The Twickenham Museum
Exhibitions : 1914 Maps and Images

Whitton in 1914
Whitton is by far the most changed of all the 'villages' in the old Borough of Twickenham since 1914.

Whitton is by far the most changed of all the 'villages' in the old Borough of Twickenham since 1914. The north western corner of Whitton was dominated on the map, on the western side, by the railway running parallel to the Hanworth Road, including Feltham Junction, the Feltham Curve and Hounslow Junction. Whitton Park and its huge landholding was the main feature in this corner of the area. Running alongside the eastern edge of the estate was the Hounslow Road with St Philip and St James's Church and the relatively built up eastern side of the road with only a little housing on the western side at this time. Cedar Avenue was only partially built. All the Whitton development of the 1930s was still in the future and Whitton Park was then destined to disappear under Wills Crescent and Grasmere Avenue and neighbouring roads including Runnymede Road and Rydal Gardens.

Whitton Village was the dominant feature of the central northern area and was, in reality, still only a small number of houses around the junction of Kneller Road, Nelson Road and Whitton Dean. Some terraces of buildings had been added to the earlier village layout but the huge 1930s building programme was yet to come. Kneller Hall and its extensive land was prominent but otherwise fields and orchards were the dominant feature. Whitton Dean Farm (below right) was just inside the Whitton side of the northern border with Hounslow, marked by the course of Birket's Brook (otherwise Whitton Brook).

The southern area of Whitton, ie the area above the River Crane but below the railway line, was almost without any buildings at this time with most of the land marked as fields, woods or orchards. One of the reasons for this lack of development was the Gunpowder Mills to the south of Powder Mill Lane along the river Crane. This area formed a green wooded barrier safely containing the hazardous works. Hanworth Road was still a country lane running roughly parallel with Percy Road a section of which would later form part of the High Street. Twickenham Cemetery stands out in this unbuilt area. It had been carved out of 4 acres of copyhold land in 1867. Roads south of Powder Mill Lane, such as Waverley Avenue, Lyndhurst Avenue and Ellerman Avenue were still in the future. Roads between the Cemetery and the railway line and most of the roads north of the railway line, not to mention the Chertsey Road, would not see the light of day until the 1930s.

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