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The Castle Bar Estate in Ealing was established in 1423 by Richard Barenger. In 1650 it was purchased by Sir William Bateman, who held other land in Ealing, and left to his descendants. William Bateman (d 1797) and his children William (d 1820) and Mary (d 1833) were all lunatics and the estate was disputed among Mary's heirs. The estate was bought by Francis Swinden in 1854. A three-storey mansion, called Castlebar House, stood on Castlebar Hill. It was built around 1641, but was dilapidated by 1855 when it was demolished. Tenants included Isabella Cunningham, countess of Glencairn; Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Augustus Wetherall (1754-1842) in 1818, and Sir Jonathan Miles in 1819.

From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 128-131 (available online).

Cambridge Road, Oxford Road and Chichester Road are all situated near Kilburn Park tube station.

A conveyance is a type of deed recording transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance included feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

A conveyance is a type of deed, used to transfer land from one party to another, usually for money (when you sell your house a conveyance is involved). Early forms of conveyance included feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

Edward Wood was a merchant living in the City of London. Around 1663 he purchased an estate at Littleton in Middlesex, which passed on to his son Thomas. Thomas Wood's son Edward did much to extend the family holdings in the Littleton area, purchasing, for example, the Chantry House and the Malthouse in Littleton. His son, Thomas, was the one who finally purchased the Manor of Littleton itself from Gilbert Lambell in 1749. It then remained in the hands of the Wood family until 1873, when the original mansion (built by Edward Wood 1663-5) was largely burnt down and Thomas Wood built a new one at Gwernyfed, Brecon, Wales.

The Woods were substantial landowners with property in a number of counties. The Middleham estate in Yorkshire was purchased in the seventeenth century and the estate at Gwernyfed was acquired in 1776 upon the marriage of Thomas Wood to Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Williams of Langoid Castle. In Middlesex the lordships of Astlam and Littleton were held by the family, and Captain Thomas Wood was lord of the manor of Littleton in 1906 (The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex, Vol. 2., 1911). The Littleton estate, comprising over 1250 acres in Littleton, Shepperton, Ashford and Laleham, was broken up and sold from 1892, although Captain Thomas Wood still owned much of the land in Littleton parish in the early twentieth century.

Members of the family followed careers, for the most part, in law, government, and the armed forces. The first Thomas Wood to live at Littleton (d 1723) continued his father's merchant business and held the appointment of Ranger of Hampton Court. His son Robert was a scholar and Doctor of Laws and, in the next generation, Thomas (1708-99) was Treasurer of the Inner Temple. His descendants entered the government, at home and overseas, often preceding this by military careers. Colonel Thomas Wood (1777-1860), Member of Parliament for Brecon for forty years, commanded the Royal East Middlesex Regiment of Militia for fifty six years and encamped with them at Aldershot in his eightieth year. His son Thomas (1804-72) commanded the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards in the early stages of the Crimean War, Prior to this he represented the County of Middlesex in Parliament, Thomas his son (b.1853) followed his father into the Grenadiers and saw action in the Sudan. Upon leaving the regular army he became a colonel in the Brecknockshire Rifle Volunteers and entered local government. Famous soldiers in the family include Charles Wood (1790-1877) who fought in the Peninsula, and at Waterloo, and his nephew General Sir David Wood (1812-94) an officer in the Crimean campaign and the Indian Mutiny.

Throughout the nineteenth century the family consolidated its position among the landed gentry by contracting alliances with the aristocracy. In successive generations three Thomas Woods married, respectively, the daughter of 1st Marquess of Londonderry, the grand-daughter of 4th Duke of Grafton, and the daughter of 1st. Lord Tollemache. Colonel Thomas Wood and his wife enjoyed the friendship of William IV and Queen Adelaide and the King nominated Wood to be one of his executors. Colonel Wood was host to George IV at Gwernyfed, and members of the royal family visited Littleton.

Willliam Condell was a linen draper based on Bond Street, with a country house at Greenford, then outside London in Middlesex.

Colham manor was in 1086 assessed at 8 hides, 6 of which were in demesne. Part of the manor lands was probably granted away in the mid-13th century to form the basis of the sub-manor later known as Cowley Hall. At some time before 1594, however, Hillingdon manor was incorporated in that of Colham. Insulated within the lands of Colham lay the 'three little manors' of Cowley Hall, Colham Garden, and Cowley Peachey, and freehold estates belonging to a number of manors in other parishes, including Swakeleys in Ickenham.

The manor passed through several owners before, in 1787, John Dodd sold the whole manor to Fysh de Burgh, lord of the manor of West Drayton. Fysh de Burgh died in 1800 leaving Colham, subject to the life interest of his widow Easter (d. 1823), in trust for his daughter Catherine (d. 1809), wife of James G. Lill who assumed the name of De Burgh, with remainder to their son Hubert. The manor passed to Hubert de Burgh in 1832 and he immediately mortgaged the estate. Hubert retained actual possession of the property, which was seldom if ever during this period unencumbered by mortgages, until his death in 1872.

In the 12th century the dean and chapter claimed that ten manse at West Drayton had been given by Athelstan to the cathedral church of Saint Paul, and the date 939 has been given for this grant. Though both the transcribed grant and the date are suspect, Saint Paul's appears to have been in possession by about 1000. Various tenants farmed the estate on behalf of Saint Paul's until the lease was acquired in 1537 by William Paget (c. 1506-63), secretary to Jane Seymour. In 1546 Henry VIII, having 'by the diligence and industry' of Paget acquired the manor with all appurtenances, granted it to him in fee, and the interest of the chapter ceased.

From 1546 to 1786 the manor descended with the other Paget honors and estates, apart from a brief period at the end of the 16th century. In 1786 Henry Paget (1744-1812), 1st Earl of Uxbridge, sold the manor and estate to Fysh Coppinger, a London merchant, who assumed his wife's name de Burgh. His widow, Easter de Burgh, owned the manor in 1800. She died in 1823 and it passed to her grandson Hubert de Burgh, who died in 1872. The next heir, Francis (d. 1874), devised it jointly to his daughters, Minna Edith Elizabeth, and Eva Elizabeth, who was sole owner when she died unmarried in 1939.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962) and A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971) (available online).

The manor of Great Stanmore was owned by St Alban's Abbey at the time of the Norman Conquest. The manor was initially known as Stanmore-the first recorded division of Stanmore into "Great" and "Little" is in the Domesday Book. The Abbey leased the manor to various tenants until 1279 when Robert of Stanmore successfully claimed it. In 1362 it was acquired by the prior of St Bartholomew's, Smithfield, who already held the manor of Little Stanmore. The chief steward of St Bartholomew's, Geoffrey Chamber, leased the manor. He sold some of the property to Sir Pedro de Gamboa, a Spanish mercenary working for the royals. Chamber died in 1544, in heavy debt, and his estates were forfeited and granted to de Gamboa. However, he was murdered in 1550 and the manor was leased to Sir George Blage.

In 1604 the lordship was sold to Sir Thomas Lake, a secretary of state, and the owner of Little Stanmore manor. A fee farm rent was paid to the Crown, later granted to the chapter of Westminster. Later branches of the Lake family underwent much litigation relating to the ownership of the manor, and it subsequently went through several changes of owner and was subdivided. In 1715 the manor was once again united with Little Stanmore manor, this time under the Brydges family, earls of Carnarvon and dukes of Chandos. The manor was sold to James Hamilton, marquess (later duke) of Abercorn, and the owner of Bentley Priory. It was sold on to John Kelk, then in 1882 sold to Thomas Clutterbuck. The Clutterbuck family held the manor until 1936 when the manorial rights were extinguished.

Information from: 'Great Stanmore: Manor and other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 96-99 (available online).

North Thames Gas Board (1949-1973): one of 12 Area Boards formed when the gas industry was nationalised in 1949, following the passing of the 1948 Gas Bill. Supplied area of 1,059 square miles stretching from Bracknell, Marlow and High Wycombe to the south east coast of Essex. When formed it was made up of a merger of 12 statutory gas undertakings: Ascot and District Gas and Electricity Company, Chertsey Gas Consumers Company; Commercial Gas Company; (Chartered) Gas Light and Coke Company; Hornsey Gas Company; Lea Bridge District Gas Company; North Middlesex Gas Company; Romford Gas Company; Slough Gas and Coke Company; Southend Corporation (Shoeburyness); Uxbridge Gas Consumers Company and Windsor Royal Gas Light Company. The North Thames Gas Board was dissolved in 1973 when it became a region of the British Gas Corporation. Note - Consumers Gas Companies were set up in consequence of dissatisfaction with the existing supplier.

Gas Light and Coke Company (1812-1949): founded in 1812, this was the first company to supply gas to London. The Company absorbed 27 smaller companies and several undertakings during its period of operation, including the Aldgate Gas Light and Coke Company (1819), the Brentford Gas Company (1926), the City of London Gas Light and Coke Company (1870), the Equitable Gas Light Company (1871), the Great Central Gas Consumer's Company (1870), Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the Independent Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the London Gas Light Company (1883), Pinner Gas Company (1930), Richmond Gas Company (1925), Southend-on-Sea and District Gas Company (1932), Victoria Docks Gas Company (1871) and Western Gas Light Company (1873). In May 1949, after the passing of the Gas Bill 1948, the Company handed over its assets to the North Thames Gas Board.

Brentford Gas Company (1821-1926): founded in 1821 at the instigation of Sir Felix Booth, the company had works at Brentford and retorts at Southall and covered a wide area including Hammersmith, Kensington, Southall, Twickenham and Richmond. Merged with the Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company (1872-1924): Harrow Gas Works founded in 1855 by John Chapman and rebuilt in 1872 as the Harrow Gas Light and Coke Company Limited and became a statutory company as the Harrow District Gas Company in 1873. In 1894 it became the Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company. Merged with the Brentford Gas Company in 1924. Both merged with the Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Hornsey Gas Company (1857-1949): formed in 1857, became statutory in 1866, controlled by the South East Gas Corporation from 1939 and merged with the North Thames Gas Board in 1949.

North Middlesex Gas Company (1862-1949): founded in 1862 with works at Mill Hill.

Pinner Gas Company (1868-1930): founded between 1868 and 1872, merged with Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Staines, Egham and District Gas Company (1833-1915): founded 1833, merged with Brentford Gas Company in 1915.

Sunbury Gas Consumers Company (1861-1915): merged with Brentford Gas Company in 1915.

Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company (1854-1949): formed in 1854 in competition with the Uxbridge Gas Company; became statutory in 1861; after 1918 expanded rapidly and purchased surrounding companies including the Beaconsfield Gas Company, Great Marlow Gas Company and Maidenhead Gas Company. Known as the Uxbridge, Wycombe and District Gas Company from 1921; the Uxbridge, Maidenhead, Wycombe and District Gas Company from 1925 and the South East Gas Corporation from 1936. It merged with the North Thames Gas Board in 1949.

