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1950: A SHORT HISTORY of STANMORE by DAVID BOWEN* * I am indebted to Mr Percy Davenport and Mr Walter Druett for their historic works on Stanmore [Go to 1950: Stanmore Church Centenary Week] STANMORE is thought to derive its name from 'stones by the mere', the stones and mere being all that was left after the Saxons had destroyed Sulloniacae, the Roman city on Brockley Hill. But there had been previous spectacular events in the history of Stanmore, which, even then, had been in existence for many centuries. The Romans, on arrival here, found a well-ordered community on the eastern spur of Brockley Hill, the town of the Celtic Catuvellauni tribe. Going back still further, it is possible to interpret Stanmore's history from the ancient trackways connecting S.E. England with the North, the main one believed to have run over Brockley Hill, and a subsidiary through Honeypot Lane, Marsh Lane and Dennis Lane. These tracks were almost certainly in existence when the Druidical Order flourished; they may even date to the Stone Age, although the building of the first complete highway, which passes over Brockley Hill and connects Dover with Holyhead, is attributed to Molmutius, 400 B.C., sometimes called the first King of Britain. His son, Belinus, completed the roads radiating from London, throwing them open to all nations. 'There are things free to a country,' he said, 'the rivers, the roads, and the places of worship. These are under the protection of God and His Peace. Whoever draws weapons on or within them against anyone is a criminal.' The Molmutius road connected the Arch-Druids' seats of St Albans and London, and this suggests that Stanmore Common, the highest point between them, might have been a convenient common meeting-place for ceremonies. Also, according to legend, Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, is buried here in The Grove grounds, near today's Orthopaedic Hospital. This is not pure fancy. The Roman Emperor, Claudius, had landed in A.D. 43, and in A.D. 61 fighting was particularly severe when Boadicea, rising in arms against the invaders, sacked both London and Verulamium and occupied the heights from St Albans to Hampstead. The struggle ended soon afterwards. Boadicea was defeated somewhere along the line of Watling Street (of which Brockley Hill is a part), which means that the battle could easily have raged over or very near Stanmore Common. Soon afterwards Boadicea took poison and killed herself, and it is significant that a mound in The Grove grounds has long been known as Boadicea's Grave. Admittedly other places have similar names, but a deed of 978 refers to nearby Hale Lane, Edgware, as the 'Way of the Iceni'. Today, in the field adjoining The Grove, an eighteenth century obelisk commemorates those battle-scarred days. The Romano-British interregnum brought, on the whole, peace and prosperity to the country. Stanmore's ancient city of the Catuvellauni was renamed Sulloniacae, and, bracketed by Ptolemy with Verulam and St Albans, became a Roman fortress. This was all too transient, seeing that it was utterly destroyed by the invading East Saxons, who robbed and murdered as they went, wiping away centuries of work by fire and sword, although later they restored a law and order in which our present civilization has roots. Since its destruction Sulloniacae has gradually been covered with earth and vegetation: it was not, indeed, until just before the last World War that the district really received attention from archeological societies, and the field for discovery is still very great. Already a Roman pavement has been unearthed several feet below the present surface of Brockley Hill; antiquities such as gold rings, coins, urns, stone masonry and bricks have been discovered, including fifty gold coins of the Emperors Constantine, Constantius, Valentia and Honorius, a coin of Vespasian (A.D. 70-79), a cinerary urn and a lamp. These facts speak clearly as to the size of Sulloniacae, yet scholars are uncertain as to its exact site. The 1937 investigations, enlightening as they were, centred on the East side of Brockley Hill, and it is possible that further digging on the Stanmore side - that is, near Warren Woods and the Spring Pond, may yield better, more conclusive results. The Spring Pond is also known as Caesar's Pond, it being alleged that it was dug by his men to provide water for the garrison, and here may be the real site of Sulloniacae, as the Roman outpost guarding the city is known to have been at Elstree. One of the most mysterious relics of old Stanmore is Grim's Dyke. Historians have argued about it, and they still do. It enters the district at Brockley Hill, goes on to Stanmore Hill, the bank being on the North side of Wood Lane, which is built in the ditch. It skirts the Northern edge of the Little Common, crosses Stanmore Hill and enters the grounds of Bentley Priory. Then it becomes less distinct, though it is still visible as it emerges into Common Road, Harrow Weald. It can be traced in Grim's Dyke gardens, across the golf course (and here the ditch is remarkably deep), proceeding to Pinner, Ruislip and beyond. Some authorities say it was built just before or during the reign of Offa, King of Mercia (757-796), the time when the Saxon petty chieftains were struggling for superiority over each other, and Offa nearly succeeding. Others say Grim's Dyke is prehistoric or at least a relic of pre-Roman Britain. One historian agrees that it was built for defence ('the traditional use of a dyke') while another says 'hunting'. A reasonable deduction is that the ditch and mound were first made