Have you ever considered why a road or lane is named as it is ? Many of the addresses in Harefield are named after people from its past.
Sullivan Crescent, Gilbert Road - named after Gilbert and Sullivan, the opera writers who lived in Breakspear House.
Priory Cottages and Priory Avenue - So named because of the priory which until the early 1960s was located where the Community centre is now.
Broadwater Lane - Named after the stretch of canal which is unusually wide.
Lovett Road ? Merle Avenue ? Park Place ?
Hall Drive - Named after the fact that the Baptist and Methodist halls were so near
Please Email me if you can explain the reason any of the roads in Harefield gained thier name.
Breakspear house. The original Breakspear estate dates back to the 13th century and remained in the hands of the Breakspear family until the middle of the 15th century when it passed into the hands of the Ashby family who were in service to the Monarchy, George Ashby being the Clerk of the Signet to both Henry VII and Henry VIII. There is a local tradition that Nicholas Breakspear, who became the only English Pope as Adrian IV (1154 -1159 ) came from Harefield.
Harefield Place A large Jacobean place, once sitiuated close to the church but burned down in the 1700s Queen Elizabeth I is said to have heard Gilbert and Sullivans opera here....
The Church - has been here since at least the Norman times.
Black Jacks Lock - who was Black Jack ?
Mad Bess Woods - Who was mad Bess ? A pig, an old crone, a headless ghost? ....
The Canal
Visit back as this page will be updated during June
-- History Links --