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Harrow On The Hill

Harrow On The Hill photos (34 available)

Old photo of Harrow On The Hill

Harrow On The Hill maps (2 available)

Old map of Harrow On The Hill

Harrow On The Hill books (8 available)

Harrow On The Hill memories

Childhood

St Marys Church was my special place. I would go there whenever I needed to think or just find inner peace. It helped me through a sometimes difficult transition to adulthood. Although I now live 56 miles away, it is still my place of hope, and I go back there every chance I get. It's so beautiful, my very own stairway to heaven.
Contributed by Pauline Coles

London memories

Childhood

St Marys Church was my special place. I would go there whenever I needed to think or just find inner peace. It helped me through a sometimes difficult transition to adulthood. Although I now live 56 miles away, it is still my place of hope, and I go back there every chance I get. It's so beautiful, my very own stairway to heaven.
A memory of Harrow On The Hill contributed by Pauline Coles

Happy Days

Harrow, Station Road c1960

Having grown up in Harrow during the 1950s and 60s, how well I remember my trips to Universal Stationers, seen here at the top of Station Road close to its junction with College Road. As a child I was always fascinated with stationery items and this shop stocked everything you needed. Upon entering you would be greeted by an assistant who would gladly climb a ladder to bring down reams of typing paper from the shelves above which reached to ceiling level. On leaving the shop we would form an orderly queue at the nearby bus stop where the 114 and 158 called to take us home to Harrow Weald. Contrast this with the unruly scrum that occurs at Harrow Bus ...read more here
A memory of Harrow contributed by Chris Kennett

Rocking in the 60s

South Harrow, Northolt Road c1965

On the left of the photo is Woolworths, above which were flats - including one where the rock star/ wannabe MP Screaming Lord Sutch lived for a while. Another Rocker lived in South Harrow - Johnny Kidd (and the Pirates). I used to live just off Corbins Lane. St Pauls Church built a church hall in a lane that went off Park Lane. This was a venue for local bands (called "The Void"), including a group of young men who played quite loud and called themselves "The High Numbers", people would say "The Who?" and so they changed their name. As they became more famous they moved to a more regular venue a few miles up the Road, The Station pub ...read more here
A memory of South Harrow contributed by Eric Medcalf

Extracts From Harrow On The Hill & London books

Harrow On The Hill, Station Road 1914

Here we see the beginnings of a familiar retail pattern: multinationals are taking over the high street. On the left is Home & Colonial, which by this date had several hundred branches. Their pricing policy was aggressive: signs in the window proclaim ‘2d in the shilling returned’. Two doors along is Boots, ‘the largest chemist in the world’, and just beyond that Sainsbury’s, with its distinctive shop interiors, spacious, practical and hygienic, worlds away from the small, cramped corner shop of old.
An extract from from"Times Gone By".

Harrow On The Hill, Station Road 1914

Here we see the beginnings of a familiar retail pattern: multinationals are taking over the high street. On the left is Home & Colonial, which by this date had several hundred branches. Their pricing policy was aggressive: signs in the window proclaim ‘2d in the shilling returned’. Two doors along is Boots, ‘the largest chemist in the world’, and just beyond that Sainsbury’s, with its distinctive shop interiors, spacious, practical and hygienic, worlds away from the small, cramped corner shop of old.
An extract from from"Countryside Poems".

The Earl of Cornwall built stew (fish) ponds on the western boundary of his estate, and fish was an important part of the medieval diet. Fish weirs were used to trap fish in rivers, and were an important and often hotly disputed resource up to the 18th century. They were supposed to be licensed, but illegal weirs flourished and were a hazard to river traffic. There was at least one weir in the river by Isleworth with stakes at its upper end, and this gave its name to the modern Railshead Road where the Crane joins the Thames. In the Middle Ages the settlement at Twickenham was a cluster of houses in streets around St Mary’s Church and in narrow alleys nearby leading down to the river. Church Street was the principal way through Twickenham for travellers until the end of the 19th century when the present York Street was built. The name of Burgate was used for the area near the church in 1486. Although the nave of the present St Mary’s dates from 1713, when it was rebuilt after it collapsed, the ragstone church tower is medieval and may have formed part of an earlier fortification on the site.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".

Twickenham, the River 1899

The local population in the Middle Ages made a living from agriculture, fishing, boat-building, and ferrying traffic up and down the river. There was even a local vineyard, which produced ‘two tuns and one pipe’ in 1297. This seems to have been planted with cherry-trees later. There is little detailed evidence on the number of people living at Twickenham during the Middle Ages but the manor of Isleworth, including Twickenham, seems to have expanded slowly during this period. In the 14th century there are accounts of crops of oats, wheat, and barley being grown locally, and local livestock included cows and sheep. The rolls also list a ploughman, a shepherd, a cowman, and a dairymaid in this period. By 1547 the people of Isleworth were said to number 400, and the figure relating to Twickenham apart from the rest of Isleworth Manor is estimated at 210. The River Thames has been an important means of transport since before the Romans arrived in England. As there was no bridge across the Thames from Twickenham on the Middlesex bank over to the Surrey bank until the 18th century, residents who wanted to cross to the opposite bank of the river did so by ferry. The first evidence of a ferry at Twickenham occurs in 1443.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".

Twickenham, Church 1899

The Earl of Cornwall built stew (fish) ponds on the western boundary of his estate, and fish was an important part of the medieval diet. Fish weirs were used to trap fish in rivers, and were an important and often hotly disputed resource up to the 18th century. They were supposed to be licensed, but illegal weirs flourished and were a hazard to river traffic. There was at least one weir in the river by Isleworth with stakes at its upper end, and this gave its name to the modern Railshead Road where the Crane joins the Thames. In the Middle Ages the settlement at Twickenham was a cluster of houses in streets around St Mary’s Church and in narrow alleys nearby leading down to the river. Church Street was the principal way through Twickenham for travellers until the end of the 19th century when the present York Street was built. The name of Burgate was used for the area near the church in 1486. Although the nave of the present St Mary’s dates from 1713, when it was rebuilt after it collapsed, the ragstone church tower is medieval and may have formed part of an earlier fortification on the site.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".