Middlesex

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For other uses, see Middlesex (disambiguation).

The Middlesex Guildhall at Westminster

Middlesex is one of the 39 historic counties of England and was the second smallest (after Rutland). When county councils were introduced in England in 1889 part of Middlesex was used to form the County of London and the remainder formed the administrative county of Middlesex.

By 1965 urban London had further expanded and almost all of the original area was incorporated into Greater London. Middlesex is still used informally as an area name and may be included in some postal addresses.

1 Early history
2 Modern history
3 Legacy
- 3.1 Former postal county
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Early history

Historic county of Middlesex
Geography

Area: (1831)	179,590 acres
Rank:	Ranked 38th
Administration
County town:	see text
Chapman code:	MDX

The name means middle Saxons and refers to the reputed ethnic origin of its inhabitants. Its first recorded use was in A.D 704 as Middleseaxan. Geographically, Middlesex included the City of London, which has been self-governing since the thirteenth century, and the city of Westminster. The highest point is the High Road by Bushey Heath at 504 feet.

[edit] Division into hundreds

Middlesex was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow (later Isleworth), Ossulstone and Spelthorne. Settlement was divided as follows:

Edmonton Hundred - Edmonton - Enfield - Monken Hadley - South Mimms - Tottenham

Elthorne Hundred - Cowley - Cranford - Greenford - Hanwell - Harefield - Harlington - Harmondsworth - Hayes - Hillingdon - Ickenham - New Brentford - Northolt - Norwood - Perivale - Ruislip - Uxbridge - West Drayton

Gore Hundred - Edgware - Great Stanmore - Harrow-on-the-Hill - Hendon - Kingsbury - Little Stanmore - Pinner

Isleworth Hundred - Heston - Isleworth - Twickenham

Ossulstone Hundred - Acton - Bloomsbury - Bow - Bromley - Chelsea - Chiswick - Clerkenwell - Ealing - Finchley - Friern Barnet - Fulham - Hackney - Hammersmith - Hampstead - Minories - Hornsey - Kensington - Mile End - Paddington - Poplar - Ratcliffe - Shadwell - Shoreditch - Spitalfields - Holborn - St Pancras - Stepney - Wapping - West Twyford - Whitechapel - Willesden

Spelthorne Hundred - Ashford - East Bedfont - Feltham - Hampton - Hampton Wick - Hanworth - Laleham - Littleton - Shepperton - Staines - Stanwell - Sunbury - Teddington

During the 17th century Ossulstone Hundred was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower.

[edit] County town

Middlesex does not have a single established historic county town, with different locations having been used for different county purposes:

The County Assizes for Middlesex were held at the Old Bailey in the City of London. Until 1889 the Sheriff of Middlesex was chosen by the City corporation.
The sessions house for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions was at Clerkenwell Green from the early eighteenth century. The quarter sessions performed most of the administration of the county until the creation of the Middlesex County Council in 1889.
New Brentford was first described as the county town in 1789, on the basis that it was the location of elections of knights for the shire (or members of parliament). from 1701.^[1]^[2] In 1795 New Brentford was "considered as the county-town; but there is no town-hall or other public building" in 1795.^[3]
Middlesex County Council, which took over the administrative duties of the Quarter Sessions in 1889 was based at the Middlesex Guildhall, in Westminster. This was in the County of London, and thus outside the council's area of jurisdiction.

[edit] Earldom

The title Earl of Middlesex was created twice, in 1622 and 1677 but died out in 1843.

[edit] Market towns

As of 1850 and before the expansion of London; Brentford, Edgware, Enfield, Hounslow, Southall, Staines and Uxbridge were market towns. The south eastern part of the county served by the daily market at Westminster.