The most striking change in Great Stanmore between 1754 and 1865 was the building or enlargement of several gentlemen's residences. In addition to Stanmore Park and the manor-house, near the church, the village contained the head tenements of Montagues, Fiddles, Pynnacles, and Aylwards, all of which were marked in 1827 by substantial houses. Oak Villa, Townsend Villa (later Belmont Lodge), Rose Cottage, and Vine Cottage formed an extension of the village, into Little Stanmore, at the corner of Dennis Lane and the London Road. Near the crest of the hill, on the west, Hill House and Broomfield stood between the drive leading to Aylwards and the residence next to the brewery. It was at Hill House, then called the Great House, that Dr. Samuel Parr had briefly opened his school in 1771 and that the antiquary Charles Drury Edward Fortnum, who bequeathed most of his treasures to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, lived from 1852 until 1899.

From: 'Great Stanmore: Introduction', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 88-96. Available online.

Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

There is no unifying factor to these papers (e.g. that they relate to property owned by one estate or family or the legal work of one office), they were simply collected for their antiquarian interest before being passed to the archive.

The County of Middlesex Education Society was founded in 1887 on the initiative of G. Armine Willis, one of H.M. Inspectors, to promote "educational efficiency and general sociability". It was the first society in the country where School Inspectors and School Teachers could meet on equal terms and, at a time when the system of "payment by results" with its "consequent suspicion and subterfuge on every side" was in force, it was regarded as a novel and even hazardous experiment.

When the Society was finally wound up in 1957, it was resolved that its records should be "deposited in the archives of the Education Office, 10, Great George Street, S.W.I." (the offices of the Middlesex Education Committee).

The rectory and advowson of Harrow came into the hands of Christ Church, Oxford, by a grant from the Crown in 1546. The College subsequently made a practice of leasing the tithes out for a substantial rent and they were in turn sub-let by the main lessor. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the main lease was usually for 21 years at an annual rent of £74. 17s. 8d. renewable every 7 years for a substantial fine. The lease was held by the Conyers family, the first of whom was an executor of Sir Francis Gerard, from 1709-1772, then by the Hernes until 1793 and by Richard Page from 1793 to 1803. All tithes were extinguished by the Inclosure Act of 1803.

In medieval times Saint Mary's was one of the most important churches in Middlesex. There is a twelfth-century tower with tall octagonal lead spires. The nave was re-built in the thirteenth-century when the rector was Elias de Dereham, the canon of Salisbury. Various additions and embellishments took place under John Byrkhead, rector from 1437 to 1468, then restored heavily in the nineteenth century. Many brasses including a small brass of John Lyons, founder of Harrow School.

Hamhaugh Island is situated in the River Thames, near Shepperton. It is accessed by bridge. It was first used for holiday camps around 1900, from which a small community began to grow on the island and small timber shacks or bungalows were erected. In 1920 the residents bought a communal green in the centre of the island on which they held entertainments such as dances. The housing was gradually modernised.

If a person died intestate (without a valid will) their money, goods and possessions passed to their next of kin through an administration (or letters of administration) which had the same form in law as a will.

Kilburn Brewery, established on the Mapesbury estate at Edgware Road by William and George Verey in 1832, employed 22 men in 1851 and 66 in 1919, a year before it closed.

From: 'Willesden: Economic history', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 220-228 (available online).

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.

Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

Hornsey Lane runs between Crouch End Hill and Highgate Hill and includes the bridge of Highgate Archway. It forms the boundary between Islington and Haringey boroughs. The street did not become built up until the 1870s, when a train station (now closed) was constructed at the Crouch End Hill end of Hornsey Lane.

The documents relating to Willesden relate to David Dakers of Brondesbury, builder, and William Henry Bufton of Hampstead, builder. They appear to have collaborated on the construction of dwelling houses in Willesden.

Probate (also known as proving a will) was the process of establishing the validity of a will.

William Schaw Lindsay (1816-1877) purchased the manor of Shepperton in 1856, and was succeeded by his grandson William Herbert Lindsay (died 1949). W.S. Lindsay usually lived at the manor-house and died at Shepperton. He was a ship-owner and member of Parliament and wrote a history of merchant shipping as well as one of Shepperton. He was largely responsible for the construction of the Thames Valley Railway. In 1954 W. H. Lindsay's widow transferred the estate to her husband's nephew, Mr. P. A. R. Lindsay, who was the owner in 1958.

From: 'Shepperton: The hundred of Spelthorne (continued)', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 1-12 (available online).

The Church Commissioners were formed in 1948 by joining together two bodies - Queen Anne's Bounty and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Church Commissioners are based at Church House, Great Smith Street, London. They moved there in March 2007 to work under one roof with the Archbishops' Council and the Church of England Pensions Board.

The Commissioners' role is to manage the Church's historic assets, today invested in stock market shares and property, to produce money to support the Church's ministry. The Church Commissioners meet some 18% of the Church's total running costs.

The Church Commissioners' main responsibilities are: to obtain the best possible long term return from a diversified investment portfolio in order (1) to meet their pension commitments and (2) to provide the maximum sustainable funding for their other purposes such as support for the work of bishops, cathedrals and parish ministry; in doing so, to pay particular regard to making 'additional provision for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required'; to administer the legal framework for pastoral reorganisation and settle the future of redundant churches.

Source: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/ (accessed June 2009).

