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A burial board appointed for Ealing and Old Brentford in 1858 acquired 8 acres east of South Ealing Road in 1860, which were laid out as a cemetery in 1861. Chapels for Anglicans and dissenters, forming a single building, had been built by 1873 and the area had been extended to 21 acres by 1890.

The Burial Acts of 1852-1857 gave parishes and town councils the power to establish Burial Boards which would be responsible for providing suitable arrangments for the dead of the parish. This was usually in the form of a cemetery. The Board was responsible for the management of the cemetery, usually providing chapels consecrated for the use of different denominations. The expense of setting up the cemetery would be charges to the Poor Rate or the Borough Rate.

From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Public services', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 147-149.

The turnpike system dated from 1663 when Parliament authorised the erection of toll barriers along the Great North Road. The principle was that each person should contribute to the repair of the roads in proportion to the use he made of them. A barrier was placed across a road and a toll taken from each road user except pedestrians; the monies were then used to support the maintenance and improvement of the road. Turnpikes were placed under the control of bodies known as Turnpike Trusts. By 1770 there were over 1100 Trusts, administering 23,000 miles of road, with 7800 toll gates.

The "Great Essex Road" from London to Harwich followed what was is now the A12 as far as Colchester and then followed the same route as the A137 and B1352 to Harwich. The original starting point in London was from The Standard in Cornhill, but later measurements were taken from Whitechapel Church on the eastern boundary of the City of London. As Middlesex encircled the north of the City the first milestone in Essex along the route was placed at Stratford.

The parish of Edgware lay on the northern boundary of Middlesex, bordered on the north by Elstree, on the west by Little Stanmore, and on the east by Hendon. The parish of Little Stanmore was bounded on the north by Bushey Heath, on the east by Watling Street, separating Little Stanmore from Edgware and Hendon, on the south by Kingsbury and on the west by Great Stanmore.

Parish officers were elected annually and were responsible for various aspects of local administration. Because of their proximity Little Stanmore and Edgware always shared their main areas of settlement. The north of both parishes included parts of the village of Elstree. This closeness meant that the two parishes formed various joint administrative bodies and shared some staff and facilities. For example in 1767 a punishment cage was built and used jointly by Edgware and Little Stanmore.

Major W H Morgan appears to have served with the 711 (Middlesex County Council) Company, Royal Engineers, during the First World War.

Iceland was occupied by British forces in May 1940 despite its neutrality. It was considered strategically important for control of the Atlantic and the battle against U-boat attacks on convoys.

In 1882 a Roman Catholic chapel was opened in Hampton Wick, and in 1884 a Roman Catholic school was built in Fairfax Road, South Teddington. The ground floor served as a school and the upper floor as a chapel until the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kingston Road was opened in 1893. Built of red brick in the classical style, this consisted at first of five bays and was extended westwards in 1935 by another two bays. The church was consecrated in 1944.

Source: 'Teddington: Roman catholicism', 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. 79.

Enfield Urban District was incorporated in 1955, by which date it was the second largest urban district in the country, with a population exceeding those of 39 of the 83 county boroughs. The borough had 10 wards: Bush Hill Park, Cambridge Road, Chase, Enfield Wash, Green Street, Ordnance, Ponders End, Town, West, and Willow, each electing three councillors. In 1965 the borough became part of Enfield London Borough, under the London Government Act of 1963.

The local board met in the Town until 1888, when Little Park, Gentleman's Row, was bought as council offices. Land for a new town hall in Church Street was purchased in 1902 but the Urban District Council remained at Little Park until 1961, when the first part of a new civic centre in Silver Street, designed by Eric G. Boughton, was opened. The uncompleted building was the administrative centre of Enfield London Borough in 1971, when the old offices in Little Park served as the health department. In 1972 work began on extensions to the civic centre, also designed by Boughton and including an eleven-storeyed tower block.

From: 'Enfield: Local government', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 241-243 (available online).

The parish of Southgate constituted a local government district under the provisions of the Edmonton Local Board (Division of District) Act, 1881. The area was extended in 1892 and, by 1908, it comprised Southgate and Palmer's Green, Winchmore Hill, part of New Southgate and part of Bowes Park. Under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 and 57 Vict c.73) the district was controlled by an Urban District Council.

In Northwood, Hillingdon, Primitive Methodists first met in a house called 'Elthorne' from about 1896. In that year a school chapel was built on the corner of the High Street and Hallowell Road. The present church next to the school chapel was completed in 1903, with further extensions made in 1910 and 1927. Enemy action caused considerable damage to the building in 1944.

