Responding to readers' requests, after the popular local history series by Philip Grant, for some local history of the south of the borough this is the
first of a new local history series, by Margaret Pratt of Willesden Local
History Society.
Church End, in
the Parish of Willesden, has grown from a small medieval hamlet surrounding the
church of St. Mary, Willesden. The main routes to other parts of the Parish
converge here. Church Road, leading to Harlesden, meets Neasden Lane (to
Neasden!), and Willesden Lane (later the High Road) to Willesden Green and
Kilburn.
1.
A pictorial map of
Willesden in 1840. (Based on a map in “The Willesden Survey,
1949”)
Other villages in Willesden (“the
hill of the spring”), such as Neasden (“the nose-shaped hill”), Oxgate, and
Harlesden (“Herewulf’s farm”), date from the Anglo-Saxon period, and were
already established settlements at the time of the Norman Conquest. Willesden
and Harlesden are mentioned in the “Domesday Book”, commissioned by King William
I in AD1086,
to record all his newly acquired lands, and the tithes, or taxes, due to be
paid.
2. A copy of the entry for Willesden in the Domesday Book. (From “Brent: A Pictorial History” by Len Snow)
There is no mention of any church
in the Domesday survey. The reason could be that Willesden lands were already
under the control of St. Paul’s Cathedral, at Ludgate Hill in the City of
London. St. Paul’s had been gifted the Willesden lands in late Anglo-Saxon
times, and now “farmed” them. Farming, in the medieval period, also meant the
collecting of tithes (one tenth of the income and produce of land that was
owned), to provide the monks and Canons of the Cathedral (‘canonici S.
pauli’) with their food and living expenses.
The tithes collected would not
appear on King William’s list, nor would most churches, as they did not pay any
taxes. There could have been a small wooden Saxon church on the site at Church
End, a base for the priests who would minister to the 300 or so parishioners of
Willesden at the time. However, there is no documentary evidence to prove it.
What is a matter of record is
that a small rectangular stone church was built by AD1181, when
an “Inquistion,” or visitation, from St. Paul’s records the church and its
contents. The church had been built on the rising land to the east of the marshy
ground bordering the River Brent, and fed by the Mitchell and Harlesden Brooks.
It was soon increased in size, by around AD1200,
when side aisles and a tower were added to the original structure, and was
known as St Mary’s Church by 1280.
3.
St Mary's Church,
Willesden, in a print by E. Orme, 1799. (Brent
Archives online image 703)
Willesden is rich in sand,
gravel, clay and flint, like many places in the Thames Valley, but has no
building stone. The loads of ragstone used in the construction of the church
must have been brought for some distance, probably from
Kent. The stone could have been shipped up the Thames, and then hauled up the
River Brent from Brentford, on flat-bottomed rafts. Ingenious engineers of the
time could have dammed off sections of the Brent to form ponds to make their
task easier - unfortunately this is just conjecture!
The 800-year history of St. Mary’s
has been well documented (though not online) by our best
local historians. Suffice it to say here that the church has
weathered storms, wars, plagues, famines, times of social turmoil, pilgrimages,
the depredations of Henry VIII, neglect, restorations, and calls for its
demolition. It still stands firmly on its plot, surrounded by the churchyard
which is the resting place of untold thousands of Willesden people.
In 1830, the author Harrison
Ainsworth, who lived at Kensal Manor, on the Harrow Road, described Church End
as: “A very retired little village, with its church, rectory and vicarage, and
about twenty cottages, housing , among
others, a bricklayer, a butcher and a general dealer; also a group of
wooden poorhouse dwellings in the churchyard.”
Ainsworth used Willesden and its church as the setting for his novel
about the 18th century highwayman, Jack Sheppard. His “very retired
little village” was to go through great changes as the century progressed.
4. Jack Sheppard, thieving in the church, arrested in the
churchyard and escaping from the Round House.
