Hanwell
| Hanwell | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The Duke of York, Hanwell | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ153802 |
| Location: | 51°30’32"N, 0°20’15"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | W7 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Ealing |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Ealing North, Ealing Southall |
Hanwell is a town in Middlesex, within the metropolitan conurbation between Ealing and Southall.
Contents
Name of the town
The earliest surviving reference to Hanwell is in 959, when it is recorded as Hanewelle in pledge by which Aelfwyn pawned the land for money to go on a pilgrimage. The origin of the name is uncertain; various suggestions have been put forward. It may mean "Cock's Well" or han is an occasional word for a boundary stone: near the old Rectory and close to Hanwell spring is a large stone of about a ton in weight which might bfit that suggestion.
Churches
St Mary's
St Mary's Church is the original parish church. The present church was built in 1841 by George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style; on of Scott's earliest works.[1] It stands on the site of an earlier church.
A memorial stands here to perhaps the most famous rector; Dr George H Glasse. The home he had built for him nearby in 1809, in the cottage orné style, name "The Hermitage", which Nikolaus Pevsner described as "a peach of an early c19 Gothic thatched cottage with two pointed windows, a quatrefoil, and an ogee arched door, all on a minute scale. Inside, an octagonal hall and reception room".[2]
Other churches
- Church of England:
- St Mary's
- St Thomas the Apostle
- St Mellitus Church
Sights about the town
- The Wharncliff viaduct was built to carry the Great Western Railway across the River Brent. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
- The Hanwell locks; a flight of six locks which raises the Grand Union Canal by just over 53 feet
- The Three Bridges, at the top of the flight, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and known locally as Windmill Bridge
- Brent Lodge Park and Animal Centre: a park acquired by the council as a recreation ground in 1931 from Sir Montagu Sharpe (1856–1942), who had lived in Brent Lodge since 1884
- Brent River Park and Brent Valley Golf Club
- Hanwell Clock Tower: an art deco clock tower on Hanwell Broadway, unveiled on 7 May 1937
- Elthorne Park
Events
The Beating the Bounds ceremony is held on the May Bank Holiday, to remind all those who do dwell in these parts, where the Parish of Hanwell's boundaries lay; all-comers are invited to go beating the bounds.[3][4]
A small beer festival is held each Easter weekend down at the far end of Green Lane at The Fox Pub which features about two-dozen cask beers from chosen around the country.[5]
Pictures
Elthorne Park and its bandstand
The glacial erratic in Elthorne Park
St Thomas the Apostle, Boston Road
Hanwell Flight - The Southerly Lock Keeper's Cottage
Meeting of the Grand Union Canal and River Brent
River Brent at the bottom of Green Lane
Hanwell Broadway
Hanwell Broadway
Hanwell's Coronation clock tower
Street party in Station Road. September 2007
Hanwell clock
In popular culture
Hanwell has been the filming location for a number of films and television programmes:
- Carry On Teacher (1959)
- Carry On Constable (1960)
- Shine on Harvey Moon (1993)
- Staggered (1994)
- Peep Show: The Dolphin pub and St Mary's church
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001): Hanwell Cemetery
- There for Me (2007) using Hanwell's First Choice Café as the Broadway Café
In literature
- G K Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy (1908):
And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my eye caught an omnibus on which was written "Hanwell".... "Believing utterly in one's self is a hysterical and superstitious belief like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has 'Hanwell' written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus.[6]
- H G Well's The War of the Worlds (1898) drew the town in too:
So, setting about it as methodically as men might smoke out a wasps' nest, the Martians spread this strange stifling vapour over the Londonward country. The horns of the crescent slowly moved apart, until at last they formed a line from Hanwell to Coombe and Malden.[7]
Nearest stations
- Underground network:
- Boston Manor (Piccadilly Line)
- Ealing Broadway (Central Line, District Line)
- Perivale (Central Line)
- Railway:
- Hanwell
- Castle Bar Park
- Drayton Green
Outside links
- Hanwell Carnival
- Hanwell: Introduction, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 220–24
References
- ↑ 'Hanwell: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 230-33. Date accessed: 25 July 2007.
- ↑ Pevsner N B L (1991). The buildings of England, London 3: North-West. ISBN 0-300-09652-6
- ↑ Hanwell Carnival. Beating The Bounds. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- ↑ and historical notes for Beating the Bounds of Hanwell. Retrieved 20-06-04.
- ↑ Ealing Gazette (Apr 8 2010). Rescued pub wins prestigious Camra award Accessed 2011-03-31
- ↑ Orthodoxy – G K Chesterton
- ↑ H. G. Wells (1898). The War of the Worlds