Methodists were the largest non-established denomination in the Harrow and Wembley area, with the first of many chapels in this area erected in 1810. Several churches were built in the 1920s including the chapel on Park Lane, Wembley, which was first called the Wesleyan Church. From 20 September 1932 (when the different branches of Methodism united) the name was changed to the Methodist Church. It was closed in 1961.

John and Charles Wesley preached in Hayes church on at least ten occasions between 1748 and 1753. By 1816 the Methodists had erected a chapel in Hayes, but nothing else is known of the Methodist congregation in Hayes until 1906, when the Hayes Tabernacle at Wood End Green was registered by Wesleyan Methodists. Hayes Methodist Church began in Station Road, in 1907. It was registered at that address in 1927. In 1930 the registered name was changed to Queen's Hall Methodist Church, Station Road. In 1973 Queen's Hall closed and work began on a new church, which opened in September 1977, and was renamed Hayes Methodist Church.

In 1878 the Primitive Methodists registered a chapel in Western Road, Southall. A new chapel building, standing on the corner of Western and Sussex Roads, was erected in 1876-1877. This was the first Methodist building in the Southall area.

The Wesley Central Hall was constructed in 1930.

Ridgeway Wesleyan Methodist church originated in the late 1880s, when a Wesleyan mission was opened in a temporary hall in Mill Hill. In 1893 a red-brick chapel in the Perpendicular style was built. At first the church was under the control of Hendon Methodist church, but in 1970 it was linked with Goodwyn Avenue Methodist church.

John Wesley preached in Hillingdon and Uxbridge in 1754 and 1758, but there is no other evidence of 18th-century Methodist activity. By 1851, however, there were five Methodist meetings in Hillingdon. The Methodist Central Hall was erected in 1930 at the junction of High Street and Park Road. In 1957 Lawn Road Primitive Methodist congregation was amalgamated with that of Central Hall. The Central Hall was renovated and extended in 1959 to meet the increased demand.

Mattison Road church, later renamed Harringay church, opened in 1891 as an iron tabernacle (a pre-fabricated timber framed structure clad with corrugated iron which could quickly be assembled from a kit to provide a building until a more permanent structure could be constructed). The tabernacle was replaced by a permanent church and halls in 1901. Originally part of the Caledonian Road circuit of the Primitive Methodists, it joined the Finsbury Park circuit after the Methodists' union in 1931. In 1903 membership was so high that Mattison Road was described as the chief Primitive Methodist church in London. The church closed in 1963 and became a Roman Catholic church.

Park Chapel on Crouch Hill was opened in 1855. Alterations increased its seating to 1,017 in 1877 and 1,430 by 1894. After further extensions it had the largest Congregationalist attendances in Hornsey. The chapel and its halls formed a popular social centre, accommodating Hornsey British school until 1877. The Grove mission was apparently established in 1881 and served from Park chapel in 1951.The Chapel amalgamated with Ferme Park Baptist Church to form Union Church, Crouch End in 1974.

Mount View Congregational church was founded to serve Stroud Green. A hall was opened in 1887 and used for worship until the completion of a larger building in 1893. The church was closed and demolished in 1935.

Hornsey British school was built in 1864 and opened in 1865, largely through the efforts of Russell Maynard, a member of Park chapel. The schoolrooms, for boys, girls, and infants, adjoined the chapel. The school was supported by voluntary contributions in 1870 but received a parliamentary grant from 1871. Between 1871 and 1873 the average attendance rose from 94 to 177. Hornsey school board took over the premises in 1875 and later moved the pupils to Park Road school.

Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan.

The German Evangelical Reformed Church was established in London in 1697 by Protestant refugees fleeing religious oppression in the Palatinate. William III permitted services to be held in the chapel of the Savoy Palace. A new church built in Duchy Lane, Savoy, on the site of a French Church was consecrated in 1771. It was closed and demolished in 1816 to make way for the construction of Waterloo Bridge. A new church was consecrated in 1819 in Hooper Square, Leman Street, Whitechapel, which was in turn demolished as the site was required for railway purposes. The replacement church built in Goulston Street, Whitechapel, in 1886-1887 was destroyed by bombing in 1941.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan.

Brentford is now part of the Richmond and Hounslow Methodist Circuit.

George Whitefield (1714-1770), the famous evangelical preacher, obtained a lease of the site for his Chapel in Tottenham Court Road in 1756. Whitefield had been driven to seek a place where he would be free from the opposition encountered from the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields at the Long Acre Chapel where he had been a minister. The Chapel, built and probably designed by Matthew Pearce, was opened for public worship in 1756 and was enlarged in the winter of 1759 to 1760. Whitefield died in Boston, America in 1770 and his memorial sermon was preached in the Chapel by John Wesley.