by the ancient tribes for both hunting and defence, and that later on the Saxons adapted them for their defence. The meaning of 'grim' is goblin or devil, which suggests the creation of these great works by a supernatural agency, and is good indication that at least they originated long before the Saxon era. In 704 the name 'Middlesexan' came into use, while towards the end of the tenth century the boundaries were fixed between Middlesex and Hertfordshire, just beyond Grim's Dyke. The Saxons gave more than national independence, for it is in this age that the seeds of the Gospel were replanted. Hitherto the British Church had been unable to withstand the pagan assaults of fire and sword, but with Augustine and his missionaries the Church was reborn. Even the merciless King Offa came under its all-embracing influence, who, in great penance, founded the monastery at St Albans and endowed it with lands at Pinner and Stanmore. It is the opinion of Sir Montagu Sharpe that it was at about this time that a pagan temple in Old Church Lane was replaced by a wooden Saxon church. Two hundred years after Offa the Norman conquerors found in Stanmore an organized agricultural people. The country had been divided into 'shires' (later called counties) and subdivided into 'hundreds' and 'vills'. Domesday, 1086, names the Earl of Moretaine as owner of Stanmore (referring to Great Stanmore or Stanmore Magna), with its manor, land, priests, pasture, ploughs, wood, cattle and pigs. It was worth 60s., though only 10s. when received. In all there were probably about 1500 acres, near to the official measurement today of 1484 acres, although only half the arable land was then cultivated and much went out of cultivation after the Conquest. There is no reference to Little Stanmore (Stanmore Parva) in Domesday, although it is mentioned in The Land of Roger de Rames that it was worth 60s., 20s. when received. At this time there is no mention of any Saxon freehold tenants, doubtless because they had been dispossessed of their land in the previous fighting. Now it was the lord who was supreme and who had the services of villeins and bondmen, the villeins being allowed to hold land in return for work or payment, the bondmen of a lower status. On each manor there was a population of about one hundred: the lord's officials, domestic servants in the manor house, and a village smith, carpenter, swineherd, thatcher and other craftsmen. Farming was done on a three-field system, crops being planted in rotation and one field always fallow, while the ground was divided into strips so that no holder received two next to each other. It meant, too, that each had his share of good as well as indifferent soil and held some of the yearly fallow. Villeins did not hold private pastures, though each had a right to meadow a number of beasts (proportionate to his holding of arable strips) on the common. Stanmore then had more woodland than today. It was called 'waste' and had a number of definite uses, such as providing fuel for man and food for pigs, as well as wood for houses, furniture and tools. Turves for roofs, sand and gravel for buildings, wild berries for the table – all were invaluable products of the 'waste'. Here, too, is the origin of 'by hook or by crook', the peasant usually being allowed to take what wood he liked by hook or crook, that is, by pulling down or knocking down. In its day the manorial system was most effective; it lasted hundreds of years and its vestiges have not been entirely destroyed. The historic pattern made by the continuing changes in land ownership, with divisions of land and numerous sub-divisions, the consequent strivings of individuals and groups for mastery (often not without bitterness) is at all times a difficult and complex study; and the history of the lands of Stanmore is interwoven with complexities. Starting in the year 793, the Abbey of St Albans became possessed of 'Stanmera', though it passed from the Abbey's hand at an unknown date before the Norman Conquest, possibly during the early eleventh century; when there was furious fighting with the Danes who had overrun Middlesex and Herts. But William Earl of Moretaine, restored the land to the Abbey, probably between 1097 and II04. Later, Richard, the fifteenth Abbot, who had a habit of giving away lands at the Abbey's expense, gave to a friend, Serlo, a farm for the annual rent of three pounds. This resulted in a subsequent agreement between Robert of Stanmore (Serlo's son) and the Abbot concerning land in the 'vill of Stanmore', but not before one party had taken out a lawsuit against the other! Further land transactions followed, which were accomplished by the levying of fmes in the King's Courts at Westminster – a method of transferring land by means of a pretended compromise of fictitious legal proceedings. The next reference to Stanmore in the chronicles relates to John, twenty-third Abbot of St Albans (1235-60). The district had been alienated through the laxity of his predecessors, so John prudently recovered it. However, towards the end of the thirteenth century the Abbey lost Stanmore for good, there being further litigation in the Courts, and the Manor eventually passed into the hands of Edward of Westminster for an annual rent. Throughout the next fifty years there were frequent changes of land ownership and equally frequent disputes. The most important change was the acquisition by the Prior of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, already owner of the Manor of Little Stanmore, of land in Hendon and Great Stanmore, after which the Priory continued to own both the Stanmore Manors