Feltham

Feltham
Middlesex
Feltham High Street
Location
Grid reference:	TQ105735
Location:	51°26’59"N, 0°24’32"W
Data
Post town:	Hounslow
Postcode:	TW13, TW14
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Hounslow
Parliamentary constituency:	Feltham and Heston

Feltham is a town and ancient parish in Middlesex, within the metropolitan conurbation. It borders Heathrow Airport to the north; Staines to the north-west; Ashford to the west; Sunbury-on-Thames to the south; Hampton to the south-east; and Hounslow to the east.

History

The Domesday Book records 21 households and an annual value of six pounds sterling; it was held as lord and tenant-in-chief by Robert, Count of Mortain. A large area of ten cultivated ploughlands is recorded. Following Mortain's son's forfeit of lands (William's rebellion triggering the attainder), the land was granted to the Redvers/de Ripariis/Rivers family. The heir in that family, Hubert de Burgh ('Chief Justiciar and Earl of Kent') swapped Feltham and Kempton with Henry III for his manors of Aylsham in Norfolk and Westhall in Suffolk. In 1440 Henry VI granted numerous privileges to his joint royal custodian of the two manors, including a daily income of up to 12 shillings and that "corn, hay, horse and carriages and other goods and chattels should not be seized for the king's use".

While under total royal control following Henry VIII's full annexation of the manor into the Honour of Hampton Court, a lease of all of its manor court rights and "franchises, privileges, emoluments, and hereditaments" was granted under his daughter Elizabeth I to the Killigrew family of Kempton Park, for 80 years.

However the large manor itself passed 40 years later in 1631 by grant to Francis (Lord) Cottington, established at his new Hanworth Park, who had become Lord Treasurer, ambassador and leader of the pro-Spanish, pro-Roman Catholic faction in the court of Charles I. His nephew sold it, after a major fire and a very temporary loss caused by John Bradshaw, who arranged the King's execution, under the Commonwealth to Sir Thomas Chamber(s). His son inherited Feltham manor, whose daughter by an empowering marriage to Admiral Vere (created Lord Vere) of Hanworth (created for him 1750) led to its next owner having a very high title and degree of wealth: her son, Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans inherited the manor and a dukedom with considerable land from a cousin. The Duke was a British landowner and a collector of antiquities and works of art, seated occasionally at Hanworth, who funded an excavation in Italy which produced many sculpture artefacts. Parting with much of the Duke's surfeit of large country houses, minor plot sales dividing the two ancient manors took place in the 19th century. Finally in the early 20th century, until death, the land now considered Feltham was either already subdivided by developers and farmers or owned by senior judge Ernest Pollock turned politician, (1st) Viscount Hanworth who saw the very large Hanworth manor, which covered most of Hanworth parish divided up due to taxation and its being equally well-placed to cater to the demand for new homes due to transport links.

In this period in 1784 General William Roy set out the baseline of what would become the Ordnance Survey across Hounslow Heath, passing through Feltham. General Roy is commemorated by a local pub. The MOD Defence Geographic Centre maintains a base in Feltham, announced for disposal in the 2015–2020 Parliament.

In 1831, Feltham occupied an area of 2,620 acres, stretching into Hounslow Heath with a population of 924. The Waterloo to Reading Line established a station here from its construction in 1848. In 1901 the parish had a population of 4,534.

Although opened in 1910, major expansion took place in a similar period, at the extreme south-west of the post town, at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution or HM Prison Feltham, which is a major such institution providing a range of employments and rehabilitation schemes for young people. near the town's border with Ashford and the neighbouring village of East Bedfont.

Famous former resident Freddie Mercury (born Farokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, 1946–1991) of rock band Queen was commemorated by a permanent, Hollywood-style granite star in Feltham's town-centre piazza, unveiled on 24 November 2009 (the eighteenth anniversary of Mercury's death) by Queen guitarist Brian May, alongside Freddie's mother, Jer Bulsara, and his sister. In 2011, owing to neglect and weather damage, Hounslow Council removed the memorial, resolving to substitute a smaller one elsewhere.

