Brentford, situated on the side of the river Thames, seven miles from London. It derives its name from the small river Brent, which rises in the parish of Hendon, and here falls into the Thames.

Brentford is in the hundred of Elthorne, it is divided into three parishes; Old Brentford belonging to Great Ealing, New Brentford to Hanwell, and Brentford End to Isleworth parish. It is a place of considerable trade, being one of the greatest thoroughfares in the kingdom.

The town affords employment to great numbers of labouring people, Here is a very large flour-mill on the same construction as the late Albion mills at Blackfriars Bridge, erected at the sole expence of Robert Wallace Johnson, Esq. and Mr. Gould, Here is also an extensive pottery, and a very considerable malt distillery To the right in New Brentford, is the half-acre, leading to the Butts, where the hustings are erected for the election of members of parliament for the county.

The church was built in the reign of Richard I. It is a chapel of ease to Great Ealing, and stands in that part of the town called New Brentford.

That part of it called Old Brentford is situated upon a line rising bank close to the Thames, and is naturally capable of being made a very beautiful spot.

A bloody battle was fought at Brentford, in the year 1016, between Edmund Ironside and Canute the Dane, wherein the latter was defeated.

The following account of a battle fought at Brenford, on the 12th of November 1642, between King Charles’ troops and some regiments belonging to the parliament, is taken from Ashmole’s M S S. in the Museum at Oxford. "On Saturday very early, we marched from Ashford, and at Hounslow Heath all the king’s foote met, expecting a battaile, but none offered: on still we went to Hounslow towne, thence to Brainforde, where unexpectedly we were encountered by two or three regiments of their’s who had made some small barricades at the end of the first towne called New Brainford. The van of our army being about 1000 musketiers, answered their shot soe bitterly, that within an hour or lesse they forsooke their worke in that place, and fled up to another which they had raised betwixt the two townes, from whence, and a brick-house by, with two small ordinance, they gave us a hot and long shower of bullets. My Colonel’s (Sir Edward Fitton’s) regiment was the sixth that was brought to assault, after five others had all discharged, whose happy honour it was (assisted by God, and a new piece of cannon newly come up) to drive them from that worke too, where it was an heart-breaking object to hear and see the miserable deaths of many goodly men. We slew a lieutenant, colonel, two sergeant majors, some captains, and other officers and soldiers there, about 30 or 40 of them, and took 400 prisoners, but what was most pitiful, was to see how many poore men ended and lost their lives, striving to save them; for they run into the Thames, and about 200 of them, as we might judge, were there drowned by themselves, and so were guilty of their own deaths; for had they staid and yielded up themselves, the king’s, mercy is so gracious, that he had spared them all. We took there six or eight colours, alsoe their two pieces of ordinance, and all this with a very small losse, God be praised; for believe me, I cannot understand that we lost 16 men; whereof one was a son of Mr. Daniel of Tabley, Mr. Thomas Daniel, a fine young gentleman, who was a lieutenant under my Lord Rivers; he and his captain were both slain, and a lieutenant of our regiment, but none of our countrymen. Then we thinking all had been done for that night, two of our regiments passed up through the old towne to make good the entrance, but they were again encountered by a fresh onset, which, scattered like the rest after a short conflict, fled away towards Hammersmith, and we were left masters of the townes. That night most lay in the cold fields. Next morning early we started afresh by the loud music of some canon, which proved to be but some 14 barges of theirs, who, with 13 ordinance, and 600 men, attempted very indiscreetly to pass up the river from Kingston on Thames, by the towne where we lay for London; but being discovered, what from the bancke and from Sion House, (the Earl of Northumberland’s) where we had placed some four musketiers within two or three howers space, we sunk four or five of their vessels, with the canons in them, took the rest, and eight pieces in them, for our breakfast; after which within two howers, we could descry a great army marching downe upon us from London, whoe came up within musket shot of us: but the king finding his men wearie and being satisfied with what he had done before for that tyme, and havinge no convenient place for his horse (which is the greatest pillar of his army) to fight, very wisely drew off his men by degrees, and, unperceived by them, left the towne naked; some of his horse dragoons keeping them deceived till the foot were all gone, and then they galloped in the rear after; which the enemy perceiving, played on their back with their canon, but with no harm or successe at all, God be praised; soe that night we marched back toward Hampton Court, next day into Kingston, a great towne, which they had manned the day before with 6000 men in it, but left it upon our fight at Brainford; so here we are now very safe, our foot and our horse round about us."

