (acquired from the Bellamys in the early 1600s)
became united through marriage. The widowed Richard Page of Harrow married
again, to the granddaughter of (another) John Page of Wembley. The Page’s main
farm in Wembley since Tudor times had been on the Harrow Road, south of Wembley
Hill. By the 1740s they had acquired a new slate-roofed brick house, “Wellers”,
at nearby Wembley Green. John Rocque’s map shows it had a large orchard, as
well as farm buildings.
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3. Extract from John Rocque's 1744 map of
London and Environs, with “Wellers” added. (Brent Archives)
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Wembly Green then was still a small settlement,
which climbed to the top of the hill. Another map, a century earlier, had shown
a windmill on Wembley Hill. The “Barley Mow”, a medieval timber-framed house
which had become an inn by 1722, is named there. It was reached up a footpath
from a row of cottages that were Wembley’s High Street (not to be confused with
Wembley High Road!). The High Street and path (to an “inn”) are still there
today, just off of Wembley Hill Road, and are well worth a visit once the “lockdown”
is over.
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4. Some (modernised) homes in Wembley's High
Street, August 2013.
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Richard Page of Harrow’s first wife, Anne Herne,
had a brother and a sister, but neither of them ever married. His second wife,
Susanna, bore him five sons. The eldest of these, another Richard Page, decided
in the 1780s that he would prefer to live at “Wellers”, rather than in his late
father’s mansion at Sudbury Grove.
He had already planned to convert the farmland
around his Wembley home to a country estate when, in 1792, Mary Herne died. She had inherited her family’s fortune on her
brother’s death, without a male heir, in 1776. In her will, she
left the Herne estate to Richard Page, her late sister’s husband’s eldest son!
Richard Page lost no time in hiring England’s leading landscape gardener for
his project, Humphry Repton.
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5. Humphry Repton's business card, engraved from
his own drawing. (From a copy at
Brent Archives)
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You can see Repton at work in the picture above. He
used his skill as an artist to produce watercolour drawings for potential
clients, showing their estate then, and how it would look if his designs were
carried out. He presented his pictures in a leather-bound “Red Book”. Many
survive, but the one for Wembley is missing (if you find it, it would be very
valuable!). Luckily, we do have some other evidence.
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6. Extract from a letter Humphry Repton
wrote on 6 May 1793. (From a copy at
Brent Archives)
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A letter Repton sent to a friend in May 1793 shows
that work was underway at Wembley by then. He describes it as ‘a most
beautiful spot near Harrow’, but to him it was not free from defects. On
another occasion he wrote: ‘To the common observer the beauties of Wembly
may appear to need no improvement, but it is the duty of my profession to
discover how native charms may be heightened by the assistance of taste; and
that even beauty itself may be rendered more beautiful, this place will furnish
a striking example.’
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7. Repton's before and after sketches of
Wembley Park, as seen from Barn Hill. (From Brent Archives copy)
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There is an image, showing the before and after
views of his scheme, from the top of Barn Hill, in a book which Repton
published in 1794, “Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening”. That book
includes the following note: ‘There is at present no word by which we
express that sort of territory adjacent to a country mansion, which being too
large for a garden, too wild for pleasure ground, and too neat for a farm, is
yet often denied the name of a park, because it is not fed by deer. I generally
waive this distinction, and call the wood and lawns, near every house, a park,
whether fed by deer, by sheep, or heavy cattle.’
And so, the estate was called a park, and its owner
became known as Richard Page of Wembley Park. There are several “Parks” in
Brent, but the only other one by Repton is Brondesbury Park, which he created
for Lady Salusbury in the early 1790s. The term was used again by Victorian
developers for upmarket estates like Kilburn Park and Stonebridge Park, while
Queens Park has its own story.
In an earlier article on Fryent Country Park, I mentioned that the history of the Page family did not end well. That is where
I will take up the Wembley Park story again, next weekend.
Philip Grant.