until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. As early as the twelfth century it was quite common for city magnates to buy land for building country residences and farms outside London, and being great sportsmen, wooded Middlesex offered them special  attractions. It was at this time that the rich Andrew Bucointe, and, later, his sons John, Ralph and Humfry, lived in the district. The second Andrew (Humfry's son) brought disgrace to his family, for he joined a young blood's 'knife gang', and, during an attack on the house of a rich citizen, had his hand cut off in a fight with the owner. Brought to trial, he turned King's evidence and betrayed his associates. Thus he was pardoned by the Court only to be killed later by seekers of vengeance, they in turn meeting justice. But the Bucointe family had worthier members. Adam Bucointe (whose wife's name, Dionesia, is probably perpetuated in Dennis Lane) is thought to be Adam the mercer, the first lay master of the great hospital of St Bartholomew. The properties of Little Stanmore Manor were broken up by numerous transactions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the documents of this period revealing that. somewhere between Stanmore and Aldenham there was an aqueduct, which suggests that a Roman aqueduct was still in existence eight centuries after the Legions left British shores. Another document gives the will of a certain William Paris, who died in I27I and left an endowment to assist the upkeep of the fabric of Little Stanmore Church and twenty-four sheep to support the light of the Church. Such gifts of animals to parishes were common in those times. In the same century Little Stanmore was unfortunately victimized by the notorious Adam de Stratton, a forger of documents and conjuror of the Black Arts. He secured the King's favour, using his official position to further private ends, but his favourite occupation seemed to be the acquiring of property from unwary and helpless owners. They would be enticed to his house and kept in confinement until they executed documents in his favour. On one occasion Adam was imprisoned, and, though subsequently pardoned and released, the arrest led to the impounding of a large number of deeds, both genuine and forged. Now in the Public Record Office, they make possible a detailed survey of the Stanmores and Stanmore Manors of 1277. There is accurate information on acreages, holdings and values, and it is known that arable land was then worth only 2d. an acre per annum, while meadow was worth 1s. per annum. Another survey, by the Prior of St Bartholomew in the early fourteenth century, shows that the tenants, although still having to render certain services for the Lord of the Manor, were gradually getting their labour services commuted for money payments. The Priory soon acquired additional land in Little Stanmore, which is a certain proof of its very great influence at that time, but there were limits to its power. Edward I issued the famous writs of Quo Warranto to prevent the feudal lords usurping the Crown's rights, for in the previous weak reign of Henry III many had been trying and punishing certain criminal cases in the Manorial Courts instead of passing them to the Crown. Among those guilty of such illegal procedure was the Prior of St Bartholomew! In Great Stanmore a church attributed to the Saxons was in existence in about the year 1100, but the Norman Church of St Mary is the first of the three known parish churches. Built in the fourteenth century, it stood beside the left bank of the Stanburn stream, in Old Church Lane (the latter named after it). The site is now built upon, but the foundations were fortunately discovered when the railway was being constructed in 1889. St Mary's, Stanmore, was first built with an aisleless nave, about thirty-four feet long. There was obviously a chancel, roughly half the size of the nave, and the west gable, close to the bank of the stream, was supported by a pair of diagonal buttresses. Considerable alterations seem to have taken place in the fifteenth century. The nave was lengthened to forty-five feet by moving the west wall with its buttresses nearer the stream.. A new chancel was built, the same width as the nave, thus virtually making the church one large hall seventy-four feet long and twenty-two feet wide ideally suited to the taste of the day. These alterations are evidence of the active spiritual life of the fifteenth century, when the parson, though taking part in the agricultural life of the community, carried the gospel along the track-ways to isolated hamlets and ministered to the landsman. Here simplicity was the keynote of life, and religion its essence, while the Church, with its music, silence, colour, imagery, gestures and paintings, was the real service-book of those days. The Dissolution of the Monasteries broke the connection between the Priory of St Bartholomew and the Manor; it started an era when  Stanmore, like so many other places, suffered an ever-changing ownership, property being surrendered, leased, and then re-leased when the King wished to grant a favour to any who had done him special service. In Great Stanmore, Sir Peter Gambo was made Lord of the Manor after he had excelled himself in Henry's wars, but he held it only three years, being murdered by a Fleming near St Sepulchre's in 1550. Queen Elizabeth, who certainly lived here for some time as a girl, in turn leased the Manor to various owners, and in 1604 the reversion was granted to Sir Thomas Lake. In due course his son took possession, but it changed hands repeatedly until 1713, when it passed by marriage into the hands of the Earl of Carnarvon, later the