History
In 939 the area was known as Draegtun, meaning 'farmstead at or near a portage or slope used for dragging Down loads', or 'farmstead where drays or sledges are used'. It is recorded as Draitone in the 1086 Domesday Book, and as Westdrayton in 1465.
In the 1086 Domesday Book, West Drayton was assessed at ten hides with land suitable for six ploughs.
The former RAF West Drayton was host to a military air traffic control (ATC) centre co-located with the civil London Area and Terminal Control Centre (LATCC), but these functions have been relocated to Swanwick), with the last ATC functions ending in January 2008. The former RAF station barracks are currently under redevelopment as an exclusive gated community.
Read more about this topic: West Drayton
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It’s nice to be a part of history but people should get it right. I may not be perfect, but I’m bloody close.”
—John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)