Brentford

For other uses, see Brentford (disambiguation).

Brentford is a suburb in the London Borough of Hounslow at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent in South West London, situated approximately 8 miles (12.9 km) west south-west of Charing Cross.

Contents

1 Today
2 Brief history

2.1 Timeline

3 Notable present and former residents
4 Redevelopment
5 Places of interest
6 Interests of inhabitants
7 Companies Headquartered in Brentford
8 Town twinning
9 Nearest places
10 Nearest tube stations
11 Nearest railway stations
12 Sources
13 External links

Today

Brentford is a suburban development subsumed into the conurbation of Greater London.

Brief history

Brentford, as the name suggests, was built on a fording point on the River Brent.

The town is named as Bregentforda at the time of the Council of Brentford 781 and as 'Bregentforda' and 'Brentforda' in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle of 1016. The root 'Bregent-', naming the river is thought to originate from the name of the Celtic goddess 'Brigantia', tutelary goddess of the Brigantes tribe (who didn't live in Brentford).

The settlement pre-dates the Roman occupation of Britain, and thus pre-dates the founding of London itself. Many pre-Roman artifacts have been excavated in and around the area in Brentford known as 'Old England'. Bronze Age pottery and burnt flints have been found in separate sites in Brentford. The quality and quantity of the artefacts suggests that Brentford was a meeting point for pre-Romanic tribes where part of tribal rituals included the ceremonial casting of weapons into the river. One well known Iron Age piece from about 100 BC - AD 50 is the Brentford horn-cap [link]- a ceremonial chariot fitting that formed part of local antiquarian Thomas Layton's collection [link], now held by the Museum of London. The Celtic knot pattern (the 'Brentford Knot') on this item has been copied for use on modern jewellery.

It has been suggested that Brentford was also a main fording point on the River Thames, and was the point where Julius Cæsar crossed the Thames during his invasion of Britain. It has been asserted, without strong evidence, that a documented battle fought at this time between Cæsar's forces and Cassivellaunus took place at Brentford. There are, however, two other historically accredited battles of Brentford in 1016 and 1642.

Timeline

54 BC Brentford is a likely site of a battle recorded by Julius Cæsar between Julius Cæsar and local king, Cassivellaunus.
781 Council of Brentford recording settlement of a dispute between Offa, king of Mercia, and the Bishop of Worcester
1016 'Battle of Brentford' between the invading Canute and Edmund Ironside
1431 Relocation of Syon Abbey to Brentford from Twickenham
1539 Destruction of Syon Abbey by King Henry VIII
1616 - 1617 Pocahontas, the Native American 'Princess', lived in Brentford
1642 'Battle of Brentford' during the English Civil War
1717 Brentford Turnpike Trust founded to maintain the road between Kensington and Hounslow
1805 Start of operations of the Grand Junction Canal (later the Grand Union Canal)
1815 - 1817 John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the USA, lived in Brentford
1849 Start of operations of the Hounslow Loop line, providing service to Kew Bridge, Brentford Central and Syon Lane stations in the Brentford area.
1859 Start of operations of the Great Western & Brentford Railway company linking Brentford Dock to the Great Western Railway main line at Southall. Additional passenger station named 'Brentford Town' later constructed just north of Brentford High Street.
1884 Start of operations of Boston Manor Underground station (then known as Boston Road).
1889 Brentford Football Club founded by a rowing club seeking a winter sport.
1925 30th May - Great West Road officially opened by King George V. Later the Brentford section became known as the Golden Mile due to the large number of factories that relocated there to take advantage of the good communications. The factories provided high employment and stimulation to the local economy.
1929 1st January - Grand Junction Canal bought by the Regent's Canal and amalgamated with other canals to form the Grand Union Canal.
1965 Opening of elevated section of M4 motorway

The main road to the South West of Britain passed through Brentford for many centuries, and even now, the M4 motorway passes approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the original main road through Brentford.

Notable present and former residents

Robert Rankin author of the The Brentford Trilogy

Pocahontas 1616-17

J. M. W. Turner 1785-86

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1802-04

John Quincy Adams 1815-17

A notable family from Brentford was the 18th/19th century architectual father and son partnership, the Hardwicks. Thomas Hardwick Senior (1725-1798) and Thomas Hardwick Junior (1752-1829) were both from Brentford and are buried in the old church of St Laurence. Hardwick Senior was the master mason for the Adam Brothers during the construction of Syon House. He along with his son also did a great deal of remodelling and rebuilding on the church of St Laurence.