These papers relating to Middlesex local history were collected for their general or antiquarian interest and relevance to the subject, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

These letters, addressed to Robert Bainbridge, Keeper of Hampton Court Park, are (except for the first two) from the Office of Works and are signed usually by the Secretary, Alfred Austin (1856-68) or George Russell (1869-70). These are all official letters requesting returns of the numbers of deer or of estimates of expenditure, giving approval for the acquisition of additional deer or for purchase of hay. Bainbridge died early in 1870 and the last letters are addressed to his son E. W. Bainbridge until the new keeper was appointed and to his widow stating that the Board had no power to grant a pension.

In 1618 Elizabeth, widow of Sir Thomas Berkeley (d 1611), the eldest son of Henry, Lord Berkeley (d. 1613), purchased the Manor of Cranford. Thereafter both manors remained in the possession of the Berkeley family until 1932. (fn. 81)

In 1810, on the death of the 5th Earl of Berkeley, the Berkeley estates devolved successively upon his two eldest but illegitimate sons, created Earl and Baron Fitzhardinge (d 1841 and 1867 respectively). The Fitzhardinge branch of the Berkeley family retained the estates until the death of the 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge in 1916, when they reverted to Eva Mary Berkeley, great-niece of Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge Berkeley, the eldest legitimate son of the 5th Earl of Berkeley (d 1810), as the heir-general of the 5th earl. From 1866 to his death in 1882 Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge Berkeley, the eldest legitimate son of the 5th earl, and de jure 6th Earl of Berkeley although he never assumed the title, is described as the chief landowner in Cranford. Presumably the Cranford estate was settled upon him as it reverted to Lord Fitzhardinge in 1882.

Between 1916 and 1935 over 350 acres of the estate were sold, the bulk being dispersed in 1932. This included the sale of Cranford House and park to the Hayes and Harlington urban district council in 1932; they resold it in 1935 to the Middlesex County Council, who leased it back to them for 999 years as an open space. The manorial rights are vested in the county council.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 179-181 (available online).

John William Couchman acted as surveyor and agent to the lords of the manors of Tottenham and Edmonton. He was a civil engineer (in particular of waterworks). Harold Seymour Couchman was his successor.

The West Middlesex Water Works were established in 1806 to supply the Western Suburbs. They were originally proposed by Robert Dodd, a civil engineer, to supply the area around Hammersmith and Kensington. The company was incorporated in 1806 with a capital of £80,000. After a disagreement over the location of the works, Dodd resigned and William Nicholson took over in 1807 to oversee the establishment of a works at Hammersmith. Under an act designed to increase the capital of the company by £160,000, the area covered by the West Middlesex Water Company was extended to include the parishes of St James Westminster, St Anne's Soho, St Mary-le-Strand, St Clement Danes, St Paul's Covent Garden, Paddington, Marylebone, St Pancras, St George Bloomsbury and St Giles in the Fields.

In 1825 a pump was built to channel water to a new resevoir at Barrow Hill, near Primrose Hill. New resevoirs were constructed at Barnes in 1838 and in 1866 the company entered into an agreement with the Thames Conservancy which allowed it to draw an extra 4 million gallons of water from the river per day.

The company was taken over by the Metropolitan Water Board under the Metropolitan Water Act, 1902 (2 Edward VII, c.41).

The long-standing connection between the Wood family and the parish of Littleton began in the middle of the seventeenth century when Edward Wood, citizen and grocer of London, built his mansion house there. This remained the principal seat of the family until the house was destroyed by fire in December 1874, and Captain Thomas Wood removed permanently to the family estate at Gwernyfed, Brecknockshire, Wales.

The Woods were substantial landowners with property in a number of counties. The Middleham estate in Yorkshire was purchased in the seventeenth century and the estate at Gwernyfed was acquired in 1776 upon the marriage of Thomas Wood to Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Williams of Langoid Castle. In Middlesex the lordships of Astlam and Littleton were held by the family, and Captain Thomas Wood was lord of the manor of Littleton in 1906 (The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex, Vol. 2., 1911). The Littleton estate, comprising over 1250 acres in Littleton, Shepperton, Ashford and Laleham, was broken up and sold from 1892, although Captain Thomas Wood still owned much of the land in Littleton parish in the early twentieth century.

Members of the family followed careers, for the most part, in law, government, and the armed forces. The first Thomas Wood to live at Littleton (d 1723) continued his father's merchant business and held the appointment of Ranger of Hampton Court. His son Robert was a scholar and Doctor of Laws and, in the next generation, Thomas (1708-99) was Treasurer of the Inner Temple. His descendants entered the government, at home and overseas, often preceding this by military careers. Colonel Thomas Wood (1777-1860), Member of Parliament for Brecon for forty years, commanded the Royal East Middlesex Regiment of Militia for fifty six years and encamped with them at Aldershot in his eightieth year. His son Thomas (1804-72) commanded the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards in the early stages of the Crimean War, Prior to this he represented the County of Middlesex in Parliament, Thomas his son (b 1853) followed his father into the Grenadiers and saw action in the Sudan. Upon leaving the regular army he became a colonel in the Brecknockshire Rifle Volunteers and entered local government. Famous soldiers in the family include Charles Wood (1790-1877) who fought in the Peninsula, and at Waterloo, and his nephew General Sir David Wood (1812-94) an officer in the Crimean campaign and the Indian Mutiny.

