Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HARROW-ON-THE-HILL

HARROW-ON-THE-HILL, a parish in Hendon district, Middlesex; on the London and Northwestern rail. way, 11½ miles WNW of St. Pauls, London. It contains the town of Harrow, with post office and railway station, and the hamlets of Alperton, Greenhill, Kenton, Preston, Roxeth, Sudbury, Wembley, and Harrow-Weald. Acres, 9, 870. Real property, £41, 033. Pop. in 1851, 4, 951; in 1861, 5, 525. Houses, 1, 053. But, at the return of 1861, the scholars of Harrow school, and an unusual number of the inhabitants, were absent. The manor belonged early to the archbishops of Canterbury; was leased, in Edward the Confessor's time, by Earl Lewin; had long an occasional residence of the archbishops of Canterbury; was the retreat of Thomas a Becket, during his banishment from court; was exchanged by Archbishop Cranmer with Henry VIII. for other lands; was given, in 1546, to Sir Edmund Dudley, afterwards Lord North; passed, in 1630, to Edmund Philips, and afterwards to the family of Rushout; and belongs now to that family's representative, Lord Northwick. The archiepiscopal residence was originally in Harrow town, but was removed to Hegeston, now Headstone, nearer Pinner; and Cardinal Wolsey, who was rector of the parish, frequently lived there, and is said to have there more than once given entertainment to the King. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of London. Value, £627.* Patron, Lord Northwick. The church is noticed in our article on Harrow. The vicarages of Harrow-Weald, Roxeth, and Wembley, are separate benefices. William de Bosco, Bishop Tunstall, Friar Bolton, and Cunningham, the Author of the "Velvet Cushion, " were vicars.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Harrow on the Hill AP/CP       Middlesex AncC
Place: Harrow

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