Place:Chiswick, Middlesex, England

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NameChiswick
Alt namesChiswick St Nicholassource: Vision of Britain
Bedford Parksource: neighbourhood within Chiswick parish
Grove Parksource: neighbourhood within Chiswick parish
Gunnersburysource: neighbourhood within Chiswick parish
Strand-on-the-Greensource: neighbourhood within Chiswick parish
Turnham Greensource: neighbourhood within Chiswick parish
TypeParish, Urban district
Coordinates51.486°N 0.251°W
Located inMiddlesex, England
See alsoOssulstone Hundred, Middlesex, Englandancient subdivision covering the area until 1894
Brentford and Chiswick, Middlesex, Englandurban district (then municipal borough) which it joined in 1927
Hounslow (London Borough), Greater London, EnglandLondon Borough into which the municipal borough was transferred in 1965
source: Family History Library Catalog

Chiswick, also known as Chiswick St Nicholas, was one of the ancient parishes of Middlesex. It became an Urban District in 1894 in 1927 and merged with the neighbouring Brentford Urban District to form the Brentford and Chiswick Urban District. This was made a Municipal Borough in 1932. Brentford and Chiswick Municipal Borough was abolished in 1965, becoming part of the London Borough of Hounslow in Greater London.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Chiswick was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with an agrarian and fishing economy. Having good communications with London from an early time Chiswick became a popular country retreat, and as part of the suburban growth of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the population significantly expanded.

Image:Hounslow3.png

The parish contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. It occupies a meander of the River Thames which is heavily used for competitive and recreational rowing, and Chiswick itself is home to several rowing clubs. The finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.

The Hogarth Roundabout in Chiswick is the point at which the M4 motorway starts for the west--to Heathrow airport, and eventually Bristol and South Wales.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Chiswick.

Chiswick has a number of named sublocalities: Grove Park, Strand-on-the-Green and those with tube stations named after them: Gunnersbury, Turnham Green, and Bedford Park. All but Bedford Park are now within the Borough of Hounslow; Bedford Park is in the London Borough of Ealing.

Grove Park

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Grove Park is a small area now located in the eastern section of the London Borough of Hounslow. In the 19th century it was within the parish of Chiswick. Specifically it is near Chiswick railway station and in the meander of the River Thames occupied by Duke's Meadows Park.

Like many London districts Grove Park in its modern form dates to the building of the railways in the mid to late 19th century; following the construction of Chiswick station in 1849 the Grove Park Hotel was built in 1867, followed by housing and a church. Growth was slow but steady, with some small-scale industry (e.g. soap making) locating itself in the area. The area is now a primarily residential one noted for its abundance of green spaces and sporting facilities.

It should not be confused with Grove Park in Lewisham in southeast London.

Strand-on-the-Green

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Strand-on-the-Green is an area located immediately to the east of Kew Bridge, along the north bank of the River Thames. It is renowned as a particularly picturesque part of London. A footpath runs along the bank of the river, overlooked by numerous imposing 18th-century houses and local pubs. It was one of the four villages (Chiswick, Little Sutton, Turnham Green and Strand-on-the-Green) that merged to form the present-day Chiswick.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Strand-on-the-Green.

Gunnersbury

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Gunnersbury's history is mostly 20th century. Residentially, it consists mainly of pre-war housing of a variety of types, including flats, terrace, semi detached, and detached houses. It is also the home of a number of technical industries.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Gunnersbury.

Turnham Green

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Turnham Green was a village on the main road (the A4) between London and the west. It is now described more as a park (or green) than a village. However, in the 2011 UK census the population of the ward neared 11,500.

On 13 November 1642, the Battle of Turnham Green was fought nearby during the First English Civil War resulting in the Parliamentarians blocking the advance back to London of Charles I from his "exiled" headquarters in Oxford.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Turnham Green.

Bedford Park

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Bedford Park is a suburban development in west London, England. It forms a conservation area that is mostly within the London Borough of Ealing, with a small part to the east within the London Borough of Hounslow, despite having its beginnings in the parish of Chiswick which is considered to be in the Borough of Hounslow.

Bedford Park has been described as the world's first garden suburb. It created a model that was emulated not just by the Garden City movement, but by suburban developments around the world. The desire to protect the mature trees led to the informal plan that is major feature of Bedford Park. Planning was started in 1875 and a number of architects and town planners lent their ideas to the final design. The Queen Anne style of architecture was the most dominant.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Bedford Park.

Research tips

Greater London Research Tips

A reminder that Greater London was not formed until 1965 and covers a much greater territory than its predecessor, the County of London formed in 1900. The City of London was only a part of the County of London. A map of the boroughs of Greater London is reproduced on all Greater London borough pages. A map of the boroughs of the smaller County of London is reproduced on all County of London borough pages.


Researching ancestors in London will probably be more successful than researching ancestors in the rest of England, particularly for the period before 1837 and the advent of civil registration. Baptisms, marriages and burials are available online for County of London parishes, and possibly for parishes throughout Greater London as well.