Sir Alan Sugar ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Places of interest

Syon House, the London residence of the Duke of Northumberland.

Syon Abbey, now rased to the ground, was the largest abbey church in England.

Syon House is built upon part of the site of Syon Abbey. The exact location of Syon Abbey was unknown until archeological investigations in the grounds of Syon House (Syon Park) in 2003 (by Time Team) and 2004 revealed the foundations of the abbey church. It was larger than Westminster Abbey is now, but no above-ground structure remains. For more details on the abbey and the reasons for its destruction, see its own entry - Syon Abbey.

The London Butterfly House in Syon Park until October 2006 is like a large aviary containing butterflies. Visitors can see butterflies and moths flying about, feeding, and emerging from Chrysalises. There is also a colony of large ants (kept with the butterflies), a small tropical bird aviary, and a small gallery of reptiles, insects and spiders.

Boston Manor House, built in 1622, is a Jacobean manor house, noted for its fine plasterwork ceilings.

Gunnersbury Park Museum is the local museum for the Boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow and situated in Gunnersbury House. It contains many archaeological finds including hundreds of flints, plus Roman and Viking weapons found in Brentford. It also has displays of costumes and changing displays on other subjects of local interest. The house was formerly occupied by the Rothschild family and although they did not leave any contemporary furniture or fittings, some of the decorative schemes have been well preserved.

The Weir, public house, formerly 'The White Horse' was where the artist J. M. W. Turner lived for one year at the age of ten. He is regarded as having started his interest in painting while living there.

Syon Park House (demolished in 1953), not to be confused with Syon House, housed the 'Syon Park Academy' where the poet Shelley was educated between the ages of 10 and 12 before moving on to Eton. A Royal Mail depot stands on the site now. This may also be the site of the dwelling where Pocahontas lived in Brentford End between 1616 and 1617.

Brentford Dock, a freight terminus of the Great Western Railway, built at the confluence of the River Thames and River Brent, designed by Brunel, and built between 1855 and 1859. A spur line from the GWR at Southall was constructed to the dock to facilitate easy transferral of freight from lighters and barges on the Thames to GWR served destinations in the west of the United Kingdom. The dock was redeveloped as residential accommodation in the early 1970s, and little industrial archeology remains.

Brentford Dock was built alongside previous important transport infrastructure as Brentford is the terminus of the Grand Union Canal, originally the Grand Junction Canal. This waterway is still in use for leisure traffic.

Brentford Public Library is a Carnegie library.

Brentford Public Baths (1896) are a Grade II listed example of late Victorian architecture.

Kew Bridge Steam Museum houses the world's largest working beam engine.

The Musical Museum houses a large collection of mechanical musical instruments, such as player pianos.

Griffin Park is home to Brentford Football Club and from 2002 until 23 September 2005 it was the home of the London Broncos rugby league club - subsequently they were renamed Harlequins Rugby League and transferred to The Stoop.

Interests of inhabitants

The launching of Google Trends in 2006 drew world attention to Brentford because of Brentford's unexpected prominence as a source of internet searches for terms relating to pornography and many sexual fetishes. This unexpected prominence probably reflected the presence of an ISP routing center near Brentford rather than the interests of the inhabitants of Brentford themselves. [link]

Companies Headquartered in Brentford

Brompton Bicycle, manufacturer of folding bicycles
Datapoint
GlaxoSmithKline
Heidelberg Graphic Equipment Ltd. [website] (subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen [website]) ([German Wikipedia entry])
Audi are currently building their European headquarters in Brentford on the site of the old Lucozade building.
E.M.Tool Designs (Ltd)

Town twinning

Branford, Connecticut [link]

Nearest places

Nearest tube stations

Nearest railway stations

Sources

The Archive Photographs Series, Brentford; Tempus Publishing Ltd., 1998, ISBN 0752406272
Brentford as it was; Hendon Publishing Co. Ltd., Second impression May 1993, ISBN 0860670821
Brentford Past; Historical Publications Ltd., ISBN 0948667796
Old Ordnance Survey Maps, Brentford 1894, The Godfrey Edition; Alan Godfrey Maps, ISBN 0850545099

External links

Main districts of the London boroughs | List of places in London

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