first Duke of Chandos. Only at this point were the two Stanmores united under common lordship. During these changes of ownership there had been epoch-making changes in the community's spiritual life. Edward Thorpe, appointed Rector in 1506, resigned in 1527, leaving the Rev. William Creeting to hold office during the fateful years of the King's break with Rome and his  appointment as Supreme Head of the Church. He must have seen the great Bibles issued by Coverdale and Cranmer, yet there is no record of local comment to show the Stanmore reaction to such changes. In 1563 the Rev. Baptist Willoughby, whose tomb is in the garden of a house in Old Church Lane, was nominated and remained in office for forty-seven years, thus weathering the storms of changed ceremonial and enforced belief during the reign of Elizabeth and the anxious opening years of James I's reign. Then followed the Rev. John Boyle and the Rev. Henry Rainsford, the latter being forced to resign in 1648 because of further purges in the Church. The red-brick church (behind the present Parish Church, but which is now no more than a beautiful ruin) was built during these troubled times. Consecrated on July 17,1632 by William Laud, then Bishop of London, in the presence of Sir John Wolstenholme, it meant the abandonment of worship in Old Church Lane. Sir John, who financed the building of this church, was born in Stanmore and brought fame to his birthplace. He was a customs official, became a rich merchant and furthered English commerce, colonization and maritime discovery, especially the attempts to discover a North-West passage. He financed Henry Hudson's expedition, who, in recognition, named the Eastern point of the great Hudson Bay 'Cape Wolstenholme' . William Baffin immortalized him in 'Wolstenholme Sound' and 'Wolstenholme Island'. The inscription on his monument, now in the present church beneath the pulpit, says that he died 'alas all too young' in December 1639 when nearly eighty years of age. The siting of the new church at the cross-roads indicates the way that Stanmore was growing in the seventeenth century; it doubtless suited the preachers of that time, who liked to have their congregations gathered together in broader, less restricted buildings than had previously been the custom. But the lovely red bricks of this early-Stuart church were not matched by equal beauty inside. There was a nave with high-backed pews and galleries on each side, the wooden pattern thus made, unrelieved by any chancel, appearing strangely austere: however, the fine South porch (now destroyed) was the work of the famous Nicholas Stone. A Latin document recently discovered by Mr Davenport gives an interesting account of the first service here. The Bishop entered with his Officers, of whom are mentioned the Rev. William Heywood and the Rev. William Bray, and Sir John Wolstenholme was asked, 'What have you to say?' Sir John asked for a faculty for the new building in place of the old one which had become ruinous, to which the Bishop replied, 'Sir, if this is your desire ... let us begin.' There were psalms and the Gloria, the large gathering of people joining in the singing; then a prayer of dedication. After this each part of the Church was dedicated separately, among which are mentioned the font, the altar, the 'part where marriages took place' and the churchyard. A young boy was christened during this service, the document mentioning  that 'they baptized a certain little child whose name was John.' He was John Bennett, a grandson of one of the churchwardens, Jasper Bourne. The Church's association with Laud offers interesting speculation. Did the Rector and churchwardens look askance at him because of his alleged Romanism? Perhaps they hid any unfavourable opinion in discreet silence, or maybe there were even one or two who could foresee his untimely fate? The answers are not known, but it is known that at Laud's trial one of the charges brought against him was that he 'outwent Popery in the consecration of Chapels', and the accusers referred to the 'chapel of "Sir John Worsterham's" building'. To this Laud replied that Stanmore was no chapel but a true parish church. An order, recorded in the House of Lords' Journals during the Interregnum, gives the name of the Rev. Matthew Playford for induction to Stanmore. Matthew became Rector on June I3, I649, but despite his forcible entry he was a better churchman than Cromwell would have liked, for in baptizing his own children (of whom there appear to have been many) he defied the dictator's prohibitions. Some time after the Restoration Great Stanmore invested in its peal of bells, although from the inscription on the treble bell, 'James Bartlett made me, I644', they had obviously spent some years in cold storage-doubtless carefully hidden from the roving eyes of Cromwell's looters. By the beginning of the seventeenth century local judicial affairs had increasingly passed from what the Normans called the County Courts (different from the Court of the same title of today) and Hundred Courts into the hands of county justices who sat in Quarter Sessions and magistrates who sat in Petty Sessions, while civil as well as ecclesiastical affairs began to be placed in the hands of the Vestry, so called because parishioners met in the vestry. Even so, the old manorial courts died slowly. In Great Stanmore the manorial rolls only begin in I508, although at least one earlier one has disappeared. Their absence may be due to the unsettled state of the Manor through constantly changing ownership. With the new judicial system came an increased need for prisoner accommodation. For a House of Correction