Throughout the nineteenth century the family consolidated its position among the landed gentry by contracting alliances with the aristocracy. In successive generations three Thomas Woods married, respectively, the daughter of 1st Marquess of Londonderry, the grand-daughter of 4th Duke of Grafton, and the daughter of 1st Lord Tollemache. Colonel Thomas Wood and his wife enjoyed the friendship of William IV and Queen Adelaide and the King. nominated Wood to be one of his executors. Colonel Wood was host to George IV at Gwernyfed, and members of the royal family visited Littleton.

On Friday 30 July 1714 Queen Anne suffered two consecutive violent convulsions; lasting from nine until eleven a.m. When she recovered consciousness, she could barely speak and it was clear she would not recover. She died on Sunday 1 August 1714 at the age of 49.

John Gibson senior was until about 1720 a jeweller in Bow Street. In 1718 he inherited property at Bury Pond Hill in Pinner from an aunt, Elizabeth Darden (ACC/351/1032), and in 1720 his wife inherited Islips Manor Farm in Northolt, and property at Pinner Hill. She was Dorcas, only daughter and heiress of William Shower, and, through him, of her uncle, Sir Bartholemew Shower, recorder of London, who died in 1701 (ACC/1045/123-128). These properties had been purchased by Sir Bartholomew in 1695 and 1698 from the Clitherowe and Hawtrey families respectively.

John Gibson settled at Pinner, where he bought further properties, notably from Randall Page junior in 1721 (ACC/1045/103), and remained there till his death in 1745. After her husband's death Dorcas Gibson returned to London, settling in Stepney, and her younger sons, William and Bartholomew, became a haberdasher and grocer respectively in the City (ACC/1045/129-134). The eldest son and heir, John, was educated at Balliol and entered the church, becoming Vicar of Heston in 1750 and Bedfont in 1761. There is a complete set of official documents concerning his clerical career from letters of orders on his ordination as Deacon in 1740 to the certificate of his reading in as Vicar of Bedfont in 1761 (ACC/1045/154-176). He died in 1777.

The Gibson family were closely connected with the Stanton Family of Limehouse. Seth Gibson and Thomas Stanton became partners in the wholesale silk trade in 1706 (ACC/1045/141) and the association survived the removal of John Gibson to Pinner. The collection includes a group of personal and business papers of Richard Stanton and his brother Thomas Stanton junior who died in 1714. Besides articles of partnership, there are household and general accounts, 1706-1764 (ACC/1045/144-147), including rent accounts for properties in Rupert Street.

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

Harrow Manor belonged to the archbishops of Canterbury from the early middle ages until 1545 when Henry VIII forced Cranmer to sell the manor to him. Henry sold the estate to Sir Edward North. The North family sold the manor to the Pitt family, whence it came to Alice Pitt and her husbands, Edward Palmer and then Sir James Rushout. The Rushouts acquired the barony of Northwick in 1797. Harrow stayed in the family until the death of the 3rd Baron, Sir George Rushout-Bowles, in 1887. His widow left the estate to her grandson Captain E G Spencer-Churchill. He sold the land in the 1920s.

Harrow Manor described both the manorial rights over the whole area and the chief demesne farm in the centre of the parish. This farm was known as Sudbury Manor or Sudbury Court. The ownership of Sudbury Manor followed that of Harrow, hence the name Harrow alias Sudbury.

From: 'Harrow, including Pinner : Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 203-211 (available online).

The Andrews and Weall families were united by the marriage of Dr James Andrews, originally of Pershore, Worcestershire, to Margaret Weall of Hampstead, in about 1872. Trust funds for Margaret were set up under the wills of her great-uncles John and Benjamin Weall. She was also to inherit the residue of the real estate of Benjamin Weall which consisted of houses in Watford, Hertfordshire, and Headstone Farm and land in Pinner, Middlesex. Litigation was started by Margaret Andrews (ne Weall) against her trustees arising out of a dispute over law costs charged by the trustees to her estate. This resulted in a test case tried in the High Court, Chancery Division, 1889, in which Mrs Andrews was successful. The report in The Times called it 'a judgement of great importance and interest to trustees and their cestuis que trustent'.

The Autotype Company was founded in Brixton in 1868. The registered office was in the West End of London.

A new company was floated in 1870, also called Autotype Fine Art Company, and the premises moved from Brixton to Ealing. Manufacture of carbon paper continued in Ealing well into the 20th century, though by 1872 Autotype had already diversified in a variety of other photographic processes. By the late 1870s the company had grown to over 70 staff.

From carbon papers, Autotype moved into photogravure and by the first decade of the 20th century photogravure manufacturing represented over 25% of the company turnover.

The period between the two wars was one of intense diversification with photogravure representing nearly 90% of all sales. During the second war, Autotype undertook to do some work for the British government. One of the coating machines was dispatched to Canada for safe keeping, in case the factory in Ealing was bombed.

After 1946 Autotype expanded into the screen market and by the 1950s screen making materials were at the core of Autotype production.

By 1976 the Company moved to larger premises, in order to expand production, and chose a site in Wantage, south of Oxford. The old factory in Ealing was completely destroyed.

On June 14th 2005 Autotype International was acquired by MacDermid Inc. of Denver, Colorado.