Geography

The land is relatively flat but well-drained, and Feltham is centred 13½ miles west-south-west of Charing Cross and two miles from Heathrow Airport.

The neighbouring settlements are Hounslow, Ashford, East Bedfont (including Hatton), Sunbury-on-Thames, Cranford and Hanworth.

Redevelopment

The Centre, Feltham

Feltham's town centre developed in a socio-economically indicative way in the period 1860-2010 when the focus of the village moved north from by St Dunstan's Church - the coming of the railway and immediate establishment of a station was in 1848. For most of the twentieth century, it had a traditional-looking High Street, including more mock-Tudor shop fronts, and a large mediæval manor house which was controversially demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for a Ford car dealership and petrol station. This has since been demolished but replaced with a hardware, carpets and supermarket site Manor Park.

Most of the original High Street shops were also demolished in the mid-1960s through to the early 1970s. Victorian and Edwardian tall-storey terraced, semi-detached and detached homes are particularly on Hanworth Road and adjoining roads, and in the small conservation area at Feltham Pond on the High Street. Many old cottages and workman's terraces were demolished alongside the railway line to make way for brutalist high-rise blocks of housing, of originally purely social housing to house the homeless and overcrowded people such as Belvedere House and Hunter House and Home Court, demolished in the 2000s and replaced with mixed-ownership apartments in a more ornate style in a cluster, incorporating designer balconies and architectural demonstrations of free-form structure such as propped overhangs and an unobtrusive at street-level, multi-faceted floor plan.

The current shopping hub, The Centre, Feltham (also known as the Longford Centre, if only by the original developers and some retail tenants), opened in 2006. It retained and refurbished many of the shop units built in the 1960s to replace the demolished buildings, along the High Street frontage, but replaced most of the others with new, larger units. Also added as part of the re-development was a Travelodge hotel, 800 homes, a new and larger library, and a medical centre. The "anchor" (and largest) store in the Centre is an Asda hypermarket, coupled with fashion chains, small restaurants, a public house and cafés. Near to the retail park is a Tesco superstore and numerous grocery outlets are dotted along the area's High Street. Added to this are regular local trades/services in small clusters in the main named neighbourhoods of North Feltham and Lower Feltham. Prior to this large-scale redevelopment, the rock band Oasis filmed the video for their song Stand By Me in The Centre in 1997.

Economy

Skyline of West Feltham and Bedfont Lakes looking north-west.

The main economic activity of the Feltham area was market gardening until well into the twentieth century. A popular variety of pea known as the Feltham First is so-named for being first grown in the town. The market gardens were largely replaced with light industry, gravel and aggregate extraction, and new housing from the 1930s onwards.

Feltham has been associated with land and air transport for more than a century. In what is now the Leisure West entertainment complex of various buildings including cinema, bowling alley and restaurants, the Feltham tramcar was once manufactured and ran along the tracks of many municipal operators, though never in Feltham itself. In the same area of the town, aircraft manufacture was an important industry, particularly in the war years. Feltham was in the early and mid 20th century home to Britain's second largest railway marshalling yard which was geared towards freight, and was a target for German air force bombs in World War II.

The motor car manufacturer Aston Martin had its main factory in Feltham between 1926 (when it bought the former Whitehead Aircraft factory) and 1963. The site is now occupied by part of Leisure West.

A former company based in Feltham from 1911 until the closure of its factory in the 1980s was Minimax Limited, manufacturers of fire extinguishers.

Inevitably, the largest local employer is Heathrow Airport. Many businesses based in Feltham, particularly in logistics, serve the needs of the world's busiest international airport by passenger volume. Menzies Aviation has its head office in Feltham.

However, accessibility of parts of Central London and a good local road network have also made Feltham a base for a number of high-tech companies, including DHL and Arqiva. The latter is notable in having a telecommunications port in Feltham which provides transmission and distribution facilities for TV companies including Sky and Channel 5.

