Whitton, London
Encyclopedia
Whitton is a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
, situated 10.7 miles (17.2 km) west south-west of Charing Cross
in Central London
. It expanded rapidly as a residential suburb in Middlesex
during the 1930s and is served by a wealth of local shops and businesses.
for centuries but by the 16th Century had already begun to attract outsiders. The Elizabethan and Jacobean courtier Sir John Suckling
built a house in the vicinity of the present Murray Park (his son the poet Sir John Suckling
was born in Whitton in 1609). Sir John later replaced his first house with a grander residence on land adjoining today's Warren Road. (The term Warren is itself historical, indicating the presence at one time of rabbit burrows – or warrens – an important source of food.)
Around 1640 Edmund Cooke built a large house close to the centre of the village. This was later bought by the court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller who pulled it down and in 1709 erected his own larger house. This in turn was considerably modified by later owners and was eventually acquired by the state in 1847 for use as a teacher training college. By this time the surviving parts of Kneller's original structure had become unsafe and were demolished. They were replaced by new wings, producing Kneller Hall
, the building seen today. Several local roads and buildings are named after the painter, including Kneller Road, Kneller Gardens, Godfrey Avenue and Kneller School.
The training college was not a success and lasted less than a decade. The building was next converted into a school for military bandsmen, in which capacity as the home of the Royal Military School of Music
we know it today. The School has long been renowned not only for its status as the leading establishment of its kind and for providing musicians for a wide variety of State occasions, but for its summer programme of open-air concerts in the extensive grounds of the Hall. Some of these are accompanied by fireworks displays, including re-enactments of the Battle of Waterloo to the accompaniment of Beethoven's
Battle Symphony
(Wellington's Victory
).
During and for a time after the Second World War, Kneller Hall
was used as a hospital and convalescent home for wounded servicemen.
At the centre of the original village, about 200 m from Kneller Hall
is the White Hart
, an inn dating back at least to the mid-17th Century and possibly much earlier. Records relating to this inn seem to suggest that Whitton had an importance that was not well recorded, or that travellers passed through it in considerable numbers. A document of 1685 shows that it provided three beds, and stabling for ten horses; numbers which did not seem to fit with Whitton's apparent status as a sleepy rural hamlet
with only a few dozen inhabitants.
At the northern end of Whitton was Whitton Park, the estate of the third Duke of Argyll
, which he established in 1722 on land that had been enclosed some years earlier from Hounslow Heath
. The Duke was an enthusiastic gardener and he imported large numbers of exotic species of plants and trees for his estate; he had professional advice from the Scottish
gardener James Lee (1715—1795)
. After the Duke's death his nephew, the third Earl of Bute, moved many of these, including mature trees, to the Princess of Wales' new garden at Kew
. This later became Kew Gardens
and some of the Duke's trees can still be seen there to this day.
On a humbler level, some houses survive from the period before the 1930s development. There are short terraces of early 19th Century workers' cottages in Nelson Road near the Admiral Nelson public house
and on the eastern side of Hounslow Road a little to the north of the Baptist Church.
Another row of similar cottages, one of which had been converted into Reay's Timber Yard, existed until the early 1960s in Hounslow Road close to Holly Bush Corner at the junction with Nelson Road and the High Street. Still present at Holly Bush Corner is an old cottage that served until the late 1950s as a corner shop occupied and operated by Bob Anderson, who was a great favourite with local children, and was instantly recognizable from his trademark crisp white apron.
Houses dating from around the turn of the 20th Century exist at the centre of the old village in Nelson Road and Seaton Road, while Prospect Crescent has examples of both private Edwardian terraces and a small early council estate. Whitton Lodge, a large Victorian
villa
standing in its own grounds occupied the site immediately opposite Holly Bush Corner at the junction of Nelson and Hounslow Roads until it was replaced in the 1950s by a small estate of low-rise flats.
', renowned for its roses, narcissi, lillies of the valley and for its apple, plum and pear orchards. Indeed until the 1920s the village was still separated from the surrounding towns by open fields and much of the earlier character of the old village was retained well into the 1940s. However, in little more than a decade all that changed.
