|
|
|
|
The name Perivale, which means "pear tree valley", does not appear before the early 16th century. In Domesday, the hamlet is shown as Greneforde. During the Middle Ages the parish was known as Greenford Parva or Little Greenford. Early in 1307, the manor was conveyed to Walter de Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, but, on his imprisonment in July 1307, his estates were confiscated by Edward II. The king retained the manor until 1313 when he granted it to Henry Beaumont, whose family continued to hold it until 1386. It then passed through various hands until in 1566 it was sold to Henry Millet. The manor then descended in the Millet family and, through the female line, to the families of Lane and Harrison. The artist Francis Davis Millet, who died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, was descended from this family. In 1767, John Harrison sold the manor to Richard Lateward and it then descended through the Lateward and Croft-Murray families, remaining in their hands until the 1920s when the estate was broken up and sold for building purposes. During the 16th and 17th centuries Perivale acquired a reputation as a high-quality wheat growing district. It remained a sparsely-populated agricultural parish until the 1930s. In 1801, the population as only 28. The opening of the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal in that year had little effect on its isolation because by 1881 the population was still only 34. In 1894, Perivale became part of the new Greenford Urban District. In 1904, a halt was opened on the Great Western Railway at Perivale, but despite the coming of the railway there was no residential or industrial development before 1930. In 1921 there were still only 114 people living in Perivale. With the cutting of the Western Avenue through the parish in 1929-30, Perivale was quickly adopted as a site for industrial expansion. Between 1931 and 1939 the area bounded by Western Avenue, Horsenden Lane and the canal was almost entirely covered by factories and houses and by 1939 the development was almost complete. Since 1945, the pattern of settlement has remained substantially unchanged. Selborne School itself dates from 1936 and is situated in the centre of the
Medway Estate, now Medway Village. This estate was built mainly to provide
economic housing for workers in local industries, particularly those employed in
the Hoover
Factory, the largest factory in the area. This magnificent building, which was built in 1932, is now a Tesco store, but the art-deco facade of the building has been retained. The factory, became a grade II listed building in 1990. Therefore, when it needed restoration, its original appearance had to be kept, and any architectural or structural operation to the building had to be approved by English Heritage. The Hoover factory is known as the architect's, Wallis, Gilbert & Partners', Art Deco masterpiece. After Hoover production moved in the early 1980's, the buildings were left bare and unused for eight years. During these years vandalism, weather and general neglect resulted in severe deterioration. The new owner, Tesco, bought the factory in 1989 and decided to convert it into a superstore. The design and building contractor, Kyle Stewart, won the multi-million pound design and construction contract, and the re-development started in January 1992. In just under a year, the building re-emerged in all its former glory. Across the A40 from Tesco is the church of St. Mary the Virgin which is one of the smallest in Middlesex and dates in part from the late 15th Century. For many years its dedication was not known until 1951, when a reference was discovered in a 15th century will to "the churchyard of St. Mary of Little Greenford". The churchyard became a popular and convenient place of burial for the middle-class inhabitants of London in the late 18th and 19th centuries and therefore many people are buried there who have no connection with the district. The graveyard contains the tomb of Elizabeth Colleton who died in 1721. Before her death she cried out that, if there was a just God, trees would grow out of her tomb. This is what actually happened, with trees almost destroying the tomb. It has now been restored and made safe but one tree remains next to the tomb. Richard Babcock Snury (Rector of Perivale, 1783-1789) was a brilliant young man at Oxford and was dubbed "The Cardinal" because of his eminence in learning. While at Ealing, he was headmaster of Great Ealing School. William Pearson was another notable rector. He was instrumental in founding the Royal Astronomical Society, of which he was vice-president and gold medallist in 1829. In 1926 the Greenford urban district was dissolved and the civil parish of Perivale was incorporated into the municipal borough of Ealing. Perivale has a number of small shops and businesses, a library, a golf course, a community centre and an all-weather athletics track.
The library is located at: Horsenden Lane South, Greenford, Middlesex UB6
7NT. LinksClick here or more information about:
|
|
Send mail to
admin@selborne.ealing.sch.uk with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
