28 Dec 10 Cranford Park
In most urban areas, parks and rural areas are quite precious, particularly to the local inhabitants. Cranford Park, with St. Dunstan’s Church, is one of those places, situated with the M4 motorway to its immediate north, and Heathrow Airport barely a mile to the south.
The River Crane runs through the park, and a ford once crossed the river here, about where it goes under the present Bath Road. From this comes the name Cranford.
Records show that a church has been on the current site of St. Dunstan’s within the park, since the 7th or 8th century, when it would have been a Saxon building.
Cranford is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, produced under the orders of William the Conqueror.
The land forming the estate of Cranford, and the current park, changed hands several times down the centuries.
The Berkeley family owned Cranford Manor Estate for some 300 years, from 1618 until 1918, when the estate was sold to Middlesex County Council.
In 1945 the Manor House was demolished. It hadn’t been bombed in World War II, but a number of nearby bombs aimed at Heston Aerodrome had left it in a weakened condition.
The present park was opened as a Public Open Space in 1949.
Tags: 1918, aerodrome, centuries, crane, cranford park, domesday book, heathrow airport, heston, inhabitants, m4 motorway, manor house, middlesex county, public open space, rural areas, several times, st dunstan, urban areas, william the conqueror, world war ii
05 Jun 08 Banned From Boston
During King Philip’s War (1675-1676) the city of Boston passed a law forbidding Native Americans to enter the city. Although it had not been enforced for centuries, the law remained on the books until it was repealed in 2005.
This war was really the last serious threat to the survival of the English colonies in North America. Metacom, who was chief of the Wampanoag tribe, and better known as King Philip, had scored a number of victories against the colonists, but this war turned the tide, and the tribe was never a serious threat again. King Philip was killed in the war, and his severed head was put on display in Plymouth as a warning.
Tags: boston, centuries, city of boston, colonists, english colonies in north america, king philip, king philips war, metacom, native americans, plymouth, survival, tide, wampanoag, wampanoag tribe
271 | Unique Visitors |