A weekly market on Tuesdays was granted to the prioress of St. Helen’s, to be held at Brentford by Edward I. and an annual fair on St. Laurence’s day, the vigil, and four following days.

At Brentford we have this note: "There are three bridges over Brent, which tradition says were built by a clothier. At the foot of Braynford bridge was the chapel of All Angels, now quite perished."

All memory of this chapel being entirely lost, and Camden, Norden, and other writers, silent about it, I snail point out its original from a record in the augmentation-office: an indenture bearing date 10th March, 21 Henry VIII. in the pursuance of the will of Hugh Dennis, Esq. between his executors and the abbess and convent of Sion, and the prior of Sheene, touching the endowment of certain almshouses for seven poor men, and the founding a chantry for two priests in the chapel of All Angels, by W Braynford,, briages, lying within the manor of Istelworth, near the monastery of Sion, and holden of the said abbess, which were to celebrate masses daily for the souls of King Henry VII. the said Hugh Dennis, Esq. and Mary his wife, and Master John Somerset. It further appears by this indenture, the said almshouses and chantry were endowed with rents issuing out of the manors of Osterley, Wykes, and Portpole, (alias Grays-inn, ) all in the county of Middlesex, and were under the patronage of the abbess of Sion.

The dedication of this chapel is perhaps unparalleled in this kingdom. Many churches and chapels were dedicated to St. Michael; and one near Exeter to Gabriel, whence the place is now called Clyst Gabriel, though the chapel is demolished.

Many curious remarks might be made on the antiquities of this part of Middlesex and Surrey, from this survey, which it were to be wished were engraved.

In the Compositio Vicariae de Isleworth, between Thomas, bishop of London, and the warden, &c. of Winchester college, proprietaries of the church; and the vicar, on the one part, and the abbess Elizabeth, &c. the monasteries of St. Saviour, Virgin Mary, St. Bridget and of Sion, on the other, about tythes and other matters ecclesiastical, the lands of Sion Abbey exempted from tythes are bounded by the Thames on the east, on the south by a mote south of a field called Buttfelde, running straight down to the Thames, on the west and north by another moat, reaching along the west side of Buttfelde and under a stone-bridge near Coesgreve, and thence along; the west and north parts of Shepeless (q. lees) field and Bromfelde, otherwise Otehill, to the river Byrant, and thence to the Thames. Win ton College was to have twenty shillings from this abbey, in lieu of tythes as heretofore, to have free ingress to the refectory, and eat with the upper servants, and his family to eat with the grooms or inferior servants. The vicar was also to have an annual stipend of 33s. 4d. to be forfeited if he did not pray as above: he was to have tythes of other lands in the same parish, not demesnes or in lay hands, and all oblations and mortuaries. Dr. Ducarell fixes the date of this composition between 1488 and 1500."

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BRENTFORD is a market and union town, and forms two civil parishes, New Brentford being formed from Hanwell and Old Brentford from Ealing; it derives its name from its situation on the navigable river Brent, which here falls into the Thames, uniting it with the Grand Junction canal, and is crossed by a bridge of one arch: the town commences 6 miles west from Hyde Park corner, and has a station on the London and South Western railway, 10 ½ miles from Waterloo, and one on the Great Western railway, close to Brent bridge, on the west; the North London railway has also access to the town at Kew bridge, and there is a third station at Boston road on the Metropolitan District railway to Hounslow: Brentford has been the county town for elections since 1701, and is in the Brentford division of the county, the head of a petty sessional division and county court district within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police, and in the rural deanery of Ealing, archdeaconry of Middlesex and diocese of London.

The town consists principally of one street, a mile and a quarter long, running parallel with the river Thames, bounded on the west by the Brent bridge, and on the east by Strand-on-the-Green and Turnham Green. The river scenery at this point is agreeably diversified by the wooded island called “Brentford Eyot,” a long and narrow piece of waste land now thickly overgrown.