[edit] Modern history

[edit] Introduction of county councils

Middlesex
Administration

Status:	administrative county ceremonial county
HQ:	Middlesex Guildhall (extraterritorially)
History
Created:	1889
Abolished:	1965
Succeeded by:	Greater London Hertfordshire Surrey
Area
1889:	148,701 acres
1965:	148,691 acres
Population
1901:	792,476
1961:	2,234,543

The north western suburbs of London steadily covered large parts of Middlesex, especially following the coming of the railways. In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888, much of the area to the south east became part of the County of London. The remainder of the county came under the control of Middlesex County Council except for the parish of Monken Hadley which became part of Hertfordshire.

The Act also provided that the part of Middlesex in the administrative county of London should be "severed from [Middlesex], and form a separate county for all non-administrative purposes".

The area under the control of London County Council was divided in 1899 into metropolitan boroughs which were merged in 1965 to form the following present-day boroughs:

[edit] Districts

The remainder of the county was initially divided into rural districts and urban districts.

The rural districts were Hendon, South Mimms, Staines, Uxbridge. Because of increasing urbanisation these had all been abolished by 1934. Urban districts had been created, merged, and many had gained the status of municipal borough by 1965. Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hendon, Heston and Isleworth, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden and Twickenham had all, according to the 1961 census, reached a population of greater than 100,000, which would usually have entitled them to seek county borough status. If granted to all these boroughs, it would have reduced the population of the administrative county of Middlesex by over half, to just shy of a million. The districts in 1965 were:

District/borough	Population in 1961 census	1965 fate
Acton MB	65,586	LB Ealing
Brentford and Chiswick MB	54,833	LB Hounslow
Ealing MB	183,077	LB Ealing
Edmonton MB	91,956	LB Enfield
Enfield MB	109,542	LB Enfield
Feltham UD	51,047	LB Hounslow
Finchley MB	69,370	LB Barnet
Friern Barnet UD	28,813	LB Barnet
Harrow MB	209,080	LB Harrow (on own)
Hayes and Harlington UD	67,915	LB Hillingdon
Hendon MB	151,843	LB Barnet
Heston and Isleworth MB	103,013	LB Hounslow
Hornsey MB	97,962	LB Haringey
Potters Bar UD	23,376	Hertfordshire
Ruislip-Northwood UD	72,791	LB Hillingdon
Southall MB	52,983	LB Ealing
Southgate MB	72,359	LB Enfield
Staines UD	49,838	Surrey
Sunbury-on-Thames UD	33,437	Surrey
Tottenham MB	113,249	LB Haringey
Twickenham MB	100,971	LB Richmond
Uxbridge MB	171,001	LB Hillingdon
Wembley MB	124,892	LB Brent
Willesden MB	171,001	LB Brent
Wood Green MB	47,945	LB Haringey
Yiewsley and West Drayton UD	23,723	LB Hillingdon

[edit] Arms of Middlesex County Council

Arms of Middlesex County Council

Coats of arms were attributed by the medieval heralds to the Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. That assigned to the Kingdom of the Middle and East Saxons depicted three "seaxes" or notched swords on a red background. These arms became associated with the two counties that approximated to the kingdom: Middlesex and Essex. County authorities, militia and volunteer regiments associated with both counties used the attributed arms. In 1910 it was noted that the county councils of Essex and Middlesex and the Sheriff's Office of the County of London were all using the same arms.

The Middlesex County Council decided to apply for a formal grant of arms from the College of Arms, with the addition of an heraldic "difference" added to the attributed arms. Colonel Otley Parry, a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and author of a book on military badges, was asked to devise an addition to the shield. The chosen addition was a "Saxon Crown", derived from the portrait of King Athelstan on a silver penny of his reign, stated to be the earliest form of crown associated with any English sovereign. The grant of arms was made by letters patent dated November 7, 1910.^[4]^[5]^[6]

The blazon of the arms was:

Gules, three seaxes fessewise points to the sinister proper, pomels and hilts and in the centre chief point a Saxon crown or.

The undifferenced arms of the Kingdom were eventually granted to Essex County Council in 1932. Seaxes were also used in the insignia of many of the boroughs and urban districts in the county, while the Saxon crown came to be a common heraldic charge in English civic arms.