When the original lease expired in 1827, the freehold was purchased by Trustees, who reconditioned the Chapel which was reopened for services in October 1831. In 1853 the burial ground which had been in use since 1756 with an interval of eight years, 1823-1831, was closed. There was a dispute when in 1856 the Reverend J.W. Richardson endeavoured to use part of it for building purposes, and owners of the graves applied for an injunction against the disturbance of the ground. However, in 1895 it was laid out and opened as a public garden.

In 1856 the Chapel was repaired, only to be almost wholly destroyed by fire in February 1857. The property was then bought up by the London Congregational Building Society who erected a new building designed by John Tarring. However, in 1889 the foundations began to give way, probably because of the numerous burials within the building which disturbed the filling to the pond underneath.

The Chapel was closed and services were carried out in a temporary iron structure until the new building was opened in November 1899. On 25 March 1945 the Chapel was totally destroyed by bombing and was subsequently replaced by a new building which still remains on the site.

The Bow Circuit was the first Home Mission circuit in Methodism, and the newly formed Metropolitan Wesleyan chapel Building Fund purchased land in Bow Road for future development. Alexander McAulay was appointed superintendent of the newly created Bow Circuit in 1861.

In September 1900 Bow and Poplar Circuits were united to become the Poplar and Bow branch of the London Mission (the successor of the Metropolitan Wesleyan Chapel Building Fund which had helped to establish Bow in 1863).

In 1961 Poplar and Bow Mission was divided into two separate circuits of Poplar and Bow.

No historical information has been located for this Chapel.

Bow Road Wesleyan Methodist Church was founded by the Reverend Alexander McAulay, who began preaching from his home in 1861. The Chapel was constructed by 1865. Various evangelical and social welfare activities took place at the Church, including the Queen Mary Day Nursery, medical clinics and a youth centre.

The Methodist Church established its first East-End Mission in 1885, hoping to combat the poverty and squalor of the area. Poverty and sin were fought by a combination of evangelism and social work, for example, handing out free meals during winter, organising trips to the seaside and showing films for a penny. The Mission had its own magazine, "The East End", which included articles on the scale of the distress.

As the population of the East End changed after the Second World War, so too did the Mission. In 1985 the Mission celebrated its centenary and highlighted its continuing work in socially deprived areas, supporting the homeless, unemployed, single parents, immigrants, the disabled and the elderly.

Shirley Street United Methodist Church, Canning Town, was founded in 1853, probably by Wesleyan Reformers. A small church was built in Victoria Dock Road in 1860. This was sold to the school board in 1873, when a new church and schoolroom were built in Shirley Street. Shirley Street was bombed in 1940, but continued in use until 1942, when the members moved to Canning Town Primitive Methodist Church. When that too was bombed a remnant went to Custom House Primitive Methodist Church. War damage compensation from Shirley Street helped to build the new church in Fife Road, Canning Town, in 1960. The Shirley Street site was sold to the borough council and by 1963 was occupied by houses.

From: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 123-141.

In 1902 the School Board for London purchased a site at Southfields on which to build a school. Three temporary buildings, opened in 1904, housed the school until the completion of the permanent buildings in March 1905. The official opening of Southfield School took place in May 1905 and it continued as a mixed senior school until April 1911 when it became a central school. It was named the Elliott Central School after Sir Charles Elliott. In 1925 the two elementary schools on the Elllott site were disbanded and the central school was divided between boys' and girls' departments, each with its own head teacher. During the Second World War the Boys' School was evacuated to Woking and the Girls' to Guildford in Surrey.

Under the London County Council's London School Plan of 1947, the Boys' School was linked with Wandsworth School, sharing the same body of governors, and the Girls' School with Mayfield (Putney County) School, but both resisted absorption into the neighbouring comprehensive schools. In 1954, as the school celebrated its Jubilee, it was announced that the Elliott Central was itself to be the nucleus of a 2,000 mixed comprehensive school in the Putney Park Lane area, retaining the name Elliott.

The Mostyn Road Methodist Church, Lambeth, was constructed in 1868, designed by architect John Tarring.

A Methodist Tabernacle is said to have existed in Morgan's Lane, Hayes End since 1874. It would seem that the church was registered in 1906 as the Hayes Tabernacle, Wood End Green. This registration was closed in 1927 and the church registered under the name of Morgan's Lane Church, Hayes End. In 1934 it moved to a new building in Uxbridge Road and was renamed Hayes End Methodist Church.

Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils were formed under the 1894 Local Government Act, and were abolished by the 1974 Local Government Act. Their records, not being part of county council records, are from the county record office's viewpoint, considered non-official.