Although there was a little housing development in the 19th Century, on Nelson and Hounslow Roads and in the area between Kneller and Nelson Roads, Whitton remained a quiet country village. However, following the opening of Whitton railway station
in Percy Road in 1931, housing development rapidly replaced the market gardens and the former Argyll Estate, though the latter had actually been sold for development in the 1890s. New parades of shops were built on either side of Percy Road from the railway station bridge to the junction with Nelson and Hounslow Roads. This stretch then became known as High Street' Whitton.
At the northeast corner of the High Street, opposite the Admiral Nelson public house, the parade included an Odeon cinema, which functioned until the 1960s.
For twenty years westbound railway passengers had to descend the steps from the High Street to the booking office on platform level to purchase their tickets, then climb the steps again, cross the bridge, and descend more steps to the opposite platform. This inconvenience did not come to an end until the construction of the present street-level booking office in 1950, together with a footbridge parallel to the road bridge. During that period the railway was still by far the most common way for people to travel to work.
There was certainly a great deal of activity in the skies over Whitton during the early years of the war with the sound of air raid sirens and anti-aircraft guns very common by both day and night. A common sight during the Blitz
was of RAF
fighters scrambling from nearby airfields almost at rooftop height and low enough for the pilots to be seen in their cockpits. One prominent air raid siren was mounted on top of a mast located on the triangle of land at the junction of Nelson and Warren Roads. Next to it, and for many years after, was a blue police telephone box of the type still familiar today as the TARDIS
in the Doctor Who
television series.
Children also kept themselves amused with many traditional activities. There were still few cars and they were able to play unsupervised in the streets and local playgrounds and parks. These included Murray Park, the Kneller Recreation Ground in Meadway, and Crane Park. In the autumn, the traditional game of conkers was the object of particular enthusiasm, while in the warmer months an especially popular pastime was fishing in the local streams for sticklebacks and other small fish, collectively known as tiddlers, which were proudly carried home in jam jars suspended from loops of string. Tadpoles and newts were other prized catches. Both the River Crane
and the stretch of the Duke of Northumberland's River from Meadway to the Chertsey Road were favourite locations for these activities.
The site of the former gunpowder mills in Crane Park was also a favourite, the Shot Tower
, sluice
s and earth blast banks providing a perfect adventure environment in which children could exercise their imagination.
Many aspects of this idyllic world eventually disappeared, their demise probably being a result of the great spurt in television ownership immediately before and in the years following the 1953 Coronation
of Queen Elizabeth II
. Families that had once spent considerable effort finding things to do with their leisure time began, like their contemporaries all over the country, to spend more time in a darkened room watching the box in the corner. The increasing volume of traffic on the formerly quiet local roads also brought to an end the days when children could safely be left free to wander on their own to the local parks. These changes reflected in microcosm the experience of villages and small towns all over the country in the post war decade.
elementary school was opened in the grounds of Kneller Hall, its playground adjoining Whitton Dene and Kneller Road surrounded by a high brick wall and a line of horse-chestnut trees – a ready source of ammunition for the autumn children's game of conkers. Originally co-educational, by the end of the Second World War it had become a boys-only school and remained in use until the 1960s. The name of the school was changed to "Whitton Boys Church of England Boy's School", known locally simply as "Whitton Boys".
The Nelson Road Primary School opened in 1911 and is still in use today as Nelson Primary School. Bishop Perrin Church of England School opened in 1936 and the building served as a school and as a church. Heathfield Primary School in Powder Mill Lane is housed in buildings that were designed to be used as a hospital.
St. Edmund's Roman Catholic Primary School opened in 1939 and is situated on the Nelson Road alongside St. Edmund's Catholic Church. It celebrated its 70th anniversary in September 2009.
The Kneller Secondary Modern School in Meadway opened in 1936, boys were housed in one half of the building and girls at the other. The boys moved out in March 1959 to attend Whitton Secondary School. Kneller Girls' School took over the whole building, the metalwork and wood work rooms were taken out to be replaced by rooms for cookery and for needlework. In 1978 the school moved to Fifth Cross Road, Twickenham and merged, in 1980, with Twickenham Girls School to become Waldegrave School for Girls
. Several small private schools also operated during the 1940s.
There is also a primary school in Whitton called Chase Bridge, opened in 1953 and still operating.
Whitton School, which opened in March 1959, was a 11-16 mixed Sports College.
Whitton School recently became Twickenham Academy
under the sponsorship of the Swedish
company Kunskapsskolan
.
at the junction of Hounslow and Kneller Roads for the Church of St Philip and St James (C of E) and for an adjoining vicarage, since replaced.