A Local Board of Health, consisting of 12 members, was formed in 1874, but under the provisions of the “Local Government Act, 1894” (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), the district is now governed by an Urban District Council. By Local Government Board Order No. P. 379, dated 21 May, 1885, the boundaries of the district were altered by an interchange with Ealing Urban District. The town is lighted with gas by the Brentford Gas Company, formed in 1821, and supplied with water by the Grand Junction Water Works Company.

Brentford is divided into three ecclesiastical districts: St. George’s and St. Paul’s, Old Brentford, are in Ealing parish, and St. Lawrence, New Brentford, in Hanwell parish.

The church of St. George, Old Brentford, pulled down in 1886, was a plain rectangular structure of brick, elected about 1769 by the Trimmer family, and consecrated in 1828 as the church of a new ecclesiastical district formed November 18th, 1828, out of the parish of Ealing. The new church of the same name, erected at a cost of £7,000 and consecrated in March, 1887, is a building of Kentish rag stone and brick, with Bath stone dressings, in the Decorated style, from designs by Sir A. W. Blomfeld M.A., A.R.A., F.S.A, architect, and consists of chancel, with chapel, nave, aisles, south porch and an octagonal bell turret, and affords 700 sittings. The register dates from the year 1828. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £271, with 24 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the vicar of Ealing, and held since 1896 by the Rev. Thomas Selby Henrey, of Hatfield Hall, Durham University.

St. Paul’s, Old Brentford, is an ecclesiastical parish, formed July 12, 1864, out of St. George’s and St. Mary’s, Ealing. The church, erected in 1867—8, at a cost of £7,000, is a structure in the Early Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a tower at the south-west angle with a lofty spire, and containing a clock and 2 bells: the font, of alabaster and marble, on a Caen stone base, has a canopy of carved oak, and was presented in 1890, in memory of Maria, wife of Stephen Walker, of Park Lodge, Brentford: the stained east and west windows are memorials, and there is a fine organ, procured at a cost of £1,000. In 1894 a carved oak screen was presented by his children as a memorial to Mr. Stephen Walker: the church affords 870 sittings. The register dates from the year 1868. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of London alternately, and held since 1891 by the Rev. Haydn Frederick Nixon M.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge.

St. Lawrence, New Brentford, near the bridge at the west end of the town, was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, which is very ancient, in 1764: it consists of chancel, nave, aisles, and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells, one of which is ancient and supposed to be among the earliest of those cast in England.: in the church is a memorial to Maurice de Berkeley, a benefactor to the church, and buried here in 1189; a much defaced brass, dated 1528, preserves the memory of Henry Redman and his wife Joan; there is also an elaborate monument, with effigies kneeling at a faldstool, to John Midleton and his wife, 1624; William Noy, Attorney General in the reign of Charles I. and originator of the famous tax called “ship money,” who died 6 Aug. 1634, was buried in the chancel; there is a monument by Flaxman to Dr. Ewin, d. 1804; another by Westmacot to James Clitherow, d. 1805, and others to the Clitherow and Hawley families: the interior of the church was restored in 1889 and a new vestry and parish room erected; on the south side is a memorial window to the Rev. Francis Brooking Briggs M.A. vicar 1856—88: there are 600 sittings. The register of burials dates from 1570; marriages, 1618; baptisms, 1619. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300, with glebe (£90) and residence, in the gift, of the rector of Hanwell, and held since 1892 by the Rev. Thomas Eland M.A. of Oxford University and F.R.G.S. The vicarage house was rebuilt in 1890.

The Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, in Boston Park road, was built during the decade 1856—66, and seats 300 persons; there are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels, a place of worship for the Brethren, and a Congregational chapel with 300 sittings; the Wesleyan chapel, Windmill road, erected in 1889, at a cost of about £6,000, is a building of Kentish rag, in the Gothic style, and will seat 1,000 persons.

The Town Hall and Market House, which form one building, Woodbridge, Lacy, Hartland, Hibbert and Co.’s Bank, the London and County Bank, the Savings Bank and the Post Office, all stand in New Brentford. The county court and petty sessions are held at the Town Hall.