in Middlesex the two Stanmores had to contribute £10 each, and it is significant that whereas the records of the old Manorial Courts throw light mainly on the domestic life of the people those of the new County Sessions Courts tend to stress the seamy side. In November I605 a servant, Lucy Cole, of Harrow Weald, was sentenced to death for poisoning her master, Anthony Trott; in I623 the Harrow justices found William Page guilty of 'homicide by mischance' - he had fought with, and killed, one of his servants during a violent argument. The Stanmore Manorial Rolls point to the great religious upheaval that took place in the reigns of Mary, Elizabeth, James I and Charles I, and it is difficult to realize today that a statute of 23 Elizabeth made it an offence against the law for people to fail to attend a 'usual place of common prayer'. The records contain many names of Stanmore and Harrow Weald residents who were fined for staying away from such a place or who were guilty of going to a 'conventicle'. Another common offence was the disobeying of the licensing laws, local offenders being fined for 'immoderate drinking', 'tippling', 'riotous drinking and company keeping'. Again it was an offence to buy a commodity such as wheat in one market and resell in another, and there was the death penalty (up to 1827) for stealing one shilling or over. The registers of Great Stanmore Church, beginning in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, contain both pathetic and amusing stories which are as quaint as they are interesting. The inscriptions are clear, though many entries show carelessness as when the Rector, on July 22, 1622, records a baptism but forgets the Christian name. Baptisms, marriages, burials-all were entered together, and among records of the latter are several instances of great longevity: Lady Dorothy Digby, died 1689, aged 100, and Mrs Mary Smith, wife of the Rev. Jos. Smith, Rector, aged 102, buried July 3, 1780. Certificates duly signed by the Rector, are found at the end of some of the registers: 'Oath has been made before me that G.H. of this Parish, lately deceased, was not wrapped in anything but was made of sheep's wool.' Burying in woollen clothes had then been made compulsory by Act of Parliament to encourage the wool trade, and for burying in traditional fine linen a fine of fifty shillings had to be paid to the churchwardens for the poor. Eighteenth century entries were on the whole extremely careless and haphazard for example, 'Married a lodger on Bushey Heath'; 'Buried a poor man from Weald'; 'This blot is the fault of my stupid clerk. Signed J. Smith, the Rector.' Other entries expose some very curious customs of the time. A rector had stated that a certain person he knew 'had never received the favour of His Majesty' s touch' and was doubtless referring to the supposed efficacy of the King's touch in cases of scrofula, the disease then known as 'the king's evil'. Then, dated as early as April 1644, there is the statement that 'A nurse child of Mr Pitts was buried'. In the eighteenth century these entries increase; they show that 'baby-farming' was an industry in Stanmore, the infants from well-to-do parents in London being consigned to professional keepers. No fewer than eighty such infants were buried round the brick church between 1730 and 1740. On the high ground of Stanmore Hill lies Bentley Priory, a name today associated with the Royal Air Force. It was believed to have been  founded in 1170 by Ranulf Glanvill, a famous twelfth century lawyer, and, the only monastic house in the Manor of Harrow, it ministered to the people's spiritual needs. Mass and other divine services were said each week in the chapel, which stood by itself on the Common and served a hamlet of industrious agricultural people. Now all traces of it have been lost. The Priory's ecclesiastical days finished in 1543 when both its lands and property were given to the King, to be passed soon after into private hands; and little more is heard of it until 1766. Then an Army contractor by name of James Duberley purchased the estate, pulled down the old buildings, and erected new ones based on designs by Sir John Soane, the most famous architect of his day. Today, wherever digging is done on Priory grounds, old foundations are discovered. One of the most interesting discoveries is the wooden statue resembling the Madonna, or St Mary Magdalene, the patroness of the old Priory Chapel. A flake of gilt can be seen on the hem of the robe, which is in the style of the late Middle Ages. The statue is given a special place of honour in the present Priory House. In 1790 the Priory again underwent extensive alterations, when it commenced its association with the famous Abercorn family, but there was also pomp and splendour in the district during the first part of this century - at Canons. Canons had by this time been in the possession of the Lake family for a whole century, and it was in I710 that Mary Lake, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Lake, married James Brydges, son of Baron Chandos of Sudely. Brydges brought distinction to Stanmore. He enjoyed a successful public career, receiving honour upon honour until he became Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos in 1719, and, despite much domestic unhappiness, lived in unparalleled grandeur in his £250,000 mansion. This he built in place of the existing Manor House beyond St Lawrence's Church, which today, restored and enlarged, is used by the North London Collegiate School. St Lawrence's itself maintains its associations with the Duke, which is natural enough seeing that he had it rebuilt, worshipped here, and, with