Acton, Middlesex

Historical Description

Acton, a metropolitan suburban parish in Middlesex, about 8½ miles W of St Paul's, London. It has stations on the North London, Great Western, and Metropolitan District railways, and has a head post office in the Western Metropolitan postal district. It is governed by a local board of twelve members, formed in 1886. Old Oak Common, traversed by the Great Western railway and by the North and South-western junction, was anciently a thick oak forest. Acton Wells, on the common, were in much repute, about the middle of the 18th century, for their medicinal waters. Benymead Priory was once the seat of the Savilles and the Evelyns. Sir P. Skippon, Richard Baxter, Sir Matthew Hale, Bishop Lloyd, Provost Rons, Thicknesse the traveller, and Ryres the author of "Mercurius Rusticus," resided in Acton. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London; net yearly value, £414 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of London. The church is a modern structure of red brick in the Decorated style. There are also Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. The parish includes the ecclesiastical parishes of South Acton and East Acton, and the ecclesiastical district of Acton Green. Area of the parish, 2305 acres; population, 24,206. The living at South Acton is a vicarage; yearly value, £420, in the gift of the Bishop of London. The church, consecrated in 1872, is a building of red brick in the Florid Gothic style. There is also a Catholic chapel. South Acton has a station on the North London railway. East Acton was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1879. The living is a vicarage; net yearly value, £500, in the gift of the Goldsmiths' Company. The church, which was built in 1879 at the cost of the Goldsmiths' Company, is a structure of red brick in the Gothic style. The living of Acton Green is a vicarage in the gift of the Bishop of London. The church is a building of red brick in the Early English style. Acton Green has a station on the Metropolitan District railway.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

We have transcribed the Marriages at St. Mary, Acton, 1566-1812.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Acton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Acton (St. Mary))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Middlesex is online.

Maps

Online maps of Acton are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Villages, Hamlets, &c