Leisure

Frozen pond on Feltham Green

Feltham has in its land use considerably more open spaces than average in the metropolis — bounding it to the east is a natural small river, the River Crane separating off the once vast Hounslow Heath to the east, stretching from north by Harlington south to Hampton until the early 20th century. To other sides it includes a country park formed from converted gravel pits (Bedfont Lakes) with rolling adjacent meadows open to walkers by its railway and (within the post town) one of London's first airfields, London Air Park at Hanworth, which has well-trimmed grass, is surrounded by trees and is a large and sports-oriented public open space.

Public venues include Feltham Assembly Hall, opened in 1965 in Feltham Park, community rooms in the new library, as well as several residents association halls and clubs. Since the controversial removal in 2008 of the Feltham Community Association from the Feltham People's Centre (the former Feltham Hotel), the town has lacked a dedicated community centre.

Feltham Community College (originally known as Feltham Comprehensive School when it was formed from two secondary modern and one grammar school) and Rivers Academy West London (known as Longford School/Longford Community School from its foundation in 1935 to 31 July 2011) both have excellent sports facilities. These supplement the Hanworth Air Park Leisure Centre and Library, operated by Fusion Leisure on behalf of Hounslow Council. Leisure West (a privately developed and managed complex of entertainment and dining facilities including a multiplex cinema, tenpin bowling alley, bingo club and restaurants) opened on the former industrial sites around Browell's Lane in the mid-1990s. Feltham has a Non-League football club Bedfont & Feltham F.C. who play at the Orchard in East Bedfont.

Transport

Feltham marshalling yard (1918-1969) seen here in 1958.

Tube

Nearby Hatton Cross tube station, which is on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line provides a Central London and Heathrow rail option to Feltham, with frequent bus routes through the town.

Railway

The town is served by all passenger trains, including semi-fast trains through Feltham railway station, except for some weekend specially timetabled steam trains, with services terminating at Waterloo. On the Waterloo to Reading Line, the other terminus is Reading. Two branch line services operate on the line here, to Windsor and Weybridge. The "Feltham Masterplan" by Hounslow Council which was approved in 2017 included plans for a new train line from Feltham into Heathrow Airport which will cut travel times.

Buses

The town has London Buses services to Kingston upon Thames, Richmond, Brentford, Heathrow, Staines-upon-Thames, Northolt, Isleworth and Sunbury on Thames. Intervening places such as Hayes, Hounslow, Hampton Court/Hampton, Twickenham and Ashford are called at.

Long distance express services are offered predominantly from various sides of Heathrow to places such as Slough, Reading, Berkshire and Croydon, the latter under the London Buses pricing and operational scheme.

Notable people

• Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) of rock band Queen lived in Gladstone Avenue Feltham from 1964 till the very early '70s; his parents were residents until a few years after his death.
• Brian May of rock band Queen once lived in Feltham
• Jimmy Page, legendary guitarist with rock band Led Zeppelin, lived in Feltham.
• Vic Briggs, guitarist of 1960s pop group The Animals, was born in Feltham and grew up in Twickenham
• Dr Thomas Denman (1733–1815), midwifery pioneer, lived in Feltham
• Film writer and director Edmund Goulding (1891–1959) was born in Feltham
• Buster Lloyd-Jones (1914–1980), eminent vet, was born in Feltham
• Actor Derek Martin, best known as Charlie Slater in BBC soap EastEnders, lived in Feltham
• Olympic gold medallist Athlete Mo Farah attended Feltham Community College

References

Sources

• Harley, J.B. 1969, cartographical notes to Reprint of the first edition of the one-inch Ordnance Survey of England and Wales, Sheet 71 London, David and Charles, ISBN 0-7153-4615-6

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Feltham)

• British History Online - Spelthorne Hundred - Feltham. (1911)
• [1] - FelthamWest.info - Local Community Website with local community information for Feltham residents