his family, lies at rest in what is now the Chandos Memorial Chapel. But the Church is probably better known through the Duke's music master, George Frederick Handel, and the Handel organ, which has changed but little in appearance, is the object of continued pilgrimage from all parts. For thirty years the Chandos splendour had been almost without rival in the Kingdom, yet scarcely had it begun to fade when attraction was transferred to Bentley Priory again, to John James Hamilton, Marquess of Abercorn, who bought the estate and mansion in 1790 and made  extensive alterations to the house, fitting it up on a scale of great magnificence, He was certainly no stranger to the district, having been educated at Harrow, and now a distinguished figure in the politics and society of his day, he appeared 'tall, erect and muscular, with an air of grace and dignity'. He had a dark complexion, more like a Spaniard than an Englishman. His mysterious and arrogant solemnity prompted Sheridan to label him 'Don Whiskerandos', while Lady Blessington relates the Marquess's delight in seeing beautiful women. Lord Ernest Hamilton, brother of the present Duke of Abercorn, says that at a reception at the Marquess's London house the guests on arrival found him surrounded by a bodyguard of young ladies of fashion, all clad alike in classical costume, and so scantily that some of the guests fairly gasped. The Priory soon acquired distinction as a literary and political rendezvous, for visitors included statesmen like Pitt and Wellington, and, amongst the poets, Wordsworth, Moore, Rogers, Scott and Campbell. The Marquess allowed his guests to shoot, hunt or ride, to do anything they pleased, provided they remembered he was only to be addressed when at table. But there was tragedy in the Priory as well as laughter and entertainment. The Marchioness, after presenting her husband with two sons and four daughters, died in 1791 of consumption. The following year the Marquess married his cousin, Lady Cecil Hamilton, but in 1798 she eloped – strangely enough, with the brother of the Marquess's first wife, a Captain Copley. The latter, although he eventually married the Marchioness, had to pay damages of £10,000. In 1810 the Marquess married Lady Anne Gore, daughter of the Earl of Arran. There were no children by the second and third marriages, and the six children of the first marriage all died in quick succession, again from consumption. The second daughter, Catherine, described as the most beautiful of a beautiful family, and who had married Lord Aberdeen, left three girls. They all died of the same disease before reaching maturity. Nevertheless, there were some direct heirs left, for Lord Hamilton, the eldest son, had married in 1809 and had left two sons and a daughter, all of whom lived to a ripe old age. The second Marquess (1811-85) had a very distinguished career as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and was created Duke of Abercorn in 1868. He had five sons and six daughters, further, his wife, who was popular with all who knew her, became a well-known figure in European society. She was well known, too, for her twice-weekly distribution to the cottagers of bottles of cordial, which gained her an immense reputation, for the special recipe contained various 'warming drugs', including whisky, red lavender and ginger. Little wonder that 'Her Grace's Bottle' was regarded as one of the greatest wonders in Ireland. With the advent of the pernicious Land Enclosure Acts the nineteenth century witnessed drastic changes in Stanmore. In 1813 there was a law to enclose and control 216 acres in Great Stanmore, which was, as elsewhere, the result of the original copyhold land being developed by large owners. The copyhold tenants became dispossessed of their land and the new owners took over the rights of Lord of the Manor (although these did not amount to very much). Normally anyone who had become dispossessed of his land received no compensation, but in Great Stanmore the copyholders did not lose all their rights, for a large stretch of Stanmore Common escaped the clutches of the Acts, and the ground, now preserved in perpetuity, is controlled by the Harrow Council. The brick church at Great Stanmore was condemned after two hundred and eighteen years of continuous use, and the reason given was that it was dangerous, and that accommodation anyway was insufficient. Consequently the Bishop of London declined to sanction further expenditure on the old building. It was left to go to ruin, a tragedy that is heightened by the fact that England has so few churches of this period, and here was a unique example of the fine brickwork of the seventeenth century. There was no alternative but to build a new church, towards which the Earl of Aberdeen gave £2,000, his son, the Rev. Douglas Gordon, who was Rector, £1,000, and the parish itself £3,000. This was not achieved only by voluntary gifts although the parishioners gave generously - but by a general rate, a method of raising money which was abandoned in 1868. The church cost £7,855 0s. 3d. (note the odd pence) and the foundation stone was laid in March 1849 by the Earl of Aberdeen in the presence of Queen Adelaide, then a tenant of Bentley Priory, and other notables. This was the last time that the Queen Dowager appeared in public, and although the church was built in little over a year she did not live to see it consecrated by the Bishop of Salisbury (in the absence of the Bishop of London) on Tuesday, July 16, 1850. There were a number of gifts to the new church, including both the site and the clock, which were presented by Lieut-Colonel Tennant. The font, the alms dish and two collecting plates were given by Queen Adelaide; the pulpit by the Earl of Wicklow; and the East window was erected by subscriptions in memory of the royal resident. 