  • Anglican Parishes in London is a wiki here on WeRelate listing the places of worship of the established church throughout London. The churches are grouped within the post-1965 boroughs and for each is the street address, a link to the Booth Map (inner boroughs only), the time span for which the database AIM25 holds records, the FamilySearch Wiki link (see below), the Wikipedia link, and further notes. This is a work-in-progress and not all churches are listed as yet, but it is a guide to a great deal more information on those for which information has been gathered.
  • The London Metropolitan Archives (40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB) holds records relating to the whole of Greater London. Ancestry (subscription necessary) has produced transcriptions and provides images of lists of baptisms, marriages, and burials in churches across Greater London. Many of these lists start in 1813 and stretch into the 20th century; some start even earlier.

Maps

  • A street-by-street map of London (both sides of the Thames, and stretching from Limehouse, Stepney and Greenwich in the east to Hyde Park and Kensington in the west) drawn by Edward Mogg in 1806. Blows up to a very readable level. Highly recommended viewing. Shows named areas on the edge of the County of London (1900-1965) as the small villages they were in 1800. Streets in the City are named, but churches are missing.
  • The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers edited by Cecil Humphery-Smith and published by Phillimore & Co Ltd (edition of 1995) provides a map of the City of London indicating all the parishes and includes dates of commencement of registers for parishes formed before 1832.
  • Wikipedia has an expandable map of the area of devastation of the 1666 fire. The map includes the location of Pudding Lane where the fire started.
  • A map of London in the 1890s provided by the National Library of Scotland. There are a few steps between the home page index and the individual maps which may be difficult to follow for those who don't know London, but the maps themselves are produced at the scale of 5 feet to the mile on the original and are very clear. Houses on streets are marked, but not numbered.
  • Ordnance Survey map of London 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing London parishes just after the reorganization of 1899. The map was originally drawn over a street map at a scale of 1 inch to the mile and can be blown up to inspect a single borough. Only the major streets are marked and are only visible at maximum magnification. The City of London is an inset in the top right hand corner.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Middlesex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing the parishes remaining in Middlesex after the reorganization of 1899 when much of the former area of Middlesex had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Surrey 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Surrey parishes (chiefly Southwark) just after the reorganization of 1899 when the most urban parts of Surrey were transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Kent 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Kent parishes just after the reorganization of 1899 when the western part of Kent had been transferred into London.
  • Ordnance Survey map of Essex 1900 (provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time) showing Essex parishes (West Ham, East Ham, Ilford) which were absorbed into Greater London in 1965.

Registration Districts

  • Registration Districts in London, Registration Districts in Middlesex, Registration Districts in Surrey, Registration Districts in Kent, and Registration Districts in Essex are lists of the registration districts used for civil registration (births, marriages and deaths, as well as the censuses). There are linked supporting lists of the parishes which made up each registration district, the dates of formation and abolition of the districts, the General Register Office numbers, and the local archive-holding place. This work has been carried out by Brett Langston under the agency of GENUKI (Genealogy United Kingdom and Ireland) and UKBMD - Births, Marriages, Deaths & Censuses on the Internet, and has been updated into the 21st century. If the only information about an individual has been obtained from UKBMD, the name of the registration district is considered a "placename" within WeRelate and can be used to provide a broad estimate of the location.

Cemeteries

  • Deceased Online includes four of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries (Brompton, Highgate, Kensal Green, and Nunhead) in its inventory of 65 London cemeteries. Transcripts for Abney Park are free with registration online at www.devsys.co.uk/ap/. Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has "London, England, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966". That leaves West Norwood without comprehensive online access to burial records. (Deceased Online and Ancestry may have increased their provision since this was written in 2016.)
  • As of October 2019 Ancestry has a file titled "England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers 1800-2016" which includes Abney Park Cemetery, Greenford Park Cemetery, Acton Cemetery, Ealing & Old Brentford Cemetery, Havelock Norwood Cemetery, Hortus Cemetery, South Ealing Cemetery, Queens Road Cemetery, and Chingford Mount Cemetery.
  • The City of London Cemetery, at Manor Park, near Wanstead in the London Borough of Redbridge also contains remains transferred from former parishes in the City of London whose graveyards have been replaced by streets and commercial buildings.
  • Brookwood Cemetery, beyond the Greater London borders in Surrey, was opened in 1854 for burials for Londoners. See the Wikpedia article.

Other online sources

  • See the FamilySearch Wiki under "London" and also under "Middlesex", "Surrey", "Essex" and "Kent" for key information about Greater London's jurisdictions and records, plus links to indexes, reference aids and Family History Library holdings.
  • GENUKI has a long list of websites and archive holders in addition to London Metropolitan Archives above. (The list from GENUKI is not maintained so well that there is never a dead link in it. However, it is often worth googling the title given on the page just in case the contributor has reorganized their website and GENUKI has not picked it up.)
  • GENUKI also has a list of the Archives and Local Studies Libraries for each of the boroughs of Greater London.
  • The London Encyclopaedia by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert. An e-book available online through Google, originally published by Pan Macmillan. There is a search box in the left-hand pane.
  • London Lives. A very useful free website for anyone researching their London ancestors between the years 1690-1800. This is a fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
  • London Ancestor, a website belonging to one of the London family history societies, has a list of transcriptions of directories from the 18th century, listing in one case "all the squares, streets, lanes, courts, yards, alleys, &C. in and about Five Miles of the Metropolis..." In other parts of the same website are maps of various parts of 19th century London and Middlesex.
  • The proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, 1674-1913. A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. This website is free to use.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Chiswick. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Grove Park. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Strand-on-the-Green. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Gunnersbury. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Turnham Green. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Bedford Park. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.