Harefield, Middlesex

Historical Description

Harefield, a village and a parish in Middlesex. The village stands near the Grand Junction Canal, the river Colne, and the boundary with Bucks, 3½ miles N from Ux-bridge station on the G.W.R., and 3 from Northwood station on the Metropolitan railway; was known at Domesday as Harefelle—and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Uxoridge, and a police station. The parish comprises 4543 acres of land and 78 of water; population, 1867. The manor belonged in the time of Edward the Confessor to the Countess Goda; at Domesday to Richard, son of Earl Brion; in 1284 to Roger de Bacheworth; in 1315 to Simon de Swanland; in next generation and till 1585 to the Newdegates; in 1585 to Sir Edmund Anderson; in 1601 to Sir Thomas Egerton, lord-keeper of the Great Seal, and his wife, the Countess-Dowager of Derby; in the next generation to their son, Lord Chandos; and from 1675 till the present time has belonged again to the Newdegates. Harefield Place, on a site near the church, was long the manorial seat; received a state visit from Queen Elizabeth; had associations or connections with Milton's "Arcades" and " Comus;" was burned down in 1660 in the time of Lady Chandos; was rebuilt soon after 1675 by Sir Richard Newde-gate, and was taken down early in the present century. Harefield place is now the seat of the Newdegates. Break-spears House took name from the family of Breakspere, was the residence of Nicholas Breakspere, who became Pope Adrian IV., and is now the seat of the Tarleton family. A monastic house, a cell to Clerkenwell priory, was founded in the parish by Alice de Clare, who probably held the manor prior to Roger de Bacheworth. The living is a donative in the diocese of London; gross yearly value, £87 with residence, in the gift of the Newdegate family. The church is very ancient, belonged originally to either the Rnights Templars or the Rnights of St John, and contains an elegant monument to the Countess of Derby and several ancient monuments to the Newdegates. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels. Chief-Justice Anderson was a resident.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Harefield from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Harefield 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