The records forming this collection are probably all from the Clerk's Department of Sunbury Urban District Council. The composition of the Council was as follows: From 1894-1930: Sunbury UDC covered the parish of Sunbury on Thames From 1930-1974: Sunbury UDC covered the parishes of Sunbury on Thames (including Sunbury Common, Charlton and Upper Halliford), Shepperton (including Lower Halliford and Shepperton Green), Ashford Common, and Littleton. By the Middlesex (Feltham, Hayes, Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames) confirmation Order, 1930, the parish of Shepperton and parts of Ashford and Littleton were transferred to Sunbury Urban District on the dissolution of Staines Rural District Council.

Sunbury UDC was transferred to the administrative county of Surrey with effect from 1 April 1965. In 1974 the Urban Districts of Sunbury and Staines were abolished and replaced by Spelthorne Borough Council.

Battersea Metropolitan Borough and Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough were part of the London County Council. Under the Air Raid Precautions Acts of 1937 and 1939 County Councils were responsible for making arrangements for the protection from injury and damage of persons and property within the County. This included the training of volunteers as control room staff, wardens, rescuers, ambulance drivers, messengers and salvage; building shelters; establishing rest centres for the homeless and evacuation of schools and the vulnerable.

Battersea and Wandsworth were a prime target during the Blitz because of the railway network, factories and power station in the area. From July 1940 to April 1944, 2,729 high explosive bombs and parachute mines together with about 50,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the two boroughs. From June 1944 to March 1945, 160 V1 flying bombs and 8 V2 rockets fell on the two boroughs. Also, during that time, eight V2 rockets fell on the boroughs from the 8th September 1944 to the 6th March 1945. About 1,800 died and about 8,900 were injured in the 2 boroughs.

Source of statistics: http://www.emc.org.uk/hawkley1939/History/civilian_air_raid_casualties.htm

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, Askew Road, Hammersmith, was founded in 1886 and built in 1890.

Elim Hall in Christchurch Avenue was registered by Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance from 1938 until 1954. The Elim Alliance then used the former Wesleyan chapel in King Street until 1974, when it began sharing East Finchley United Reformed church in East End Road.

At a meeting of the Wandsworth Methodist Circuit in November 1902 it was decided to open a Wesleyan Chapel in Southfields to cater for the growing number of Methodist families in that area.

The first public service as held in the Merton Road School in December 1905. A School Chapel, with seating for 400 people, opened in Ravensbury Road in 1908. However, expansion was rapid and this was replaced in 1925 by the much larger Central Hall (on the corner of Ravensbury and Durnsford Road). In addition to being a place of worship the Central Hall was also intended to provide a meeting place for the local community. Music concerts and film shows were a regular feature for many years and parts of the premises were leased to local businesses.

A Salvation Army barracks in Waltham Road was first registered in 1885, and re-registered as a hall in 1897. The Salvation Army Citadel in Adelaide Road is said to have been opened in 1883, but it was not registered until 1905; it seems most likely to have been the successor to the earlier Waltham Road barracks. In 1961 this remained the headquarters of the Army in Southall.

From: 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. 52-53.

The Leys School was opened in Cambridge in 1875, intended to be "the Methodist Eton".

The Leysian Mission was started in 1886 by former pupils of the Leys School who were concerned about the social and housing conditions in the East End of London. Its first premises were in nearby Whitecross Street but in 1902 the Mission moved into grand purpose-built premises in Old Street (just round the corner from Wesley's Chapel on City Road). It had vibrant evangelical and social ministries and encouraged alumni from the Cambridge school to give time to programmes that reached out to the poor. In the early days, there was a Medical Mission, a "poor man's lawyer", a relief committee, feeding programmes, meetings for men and women, and a range of services and musical activities.

Royalty patronised the Mission's great events and the school in Cambridge maintained strong links. However, the ravages of World War II and the advent of the post-war Welfare State saw a change in circumstance that led, eventually, to disposing of the buildings and the successful merger with Wesley's Chapel in 1989.

Source: http://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/mission.htm.

A pharmacopoeia is an official treatise containing listings of drugs approved for use in a hospital, with their formulations, standards of purity and strength, and uses.

For histories of the individual hospitals please see H09/GY for Guy's and H01/ST for Saint Thomas.

Camberwell became a Poor Law Parish on 28 October 1835, overseen by an elected Board of Guardians. In 1878 the Camberwell Board of Guardians constructed a new workhouse on Gordon Road. It was intended to house 743 able bodied inmates. Males chopped wood or broke stones; while females were employed in laundry work.

In 1930 the Gordon Road Workhouse was taken over by the London County Council and became the Camberwell Reception Centre for homeless men. The building has now been converted to flats.