A non-conformist Gospel Hall was built in 1881 on the western side of Nelson Road a few metres to the north of the junction with Warren Road. This became redundant with the opening of Whitton Baptist Church in Hounslow Road in 1935 and was later used by various commercial enterprises. The building of Whitton Baptist Church was funded by the compensation paid for the compulsory purchase of St Margaret's Baptist Church, which was demolished during the construction of the Great Chertsey Road approach to the new Twickenham Bridge across the Thames in 1932.
Whitton Methodist Church in Percy Road dates from the period of residential development in the 1930s and St Augustine of Canterbury, Whittonhttp://www.st-augustine-of-canterbury-whitton.org/in Hospital Bridge Road opened in 1958. Before then services had been held in Bishop Perrin C of E School which had opened in 1936.
The Catholic Church of St Edmund of Canterbury is in Nelson Road.
Other businesses that survived into the fifties and sixties were cobblers (traditional shoe repairers) in Nelson Road opposite the Admiral Nelson and at the terrace of shops near the junction of Nelson and Warren Roads; a cycle repair business in the same terrace, that continued to provide a vital service to the many residents who relied on their bicycles for their daily transport until the late 1950s and at various times fish and chip shops in Nelson Road in the old village and a few doors down from Holly Bush Corner.
In Hounslow Road there were a confectioner/tobacconist run by an elderly lady until her death in the early 1950s; an electrical store where residents took the lead-acid accumulators from their wireless sets once a week for re-charging; and a toyshop. New shops were incorporated into the facade of the Baptist church in 1935. For many years one of these was occupied by a hairdresser who advertised Marcel Permanent Waving. A second shop was not let out but used as a Sunday School room.
In the early years of the War a familiar sight in the village was a traditional gilt barleysugar-pillared Italian ice-cream wagon drawn by a horse, though this eventually disappeared as a result of rationing. During the same period, opposite the Gospel Hall was a coal dealer's yard which was a great attraction to children for the massive Foden steam lorry the dealer used to make his deliveries. A fine example was restored to full working order during the 1990s at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum
.
Although it was a bucolic reminder of Whitton's former status as an important farming and market gardening centre, one business that was not popular with nearby residents was an extensive pig farm that operated on land between Tranmere and Nelson Roads until the early 1950s.
services of South West Trains
from Whitton railway station
. The station supplies Whitton with services to Waterloo, as well as Staines
, Windsor
, Reading
and Hounslow
.
Buses
H22 (every 8 - 12 mins) Hounslow, Whitton Twickenham, Richmond.(Transdev
)
281 (every 8 mins daytime, 15 mins evenings, 30 mins all night) Hounslow, Whitton, Twickenham, Teddington, Kingston, Tolworth. (Transdev)
481(hourly Mon - Sat day time only)- West Middlesex Hospital, Whitton, Fulwell, Teddington & Kingston.Travel London
110 (every 10 - 15 mins) West Middlesex Hospital, Whitton, Twickenham.(Transdev
)
111(every 8-10 mins, 24 hours)- Heathrow Central, Hounslow, Whitton, Hampton & Kingston.Travel London
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...
, situated 10.7 miles (17.2 km) west south-west of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
in Central London
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
. It expanded rapidly as a residential suburb in Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
during the 1930s and is served by a wealth of local shops and businesses.
Early history and notable architecture through the ages
Whitton is first mentioned in historical documents around 1200, though it had probably been settled a century or so earlier. It remained little more than a hamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
for centuries but by the 16th Century had already begun to attract outsiders. The Elizabethan and Jacobean courtier Sir John Suckling
John Suckling (politician)
Sir John Suckling was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1626.Suckling was the son of Robert Suckling mayor and MP of Norwich and his wife Elizabeth Barwick, daughter of William Barwick. He entered Gray's Inn on 22 May 1590. He was elected...
built a house in the vicinity of the present Murray Park (his son the poet Sir John Suckling
John Suckling (poet)
Sir John Suckling was an English poet and one prominent figure among those renowned for careless gaiety, wit, and all the accomplishments of a Cavalier poet; and also the inventor of the card game Cribbage...
was born in Whitton in 1609). Sir John later replaced his first house with a grander residence on land adjoining today's Warren Road. (The term Warren is itself historical, indicating the presence at one time of rabbit burrows – or warrens – an important source of food.)