On the creation of the Greater London Council in 1965 a Saxon crown was introduced in its coat of arms. Seaxes appear in the arms of several London borough councils, and of Spelthorne Borough Council whose area was formerly in Middlesex.

[edit] Creation of Greater London

After 1889 the growth of London did not cease and the county became almost entirely urbanised by its suburbs. Many of the boroughs in the area were demanding independence from Middlesex County Council as county boroughs, which if granted would have left Middlesex County Council controlling an area with three distinct and unconnected fragments - in the west, the south-east and the north of the county.

Instead, in 1965, nearly all the remainder of Middlesex became part of Greater London and formed the new London boroughs of:

The remaining areas were Potters Bar Urban District which became part of Hertfordshire, while Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District and Staines Urban District became part of Surrey.

[edit] Recent changes

In 1974 the three urban districts that had been transferred to Hertfordshire and Surrey were abolished and became the districts of Hertsmere (part only) and Spelthorne respectively.

In 1995 the village of Poyle was transferred from Spelthorne to the Berkshire borough of Slough.

[edit] Legacy

Middlesex is still used in the names of organisations based in the area such as Middlesex County Cricket Club and Middlesex University. In 2003, an early day motion with two signatures, noted 16 May is the anniversary of the Battle of Albuera and in recent years has been celebrated as Middlesex Day, commemorating the valiant efforts of the Middlesex Regiment (the “Die-hards”) in that battle. The idea is to recognise and celebrate the historic county. [1]

The River Thames, River Lee and the River Colne are all boundaries of the traditional county and historically the banks of River Thames in London were known as the "Middlesex Bank" and "Surrey Bank". Although no longer used in central London, it still occurs in the area around Richmond and Twickenham where the river bends in such a way as to make north or south unclear.

The urbanisation and declining importance of the county was lamented in the later works of John Betjeman, the Poet Laureate, and featured in the televised readings Metroland. As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Wood Anemone as the county flower.

A judicial Middlesex commission area existed, consisting of the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow [2] [3]. This was abolished on 1 July 2003 [4].

[edit] Former postal county

Middlesex is also defined by the Royal Mail to be a former postal county. The postal county was much smaller than the traditional and administrative counties as a large part of Middlesex was part of the London Postal Area. The postal county included the village of Denham, which was for all other purposes in Buckinghamshire but included in the post town of Uxbridge and therefore the postal county of Middlesex; conversely Hampton Wick was not included in the Middlesex postal county as it was served by post towns based in Surrey. This gave rise to the misconception that Hampton Court Palace was located in Surrey.^[7] Wraysbury and Egham Hythe are served by the Staines post town and thus were also included in the Middlesex postal county.

The former postal county consisted of two unconnected areas (Enfield, and the rest) and comprised the following post towns:

Postcode area	Post towns
EN (part)	ENFIELD
HA	EDGWARE, HARROW, NORTHWOOD, PINNER, RUISLIP, STANMORE, WEMBLEY
TW (part)	ASHFORD, BRENTFORD, FELTHAM, HAMPTON, HOUNSLOW †, ISLEWORTH, SHEPPERTON, STAINES, SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, TEDDINGTON, TWICKENHAM †
UB	GREENFORD, HAYES, NORTHOLT, SOUTHALL, UXBRIDGE, WEST DRAYTON

† = postal county was not required

Since the Royal Mail no longer require the use of counties as part of an address it is now possible to include Middlesex as part of any address, including those in the London postal district. The Royal Mail's 'alias file', a supplement to the Postcode Address File, contains postally-not-required details such as the former postal and traditional county for every address in the UK.

[edit] References

^ A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7 (British History Online)
^ Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 Edition
^ The Environs of London: volume 2: County of Middlesex (British History Online)
^ Armorial bearings of Middlesex, The Times, November 7, 1910
^ The Book of Public Arms, A.C. Fox-Davies, 2nd edition, London, 1915
^ Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, W.C. Scott-Giles, 2nd edition, London, 1953
^ Historic Royal Palaces