The London Methodist Districts Women's Luncheon Club met to share lunch and listen to guest speakers.

Earlsfield Congregational Church began as a mission church of East Hill Congregational Church. It became independent in 1892. Earlsfield is a south-west London suburb near Wandsworth.

Guy's Hospital School was established in 1949 to enable children in the hospital to continue their education, maintain their interest and encourage their recovery. After 1965 it was staffed by the Inner London Education Authority.

In 1976 the Evelina Hospital was physically amalgamated with Guy's Hospital becoming the Evelina's Children's Department in Guy's Tower. The Evelina also had regular school instruction in the wards by arrangement with London County Council.

For a detailed history of Guy's Hospital please see H09/GY and for a history of the Evelina please see H09/EV.

There was a Methodist mission room in Harrow Weald from 1889 to 1935, and a chapel in Station Road, Wealdstone, from 1892 to 1904, when it was replaced by the present chapel in Locket Road (now Wealdstone Methodist Church, see ACC/3392/WE).

The Methodist Church on Ickenham Road, Ruislip, was founded in 1923.

Wesleyan Methodists in North Harrow met in a private house in Southfield Park until a hall was built in Pinner Road in 1927. It was extended in the 1930s and a church was built next to it in 1957.

Ruislip Common Chapel was built in 1854 and taken over for use by a Methodist congregation in 1882.

South Harrow Methodist Church is situated on the corner of Walton Avenue and Carlyon Avenue.

Kingdom Hall is the term for the meeting place of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The log book was kept by Mr Austin Brewer, headmaster of Shillington Street Boys' School, Clapham Junction, while the school was evacuated to Cranleigh, Surrey from September 1939 to August 1943. There is only one entry in the log book before May 1940 when it records that Allfarthing Lane, Shillington Street, Swaffield Road and Waldron Road Schools combined under Mr Brewer. In July 1940 Saint Peter's Church of England School, Wapping arrived in Cranleigh, having been re-evacuated from Brighton, but their children did not combine with the children from the other London Schools until May 1941. By May 1943 the number of pupils was falling. Mr Brewer decided to retire and the London school children combined with the local Church of England School.

West Street was renamed Braintree Street in 1915. It runs from Sceptre Road to Malcolm Road. Number 86 is not listed in the Post Office Directories and may have been a private property rather than a business address.

The Home Mission Division of the Methodist Church is based at Central Buildings, Westminster. It is responsible for promotion of the Methodist Mission at 'home', that is in the UK. The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod.

Circuits and missions in the London North East District include: London City Road, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Finsbury park and Southgate, Tottenham, Enfield, Waltham Abbey and Hertford, [Epping] Forest, Barking and Ilford, West Essex, Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Romford, Grays, Southend-on-sea, Leigh-on-sea, Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester, Manningtree and Harwich, Clacton-on-Sea.

Circuits and missions in the London North-West District include: Notting Hill, Highgate, Harrow, Finchley and Hendon, Wembley, Harlesden, Barnet, Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamstead, Saint Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin and Letchworth, Stevenage, Welwyn, Luton, Dunstable, Bedford, Biggleswade, Leighton Buzzard and Stewkley, Milton Keynes, High Wycombe, Amersham, Aylesbury, Thame and Watlington.

Circuits and missions in the London South-West District include: Victoria and Chelsea, Broomwood and Clapham, Battersea, Lambeth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond and Hounslow, Teddington, Ealing and Acton, Southall, Hillingdon, Wimbledon, Tooting, Kingston-upon-Thames, Staines and Feltham, Thames Valley, Sutton, Redhill and East Grinstead, Dorking and Horsham, Mid Sussex, Eastbourne, Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Guildford, Farnham and Alton, Basingstoke, Woking, Aldershot, Farnborough and Camberley, South East Berkshire.

Circuits and missions in the London South-East District include: Brixton, Streatham and Dulwich, Sydenham and Forest Hill, Walworth, Blackheath and Lewisham, Shooters Hill, Plumstead, Bromley, Orpington, Chislehurst, Croydon, Purley, Gravesend and Dartford, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Hastings, Bexhill and Rye, The Medway Towns, Maidstone, Sittingbourne and Sheerness, Canterbury, Thanet, Dover and Deal, Folkestone and Ashford.

Previously known as Coare and Swaine, then as Coare, Swaine and Minnitt. By 1815 the firm was known as Swaine, Minnet and Company. The distillery was based at 8 Holborn Bridge, City of London. Upon the death of Mrs Mary Minnitt of Bruce Grove, Tottenham, a trust was established know as Minnitt's Trust.