The fifth is a series by local historian Philip Grant
The Fryent Country Park Story – Part 5
So far, our journey has brought us from Saxon times
up to the late 1930s, when the land which is now our country park was first
protected as “open space”. If you missed Part 4, you can find it here.
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1. An autumn field in Fryent Country Park.
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When war broke out in 1939, it was clear that the
country needed to produce more of its own food. By the following year, at least
one field behind Slough Lane had been turned into allotment gardens, but most
of the meadows were still grazed by sheep belonging to a farmer from Edgware.
Then, in 1942, Middlesex’s Food Production Committee had 56 acres of the old
hay meadows on their Regional Open Space ploughed up, to grow wheat.
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2. Threshing the wheat at Little Cherrylands
field in 1942. (Brent Archives
– Wembley History Society Colln.)
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One long-time Kingsbury resident, who was a
schoolboy at the time, remembers stacking sheaves of wheat in Richards Field
East, to help with the harvest, as a number of local people did. He also
remembered that there was a military observation post at the top of Gotfords
Hill. There is rumoured to be a bunker underneath the
hill, reached through a trap door, but that was supposed to be top secret! (Recent comments suggest
it was 1960s Cold War, not WW2.)*
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3. Muriel Jefferies helping with the harvest
at Bush Farm in 1942. (Photo
courtesy of Martin Francis)
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In July 1944, a V1 flying bomb exploded in Salmon
Street, killing a lady in a house there. One of the five others injured was
blown from the top of a stack of straw, at nearby Little Bush Farm. By that
time, the end of the war was in sight, and the government was beginning to look ahead to post-war problems, such as
the urgent need for new housing.
Wembley Council had said that it
wanted 400 of the temporary factory-made bungalows, which the government
planned to produce. By November 1944, land near the southern end of Fryent Way
had been identified as one possible site for these “prefab” homes. Middlesex
C.C. refused permission, as this was part of its Regional Open Space. However,
in 1946, after Wembley had used up all its sites at the edge of parks and
sports grounds, the County Council relented, on the promise that the land would
be returned to open space after the 10-15 years these prefabs were due to last.
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| 4. A row of prefab homes at Pilgrims Way,
c.1950. (Photo from
Brent Archives) |
Work had hardly begun on the 114-home estate when
the severe winter of 1946/47 intervened. It was too cold for the German
prisoner-of-war labourers to lay the concrete roadway. By April, work was
underway again, and the first aluminium bungalows began arriving on site in
October. All of the new homes were occupied by July 1948, and the Council had
named the estate Pilgrims Way. This was because the ancient footpath
(“Eldestrete”), which ran across it, was thought to have been used by pilgrims
visiting the shrine of Our Lady of Willesdon, in the late
15th and early 16th centuries.
One of my best sources for what the area was like
in the 1950s and 1960s are the memories of children who grew up on the Pilgrims Way estate, collected as part of a “Prefabs Project” ten
years ago. Maureen said: ‘it was an amazing place in which to spend the long
summer hours of our childhood. A huge area of rolling hills, trees, woods and
fields. Many of the fields with cows in
them. At the top of Barn Hill there was a pond that was the focal point, which
as a child l thought was massive. Wally me and the other kids would spend hours
fishing in this pond for ‘red throats’ and other tiddlers using a jam jar with
string tied around the top.’
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| 5. Barn Hill pond, c.1950. (Photograph by Ian Stokes, courtesy of Barn
Hill Conservation Group) |
Paul
remembered the woods and fields as ‘a child’s paradise to play in’, and not
just in summer. ‘When it snowed we’d sledge at great speed down a very long
steep hill next to Barn Hill pond, stopping only when the barbed wire fence of
the cow’s field at the very bottom loomed into sight.’ Sheila’s summer days
included: ‘just playing in the fields, making
endless daisy chains, looking for grass hoppers, climbing trees, walking
amongst the cows, never feeling unsafe only popping home for a slice of bread
and jam then out again.’
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6. Cattle grazing in a field on Barn Hill,
c.1960s. (Source
unknown!)
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The cows belonged to a farmer from Edgware, as all of the active
farmsteads along Salmon Street had gone. The farmhouse at Bush Farm was
demolished around 1939, Little Bush Farm after its V1 damage in 1944, and Hill
Farm to make way for housing in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the farmer began ploughing
up some of the old meadows to plant crops. When he started to cut down some of
the centuries-old hedges, the recently formed Brent Council put a stop to this,
and ended his tenancy.
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7. The Pilgrims Way prefab estate, and
fields at the southern end of Fryent Way, mid-1960s.
(Brent Archives
– aerial photographs collection)
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Brent had inherited the Pilgrims Way estate when Wembley joined with
Willesden to form the new London Borough in 1965. Although only meant to be
temporary, the last of the prefabs there remained in use until 1972. All of the
land was supposed to be returned to open space, but the Council persuaded the
Greater London Council (which had taken overall responsibility for this “Green
Belt” land when Middlesex C.C. was abolished in 1965) to let them retain three
acres for housing. A new Pilgrims Way was built, with two Closes off of it,
called after old local field names, Saltcroft and Summers.
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8. The “Pilgrims Way” footpath in 2019, and
the old estate entrance at the top of the hill in Fryent Way.
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The rest of the former prefab estate was allowed to become woodland,
with its old entrance still just visible. But what
should the Council do with the land they had taken back from the farmer? One
group of Labour councillors, mainly from the Willesden wards, said that Council
housing should be built on it. Another group, of Conservatives, thought that it
should be turned into a municipal golf course. In 1973, however, Brent Council
decided to retain the fields as meadowland, that would be open for the public
to use.
There was one more threat to our future enjoyment of this open space
that had to be overcome – the Olympic Games! Fryent Way had been part of the
course for the marathon at the 1948 Games (British athlete, Tom Richards, won
the silver medal, after a Korean runner ahead of him dropped out on the long
climb up the hill from Kingsbury, in the final stages of the race back to
Wembley Stadium). In 1980, London wanted to bid for the 1988 Games, and the
fields at Fryent Way were the only suitable site for the athletes’ village that
would be needed. Luckily, the government decided to back a bid from Birmingham
instead (which was unsuccessful).
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9. A cutting from the "Wembley
Observer" about the Olympic Village site, February 1980. (Brent Archives)
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I apologise for the poor quality of the picture
above, but hope that, as well as its caption, it shows the sorry state the
hedges were in then. Something needed to be done to improve this area of
ancient Middlesex landscape. Please join me next weekend, for the final part of
The Fryent Country Park Story to discover what that was (there’s a clue in the
title!).
As before, please add any information, memories or
questions you have in the comments section below.
Philip Grant
* Comments by readers of
Part 3 have provided information about, and photos of, the
bunker at Gotfords Hill, referred to above. An “extra” article about the bunker
will
be published in the next few days.
LINKS TO OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES