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
, the building seen today. Several local roads and buildings are named after the painter, including Kneller Road, Kneller Gardens, Godfrey Avenue and Kneller School.
The training college was not a success and lasted less than a decade. The building was next converted into a school for military bandsmen, in which capacity as the home of the Royal Military School of Music
Royal Military School of Music
The Royal Military School of Music in Twickenham, west London, trains musicians for the British Army's twenty-nine bands. It is part of the Corps of Army Music...
we know it today. The School has long been renowned not only for its status as the leading establishment of its kind and for providing musicians for a wide variety of State occasions, but for its summer programme of open-air concerts in the extensive grounds of the Hall. Some of these are accompanied by fireworks displays, including re-enactments of the Battle of Waterloo to the accompaniment of Beethoven's
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
Battle Symphony
Wellington's Victory
Wellington's Victory, or, the Battle of Vitoria, Op. 91 is a minor orchestral work composed by Ludwig van Beethoven to commemorate the Duke of Wellington's victory over Joseph Bonaparte's forces at the Battle of Vitoria in Basqueland on June 21, 1813...
(Wellington's Victory
Wellington's Victory
Wellington's Victory, or, the Battle of Vitoria, Op. 91 is a minor orchestral work composed by Ludwig van Beethoven to commemorate the Duke of Wellington's victory over Joseph Bonaparte's forces at the Battle of Vitoria in Basqueland on June 21, 1813...
).
During and for a time after the Second World War, Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
was used as a hospital and convalescent home for wounded servicemen.
At the centre of the original village, about 200 m from Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
is the White Hart
White Hart
The White Hart was the personal emblem and livery of Richard II, who derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock...
, an inn dating back at least to the mid-17th Century and possibly much earlier. Records relating to this inn seem to suggest that Whitton had an importance that was not well recorded, or that travellers passed through it in considerable numbers. A document of 1685 shows that it provided three beds, and stabling for ten horses; numbers which did not seem to fit with Whitton's apparent status as a sleepy rural hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
with only a few dozen inhabitants.
At the northern end of Whitton was Whitton Park, the estate of the third Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, noble family in Scotland...
, which he established in 1722 on land that had been enclosed some years earlier from Hounslow Heath
Hounslow Heath
Hounslow Heath is a public open space and local nature reserve to the west of Hounslow, a London borough. It now covers about , the residue of the historic Hounslow Heath that covered over .-History:...
. The Duke was an enthusiastic gardener and he imported large numbers of exotic species of plants and trees for his estate; he had professional advice from the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
gardener James Lee (1715—1795)
Lee and Kennedy
Lee and Kennedy were prominent nurserymen in three generations at The Vineyard, in Hammersmith, west of London."For many years," wrote John Claudius Loudon in 1854 "this nursery was deservedly considered the first in the world." The partnership was originated with a nurseryman, Lewis Kennedy , who...
. After the Duke's death his nephew, the third Earl of Bute, moved many of these, including mature trees, to the Princess of Wales' new garden at Kew
Kew
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace...
. This later became Kew Gardens
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
and some of the Duke's trees can still be seen there to this day.
On a humbler level, some houses survive from the period before the 1930s development. There are short terraces of early 19th Century workers' cottages in Nelson Road near the Admiral Nelson public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
and on the eastern side of Hounslow Road a little to the north of the Baptist Church.
Another row of similar cottages, one of which had been converted into Reay's Timber Yard, existed until the early 1960s in Hounslow Road close to Holly Bush Corner at the junction with Nelson Road and the High Street. Still present at Holly Bush Corner is an old cottage that served until the late 1950s as a corner shop occupied and operated by Bob Anderson, who was a great favourite with local children, and was instantly recognizable from his trademark crisp white apron.
Houses dating from around the turn of the 20th Century exist at the centre of the old village in Nelson Road and Seaton Road, while Prospect Crescent has examples of both private Edwardian terraces and a small early council estate. Whitton Lodge, a large Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
standing in its own grounds occupied the site immediately opposite Holly Bush Corner at the junction of Nelson and Hounslow Roads until it was replaced in the 1950s by a small estate of low-rise flats.
