Hounslow Heath

Hounslow Heath is a public open space and Local Nature Reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow. It now covers about 200 acres (80 ha), what is left of the historic Hounslow Heath that covered over 4,000 acres (1,600 ha).

History

Hounslow Heath has had major historical importance, originally crossed by main routes from London to the west and southwest of Britain. Staines Road, the northern boundary of the present heath, was the Roman Road, Via Trinobantes. There are several historic references to Roman camps on or close to the heath. Continuous recorded history dates back to Norman times. In 1546, Hounslow Heath was surveyed with a recorded area of 4,293 acres (1,737 ha) (6.71 square miles). It covered an area that now includes parts of Bedfont, Brentford, Cranford, Feltham, Hampton, Hanworth, Harlington, Harmondsworth, Heston, Hounslow, Isleworth, Stanwell, Teddington, Twickenham, and Heathrow. Various armies used the heath due to its nearness to London, Windsor and Hampton Court. Oliver Cromwell stationed an army there at the end of the English Civil War in 1647. James II camped his army there, and conducted military exercises and mock battles to try to intimidate the population in London. In 1793, Hounslow Barracks was built to the north of Staines Road as part of the preparations to meet a possible French invasion. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the heath was notorious as the haunt of highwaymen and footpads, being crossed by the Great West Road and the Bath Road.^[1][2][3]

By 1900, the heath was still in use as a training ground for horse-mounted cavalry based at Hounslow Barracks, a gun shooting range, and adjacent army medical units including an isolation hospital. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was established, that developed to become a fighter aircraft defence and training base. In 1919, the aerodrome became the sole London Terminal Aerodrome, and hosted the first scheduled daily international commercial air services. In 1920, it surrendered its role to Croydon Airport, and closed. The heath was then again used for military training and a repair depot.^[4]

On the south side of Staines Road, to the north of the Heath, is a monument, now in a state of neglect, commemorating the first flight to Australia, which took off from the former Hounslow Heath Aerodrome.^[5] It reads:

This plaque marks the entrance to London's first civil airport

London Terminal Aerodrome Hounslow Heath
August 1919 - 1920
From here the first British international airline operation
and the first flight from Europe to Australia was made

Erected by the Heston and Isleworth Borough Council

Archaeology

Bronze Age spearheads, axes, and sword and knife fragments from Hounslow, are held at the British Museum, also Celtic badges and amulets discovered in a field at Hounslow in 1864. In 1999, excavations on the former Feltham Marshalling Yards to the south of the heath unearthed remains of an Iron Age furnace and post holes from a round house. There are various remains of former mills and other industrial archaeological features adjoining the River Crane near the heath. This part of the river is classified as an Archaeological Priority Area.^[3][6]

Geography

The present Hounslow Heath is bounded by A315 Staines Road, A3063 Wellington Road South, A314 Hanworth Road, and the River Crane. The Heathland School is also behind it.

Nature reserve

Hounslow Heath is a designated Local Nature Reserve^[7][8] and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation,^[9] and is made up of lowland heath, dry acid grassland, woodland, scrub, neutral grasslands, wetlands, wildflower meadows, providing a wild, rugged country setting with a large network of paths.^[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hounslow Heath.

See also

• Hounslow parks and open spaces

Notes

Bibliography

• Maxwell, Gordon S. 1949. Highwayman's Heath: The Story in Fact and Fiction of Hounslow Heath in Middlesex. Thomasons ISBN 1-899144-00-5
• Sherwood, Tim. 1999. Coming in to Land: A Short History of Hounslow, Hanworth and Heston Aerodromes 1911-1946. Heritage Publications (Hounslow Library) ISBN 1-899144-30-7

External links

Hounslow Council website http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/

Coordinates: 51°27′22″N 0°23′20″W / 51.456°N 0.389°W / 51.456; -0.389

v t e Local Nature Reserves in Greater London Barking & Dagenham Beam Valley Beam Valley (Environment Agency) Dagenham Village Churchyard Eastbrookend Country Park Mayesbrook Park South Parsloes Park Squatts Ripple Nature Reserve Scrattons Ecopark and extension The Chase - Barking Barnet Big Wood & Little Wood Brent Reservoir/Welsh Harp Coppetts Wood Glebelands Moat Mount Open Space Oak Hill Wood Rowley Green Common Scratchwood Totteridge Fields Bexley Crossness Danson Park Bog Garden, Welling Foots Cray Meadows Lesnes Abbey Woods Brent Brent Reservoir/Welsh Harp Fryent Country Park Bromley High Elms Jubilee Country Park Scadbury Park Camden Adelaide Belsize Wood Camley Street Nature Park Westbere Copse Croydon Bramley Bank Foxley Wood Hutchinson's Bank Selsdon Wood South Norwood Country Park Ealing Blondin Park, Northfields Fox Wood Grove Farm Gunnersbury Triangle Islip Manor Meadows Litten Long Wood (and Hounslow) Northolt Manor Perivale Wood Yeading Brook Meadows Enfield Covert Way Greenwich Gilbert's Pit Maryon Park Maryon Wilson Park Oxleas/Shooters Hill Woodlands Sutcliffe Park Hackney Abney Park Cemetery Springfield Park Hammersmith & Fulham Wormwood Scrubs Haringey Parkland Walk Queen's Wood Railway Fields Harrow Bentley Priory Stanmore Common Stanmore Country Park Havering Bedford's Park Cranham Brickfields Cranham Marsh Ingrebourne Valley Rainham Marshes The Chase - Havering The Manor Hillingdon Denham Country Park Frays Valley Gutteridge Wood Ruislip Local Nature Reserve Ten Acre Woods and Meadows Yeading Brook Meadows Yeading Woods Hounslow Bedfont Lakes Country Park Chiswick Eyot Cranebank Duke's Hollow Gunnersbury Triangle Hounslow Heath Isleworth Ait Kempton Pevensey Road Islington Barnsbury Wood Gillespie Park Parkland Walk Kingston Bonesgate Open Space Castle Hill Coombe Hill Wood Edith Gardens Elmbridge Open Space Ham Lands Hogsmill River Park Jubilee Wood Raeburn Open Space Rose Walk Southwood Open Space The Wood and Richard Jefferies Bird Sanctuary Lambeth Streatham Common Lewisham Beckenham Place Park Brookmill Road Burnt Ash Pond Dacres Wood Downham Woodland Walk Sue Godfrey Nature Park Merton Bennett's Hole Cannon Hill Common Cherry Wood Cranmer Green Derwent Floodwash Fishpond Wood and Beverley Meads Lower Wandle Merton Park Green Walks Morden Park Myrna Close Oakleigh Way Pyl Brook Ravensbury Park Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Wood Wandle Meadow Nature Park Redbridge Hainault Lodge Richmond Barnes Common Crane Park Island Ham Common Ham Lands Lonsdale Road Reservoir (Leg of Mutton Reservoir) Oak Avenue Hampton Southwark Dulwich Upper Wood Lavender Pond Nunhead Cemetery One Tree Hill Sydenham Hill Wood and Fern Bank Sutton Anton Crescent Wetland Belmont Pastures Cuddington Meadows Devonshire Avenue Nature Area Roundshaw Downs Ruffett and Big Woods Spencer Road Wetlands Sutton Ecology Centre Grounds The Spinney, Carshalton Wandle Valley Wetland Wilderness Island Tower Hamlets Ackroyd Drive Greenlink Mudchute Park and Farm Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Waltham Forest Ainslie Wood Wandsworth Battersea Park Nature Areas Westminster St. John's Wood Church Grounds