This contains histories of ten ancient parishes in north-west
Middlesex. Wealthy Lon-doners began to buy property here during the
Middle Ages and later settled in fine houses, exemplified by the
Jacobean mansion of Swake-leys. The area in return supplied the
capital with corn, livestock, and, increasingly, with hay and
garden produce. In Uxbridge it possessed a medieval market town,
whose prosperity grew with the coach trade, and in Harrow, from the
18th century, it boasted a fashionable school. Until the 19th
century, however, the parishes were mainly rural and even backward,
since agriculture was hampered by the heavy London Clay. The
countryside receded only gradually, with the cutting of canals and
the digging of brickearth, followed by the penetration of rail-ways
and the spread of housing around the railway stations. In 1920 the
hay-fields of Perivale, a parish centred around five farms, still
contrasted with the factories of Southall, al-though the sale of
private estates for development was soon to leave only some
carefully preserved open spaces. Contrasts persist today: between
the slopes along the Hertfordshire border, with their trees and
large residences, and the housing estates which stretch away to the
south; between the high streets of Harrow-on-the-Hill and Pinner,
scarcely changed in the 20th century, and the M 1 and M 4
motorways; between the village greens at the heart of Norwood and
Northolt and the shopping centre under con-struction at Uxbridge;
between churches, alms-houses, moats, and barns on one hand, and on
the other the stadium and Empire Pool and Arena at Wembley, and
London Airport, which has obliterated the hamlet of Heathrow and
covered most of the parish of Harmondsworth. The volume contains 19
pages of illustrations, two street-plans, and nine maps.
General
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