Whitton in modern times
As recently as Victorian times Whitton was renowned as a 'market gardenMarket garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
', renowned for its roses, narcissi, lillies of the valley and for its apple, plum and pear orchards. Indeed until the 1920s the village was still separated from the surrounding towns by open fields and much of the earlier character of the old village was retained well into the 1940s. However, in little more than a decade all that changed.
Although there was a little housing development in the 19th Century, on Nelson and Hounslow Roads and in the area between Kneller and Nelson Roads, Whitton remained a quiet country village. However, following the opening of Whitton railway station
Whitton railway station
Whitton railway station is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in south London, and is in Travelcard Zone 5. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South West Trains. The ticket office is staffed 7 days a week during the day time. There are no ticket barriers or gates, but...
in Percy Road in 1931, housing development rapidly replaced the market gardens and the former Argyll Estate, though the latter had actually been sold for development in the 1890s. New parades of shops were built on either side of Percy Road from the railway station bridge to the junction with Nelson and Hounslow Roads. This stretch then became known as High Street' Whitton.
At the northeast corner of the High Street, opposite the Admiral Nelson public house, the parade included an Odeon cinema, which functioned until the 1960s.
For twenty years westbound railway passengers had to descend the steps from the High Street to the booking office on platform level to purchase their tickets, then climb the steps again, cross the bridge, and descend more steps to the opposite platform. This inconvenience did not come to an end until the construction of the present street-level booking office in 1950, together with a footbridge parallel to the road bridge. During that period the railway was still by far the most common way for people to travel to work.
Whitton in World War II
Unfortunately, some of the new houses of the 1930s did not last very long. A number were damaged by enemy bombing in the early years of the Second World War and in June 1944 No 81 High Street received a direct hit from a V1 flying bomb. Part of the parade of shops and the flats above them were totally destroyed and several people were killed. Around the same time a house in Lincoln Avenue was also destroyed by a V1 and several adjoining houses were severely damaged. Earlier in the war, No. 86 Hounslow Road received a direct hit from a German bomb and was badly damaged, though not destroyed.There was certainly a great deal of activity in the skies over Whitton during the early years of the war with the sound of air raid sirens and anti-aircraft guns very common by both day and night. A common sight during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
was of RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
fighters scrambling from nearby airfields almost at rooftop height and low enough for the pilots to be seen in their cockpits. One prominent air raid siren was mounted on top of a mast located on the triangle of land at the junction of Nelson and Warren Roads. Next to it, and for many years after, was a blue police telephone box of the type still familiar today as the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
television series.
Children also kept themselves amused with many traditional activities. There were still few cars and they were able to play unsupervised in the streets and local playgrounds and parks. These included Murray Park, the Kneller Recreation Ground in Meadway, and Crane Park. In the autumn, the traditional game of conkers was the object of particular enthusiasm, while in the warmer months an especially popular pastime was fishing in the local streams for sticklebacks and other small fish, collectively known as tiddlers, which were proudly carried home in jam jars suspended from loops of string. Tadpoles and newts were other prized catches. Both the River Crane
River Crane, London
The River Crane is a river in west London, England, and is a tributary of the River Thames.-Location:The River Crane is 8.5 miles in length...
and the stretch of the Duke of Northumberland's River from Meadway to the Chertsey Road were favourite locations for these activities.
The site of the former gunpowder mills in Crane Park was also a favourite, the Shot Tower
Shot tower
thumb|The Shot Tower, Bristol, EnglandA shot tower is a tower designed for the production of shot balls by freefall of molten lead, which is then caught in a water basin. The shot is used for projectiles in firearms.-Process:...
, sluice
Sluice
A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate . For example, a millrace is a sluice that channels water toward a water mill...
s and earth blast banks providing a perfect adventure environment in which children could exercise their imagination.
Many aspects of this idyllic world eventually disappeared, their demise probably being a result of the great spurt in television ownership immediately before and in the years following the 1953 Coronation
Coronation of the British monarch
The coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch of the United Kingdom is formally crowned and invested with regalia...
of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. Families that had once spent considerable effort finding things to do with their leisure time began, like their contemporaries all over the country, to spend more time in a darkened room watching the box in the corner. The increasing volume of traffic on the formerly quiet local roads also brought to an end the days when children could safely be left free to wander on their own to the local parks. These changes reflected in microcosm the experience of villages and small towns all over the country in the post war decade.
