Isleworth

“ISLEWORTH, a parish in the hundred of the same name, county Middlesex, 8 miles W. of Hyde Park corner, and 1 S.W. of Brentford. It is situated on the river Thames, and is a station on the South-Western railway. It contains Brentford End, Smallbury Green, Wyke Green, and parts of Hounslow and Whitton.

In Domesday survey it is written Gistelesworde. Prior to the Norman Conquest the manor belonged to Earl Algar, from whom it passed to Walter de St. Vallery, and subsequently to Richard, king of the Romans, who built a castle here. Simon de Montfort encamped here in 1266. It was anciently celebrated for a monastery called the Monastery of Sion, of the order of St. Bridget of Sweden, originally founded at Twickenham in 1414 by Henry V., but removed to this place in 1432, the revenue of which at the Dissolution was £1,944 119. 8d. The site was granted by Edward VI. to Edward Duke of Somerset, Lord. Protector, who erected the mansion of Sion House, but in the reign of Mary the convent was refounded for an abbess and nuns. In the following reign it was again suppressed, and continued vested in the crown till the reign of James I., when it was given to Henry Percy, the ninth Earl of Northumberland, and is now the property of the present duke. The custom of borough-English prevails in this manor. The village, which consists of one principal street, occupies a situation on the north side of the river Thames, and is lighted with gas, and paved. A considerable part of the parish is laid out in market gardens, which produce large quantities of strawberries, raspberries, and other fruit for the London market. There are an extensive brewery, cement works, and a corn-mill, believed to be one of the largest in England. The Brentford union workhouse is situated in this parish. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of London, value £681, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. The church, dedicated to All Saints, was built from a design of Sir Christopher Wren, and has an ivy-mantled tower containing a peal of eight bells, belonging to a more ancient structure. In the interior are several monuments, two brasses (one to Chase, bearing date 1544), also effigies of Darcey and Devaux. There is also a district church at Woodlands, dedicated to St. John, the living of which is a perpetual curacy* in the patronage of the vicar. It was erected by subscription on a piece of land given by the Duke of Northumberland; and adjoining it are a parsonage, school, and twelve almshouses, all three built by the late John Farnell, Esq., and the two latter endowed by him. The charities produce £1,903 per annum, of which £551 goes to schools, £826 to almshouses-viz: Tolson's, Ingram's, Bell's, Sermon's, and Farnell's, £325 is dispensed by the Board of Feoffees, and the rest is appropriated to several small charities.