Source of information: Company website at http://www.macdermidautotype.com/autotype.nsf/pages/europeaboutHistory

Thomas Duffus Hardy was born in 1804, the son of Major Hardy, obtaining a junior clerkship in the Record Office at the Tower of London in 1819, with the assistance of Samuel Lysons. Several publications of the Record Commission were edited by him, while working at the Tower, including the Close Rolls from AD 1204-12 and The Patent Rolls for the reign of King John. Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, appointed him as Deputy-Keeper of the Public Record Office in 1861. During this period he was responsible for important reports on documents and a number of publications, writing a biography of Lord Langdale and editing several works for the Rolls Series of Chronicles and Memorials. The establishment of the Historical Manuscripts Commission was largely the result of Thomas's effort. The value of his work was acknowledged by a Knighthood in 1873, five years before his death.

William Hardy, the younger brother of Thomas Duffus Hardy, was born in 1807. Like Thomas he obtained a junior post in the Record Office at the Tower, until in 1830 he accepted the post of Keeper of the Records of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was also permitted to accept private work connected with antiquarian, legal and genealogical inquiries. In 1868 he was transferred to the Public Record Office as Assistant-Keeper, eventually becoming Deputy Keeper on the death of his brother in 1878. William retired in 1886, a year before his death. Other public activities included Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries in 1839 and being placed in the Historical Manuscript Commission in 1887. He received a knighthood for his services in 1884.

William John Hardy was the second son of Sir William Hardy, being born in 1857. He was educated privately and subsequently became a legal and genealogist record searcher, working for some time in partnership with Mr W. Page at 15 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. Experience in this profession had been gained previously by working in that capacity with his father, before the latter's appointment as Deputy-Keeper of the Public Record Office. His work involved him in numerous other activities including membership of the Council of Society of Antiquaries 1887-89, 1891-3, 1895-7, 1907, 1912; Inspector of Historical Manuscripts; editorship of Calendar of State Paper, William and Mary, and of Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, from 1895 to 1898 and of Home Counties Magazine from 1899 to 1904. In addition to such activities he was also responsible for several publications, such as Book Plates, 1893, Lighthouses: their History and Romance, 1895, and Documents Illustrative of Church History, 1896.

The Tottenham and District Gas Company was founded in 1847 as the Tottenham and Edmonton Gaslight and Coke Company. In 1914 it absorbed the Enfield Gas Company and became the Tottenham District Light, Heat and Power Company, and in 1928 it absorbed the Waltham and Cheshunt Gas Company, becoming the Tottenham and District Gas Company. Two years later the Ware Gas Company was absorbed, and in 1938 the Southgate and District Gas Company.

The Southgate and District Gas Company was formed in 1858 as the Southgate and Colney Hatch Gaslight and Coke Company. In 1866 it was re-incorporated as the Colney Hatch Gas Company, and in 1904 it became the Southgate and District Gas Company. It was finally taken over in 1938 by the Tottenham and District Gas Company.

In 1948 when the gas industry was nationalised the Tottenham and District Gas company came under the Eastern Area Gas Board which covered Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, the Isle of Ely, Norfolk, the Soke of Peterborough, Suffolk and parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

Whitbread Properties Limited was formed out of the Forest Hill Brewery Company in 1929 and was based at the Saracens' Head Hotel, Beaconfield in Buckinghamshire, although later moved to The Brewery, Chiswell Street, EC1 (the main Whitbread offices).

Whitbread (London) Limited was a subsidiary company of Whitbread and Company Limited.

The Central Catering Company, located at 100 Theobald's Road, was contracted by Whitbread in the early 1900s to supply food to its public houses. This was in response to legislation allowing magistrates to refuse license renewal to public houses that were deemed unsavoury. Whitbread decided that one of the key issues was the absence of good food in pubs and by 1905 the Central Catering Company was supplying 400 pubs daily.

Whitbread was so enthusiastic about the scheme that it decided to take over the Central Catering Company and extend the scheme to all of its tied houses. However, by the end of 1906 the company was running at a loss. The scheme had failed due to lack of background research - it has become clear that it was very difficult to supply pubs with food at the exact time that they needed it and also that many Whitbread pubs were serving their own food already. In order to prevent further financial damage it was agreed in 1907 that the company should be closed, a decision signed by Francis Pelham Whitbread (known as Frank) then company director.

The Kent brewery of Frederick Leney and Sons was bought in the mid-1920s for £270,000. As with the purchase of the Forest Hill brewery this action was primarily designed to secure outlets for the Whitbread brand. Frederick Leney & Sons brought with them 130 pubs of which most were freehold.

When the companies of Jude Hanbury and Mackeson were acquired in 1929, Leney and Sons was merged under the old management of Jude Hanbury. The group were known collectively as the Kent Breweries and were later controlled personally by Whitbread managing director Sydney Nevile.

Dales Brewery was located on Gwydir Street in Cambridge. The first brewery on this site was recorded in 1874 as the Gwydir Brewery and Frederick Dale of Dale and Company Limited opened the current building in 1902. The Brewery went on to win the Gold Cup at the Brewers International Exhibition in 1911 and represented the award on their labels for many years afterwards. The Brewery was acquired by Whitbread and Company in 1955 and ceased brewing in 1958. It was used as a store and depot until 1966 when it was sold to Cambridge City Council. The building has since been used as a community centre, a photographic studio and exhibition area, and more recently for commercial storage.

Amey's Brewery Limited were acquired by Whitbread and Company Limited in 1951.

The Ananse Society was created from two 'Bookeater panel discussions' at Centerprise in East London, organised by the Black Literature Project in October 1995 and April 1996. A working committee was set up in 1996 and those individuals articulated the aims and objectives of the society. The founding members and steering committee of the organisation were: Jan Blake, Jean Buffong, Kadija George, Bonnie Greer, Ahmed Sheikh Gueye, Eric Huntley, Jessica Huntley, Earl Lovelace, Sonia McIntosh, Alex Pascall OBE, Paa 'C' Quaye and Jacob Ross.

