Heston and Isleworth: Other estates

OTHER ESTATES.

In 1086, there were in Isleworth manor a Frenchman or Frenchmen and one Englishman who held 4 hides between them. (fn. 1) Part of their estates may have been connected with some of the later sub-manors, but there were always a number of freeholds, some of a fair size, in the parishes of Isleworth and Heston. (fn. 2) Like most of the estates which later claimed the title of manor, (fn. 3) some of the estates which did not do so may have lain in the more distant parts of the manor, by the Brent, round Osterley and North Hyde, (fn. 4) or on the edges of the heath, and may have begun as assarts. (fn. 5) From the 16th century on, a number of houses in Isleworth were owned or leased by persons of importance: most of these estates deserve attention rather by virtue of their owners, or the character of the houses and pleasure-grounds belonging to them, than for their size. (fn. 6) About a third of Heston (c. 1,300 a.) was covered in 1818 by the lands of the Earl of Jersey, the Duke of Northumberland, and the owner of Hounslow manor, and by the allotments for tithe made to the Bishop of London and the vicar. There were three other estates, whether free or copyhold, of over 100 acres, and eight of about 40 acres or more. (fn. 7) At Isleworth in 1840, apart from the Duke of Northumberland and Lord Jersey, together holding about 1,000 acres, which with the barracks and exercise ground (c. 270 a.) accounted for over a third of the parish, four persons owned over 100 acres and ten held about 40 or more. (fn. 8)

Among the estates which may be separately mentioned was North Hyde Hall, which had some 60 acres in Heston and Norwood attached to it in the 15th century: (fn. 9) one of the larger estates in the 19th centred on North Hyde Farm. (fn. 10) The only religious houses outside Heston and Isleworth which owned property there were St. Valéry, holding the rectory, St. Giles's Hospital without London with services in Heston, St. Radegund Abbey, Bradsole (Kent), with the overlordship of a mill, Holy Trinity Priory at Aldgate, with 26 acres in Heston during the 13th century, (fn. 11) and the Templars, whose manor of Cranford was granted common rights on the heath. (fn. 12) The lands of All Angels' Chapel at Brentford End caused some dissension in the 17th century. Osterley and Wyke manors had been granted away, but disputes arose over the ownership of the chapel site and other property in and around Brentford End itself. These 'chapel lands' were included in the 16th-century leases of Isleworth manor, the latest of which was still current when the Earl of Northumberland received the freehold of the manor in 1604. (fn. 13) This grant expressly excluded the chapel lands but did not specify what they were. As a result, Sir Richard Wynn, the owner of Wyke manor and of the house later called Little Syon, who bought the former All Angels' property in 1640, (fn. 14) sued the Earl of Northumberland for various lands, while Northumberland counterclaimed for Wyyn's holdings. The result of the suits is not known, but it is clear that a good deal of the All Angels' lands had become very much confused with the Isleworth demesne, and that parts even seem to have been treated as copyhold. (fn. 15)

Several manors in adjoining parishes had appurtenant lands within Heston and Isleworth. Twickenham, itself within the bounds of Isleworth manor, had about 9 acres of copyhold in Isleworth in 1818, and about ½ acre in Heston. (fn. 16) Lands in Isleworth and Heston were conveyed with Hanworth and Feltham manors in 1670. (fn. 17) Cranford manor apparently had appurtenances in Heston in the 16th and 17th centuries, (fn. 18) though these may have been only the common rights first granted to the Templars. The Dowager Countess of Berkeley, the owner of Cranford, held 18 acres there in 1818. (fn. 19) One or two small pieces of land on the west of the Brent seem to have been claimed by Boston manor in the 17th century. (fn. 20) In 1840 its owner held nearly 200 acres in Isleworth. (fn. 21)