Uxbridge is a suburban town in the west of Greater London and has a rich history. It was an important market town in medieval times and has been a place of trade for over 800 years.
The accompanying video delves into various points of Uxbridge’s history. Amongst facts we didn’t cover were that:
- Although Uxbridge is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, St Margaret’s Church was built a hundred years later.
- The existing pub, The Queens Head, depicts Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, on its sign. The pub was previously called ’The Axe’, possibly dates to the 1540s and is connected to the church by a tunnel.
- A cemetery with an archway is located at the bottom of Windsor Street, and it was the site where three heretics were burned to death in 1555 for denying the trinity.
- During Elizabeth I’s reign, Roman Catholics were subject to severe constraints, and Catholic priest Edmund Campion was trained in Douai, Normandy, to give covert support to Catholics. He travelled around England on horseback, giving secret sermons and pretending to be a diamond merchant. In 1580, he came to Uxbridge and hid for a couple of weeks in a house owned by William Catesby. In 1581, Campion was caught, and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. The 40 or so Catholics who died during this period are called the ’Douai martyrs’, and the name is used for the local Catholic secondary school in Ickenham.
- In 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered, and its flamboyant leader, Robert Catesby (son of William), escaped and hid in his house in Uxbridge. He was later shot.
- Negotiations between Charles I and the Parliamentary side took place in Uxbridge from 30 January to 22 February, 1645, and are commemorated in the name of a local pub, the Crown and Treaty.
- A nearby flour mill belonging to Allied Mills was purchased in the nineteenth century by a Mister King, who named it “Kingsmill.” The brand name is still one of the best-selling bread-makers in the UK. For about 200 years most of London’s flour was produced in the Uxbridge area.
- In the 1930s George Orwell was a teacher at Frays College, now Frays Adult Education Centre. His novel, “A Clergyman’s Daughter”, was based on his experiences there.
Once our walk has exited the station, we walked immediately left into the Chimes Shopping Centre. Here, some of the earliest evidence of settlement at Uxbridge was uncovered during the excavation of the foundations.
Leave Chimes at the George Street exit.
George Street was the location of the last brewery in Uxbridge, demolished in 1967.
Harman’s Brewery was established in Uxbridge by George Harman in 1763. It was demolished and replaced by a Budgen’s supermarket, which in turn was demolished with the construction of The Chimes.
Turn right into Chippenham Waye and then left at the traffic lights into Montague Road. The Second World War witnessed a sad event here when nine people were killed by a bomb, with many houses subsequently rebuilt. Follow the road around a bend beside a railway cutting.
Cross Park Road and walk directly opposite along Honeycroft Hill. Further along here, RAF Uxbridge houses the Battle of Britain Bunker, from where the air defence of the south-east of England was coordinated during the Battle of Britain especially from its No. 11 Group Operations Room – also used during the D-Day landings.
We turn left into North Way. Pass under the traffic-light controlled bridge, straight ahead onto a path and then right. Start across the fields (you’ll need a map) before you reach Hillingdon station via Freezeland Way and Long Lane.