Education
In 1851 a Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
elementary school was opened in the grounds of Kneller Hall, its playground adjoining Whitton Dene and Kneller Road surrounded by a high brick wall and a line of horse-chestnut trees – a ready source of ammunition for the autumn children's game of conkers. Originally co-educational, by the end of the Second World War it had become a boys-only school and remained in use until the 1960s. The name of the school was changed to "Whitton Boys Church of England Boy's School", known locally simply as "Whitton Boys".
The Nelson Road Primary School opened in 1911 and is still in use today as Nelson Primary School. Bishop Perrin Church of England School opened in 1936 and the building served as a school and as a church. Heathfield Primary School in Powder Mill Lane is housed in buildings that were designed to be used as a hospital.
St. Edmund's Roman Catholic Primary School opened in 1939 and is situated on the Nelson Road alongside St. Edmund's Catholic Church. It celebrated its 70th anniversary in September 2009.
The Kneller Secondary Modern School in Meadway opened in 1936, boys were housed in one half of the building and girls at the other. The boys moved out in March 1959 to attend Whitton Secondary School. Kneller Girls' School took over the whole building, the metalwork and wood work rooms were taken out to be replaced by rooms for cookery and for needlework. In 1978 the school moved to Fifth Cross Road, Twickenham and merged, in 1980, with Twickenham Girls School to become Waldegrave School for Girls
Waldegrave School for Girls
Waldegrave School for Girls is a girls comprehensive secondary school Science College in Twickenham, London, England.-Description:Waldegrave School for Girls is part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames LEA...
. Several small private schools also operated during the 1940s.
There is also a primary school in Whitton called Chase Bridge, opened in 1953 and still operating.
Whitton School, which opened in March 1959, was a 11-16 mixed Sports College.
Whitton School recently became Twickenham Academy
Twickenham Academy
Twickenham Academy is a co-educational secondary school in Whitton, Twickenham, London, England.Twickenham Academy is a co-educational secondary school in Whitton, Twickenham, London, England....
under the sponsorship of the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
company Kunskapsskolan
Kunskapsskolan
Kunskapsskolan is a Swedish school that provides education for students from grades 6 to 9 in elementary school. They also offer a gymnasium schools for grades 10 to 12 in different areas of Sweden...
.
Churches
In 1862 the Gostling family, owners of part of the former estate of the Duke of Argyll, donated landat the junction of Hounslow and Kneller Roads for the Church of St Philip and St James (C of E) and for an adjoining vicarage, since replaced.
A non-conformist Gospel Hall was built in 1881 on the western side of Nelson Road a few metres to the north of the junction with Warren Road. This became redundant with the opening of Whitton Baptist Church in Hounslow Road in 1935 and was later used by various commercial enterprises. The building of Whitton Baptist Church was funded by the compensation paid for the compulsory purchase of St Margaret's Baptist Church, which was demolished during the construction of the Great Chertsey Road approach to the new Twickenham Bridge across the Thames in 1932.
Whitton Methodist Church in Percy Road dates from the period of residential development in the 1930s and St Augustine of Canterbury, Whittonhttp://www.st-augustine-of-canterbury-whitton.org/in Hospital Bridge Road opened in 1958. Before then services had been held in Bishop Perrin C of E School which had opened in 1936.
The Catholic Church of St Edmund of Canterbury is in Nelson Road.
Shops and businesses
Apart from the High Street shopping parades introduced in the 1930s, many traditional shops have continued to thrive until the present, though the nature of their business has changed with the times. Nonetheless even after the war there were numerous examples of traders catering to the specific needs of what until only a decade or two earlier had remained a self contained rural community. These included several general and grocery stores, one of which survived a few doors along Nelson Road from the Admiral Nelson until the mid-1950s. This type of one-stop household supplier was eventually swept away by the modern supermarket.Other businesses that survived into the fifties and sixties were cobblers (traditional shoe repairers) in Nelson Road opposite the Admiral Nelson and at the terrace of shops near the junction of Nelson and Warren Roads; a cycle repair business in the same terrace, that continued to provide a vital service to the many residents who relied on their bicycles for their daily transport until the late 1950s and at various times fish and chip shops in Nelson Road in the old village and a few doors down from Holly Bush Corner.