'This window,' wrote the Rev. S. F. L. Bernays, 'was made at the very worst period of stained glass, and it is certainly not an ornament in the church.' It is now in process of being treated by Mr Francis Spear, whose work may be seen in many churches throughout the country. The new font replaced the unique seventeenth century octagonal bowl pedestal font, the latter the work of Nicholas Stone, and with a beautifully carved oak cover bearing the arms of the Wolstenholme family and dated 1634. 'This,' says Mr Bernays, 'is a bad instance of vandalism,' and visitors may test this opinion by comparing the two fonts, which stand close to each other in the church. Several monuments were transferred from the old church, among them the two Wolstenholme tombs and the Burnell monument. The Burnells were an old Stanmore family connected with the Clothworkers Company and descended from Oliver Cromwell. On entering the Church from the South porch their monument will be seen on the North wall opposite, and turning through the tower door the visitor will find the tomb of Sir John Wolstenholme's son - also Sir John - who reclines on a marble bed with his wife leaning towards him. The recumbent effigy of the first Sir John - a fine piece of work by Nicholas Stone - lies beneath the pulpit, while, parallel with this and behind the organ is the monument of the Earl of Aberdeen, one-time Prime Minister of England, and his family. Stanmore Church has also important literary and musical connections. In an unmarked grave outside the old church lies Charles Hart, the actor, son of William Hart, who was the eldest son of Shakespeare's sister Joan. Then there is the grave of W.S. Gilbert outside the South porch of the present church, the tomb embodying an angel with outspread wings; it has been described as the best that Victorian graveyard architecture could do! But quite the most unique and interesting monument is that of the infant daughter of Lord Jellicoe on the ground between the Church and the Uxbridge Road: she died during the time that Jellicoe lived in Harrow Weald. Although from time to time the more wealthy of Stanmore's residents would leave endowments or charities, it still fell upon the churchwardens to care for the poor. They made rates for their maintenance and accommodated their own people in the workhouse built on Stanmore Hill in 1780. Methods of dealing with the homeless poor have changed considerably with the progress of years, but up to 1820, and doubtless a number of years beyond, the rules were crushing in the extreme. Members had to go to church twice every Sunday or forfeit a meal, and to go to bed at nine in summer and in winter at eight. They were denied 'spirituous liquors' and tobacco, and there were punishments, including the House of Correction, for stealing, refusing to work, or for any other 'heinous crime or misdemeanour'. Other days, other methods! Now there is the good service of the Public Assistance Committee under the Middlesex County Council. For the weary traveller The Abercorn Arms on Stanmore Hill has always been a welcome sight. Here a most spectacular meeting took place when Louis XVIII of France was received by the Prince Regent on April 21, 1814. The King was on his way to his restored throne after Napoleon's defeat, an occasion marked by a triumphant procession and great rejoicings. Every house displayed emblems of white (sometimes sheets and pillowcases), and the throngs, surging around the King and his escort of trumpeters and State Officers, little dreamt that within a year he would again be an exile, and that Waterloo had yet to be fought. Enterprises in Stanmore met with mixed success and failure during the period marked by the first years of the present neo-Gothic church. In 1863 Sir John Kelk, a well known railway engineer, bought the mansion of Bentley Priory with its three hundred acres. Later, Mr Frederick Gordon of Gordon Hotels, took it over as a business venture. In this he failed, but it was due to his enterprise that the railway was extended from Wealdstone to Stanmore in 1890. He bore the cost himself, though in 1899 the ownership was transferred to the London and North-Western Railway. The Priory at this time was opened again as a school; and once again the venture was not a success. It seems better suited to its present purpose of Royal Air Force and Military Headquarters. Inside the grounds there is now a very charming house which is associated with Sir Walter Scott, having been at one time his lakeside summer-house. Just below Bentley Priory, in Harrow Weald Parish, is Grim's Dyke, the former home of Sir William Gilbert. He was annoyed, we are told, at being described as a 'playwright' on the occasion of his knighthood in 1907, for, he said, 'you never hear of a novelwright or a poemwright.' Gilbert, though he preferred austerity to luxury, was famous for his gardens filled with choicest flowers; he specialized in the cultivation of exotic plants and wonderful fruits; he was also an enthusiastic dairy farmer. His death in 1911 was a tragic one, for in swimming out to a guest whom he was teaching to swim, and who was in obvious difficulties, he died of heart failure. At the age of 74 the exertion was too much for him. The Grove mansion, which lies on the slope of the hill from Stanmore Common, has historical as well as legendary associations. It attained great distinction through Mrs Brightwen, the naturalist, who lived here from 1872 until her death