Yiewsley ( ) is a small suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middlesex. Click 'Relationships and changes' tab. The population of the Yiewsley ward was 12,406 at the 2021 Census.
Toponymy Yiewsley is not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The place-name is believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon Wifeleslēah: "Wifel's woodland clearing". The earliest written record of Yiewsley is from 1235, where it is shown as Wiuesleg in Assize Rolls.
DateFormSource1235WiueslegAssize Rolls1281WynesleAbbreviatio Placitorum (Record Commission), London 18111383WynesleeA Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex 1195–1485 The book is in two parts: p. 1–213 London & Middlesex; p. 214–240 other counties; also an index. Starts on p. 4: (Richard I is listed in reverse, from Anno 10–7): "Richard I, Anno 7" began in September 1195. Ends on p. 213: "Richard III, Anno 2" ended in June 1485.1406WyuesleCalendar of the Close Rolls1504, 1515WynesleyA Calendar to the Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex 1486–1569 Starts on p. 1: "Henry VII, Hil. Anno 1" = the Hilary term in Henry VII's 1st regnal year = early 1486. Ends on p. 159: "Elizabeth, Mich. Anno 11 and 12" = the Michaelmas (autumn) term when Elizabeth I's 11th regnal year became her 12th, in November 1569.1593WewesleyMap of Middlesex 1593 by John Norden1610WewrsleyMap of Middlesex 1610 by Jodocus Hondius I, John Norden, John Speed1636WewesleyGeorge Redford, The History of Uxbridge, 18181675WewesleyJohn Ogilby, Itinerarium Angliae, 16751769WewesleyMap of Middlesex 1769 by John Rocque1809YewsleyPublic Ledger and Daily Advertiser1809YiewsleyThe Day1819YewsleyMap of Middlesex 1819 by Christopher Greenwood1868YiewsleyOrdinance Survey Middlesex Sheet XIV Surveyed 1864.
In the 40 years between John Rocque's Map of Middlesex in 1769 and the 1809 newspaper advertisements in the Public Ledger and The Day there was a significant change in the spelling of the village from Wewesley to Yewsley or Yiewsley.
Geography
The western side of Yiewsley lies within the Colne Valley Regional Park. Here the River Colne forms the county boundary between the London Borough of Hillingdon and Buckinghamshire. The confluence of the Frays River and River Pinn also occurs in this area, and there are several man-made lakes. After climbing south over the Chiltern Hills by the use of 52 locks from the Marsworth Junction, the Grand Union Canal turns east in Yiewsley to route towards London. Half a mile north of this turn, the five-mile Slough Arm of the canal leaves the Grand Union main line at the Cowley Peachey Junction, crossing over the Frays River and River Colne in aqueducts on its westward route towards the Slough basin. On the eastern side of Yiewsley lies Stockley Country Park; within its of parkland lies a comprehensive network of footpaths.
To the west of Yiewsley, beyond the River Colne lie the Buckinghamshire villages of Iver, Richings Park and Thorney. To the north, over the River Pinn is Cowley Peachey. To the northeast of Yiewsley is Hillingdon and the villages of Colham Green and Goulds Green. To the east lies Stockley Park, and to the south, across the Great Western Railway, is West Drayton.
Geology Over tens of thousands of years, the course of the River Thames moved south, first flowing to the north of Yiewsley, then over the Yiewsley area, before reaching its present course, where it lies to the southwest of Yiewsley at its closest point. Over thousands of years, the Ancestral Thames deposited layers of fluvial terrace gravels, silts, sands and loams on the Middle Thames area, with silts forming brickearth.
History Stone Age Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Within the brickearth and gravels deposited by the Thames, significant quantities of early human tools were found when commercial excavations began in Yiewsley on an industrial scale in the 19th century. The first person to start collecting artifacts from Yiewsley was John Allen Brown (1833–1903), a Fellow of the Geological Society, who collected from 1889–1901. The principal collector was Robert Garraway Rice (1852–1933), a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, who recorded over 2600 items from the Yiewsley area from about 1905–1929. In 1937 his collection of Lower Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic artifacts was donated to the London Museum.
In his 1978 Archaeological Report, Early Man in West Middlesex: The Yiewsley Palaeolithic sites, palaeontologist Desmond Collins states the following with regard to the archaeological significance of the Yiewsley sites:
Bronze Age In 1913–1914, a Bronze Age urnfield cemetery was discovered, with the excavation of 14 Deverel–Rimbury cinerary urns. These and other Bronze Age items, mostly from Boyer's Gravel Pit, have been catalogued at the British Museum.
Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age
Besieged Danes of Thorney Island 893 AD In the spring of 893, after overwintering at Appledore in Kent, and then plundering through Kent and Sussex, a Viking raiding army turned to head for the Danish-controlled lands in the east (later known as the Danelaw). However, they were intercepted by Alfred the Great's son Edward with his West Saxon Fyrd at Farnham in Surrey. The Danes were routed, fleeing over the River Thames into Mercia, with the West Saxon army in pursuit. Having reached the River Colne, the Danes mounted a defence on what was known as Thorney Island, believed to be land between the Colne and an offshoot channel of the river between Thorney and Iver, approximately half a mile west from Yiewsley High Street today. Edward began a siege of the island, and was joined by Æthelred of Mercia with soldiers from the Mercian garrison in London. After a prolonged stalemate which may have lasted up to six months, an agreement was reached for the Danes to leave peacefully. Hostages were taken as collateral, and vows made by the Danes that they would leave the Anglo-Saxon lands and go directly to the lands under Danish control, which they duly did, without any of their plundered spoils.
Yiewsley (or Wifeleslēah) and the land of the Middle Saxons had been part of the Kingdom of Essex, but came under Mercian control in the reign of King Æthelbald (716–757 AD). By the time of the siege of Thorney Island in 893, eastern Mercia had been conquered by the Danes, and, with his power diminished, Æthelred had been forced to cede overlordship to King Alfred the Great of Wessex. When Æthelred died in 911, Middlesex was annexed by Wessex under Alfred's son, now King Edward (899–924 AD). Edward would go on to take control of all of Mercia, both Angle and Danish, advancing England's progression in becoming a single kingdom.
Norman Conquest 1066 until 1794 Parish of Hillingdon and Colham Manor For most of its existence, Yiewsley was a hamlet in the Parish of St John the Baptist Church, Hillingdon, with a tenurial relationship with Colham Manor. Before the Norman Conquest, Colham Manor had belonged to Wigot of Wallingford. By the time of Domesday Book in 1086, it was the property of one of William the Conqueror's principal advisors, Roger de Montgomery.
In Colham Manor's fertile arable fields in the late 14th century, wheat was the predominant crop, but rye and oats were also farmed. Surplus grain was sold in London or Uxbridge. By the 12th century, Uxbridge had become the market town for the Parish of Hillingdon, and it is thought that, by the 14th century, the town's population had exceeded that of the rest of the parish, and this remained the case until the 1821 census. By 1600 Uxbridge was the principal corn market for west Middlesex and much of south Buckinghamshire.
The plentiful and consistent supplies of water from the River Colne had played an important role in Hillingdon Parish becoming a flour milling centre. The Fray's or Frays River is believed to have been cut or modified from the Colne for the use of water mills by John Fray in the 15th century. A map of 1842 shows the River Colne and Frays River powering eight corn mills in the parish. The nearest mills to Yiewsley were Colham Mill (called Lower Colham Mill from around 1746) in the south of the parish, and Yiewsley Mill on the northern side of Yiewsley Moor on the north side of today's Little Britain Lake.
The three oldest buildings in Yiewsley today date from the late 16th or early 17th century and are situated at either end of Yiewsley High Street. All three buildings are Grade II listed. At the northern end is Yiewsley Grange (also known as Brookside), which overlooks the River Pinn, and is Yiewsley Grange Primary School today. Next to Yiewsley Grange is the 6-bay barn in Philpots Close (formally within Philpot's farm). At the southern end is the De Burgh Arms public house, named in honour of the De Burgh family who became the Lords of Colham Manor from 1787.
Industrial Age Opening of the Grand Junction Canal 1794
Yiewsley's agrarian way of life started to change with the opening of the Grand Junction Canal. Construction began with cuttings on Uxbridge Moor on 1 May 1793, and in early May at Brentford and Braunston. From the Thames at Brentford to Hanwell, the canal was engineered from the River Brent. At Hanwell the canal parted from the Brent and was routed west, following the natural 100 foot contour to avoid the building of expensive and time consuming locks. It was cut through Yiewsley, turning north to follow the route of the River Colne, crossing over the Frays River in an aqueduct at Cowley Lock.
On 3 November 1794, the canal was opened between the River Thames and Uxbridge. However, toll collectors weren't appointed at Uxbridge and Brentford until May 1795. It is likely the aqueduct over the Frays River at Cowley Lock wasn't completed until the autumn of 1795, with measures undertaken there to allow traffic to pass through. In the next year, 1796, Yiewsley's first dock, Colham Wharf, was opened next to Colham Bridge. In 1801 the Paddington Arm of the canal opened from Bulls Bridge near Hayes, and would be of national importance as a trade route into and from the capital.
Brick industry
The building of the canal enabled the bulk transportation of bricks made from Yiewsley's rich deposits of brickearth. The first record of brick making in Yiewsley was by William Pope in Chauntry Close (Now Chantry Close). An advertisement in the Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser of 24 March 1809, announced an auction of over a million of his bricks. By May 1809 William Pope had passed away and the brickfield was offered for sale at auction. It was described as being '...of very capital brick earth, about nine feet deep, nearly five feet of which is malm, of a superior quality.' By 1819 a canal arm known as Yiewsley Dock had been created to service the brickfield. This is where Kiln Lodge is located today.
In 1820 a branch of the canal known as Otter Dock was opened. It would become the longest of Yiewsley's canal arms and docks constructed to service its brick industry. The main market for Yiewsley's bricks would be the expanding city of London and the principle product was what became known as the Cowley (or London) stock brick.