Hillingdon

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A suburban district in the west of London historically the parent parish of Uxbridge and interspersed with Cowley in the south-west. It gives its name to the London Borough of Hillingdon. The area has always been longer north-to-south and stretches from southeast of Uxbridge to the A40 where it borders Ickenham and the London Underground station named after it.

Today larger and more mid-20th century than Uxbridge, Hillingdon stretches a mile on each side of the lower Pinn, a well-drained area east of the Colne which is gently elevated to 200 feet above sea level in the north, its density varies between fairly uniform modest (and a few historic) houses with gardens to a minority of homes being in tall apartments, many of which were built in the 1960s funded by local government. On the commons, however, several plots were inclosed in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide sites for country residences. Blue House or Belmont on Uxbridge Common here was built in the late 17th century. Between 1705 and 1712 the house was occasionally occupied by Richard, Lord Shannon. William Wilberforce lived from 1824 to 1826 at the Chestnuts, an 18th-century house which still stands in Honeycroft Hill. West of Little Hillingdon was a mansion known from the 18th century onwards as Hillingdon House. Said to have been built in 1617, it was rebuilt in 1717 by the last Duke of Schomberg, and again after being destroyed by fire in 1844. Hillingdon House was described in 1907 as a brick and stone building, partly stuccoed, with extensive outbuildings and ornamental gardens covering in all 47 a. An artificial lake of 5 a. bordering the gardens to the west was formed by damming the Pinn stream and the adjoining park, which then extended westward to Hillingdon End, comprised 158 a. The Marchioness of Rockingham, widow of prime minister Rockingham, died at Hillingdon House in 1804; members of the Cox banking family later occupied the mansion, which figures in Greville's diary and other much-cited social history. In 1915 the house and park, after being on the market since 1908, were bought by the government, and an air force station was established there. Seven large private homes had been built along the northern edge of Hillingdon Heath by 1825 when, under the inclosure award their gardens were extended to the main road. The line was continued east of Long Lane by Hillingdon Heath Farm, known by 1865 as Park Field. All of these houses survived in 1968. A little to the north, on the west side of Long Lane, was Hillingdon Place, said to have been built in the 18th century by Admiral Drake, and later occupied by members of the De Salis family. Colham Green, Pield Heath, Little Hillingdon and Goulds Green are old names for small parts. The central nucleus of the village has a commanding position on a patch of glacial gravels at about 190 ft. and has yielded from the soil evidence of Palaeolithic occupation.