(Illustrations by George Cruikshank from Ainsworth’s 1839 novel “Jack Sheppard”:
Brent Archives no, 1696/97/98)
The opening of the Paddington
Arm of the Grand Union Canal, across the fields to the south of Willesden, in
1801, brought new transport opportunities to the area, and industries such as
brickworks, gasworks, and rubbish removal appeared alongside the canal. The
Great Western, and London to Birmingham Railways appeared, again to the south
of Willesden, in 1838. The first railway to be built across Church End was the
Acton branch of the Midland and South Western Junction Railway in 1868, which
cut off the village from the farmland to the north.
Chapel End came
into being when a brick chapel was built by non-conformist villagers in 1820. This
was to the east of the Church End settlement, at the corner of Willesden Lane
and Dudden Hill Lane. The name “Chapel End” was soon in use, and the residents
felt themselves to be different from the people of Church End. A few years later
the name “Queenstown” was also used, supposedly commemorating a visit by Queen
Victoria. There does not seem to be any record of such a visit, so perhaps it
was simply an attempt to commemorate Victoria’s Accession in 1837!
5.
Willesden's Fire
Brigade, passing the 1820 Willesden Chapel, c.1900 (Brent Archives online image 1265)
The Queens Town name was used
well into the 20th century. The small original chapel, at the Dudden
Hill Lane corner, was replaced around 1890 by a much larger Congregational Chapel, on the corner opposite Pound Lane, of the
soon to be renamed Willesden High Road. The old chapel was used as a Sunday
School, then demolished for road-widening in 1908.
6.
The Congregational
Chapel, High Road, Chapel End, c.1900. (From
“Willesden” by Adam Spencer, 1996)
During the 19th
century, people were attracted to Church End and Chapel End to find work, and
needed somewhere to live. In 1810 the ownership of land in Willesden,
and legal boundaries, were finally settled by the passing of an Act of
Inclosure. Landowners began to see the
profit which could be made by selling off acres of farmland to developers for building
houses.
The land at Church End was
part of the old Manor of Willesden’s Rectory Estate. John Nicoll of Neasden had
purchased this Estate back in 1738, and after passing through several hands in
the early 19th Century, it was sold to The United Land Company, in
1869. In the same year, the company bought some land at Chapel End from the
daughters of James Henry Read, who had died. This would later become the
Meyrick Road estate. “Land for Sale” notices began to appear in the district,
and developers and builders purchased plots at auction.
7.
Bramley's Farm, just
north of Chapel End, c.1880 – one of the farms lost to housing in the late 19th
century.
(Photograph by Stanley Ball – Brent
Archives online image 1261)
8. Beaconsfield Road, Chapel End, 1960. (Brent Archives online image 2570)
Nine acres at Church End
Paddocks were sold in 1873, then Church Farm Estate went up for sale in 1875. This
consisted of 4 acres next to the White Horse, and became the Cobbold Road estate.
Roads and building plots were also laid out at Beaconsfield Road. House building
on The United Land Company’s estates was finished by the mid-1890s. Southward
expansion from Chapel End was prevented by the opening of the Jewish
Cemetery (1873), and Willesden New Cemetery in 1893, because St
Mary’s churchyard was no longer large enough.
9.
Willesden New Cemetery,
early 20th century postcard. (Brent
Archives online image 7255)
To the disappointment of the
directors of The United Land Company, Church End and Chapel End did not provide
them with big profits. Their stated aim was to build first-class estates which
would attract investors, but the plots of land were small in size, so small
houses were built, and the area became working-class. It was Church End Ward
that elected the first Socialist member of Willesden Council, in 1904! The
quality of the building work varied, but many of the terraces of small houses
have survived into the 21st Century, and have stood up well to being
modernised and extended.
Amenities such as shops and
laundries flourished, especially along Church Road and Willesden High Road.
Other buildings such as public houses, meeting rooms, schools and cinemas were
put in place alongside the housing, and some of these landmarks have survived
to the present day, while others live on in people’s memories. We will explore
these landmarks in Part 2, next weekend.
Margaret Pratt.