The Post Office, erected in 1886, at a cost of about £2,500, is a building of stone and brick, and stands in the Market place.

The Public Library, opened January 16th, 1890, now contains about 6,000 volumes, and includes a reference department, with a collection of local books and photographs relating to the town and district; the library is supported by a penny rate; the daily average issue of books ranges from 100 to 150; most of the popular periodicals, magazines and newspapers are also supplied.

St. George’s Parish House, No. 26 High street, has on the ground floor a parochial library and a kitchen, and on the second floor two large rooms, open every week night to the members of the Men’s Social Club, founded in 1885, and now has over 100 members.

Opposite Kew bridge is a handsome drinking fountain, opened by the late Duchess of Teck in 1879.

The market day is on Tuesday, and fairs are held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of May and 12th, 13th and 14th of September.

A new garden produce market was established at Kew bridge in 1893 by the local board, at a cost of £8,000.

In Brentford are gas works, two breweries, Messrs. T. B. Rowe and Co. Lim. soap manufactory, a large pottery, the Great Western Railway docks, the spacious timber yards and saw mills of Messrs. Montgomrey, Sons and Co. and the extensive maltings of Messrs. Jupp and Sons.

At the entrance of the town from Turnham Green is the chimney erected for the Grand Junction Water Works, which is nearly 150 feet in height, and has upwards of 120 iron circular steps fixed in the brickwork; there are six engines, by which, when working together, 12,000,000 gallons of water are propelled daily to the main at Paddington: the town and neighbourhood are supplied from the pumping station at Hampton.

The Brentford Drainage and Sewage works were completed in 1884, at a cost of about £30,000, from plans by Messrs. Gotto and Beasley, of Westminster. The sewage is pumped from a collecting well in the Town Meadow to the sewage tanks in Ealing road, a distance of more than one mile, where it is deodorized and precipitated, the effluent water being discharged into the river Thames by a culvert carried along Clay Ponds lane. The process of drying the sludge is effected by means of filter presses constructed at a cost, including buildings, of about £3,000.

Brentford has conferred the title of Earl on the Ruthven family, Patrick Ruthven, Lord Ruthven of Ettrick and Earl of Forth, being created Earl of Brentford, 27th May, 1644, for his services in the engagement at Brentford mentioned below; he died at Dundee at an advanced age, in 1651, and all his honours then expired: William III. also bestowed this title (9 March, 1689) on Marshal Frederic Schomberg, afterwards Duke of Schomberg, but it became extinct on the death of the 3rd duke in 1719. Brentford is celebrated in English literature, and as the chief town in Middlesex it is frequently mentioned in Latin records as the capital of England; Thackeray and Cowper both use the name in this way and Shakespeare makes Falstaff disguise himself as a fat woman of Brentford. Samuel Pepys appears to have been a visitor here in 1665—9. Thomson calls it “a town of mud,” and Gay notices its “dirty streets,” to which Johnson and Goldsmith also allude. In 1642 (12 Nov.) the Parliamentary forces under Col. Hollis were defeated by Prince Rupert in the streets of Brentford, when John Lilburne, the Puritan, was taken prisoner: in 1445 a Chapter of the Order of the Garter was held at the Lion inn, Brentford, when Henry VI. created two knights. Edmund Ironside defeated the Danes here in 1016, when many of the Saxons perished in the Thames, and was himself treacherously slain a few days later, according to local tradition, on the site of the Red Lion inn. The remains of elephants, hippopotami and of several species of deer were found here in considerable quantities at the beginning of the present century; and specimens of early stone implements and bronze and iron weapons have also been met with.

Boston House is the seat of Colonel Edward John Stracey-Clitherow J.P. and has grounds of 60 acres, in part bounded by the river Brent.

The area of New Brentwood is 205 acres of land, 11 of water, 2 of tidal water and 2 of foreshore; rateable value, £12,864.

The rateable value of Old Brentford is £70,788.

The population of the ecclesiastical parishes in 1891 was:-St. Lawrence, New Brentford, 2,069. St. George, Old Brentford, 4,457 and St. Paul, Old Brentford, 7,344. The area of the urban district is 1,109; rateable value, £72,387.

