Old Oak Farm (sketch, nineteenth century)
The farm, at the end of its existence, was a notable stud farm. By 1845 it consisted of over 368 acres divided into 32 fields.
In 1903 housing development was accelerating and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who owned it, decided to sell land.
Some of the farmland was assigned to the ground that became the White City exhibition site and a northward extension of Bloemfontein Road.
Credit: User unknown/public domain
The farm, at the end of its existence, was a notable stud farm. By 1845 it consisted of over 368 acres divided into 32 fields.
In 1903 housing development was accelerating and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who owned it, decided to sell land.
Some of the farmland was assigned to the ground that became the White City exhibition site and a northward extension of Bloemfontein Road.
Credit: User unknown/public domain
This area was once woodland but was cleared probably some time after the Norman Conquest; the land became part of the Manor of Fulham owned by the Bishops of London.
Before the age of the vegetable, fruit and flower growers, the cultivated acres of Hammersmith were almost entirely devoted to arable and grazing land.
Wormholt Woods common land was used for grazing.
Old Oak Farm was leased for 200 years to the Duke of Somerset in 1548 and by the beginning of the seventeenth century was in the tenure of a family called Atley. A survey of 1833 described the soil as "strong loam, making good grazing fields near Uxbridge Road, but towards Wormholt Wood Scrubs it becomes too stiff and too wet in winter." The poor quality of the land encouraged frequent changes of tenancy.
The manor of Wormholt Barns was split into two parts: Wormholt and Eynham lands. By 1845 Old Oak Farm consisted of over 368 acres divided into 32 fields.
The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine (Volume 13) described a visit to Old Oak Farm thus:
"About the four-mile stone, on the Uxbndge Road. just buyund the common at Shepherd’s Bush, there is a finger-post , pointing to the right. Some quarter of a mile down a green lane brings you in the place indicated.
We proceeded to the stables. The host Mr. Alfred Dunn took us to the stables, connected with the house by a covered way, and bear a characteristic proportion to the establishment, being at least six times as extensive as the dwelling-house. The ventilation of his stables, both in the country and in London, is of a nature that I never before had experience of."
The temptation to use land for other purposes was irresistible - brick making land could raise £4000 per acre. A field named Barn Field was allocated for brickmaking late in the nineteenth century.
In 1903 housing development was accelerating and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who owned the land, decided to sell parts of the Old Oak Farm for development.
Some of the farmland was assigned to the ground that became the White City exhibition site and a northward extension of Bloemfontein Road.
Part of the deal between the commissioners and Hammersmith council was for a donation of a piece of land of approximately 7¾ acres for recreational purposes. After some delays the new Wormholt Park was opened on 27 June 1911.