There are a heck of a lot of Hs in far southwest London. The best known are Hounslow and Heathrow, then come Hayes and Harlington, also Hatton (with its Cross), Heston (with its Services) and Hampton (with its Court). But for my next unsung suburb I've picked Hanworth, a historic neighbourhood with nods to royalty and aviation, alternatively a blur you drive past on the way to the M3.
Note to readers: Yes I have blogged about Hanworth before but only briefly, so if you prefer the quick version go read that instead.
Hanworth lies east of Feltham, west of Twickenham and nowhere near a station. Instead it's a road that defines and divides the place, an elevated motorway feeder built in the 1970s with occasional nods to the idea that local people might want to cross it. That means intermittent footbridges with ostentatious ramps, one of which took me two minutes to negotiate, also the occasional roundabout lodged underneath. From the highest vantage point you can see how lowrise the entire area is, most of it packed with undetached interwar houses, but there are a few older clusters here and there. This is one of the oldest.
This startling frontage on Castle Way is a Victorian reinterpretation of a Tudor stable block, the remainder of the manor house having been lost to fire. Henry VIII acquired the property in 1512, Hounslow Heath being one of his favoured royal hunting grounds, and later gifted it to his wife Anne Boleyn. Her tenure was however cut short, quite literally, and on Henry's death it passed to Catherine Parr instead. She lived here with her stepdaughter, at least for a few months, and when Elizabeth herself became Queen she returned to stay at Hanworth a few times to enjoy the local sport. These days it's called Tudor Court and has been divided up into well-to-do flats around a very private and well-tended quadrangle.
Round the back, where a large square moat used to be, the land has since been carved up to create the Tudor Estate. This is Hanworth's smartest neighbourhood, a mix of rustic brick and modern double garages each on a generous plot. This is the kind of place where the residents association organises fizz-fuelled quiz nights and Santa rides the streets at Christmas on his penny farthing. I weaved through to a cul-de-sac called Moat Side in the hope of seeing the remnants of Elizabeth's water feature, but the only visible edge is now a stripe of open garden repeatedly labelled 'Private Property' so I kept off.
Alongside is the oldest of Hanworth's three churches, St George's, which is fundamentally 14th century but much tweaked over the years. Approaching through the lych gate I wondered if it might be possible to look inside, but when I saw each window had two signs saying "CCTV Working Now" and "Alarmed To Police" I realised I'd have to make to with the churchyard alone. All Saints was added on the main road in 1935 after a jam factory* opened and the working population grew, then upgraded to a chunky brick building in the 1950s when a council estate replaced the orchards. St Richard's arrived shortly afterwards in chalet style, all wonky rooflines and wigwam belfry, providing Hanworth with what I suspect is now ecclesiastical oversupply.
Jam factory interlude William Whiteley, the original owner of Whiteley's in Queensway, bought 200 acres of farmland in Hanworth in 1891. He used it to supply fruit for his food court and transported it there daily by horse and cart. Alas William was shot dead by an illegitimate son in 1907, after which his legitimate offspring sold the farm to a jam manufacturer, Beach's of Brentford. In 1933 they sold up to Twickenham council for use as housing, and after WW2 it became the Butts FarmEstate. As place names go it's at the more embarrassing end of the spectrum. The King and Queen of Sweden visited in 1954 having requested to inspect a modern housing estate, dropping in at 33 Fountains Close, 27 Towfield Court and 44 Canterbury Road. I wasn't quite so awed when I rode the H25 bus to its terminus at the far end of the estate, and annoyingly the driver flipped the blind before I could take a hilarious photo of it saying 'Butts Farm'.
The hidden treasure locally is Hanworth Park House, a two-storey mansion built in the 1830s, one side of which is pretty much all balconies. The last owner died in 1911 which was perfect timing for the estate to be taken over for the manufacture of newfangled biplanes. These were parked and trialled out front, the local river having been culverted to create an unimpeded space for takeoff and landing. During WW1 the Royal Flying Corps were based here, then in 1929 the National Flying Services moved in and Hanworth became a glamorous private airfield, the kind of place where Amelia Earhart or a Graf Zeppelin might drop by. The next owners were General Aircraft Limited who built planes again, and the aerodrome eventually closed in 1949 after nearby Heathrow started to take off.
It's now a 150 acre recreational space called Hanworth Air Park, mostly a vast patch of grass but with a pleasant patch of riverside woodland up one end. The local rugby team's clubhouse is anchored in one corner while another edge is occupied by a modern multicoloured shed containing a big leisure centre and a small library, only one of which is open more than four days a week. And hidden somewhere in the middle, surrounded by far more trees than 100 years ago, is Hanworth Park House. I caught only veiled glimpses of the former hotel through budding branches, not that I suspect I'd have seen much more in the winter, and was warned off breaking in along the main drive by multiple signs on the gate warning that the guard dogs bite. Alas the great house is increasingly derelict, something local campaigners would love to reverse, but that would require money and some kind of long-term commercial future so continuing decay is the most likely outcome.
Six Hanworth postcards
✉ The river that flows through Hanworth wiggles fairly convincingly but is actually entirely artificial. The Longford River is 12 miles long and was dug in 1638 at the behest of Charles I, diverting water from the River Colne to feed ornamental features at Hampton Court. I joined the riverside path near the Apex Corner sliproad and found myself in a reedy strip hemmed between houses and industrial units, with no hope of exit for a good half mile but a lot of endearing ducks.
✉ The heart of the original village of Hanworth was a small triangular green surrounded by cottages and a pub called The Brown Bear Inn. Alas the A316 dual carriageway scored a direct hit and the junction is now straddled by the Bear Road flyover, a stilted concrete roar. To catch a 290 bus you have to climb some stark 1970s staircases, and for those walking underneath the planners only bothered to provide a pavement on one side. Perhaps more hurtfully, Hanworth's 24,000 residents no longer have a single pub.
✉ Job's Dairy opened alongside Snakey Lane in 1920s and until recently was one of Britain's largest glass milk-bottling plants. It was however bought out one too many times, first to Unigate in 1987, then to Dairy Crest 2000, then to Müller UK in 2014 and most recently to Freshways in 2024. They promptly shuttered the site with the loss of 162 jobs and no crates have since rattled behind the deteriorating frontage.
✉ South of the main road there's less of interest, this area now mostly residential infill with very few of the original cottages surviving the transformation. The village pond, for example, was filled in and replaced by a glaringly mundane office block called Swan House. The Swan pub with its distinctive weathervane became a dead Swan in 2015. Across the street is a minor shopping parade with a Tesco, a disturbingly cheap takeaway (Chicken Steak Burger £1.99) and a warning to Please Refrain From Sitting On The Rock Baskets.
✉ Church Road got decapitated when the dual carriageway arrived and still resembles a country lane wending between allotments and a somewhat scrappy equestrian centre. Close by is the entrance to Kempton Nature Reserve, a decommissioned reservoir that's now a 50 acre sunken wetland. It looks an appealing place to visit but is only unlockable if you apply to Thames Water and alas "Membership is currently unavailable", so the migrating birds must be enjoying some peace and quiet.
✉ Technically Kempton Steam Museum is in Hanworth, as is the Hampton & Kempton Waterworks Railway, even if both are very nearly in Surrey and neither mentions the place nominally. I have however told you about bothbefore (the triple-expansion steam engine is amazing) and both are open next weekend if you want to see Hanworth for yourself.
