| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Poets Corner - Wrong side of the tracks | |
| Posted by: | Sarah Harris | |
| Date/Time: | 14/12/09 16:57:00 |
| I always knew it as Goldsmiths' Estate, not Poets Corner. I think that's a relatively new estate agent invention. If anyone's interested here's a bit of history which refers to Goldsmith Estate/Poet's Corner. The GOLDSMITHS' estate grew from lands in East Acton left to the company by John Perryn, alderman of London, in 1656. The estate was first formed by Sir Richard Sutton (d. 1634), its nucleus being the copyhold capital messuage called Fosters or Hill House and later Manor House, which is recorded from 1532. (fn. 62) At his death Sutton held the capital messuage, 4 other houses, and c. 160 a. of copyhold and 50 a. of freehold. (fn. 63) His only child Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Ashfield, Bt., added to the estate, which by 1653 she had handed over to her son Sir Richard. (fn. 64) In 1654 the Ashfields sold it to John Perryn (d. 1657), (fn. 65) whose widow Alice married Sir Thomas Vyner, lord mayor of London (d. 1665), and after his death lived at the seat in Acton. On her death in 1682 the estate passed to the Goldsmiths' Company of London under Perryn's will. (fn. 66) It consisted of a large house, 2 farmhouses, and 3 cottages, with c. 166 a. of inclosed land and c. 60 a. in the fields in 1739, and was much enlarged in the 19th century and the early 20th. By the 1930s the company owned or had owned the whole area between the eastern parish boundary, Uxbridge Road, the green, and East Acton Lane, together with a wide band of land west of East Acton Lane, north of the green, and on both sides of Friars Place Lane as far as the G.W.R. line, with the Friars beyond it. Until 1920 the only sales were to railway companies, besides those of 13 a. to the local board in 1886 for Acton park and of two leasehold houses and the Friars to the U.D.C. in 1902 for an isolation hospital. Building leases were granted over the western part of the estate and brickmaking leases for land south of the manor house, and sites were given for St. Dunstan's and other churches. After 1920 sales increased, including those of a large stretch of land to the U.D.C. for Western Avenue in 1921, the sites of several big houses for building, and parts of the charity estate for council housing and schools in the 1930s. Only the site of Manor House and some land around it had not been built on by 1945 and was still leased to private sports clubs in 1980. Manor House became hard to let in the late 19th century and was demolished in 1911. The house was probably rebuilt by Henry Lambe, goldsmith, lessee from 1686. (fn. 67) In 1980 some wainscotting and a carved wooden overmantel were at Goldsmiths' Hall, London. (fn. 68) Of the Goldsmiths' other older houses only the Friars survives, as the administration block of Leamington Park hospital. It is an 18th-century house of three storeys and attics, with five bays, a central pediment, and cornices, which probably once had pilasters. A stuccoed porch was added in the 19th century. From: 'Acton: Manors and other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 16-23. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22548 Date accessed: 14 December 2009. |