 | Uxbridge: Encyclopedia II - Uxbridge - History
Uxbridge - History
Archaeologists found Bronze age remains (before 700 BC) and medieval remains when the new shopping mall The Chimes was being built. Two miles away at Denham Upper Paleolithic remains have been found.
Uxbridge is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th century, but a hundred years later the existing church, St Margaret's, was built. The existing pub, "The Queens Head", has a sign depicting Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII. The pub was previously called "The Axe" and possibly dates from the 1540's. A tunnel connects the pub to the church. At the bottom of Windsor Street there is a cemetery with an archway. It was here on Lynch Green that three heretics were burned to death in 1555. Foxe's Book of Martyrs gives the names as John Denley, Robert Smith and Patrick Packingham, but other sources call the last one Patrick Rockingham. He was found guilty of denying the trinity.
Under Elizabeth I, Roman Catholics were subject to severe constraints. Edmund Campion was a Catholic priest, trained in Douai in the Netherlands, to give covert support to Catholics. He travelled around England on horseback, giving sermons in secret and pretending to be a diamond merchant. In 1580 he came to Uxbridge and hid for a couple of weeks, in a house owned by William Catesby. In 1581 Campion was caught. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in London. The 40 or so Catholics who died in this period are called the "Douai martyrs" which is also the name of the local Catholic secondary school, in Ickenham.
In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered. The flamboyant six-foot leader, Robert Catesby (son of William), escaped and hid in his house in Uxbridge. He was later shot. There were negotiations between Charles I and the Parliamentary side in Uxbridge, January 30 to February 22, 1645, commemorated in the name of a local pub and restaurant, the Crown and Treaty. This latter is on the A4020 Oxford Road where it leaves the town, at the canal overbridge.
The covered market was built in 1788, but the previous building was about twice as big, creating big problems for traffic.
In the early 19th century, Uxbridge had an unsavoury reputation. The jurist William Arabin said of it residents "They will steal the very teeth out of your mouth as you walk through the streets. I know it from experience."
In the 1930s George Orwell was a teacher at Frays College, now Frays Adult Education Centre. His novel A Clergyman's Daughter was based on his experiences there.
For about 200 years most of London's flour was produced in the Uxbridge area. There were also breweries, but the last one was closed down in the 1930s. Near here Ellen Terry the Shakespearean actress spent her final years, as a pub landlady.
Other related archives11 Group, 11th century, 1555, 1580, 1581, 1605, 1645, 1788, 1930s, 19th century, Battle of Britain, Birmingham, Book of Martyrs, Brentford, Bronze age, Brunel University, Cambridge, Charing Cross, Charles I, Coca-Cola, Cowley, Denham, Denham, Buckinghamshire, Domesday Book, Edmund Campion, Elizabeth I, Ellen Terry, February 22, George Orwell, Grand Junction Canal, Grand Union Canal, Gunpowder Plot, Hayes, Heinz, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Ickenham, January 30, London, London Borough of Hillingdon, Manpower, Netherlands, Oxbridge, Oxford, Paleolithic, Parliamentary, RAF Uxbridge, Rayners Lane, Robert Catesby, Robert Smith, Roman Catholics, Royal Air Force, Ruislip, Saxon, Shakespearean, Spitfire, Unisys, Uxbridge, Uxbridge Belmont Road, Uxbridge High Street, Uxbridge Vine Street, Uxbridge tube station, WMS Gaming, West Drayton, William Catesby, Xerox, Yiewsley, eighteenth century, flour, hanged, drawn and quartered, heretics, postmodernist, pub
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