Brentford Union

Board day, Wednesday, at the Board room, at 11.30 a.m. Union Assessment Committee for hearing appeals meet half yearly in February & August, date & time fixed before meeting The Union comprises the following parishes:-Acton, Chiswick, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Heston, Isleworth, New Brentford, Old Brentford, Perivale, Twickenham & Twyford Abbey. The population of the union in 1891 was 132,971; area, 20,634 acres; rateable value, Michaelmas, 1897, £938,109.

Workhouse, Isleworth, a building of brick, built in 1836, to hold 570 inmates; Frederick W. Osman, master; Mrs. Jessie Ann Osman, matron; Rev. Henry Baker M.A. chaplain; W. Pemberton Fooks M.B., B.C. Cantab, medical officer.

School accommodation, 254; superintendent & headmaster, Philip Turner; matron, Mrs. Kate M. Turner; Rev. Henry Baker, chaplain; William F. Field, 1st assistant master; Miss Florence G. Stephenson.

Places of Worship, with times of service.

St. George’s Church, Old Brentford, Rev. Thomas Selby Henrey, vicar; Rev. Henry Reginald Nichols M.A. curate; Charles Jones, verger; 8 & 11 a.m. & 7 p.m.; Fri. 8 p.m.

St. Paul’s Church, Old Brentford, Rev. Haydn Frederick Nixon M.A. vicar; curates, Rev. Arthur Townsend M.A. & Rev. Percival Carey West B.A.; verger, Walter Bailey; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. Tues. Thur. & Sat. 10.30 a.m. & 5 p.m.; Wed. 8 p.m.; Wed. & Fri. 11 a.m.

St. Lawrence Church, New Brentford, Rev. Thomas Eland M.A., F.R.G.S, vicar; Thomas Matthews, verger; 8 & 11 a.m. & 3.30 & 6.30 p.m.; daily evensong.

St. John the Evangelist (Catholic), Boston Park road; Rev. Arthur Ryan, priest; mass, 9 & 11 a.m.; devotions, sermon & benediction, 7 p.m.; holidays of obligation, mass, 7 & 9 a.m.; devotions, sermon & benediction, 8 p.m.; daily mass, 8 a.m.

Baptist, Boston road, Rev. Thomas George Pollard; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. Thur. & Sat. 7.30 p.m.

Baptist, Ealing road, Rev. Robert Baily; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. & Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Baptist, North road, Rev. R. Mortimer, pastor; 10 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 & 8 p.m.; Mon. 7.30 p.m.; Thur. 7 p.m.

Congregational, Boston road. Rev. William Edwards; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7 p.m.

Primitive Methodist, New road; 7 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Tues. 7 p.m.

Wesleyan, Windmill road, Rev. Robert Morton; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. 7.30 p.m.

Schools

Middlesex County Council Technical Education Committee, High street; Montagu Sharpe, chairman; A. H. Pittard, 103 Windmill road, Brentford, sec.; lectures on cookery, dressmaking, nursing, carpentry, shorthand, book keeping, plumbing, turnery & type writing at the Polytechnic, High street, Brentford, every evening; tools & appliances found; no fees.

St. George’s (boys, girls & infants), Pottery road, rebuilt 1893 at a cost of £3,000, for 150 boys, 150 girls & 180 infants; average attendance, full.

St. Paul’s, Old Brentford, built in 1873, for 774 children; average attendance, 187 boys, 134 girls & 318 infants.

National, St. Lawrence (boys), The Ham, erected in 1815, for 150 children; average attendance, 143.

National, St. Lawrence (girls & infants), Halfacre, rebuilt in 1893 at a cost of £1,300, for 260 children; average attendance, 107 girls & 137 infants.

National, Brentford End (infants, London road, for 100 children; average attendance, 78.

British (boys, girls. & infants), High street, erected in 1850, for 700 children; average attendance, 600.

Catholic, Butts, erected in 1873, for 200 children; average attendance, 140.

Canal Boatmen’s Day (in connection with London City Mission), for 15 children; average attendance, 11.