Northwood Hills

Northwood Hills includes Haste Hill and is separated by green buffers on almost all sides, though touches Eastbury Village to the south and had a population of 11,441 in 2008 according to the Office for National Statistics.

The land on which Northwood Hills, Haste Hill Golf Club and most of Northwood now stand was once the Great Common Wood. This covered 860 acres (350 ha) in the 16th century, which residents would use for grazing their livestock and collecting firewood. Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury achieved inclosure from Parliament and sold 568 acres (230 ha) of the wood in 1608 for £4000. The remaining woodland became Copse Wood, part of the Ruislip Woods, a national nature reserve.

Northwood Hills has intermixed in its area the only social housing estates beyond one street of the area; much of its private housing stock was built during the 1930s by the Belton Estates company led by Harry Peachey while Harry Neal was responsible for building the shopping parade in Joel Street. Its name was chosen in a competition by a woman from North Harrow as the land was split between Northwood, North Harrow and Ruislip parishes. The first houses were built in Potter Street.

The Northwood Hills public house (formerly known as the Northwood Hills Hotel) opposite the tube station is accredited as where Sir Elton John first performed professionally. A picture of the pub appears on one of his album covers.

Each May one of the largest Scout Jumble sales in the country is held by 1st Northwood on the land next to their headquarters, the Hogs Back.

Northwood secondary school and Sixth Form is located in Potter Street (the former name of the school). The Olympic boxer Audley Harrison and Big Brother contestant Nikki Grahame are alumni of the school.

Read more about Northwood Hills:  Transport, Schools, Culture and Community, Sport, Local Government, Notable People

Famous quotes containing the word hills:

    Hast not thy share? On winged feet,
    Lo! it rushes thee to meet;
    And all that Nature made thy own,
    Floating in air or pent in stone,
    Will rive the hills and swim the sea,
    And, like thy shadow, follow thee.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)