Hounslow
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Map of Middlesex
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Hounslow books (6 available)
Hounslow memories
Read and share memories of Hounslow and Middlesex inspired by Frith photos
Memories
It was in the 50's and I was only a little girl. My grandparents lived across the road in Vine Place. We had a yard and the fair used to put up there each winter. We were always in the hospital, so clean, so nice you never got turned away. My cousin who is one year older than me was in there with 'yellow fever', she was only 8 years old. I remember standing outside on the grass by the door making her laugh, then one week later I had contracted it myself - many times we were outpatients there. It was so sad when they closed it down. I will never forget that.
Contributed by jayne foster
The Children's Hospital
Every child from Bedfont to Isleworth by turn spent a few days in the little round building. Variously: The Staines Rd Hospital. Children's Hospital. Cottage Hospital. The Childrens is the one we most used. Why?? Tonsils. Tonsillectomy was the rule for those around 10yrs of age. I can even recall the names of 2 (boy) school mates from the same week. No separation at that time for the age group.
O.R-S
Contributed by Olivia R-S
Hounslow Hospital, Staines Road 1985
This was the Hounslow cottage hospital on the Staines Road, Hounslow at the top of Hibernia Road. It was demolished in about 1985-1990 after being left empty for a number of years. On the site today stands a Halfords car spares (2006).
The only time I ever went inside the hospital was to visit a friend who had just had a boil on his backside lanced!
Contributed by Darryl Davis
Climbing to the Top
Climbing to the top.
My friend Ray and I were going to see 'The Fugitive Kind' at the Odeon Cinema, Hounslow West. This was in 1960 and we were fourteen years old. I told him that my eldest brother had climbed to the top of the Odeon tower some twenty years earlier. Well, I don't know how it came about, but it seemed a good idea at the time to re-enact the feat. We went down the right hand side of the building towards the car park, looking for a way up on to the roof. We must have looked suspicious for it was not long before a policeman turned up and wanted to know what we were doing. I ...read more here
Contributed by barry hawgood
Odeon cinema
That's the Odeon, taken from outside Hounslow West station. Great fun on Saturday mornings, when they had a childrens' matinee.
Contributed by Ken Thomson
Cinema club
I remember Sat morning club had a great time :-) Allan Stevens
Contributed by Allan Stevens
Christmas
I remember growing up in Hownslow. The winters use to be very cold, ice on the inside of the windows. We lived in a flat in Beavers Lane and I remember playing outside in the snow, it was very cold and the snow was deep. Well, being only 5 years old at the time it was great but it must have been very hard for our parents in those days. I remember getting a book and an orange for Christmas, well, times have changed now - would the children of this age just want a book?
Allan.
Contributed by Allan Stevens
High Street, Hounslow
I think this is a photo of the junction of the High Street (London Road) and Hanworth Road. The shop on the left later became C & A.
I lived in North Drive, Hounslow with my family from 1954 to 1965.
Christmas Turkeys
or anytime 1952-1960. Bright and nnippy, frosty in the mid morning, but swirling fog, nearly freezing by the end of the day. Gloomy from 4pm onwards, the gas lamps of the Poulterer was a hubbub of anxious discussion and cheerful sales talk from the attendants. Their best 'Norfolk wares' on display.
Down at that end of the HIgh Street was a big open front Poulterers. Not the general butcher. More a Dickensian type of place. Butcher's men wrapped in their big white aprons, gaffer hooks at the ready to bring down the bird of choice. Black fascia board, big bright Gold 'shadowed' Pickwickian lettering. Gas and electric lamps. I recall that then 'the CHristmas Bird' was purchased along with ...read more here
Contributed by Olivia R-S
splish,splosh,splash!
Anytime between 1953 to 1959 for me. Who remembers bus rides from all around to then catch the 111, I think, if you didn't have to walk along from the Bus depot. Children with 'hula-hoops' , nets on sticks(for tiddlers which proably weren't there!), bags with towels, cordial and sandwiches. The excitement of 'bubble' swimsuits on, ready to be all the quicker into the pools, for we lucky ones; woollens for some unfortunates. Long busy days splashing around in the Lampton pools.
Very simple, relatively cheap, probably unhygienic but the whole family could go. The gardens were very nice and no doubt a draw for some like dutiful parents or older siblings ;-) ...read more here
Contributed by Olivia R-S
Are You Being Served
I believe the Watney’s pub on the left of the picture was The Red Lion. In 1962 I was a lad of sixteen and worked at Blundells Shoe Shop. From the photograph this would have been behind the cameraman. I live in America now and pubic television show a lot of repeats of Are You Being Served, it reminds me of the time I was a shoe salesman in Hounslow. With the senior assistants getting first choice of the customers. The commission was 3d in the pound or one and a quarter percent, this was not very much. When a customer came in Mr Farthing, the manager would call “First forward” and Mrs Mills the first hand would step forward to ...read more here
Contributed by barry hawgood
Town Hall
My first job when I left school was in the town hall. I moved to Australia in 1972 so found the photos of Hounslow interesting. I was upset to see these buildings knocked down and replaced by a shopping centre when I returned in 2006.
Contributed by Pauline Williams
Extracts From Hounslow & Middlesex books
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".
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".
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".
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, which was invented during the first half of the 14th century, is a mixture of potassium
nitrate (saltpetre), charcoal, and sulphur in a ratio of 75:15:10. It was used in guns, time-fuses, and
fireworks. Until the reign of Henry VIII, the lack of saltpetre in England meant most gunpowder
was imported. However, as British naval power expanded beyond Europe during the reign of
Elizabeth I it became possible to manufacture gunpowder at home, and by the middle of the 16th
century gunpowder mills had been established at Hounslow Heath on the River Crane. One of the
constituents of gunpowder is charcoal. This was produced from willow and alder, which was readily
available from the river banks. The river also provided water-power for the mills and transport for
barges. The open land, relatively distant from settlements, was an added advantage as gunpowder
manufacture is highly dangerous.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".
Mills continued to flourish along the
banks of the River Crane on the outskirts
of the town, using water-power to
create products like oil and gunpowder.
Gunpowder manufacture was big business
in the 17th century and James I (1602-25)
granted a Royal Charter to the gunpowder
manufacturers on the Heath. Crane Park
Powder Mills were established between 1766
and 1768. The first mill started life as a corn
mill. The gunpowder mill east of Hanworth
Bridge was notorious for explosions that
broke windows for miles around. In 1772
three mills blew up, shattering glass and
buildings in the neighbourhood. Horace
Walpole wrote complaining to his friend and
relative Seymour Conway, then Lieutenant
General of the Ordnance, that all the
decorative painted glass had been blown out
of his windows at Strawberry Hill.
An extract from from"Twickenham - A History & Celebration".