North Hyde is a suburban development situated between the towns of

Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing ...

, Hayes and

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

under the administrative control of the

London Borough of Hounslow The London Borough of Hounslow () is a London borough in West London, England, forming part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller borough councils (forming part of the former Middlesex County Council area) amalgamated under ...

. It is bordered to the north by the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

mainline and to the south by the M4. The area now consists of a mixture of mostly large, semi detached suburban properties. It is also home to the Airlinks golf course and Convent Way, an estate with a mixture of high and low-rise housing.

Etymology

The name North Hyde is thought to mean "north land", seeming to mean area of land lying to the north of Heston. There is some evidence to suggest that this area of land was named by a wealthy Saxon land owner trying to avoid paying taxes to the parish of Heston.

History

Before the 18th century, North Hyde formed part of the infamous

Hounslow Heath Hounslow Heath is a local nature reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow and at a point borders Richmond upon Thames. The public open space, which covers , is all that remains of the historic Hounslow Heath which covered more than . The prese ...

. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, the

Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...

(responsible for provision of arms, artillery and other items to the armed forces) took the decision to establish an Ordnance Depot at North Hyde, alongside the Grand Junction Canal. Mindful of the vulnerability of its coastal gun wharves and

gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications requ ...

s to a possible seaborne attack, the Board planned to establish inland depots at points on the canal network; (another was established at

Weedon Bec Weedon Bec, usually just Weedon, is a village and parish in West Northamptonshire, England. It is close to the source of the River Nene. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,706. Geography Weedon is around southeas ...

, Northamptonshire, at around the same time). of land alongside the canal was compulsorily purchased; work began in 1813 and took four years to complete. The depot initially consisted of three magazines, each holding 6,800 barrels of powder, along with ancillary buildings and an adjacent barracks for three officers and fifty soldiers to guard the site. The complex was enclosed within a branch of the canal, which (as well as creating a defensive perimeter) provided the powder

barges Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by Pusher (boat) ...

with direct access to the magazines, mixing houses and cooperages. By 1830 some 42,000 barrels of gunpowder were being stored at the North Hyde Depot; the following year, however, the depot closed. The magazines were demolished not long afterwards. The canal branch (known as the Hanwell Loop) continued in use, at least until the 1880s, serving a

brickworks A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

which had been established on the site; it was gradually filled in during the first half of the 20th century. In 1842, the former barracks were taken over by the Belgian Catholic order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy and turned into an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

for Roman Catholic boys (St Mary's Orphanage). In 1914 it was reconstituted as an Industrial School; it closed in 1934 and the buildings were later demolished.

References

{{LB Hounslow Districts of the London Borough of Hounslow Areas of London