The Patrons of the society were Baroness Amos, Dr Petronella Breinburg, Professor Merle Collins, Dr Walter Fluker, Professor Rex Nettleford, Dr Ato Quayson and Mavis Stewart. They were based at Centerprise, 136-138 Kingsland High Street, Hackney LB, where Kadija George was the literature officer. They used the Bogle-L'Ouverture Press post office box address.

The spelling of 'Ananse' was taken from the language of the Akan people of Ghana, Africa. It means 'a male born on a Wednesday'. The character is also known as Anansy, Anancy and Bro Anansi di Spiderman. It derives from West African countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Mali, and travelled with enslaved Africans to become part of the oral tradition in the Caribbean and the Americas.

The Ananase Society Committee stated aims and objectives were to:-

• 'explore and collate the Ananse legend
• raise the self-esteem of our children through the ethics of storytelling and writing
• create a positive public focus on the creative; to enhance the impact that Ananse had had on lives and society, by using readings, seminars and discussions
• actively pursue raising and sharing literary skills, particularly storytelling, between Africans on the continent and the Diaspora
• produce information packs for use in research, education and other institutions as well as for general interest
• take Ananse from survival to action for the positive development of our mental, physical and spiritual selves
• provide an information and archival resource on Ananse stories and stories/folk tales form Africa and the Diaspora

• liase and consult with outer organisations and institutions on how to effectively use Ananse resources and information to achieve these aims and objectives.'

  The Ananse Society was launched between 25 -30 April, 1998. Key note speakers were Merle Collins and Dr Ato Quayson. Keith Waithe and the Macusi players performed an original commissioned composition for the occasion. Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications organised a symposium, 'Ananse in the Diaspora' held at Hackney Town Hall. Participants were Dimela Yekwai, storyteller and poet, Kofi Nyaako, lecturer, Charles da Costa, a graduate in film, Jean Buffong, novelist and Marc Matthews, storyteller.

  In 1999 the first edition of the Society's newsletter, 'Krick Krack', was produced and a fund raising event was organised to mark the first anniversary.

  In December 2001 Jean Buffong proposed the idea that the Ananse Society should be incorporated into African Writers Abroad. The Society would continue to set its own programmes, retain a Chair and a Secretary but share office space and fundraising efforts with this bigger group which was a member of International PEN. This merger was agreed and the Ananse Society was incorporated into African Writers Abroad in 2002

The committee was formed in October 1977 in response to a series of attacks on Black run, community, independent, and socialist bookshops in London. One of the first known attacks occurred in 1973 against Unity Bookshop in Brixton which was firebombed. Throughout 1977 Bogle-L'Ouverture, Atlas Books, Bookmarks, New Beacon, Centerprise, Corner House, the Other Bookshop, Unity Books and the Bookplace were all systematically attacked. Black run organisations and bookshops in Leeds, Bradford and Nottingham also came under attack. The graffiti and 'calling cards' left by the attackers indicated that it was the work of the National Front and the Ku Klux Klan.

Bookshop Joint Action Committee was comprised of 7 of 10 bookshops which wrote letters of complaints to the Home Office. They held a press conference on 17 October, 1977 to bring public attention to the attacks. The police were seen as colluding with, if not perpetrating some of the acts, and letters to the Home Office clearly state this.

Jessica Huntley and Bogle-L'Ouverture were active in the formation of the group which organised:

• A Bookshop Defence Fund
• Distribution of materials and information about the attacks
• Press and publicity
• A picket of the Home Office:
  They called on individuals to "Raise this matter {the attacks and lack of response} within their organisation. Write to the Home Secretary expressing anger and concern about these fascist attacks made on bookshops and his total indifference."
• Bookshops "Flying Work Party" for London:
  This group of volunteers were sent to damaged shops to repair and get them up and running again as quickly as possible.

Academic, historian and political activist, Walter Rodney, was assassinated in Guyana on 13th June 1980, aged 37 years old. A close friend of Eric and Jessica Huntley, Walter Rodney had also published two books through Bogle - L'Ouverture publications, The Groundings with my Brothers which had been fundamental to the launch of Bogle - L'Ouverture in 1969 and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa in 1972. In the wake of his death the Huntleys organised a public memorial held on 25th July 1980 and also founded the Walter Rodney Memorial Trust on 29th July 1980.

The trust was established to serve as a memorial to Walter Rodney's "profound contribution to the growing awareness and emancipation of the Caribbean working class." Its primary objective was to promote, encourage and organise "the documentation of the history and activity of the black working class in Britain, Africa, the Caribbean, North America and other parts of the world" (LMA/4462/R/03/001).

New River Action Group was established in 1986 to protect, conserve and preserve for the benefit of the public and New River, its immediate environs, associated reservoirs and filter beds and fauna and flora. It is composed of member organisations with London wide and local interests in the New River, and of individual Friends of New River.