In Hounslow Road there were a confectioner/tobacconist run by an elderly lady until her death in the early 1950s; an electrical store where residents took the lead-acid accumulators from their wireless sets once a week for re-charging; and a toyshop. New shops were incorporated into the facade of the Baptist church in 1935. For many years one of these was occupied by a hairdresser who advertised Marcel Permanent Waving. A second shop was not let out but used as a Sunday School room.
In the early years of the War a familiar sight in the village was a traditional gilt barleysugar-pillared Italian ice-cream wagon drawn by a horse, though this eventually disappeared as a result of rationing. During the same period, opposite the Gospel Hall was a coal dealer's yard which was a great attraction to children for the massive Foden steam lorry the dealer used to make his deliveries. A fine example was restored to full working order during the 1990s at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum
Kew Bridge Steam Museum
Kew Bridge Steam Museum houses a museum of water supply and a collection of water pumping steam engines. The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage...
.
Although it was a bucolic reminder of Whitton's former status as an important farming and market gardening centre, one business that was not popular with nearby residents was an extensive pig farm that operated on land between Tranmere and Nelson Roads until the early 1950s.
Nearest places
- TwickenhamTwickenhamTwickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
- HounslowHounslowHounslow is the principal town in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is a suburban development situated 10.6 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It forms a post town in the TW postcode area.-Etymology:...
- FulwellFulwell, LondonFulwell is located in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames between Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton Hill. The name is first mentioned circa 1450 and probably derives from Full or Foul Well....
- HamptonHampton, LondonHampton is a suburban area, centred on an old village on the north bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in England. Formerly it was in the county of Middlesex, which was formerly also its postal county. The population is about 9,500...
- IsleworthIsleworthIsleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited within the London Borough of Hounslow in west London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as...
- FelthamFelthamFeltham is a town in the London Borough of Hounslow, west London. It is located about west south west of central London at Charing Cross and from Heathrow Airport Central...
- HanworthHanworthHanworth lies to the south east of Feltham in the London Borough of Hounslow. The name is thought to come from the Anglo Saxon words “haen” and “worth”, meaning “small homestead”....
- TeddingtonTeddingtonTeddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...
Transport
Whitton is served by the National RailNational Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
services of South West Trains
South West Trains
South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...
from Whitton railway station
Whitton railway station
Whitton railway station is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in south London, and is in Travelcard Zone 5. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South West Trains. The ticket office is staffed 7 days a week during the day time. There are no ticket barriers or gates, but...
. The station supplies Whitton with services to Waterloo, as well as Staines
Staines
Staines is a Thames-side town in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey and Greater London Urban Area, as well as the London Commuter Belt of South East England. It is a suburban development within the western bounds of the M25 motorway and located 17 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in...
, Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
, Reading
Reading railway station
Reading railway station is a major rail transport hub in the English town of Reading. It is situated on the northern edge of the town centre, close to the main retail and commercial areas, and also the River Thames...
and Hounslow
Hounslow
Hounslow is the principal town in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is a suburban development situated 10.6 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It forms a post town in the TW postcode area.-Etymology:...
.
Buses
H22 (every 8 - 12 mins) Hounslow, Whitton Twickenham, Richmond.(Transdev
Transdev
Transdev was a major international public transport group based in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France and operating in several countries. Originally created as Société centrale pour l'équipement du territoire in 1955 and developing transportation activities since 1973, Transdev was a subsidiary...
)
281 (every 8 mins daytime, 15 mins evenings, 30 mins all night) Hounslow, Whitton, Twickenham, Teddington, Kingston, Tolworth. (Transdev)
481(hourly Mon - Sat day time only)- West Middlesex Hospital, Whitton, Fulwell, Teddington & Kingston.Travel London
Travel London
Travel London was a bus operator in London which was originally a subsidiary of the National Express Group. In May 2009 the company was sold to NedRailways, now called Abellio...
110 (every 10 - 15 mins) West Middlesex Hospital, Whitton, Twickenham.(Transdev
Transdev
Transdev was a major international public transport group based in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France and operating in several countries. Originally created as Société centrale pour l'équipement du territoire in 1955 and developing transportation activities since 1973, Transdev was a subsidiary...
)
111(every 8-10 mins, 24 hours)- Heathrow Central, Hounslow, Whitton, Hampton & Kingston.Travel London
Travel London
Travel London was a bus operator in London which was originally a subsidiary of the National Express Group. In May 2009 the company was sold to NedRailways, now called Abellio...