in 1906. In the grounds interest centres round 'Rousseau's Tomb' (erected by an admirer of the philosopher) and the nearby mound into which is built a very curious grotto, is constructed of huge blocks of Hertfordshire conglomerate and water-worn sandstone - one of them being computed to weigh about five tons. There are two theories about these stones: one that they are deposits from the Glacial Age, the other that they come from ancient Sulloniacae. On another mound, Dick Whittington, in stone, looks admiringly towards St Albans. Near the opposite fringes of the Common, on the Dennis Lane side, are two other large mansions. The Warren House (late Georgian) and the large and pompous looking Stanmore Hall. The former at one time belonged to Mr Bischoffshoem, the banker and philanthropist, and is now the home of Sir John Fitzgerald, Bart., Knight of Kerry. Sir John is a keen agriculturalist, well known for his Kerry dairy herds and his work on the Middlesex Agricultural Council. Stanmore Hall was originally built by the Duke of Chandos; it has undergone much alteration since then and in the previous century was associated with Robert Holland, M.P., who made a spectacular ascent from Vauxhall Gardens in the 'Great Nassau Balloon' in 1836. Now it is used as a Nurses Home for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital on Brockley Hill. Stanmore Hill, too, has many interesting residences. It skirts the west boundary of the Common, joining Bushey Heath at The Alpine traffic lights, and it is strange to think that here, just over two hundred years ago, the desolate and windswept moorland must have echoed to Dick Turpin's terrible cry, 'Stand and Deliver!' At Hill House, near the summit of Stanmore Hill, the learned Dr Samuel Parr set up his  'opposition school' - in opposition to Harrow - in 1771. He did this after his claims to the headmastership of the latter were rejected, bringing with him to Stanmore forty of his former pupils. Farther down, at Loscombe Lodge (now Robin Hill) Edward Adrian Wilson, naturalist, artist, doctor and scientist, lived for two years; he perished with Scott on his Antarctic Expedition. To the north-west of the Parish Church is Stanmore Park, once part of the marriage portion which Mary Lake conveyed to her husband, the Duke of Chandos. It has been the home of well known political and banking  figures, was at one time used as a school, and, in 1938, was adapted by the Royal Air Force as a Balloon Barrage Unit. The Rectory, next to the Church, was built in 1721 by the Rector, Dr Hudson, although subsidized by the Duke of Chandos, who also provided the timber. The house was enlarged in 1850, and soon afterwards it began its association with the Bernays family, a name that is still familiar today. First there was the Rev. Leopold Bernays, who became Rector in 1860, and who was well liked and genial, though a strict disciplinarian. He became chairman of the old Stanmore Gas Company, which brought illumination into the district. One of his sons, Ernest, was accidentally drowned while on holiday, and the present Bernays Institute in Stanmore Village is a memorial to him, while later, in remembrance of Mr Bernays's ministry, the parishioners contributed to the beautiful yet often unnoticed window at the west end of the church. He was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick Christian Jackson (an artist of repute), the Rev. S. F. L. Bernays, who left for Finchley in 1924, the Rev.W. A. Hewett, now Rector at Greensted, near Ongar in Essex, while the present Rector, Dr E. F. Carpenter, was inducted by the Bishop of London in February, 1945. Stanmore is fast making new history, and even the more recent events, such as the all-night impromptu playing of the R.A.F. Band in Old Church Lane on the night of August 7-8, 1945, are becoming 'old, forgotten, far off things' in the minds of present-day inhabitants. Three years after 'V-J Day', in July 1948, Stanmore played an important part in the International Olympic Games. The runners, passing through London Road on their way to Marsh Lane and the last lap back to Wembley, were showered with water and refreshed with sponges of blackcurrant juice at a point by Stanmore (Bakerloo) Station. And those who wish to connect past with present by examining present-day names will not be disappointed. Miss Wordsworth, a great niece of the poet, lives in Elm Park; the name of Stanmore itself is perpetuated in Lord Stanmore, a member of the famous Abercorn and Aberdeen family; and the present Prime Minister, Mr C. R. Attlee, lived in the Parish until 1945. 1950 in Stanmore is the Centenary Year of the Parish Church. A week of colourful services and general festivity, attracting attention at home, as well, it is hoped, from guests from abroad, will soon be an integral part of the complex and fascinating historic pattern that began even before the Druids. What of the future? The land is now being developed more rapidly than ever before; it is served, and will doubtless soon be by-passed, by the Underground Railway - thoughts which suggest that the next few decades may change the landscape into something quite unrecognizable. Perhaps it is not too optimistic to hope, no matter what the future tastes of society and the developments of town and country planning, that Stanmore may preserve its ancient and historic beauty, and that its Church of St John the Evangelist may both witness to its traditions and shape the pattern of its new age. *   *   *   *   *   *   * Go to 1950: Stanmore Church Centenary Week   Go to Stanmore Menu Email: Old-Stanmore@chaseside.org.uk

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