Feltham - History

History

Feltham formed an ancient parish in the Spelthorne hundred of Middlesex. In 1831 it occupied an area of 2,620 acres (11 km2) and had a population of 924. From 1894 to 1904 the Felham parish was included in the Staines Rural District. In 1901 the parish had a population of 4,534 and in 1904 it was split from the rural district to form the Feltham Urban District. In 1932 the parishes of Hanworth and East Bedfont were also transferred from the Staines district to Feltham Urban District. The Urban District of Feltham council was disbanded in 1965, along with the Middlesex County Council. It should be noted, however, that though for administrative purposes the area now falls within the area administered by the Greater London Authority, together with the London Assembly and the Mayor of London, the geographic county of Middlesex was never abolished and many Feltham residents continue to identify their home county as "Middlesex". The London Government Act, which enacted the changes to Middlesex (as well as parts of Hertfordshire and Essex) formed Greater London in 1965, consisting of 32 London boroughs. Feltham, together with Bedfont and Hanworth, form the "West Area" of the London Borough of Hounslow.

In 1784 General William Roy set out the baseline of what would become the Ordnance Survey across Hounslow Heath, passing through Feltham. General Roy is commemorated by a local pub. The MOD Defence Geographic Centre still has a base in Feltham.

The main economic activity of the Feltham area was market gardening until well into the twentieth century. A popular variety of pea known as the "Feltham First" is so-named for being first grown in the town. The market gardens were largely replaced with light industry, gravel and aggregate extraction, and new housing from the 1930s onwards. Nevertheless, this is still one of the greenest areas in Greater London, and it includes three rivers, part of the once vast Hounslow Heath, a country park formed from converted gravel pits (Bedfont Lakes), and one of London's first airfields, London Air Park at Hanworth, which is now a large and popular public open space. Public venues include Feltham Assembly Hall, opened in 1965 in Feltham Park, community rooms in the new library, as well as several residents association halls and clubs. Since the controversial removal in 2008 of the Feltham Community Association from the Feltham People's Centre (the former Feltham Hotel), the town has lacked a dedicated community centre.

Feltham Community College (originally known as Feltham Comprehensive School when it was formed from two secondary modern and one grammar school) and Rivers Academy West London (known as Longford School/Longford Community School from its foundation in 1935 to 31 July 2011) both have excellent sports facilities. These supplement the Hanworth Air Park Leisure Centre and Library, operated by Fusion Leisure on behalf of Hounslow Council. Leisure West (a privately-developed and managed complex of entertainment and dining facilities including a multiplex cinema, tenpin bowling alley, bingo club and restaurants) opened on the former industrial sites around Browell's Lane in the mid-1990s.

Feltham has been associated with land and air transport for more than a century. In what is now the Leisure West complex, the Feltham tramcar was once manufactured and ran along the tracks of many municipal operators, though never in Feltham itself. In the same area of the town, aircraft manufacture was an important industry, particularly during the war years. Feltham was also home to Britain's second largest railway marshalling yard, and was a target for German air force bombs several times during World War II.

Famous former resident Freddie Mercury (born Farokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, 1946–1991) of rock band Queen was commemorated by a permanent, Hollywood-style granite star in Feltham's town-centre piazza, unveiled on 24 November 2009 (the eighteenth anniversary of Mercury's death) by Queen guitarist Brian May, alongside Freddie's mother, Jer Bulsara, and his sister. In 2011, owing to neglect and "weather damage", Hounslow Council removed the memorial, promising to substitute a smaller one elsewhere.