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Information about local areas of historical interest
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Uxbridge
The road from London to Oxford is a very ancient and important route. The town of Uxbridge grew up as a daughter settlement of the village of Hillingdon, along the road where it crossed the River Colne. Uxbridge is not mentioned by name in the Domesday survey of 1086; it is probably included with the entries for Hillingdon and Colham.
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River Frays
The origin of the name is unknown. There is one theory that the Frays River began when a tree falling across the Colne deflected a branch of the river away from its natural and persistent channel. What seems more likely is that it is a man-made diversion of the River Colne created to power mills in the Uxbridge area. It is also sometimes known as the Uxbridge and Cowley Mill Stream, the Cowley Stream or Colham Mill Stream.
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Ruislip
The name, Ruislip probably derives from the Old English words for "rush" and "leap", meaning a place where the river Pinn was narrow enough to jump across.
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Manor Farm
Manor Farm is on the site of the ancient administrative centre of the manor of Ruislip. Evidence of its age still remains in the form of a considerable bank and ditch forming an arc to the north of the farmhouse, and the line of the bank and ditch has been traced in an almost complete circle round the village of Ruislip, including manor Farm. Ruislip was established by Saxon times and the earthworks might date from the 9th century.
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River Pinn
The Pinn is an ancient rivulet, which is one of the feeders of the Colne. It was at one time also known as Ruislip brook and is nearly twelve miles long. It rises on Harrow Weald Common and flows down through Headstone into Pinner. From there it runs into Old Eastcote, past Haydon Hall Lodge from where it flows into Ruislip , through the golf course into Ickenham. From there it crosses Uxbridge Common into Uxbridge, and then on through the RAF base to Brunel University. It then runs through Pield Heath to join the Frays at Yiewsley. The Frays joins the Colne southwest of Drayton Mill. The Colne in turn flows into the Thames near Isleworth.
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Ruislip Manor
The area we now know as Ruislip Manor was covered with open fields at the beginning of this century. It was part of the Manor of Ruislip which was owned at that time by King's College, Cambridge. The Metropolitan Railway opened a small halt here in 1912 on the Harrow to Uxbridge line, but there was no housing development until George Ball bought 186 acres south of the railway from King's College. His Manor Homes estate was built between 1933 and 1939.
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Hayes
Until the 20th century Hayes was made up of five villages, Hayes Town (also called Cotmans Town), Wood End, Botwell, Yeading and Hayes End.
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