In the sixteenth century it became apparent that there was not enough fresh water for the capital's fast growing population. In 1606 a Bill was passed in the House of Lords to cut a new river to bring water to London from Chadwell and Amwell in Hertfordshire. A second act allowing them to use a tunnel to convey the water was passed in 1607. In March 1609 the powers and obligations of these two Acts were passed to Hugh Myddelton a Merchant Adventurer and Goldsmith who was also an Alderman of Denbigh (Wales) and had engineering experience in the form of coal mining. Edward Wright a famous mathematician was employed to survey and direct the course of the river. The plan was met with much opposition as various members of the House of Commons feared the value of their lands would be decreased by flooding and a Bill was introduced to repeal to two Acts. In the meantime the project was running over time and budget. The city granted Myddleton an extension and King James I agreed to provide half the cost of the work in return for half of the profits. The work was officially completed 29 September 1613. The original length of the New river was 38.8 miles, but the distance in a straight line is nearer 20 miles.

Personal collection of Paul N Thornton, Senior Partner for R Watson and Sons, Watson House, London Road, Reigate, Surrey, founded in 1878, merged with The Wyatt Company in 1995 to form Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Goobey, George Henry Ross (1911-1999), pension fund manager, was born at 42 Blair Street, Poplar, London, on 21 May 1911, the younger son and third child of Herbert Goobey, a shopkeeper and Primitive Methodist lay preacher, and his wife, Elizabeth Ross. An adept pupil at elementary school, he was encouraged by a local Church of England vicar to enter for a scholarship at Christ's Hospital. There he shone in mathematics, and much later became a governor.

Unable to afford a university education, on leaving school in 1928 Goobey joined the British Equitable Assurance Company as an actuarial trainee. He played rugby for the Eastern Counties and gained cricketing repute as a hard-hitting batsman. On 4 September 1937 he married Gladys Edith (b. 1911), daughter of Charles Menzies, a local government official in Poplar; they had a son and a daughter. Having in 1939 moved to the South African company Southern Life Assurance, he and his family were about to embark for Cape Town when the outbreak of war disrupted their plans.

Instead Ross Goobey (he adopted this as his surname) worked successively for several British insurance companies, served in the Home Guard, and qualified in 1941 as a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. At the relatively youthful age of thirty- six, he was appointed in 1947 the first in-house investment manager of the Bristol- based Imperial Tobacco Company's pension fund, then valued at £12 million. In common with most such funds, its assets were almost entirely invested in government bonds, known as gilt-edged stocks.

Ross Goobey strongly maintained that the government's recent issue of a 2.5 per cent undated stock, at a time when inflation averaged 4 per cent, was nothing short of a swindle. Meanwhile the average portfolio of British equities was yielding 4.3 per cent, having moreover the expectation of future growth. He therefore proposed to his investment committee, chaired by Sir Percy James Grigg (a director also of the Prudential Assurance Society), to switch the pension fund out of gilt-edged into equities. He argued that, although the company's existing portfolio would have to be sold at a loss of £1 million, that loss would soon be recouped by higher equity returns. Ross Goobey's views were based on two articles by Harold Ernest Raynes, a director of Legal and General, in the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries in 1928 and 1937, which demonstrated from twenty-five years' research that company dividends tended to rise in real terms even in periods of deflation. The investment committee eventually accepted his advice. As most other pension-fund managers followed that step, he had inaugurated a new era in Britain's fund-management industry.

Ross Goobey's overturning of conventional wisdom initially provoked resentment in the City of London, especially as he relied so little on City expertise. A well- publicized dispute with the chief actuary of Prudential in the early 1950S fuelled suspicions there of his intellectual arrogance. His light-hearted remark, about finding shares so cheap and plentiful that he felt like a child in a sweet-shop who had discovered everything at knock-down prices, did nothing to improve relations. Not until 1998, at the age of eighty-six, was he given the first-ever award of honour, as a past master, of the Company of Actuaries. He was also master of two other London livery companies.

Rather than dealing in prestigious blue-chip companies (and paying commission) in the stock market, Ross Goobey sought out smaller and medium-sized companies, mostly based in the west country. He preferred to negotiate directly with their chairmen, once at least hammering out purchase terms until 3 a.m. in a night-club. Before merger mania set in, his fund held about 1000 separate equity holdings. Although some of these did poorly, the overall performance of his portfolio was second to none, with yields on cost for a time reaching double figures, in years of moderately low inflation.

In 1972 Ross Goobey was elected president of the National Association of Pension Funds. By then he had discerned-ahead of his competitors-that company shares had reached their peak, and he moved into commercial properties, mainly in London. Yet when the stock market slumped in 1974 he began to buy gilt-edged, since war loan was then yielding 16 per cent. Even though the merchant bank M. Samuel (later Hill Samuel) attempted to woo him away with a much higher salary. he remained loyal to Imperial Tobacco, which rewarded him with a seat on its main board and permission to become a non-executive director of M. Samuel.

Ross Goobey was tall and well-built, his imposing figure prompting some City journalists to dub him the archdeacon of the equity cult. To be sure, his full moustache, carnation in the buttonhole, and fondness for cigars, socializing, cliffhanging bridge games, and telling risqué stories, plus a conviction that his judgement was always right, belied any churchy image. Yet he never strove after great riches, served for three years as chairman of Clevedon town council, and actively involved himself in local sports. After retiring in 1975 he was until his eightieth year chairman of the property company Warnford Investments. He also took up golf, regularly playing thirty-six holes a day, and was appointed president of the Somerset County Golf Union.

He died of heart disease in Weston-super-Mare General Hospital on 19 March 1999, fit and active almost to the end. His son, Alastair, followed in his footsteps by becoming chief executive of the Hermes pension fund group, being honoured by the state (as the idiosyncratic George Ross Goobey never was) with a CBE in 2000.

Source: T. A. B. Corley, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004