The Hatch End Trade Association

History of Hatch End by Anne Swinson of the Hatch End Residents Association
The name Hatch End comes from the Saxon word Haece meaning gateway, possibly into the
nearby deer park (now Pinner Park Farm). This area became a small hamlet at the north end
of Headstone Lane with a chantry chapel linked to St Mary’s Church Harrow–on –the- Hill .in
the 1300’s.
Through the following centuries, this northern land of Pinner was mainly agricultural supporting
seven farms, several mansion houses and allied cottages. One such farm was Hatch End
Farm. The farmhouse, built in 1670, became Letchford House and today is Hatch End’s oldest
building and Grade ll Listed. Nearby is the Letchford Arms, both buildings named after a
Pinner doctor.
In the 1830’s the railway was built taking some land from four farms:-. Hatch End, Dove House,
Oxhey Lane and Woodhall as it carved its way from Euston to Birmingham. At first there was a
halt at Dove House and then the first station at Hatch End was opened in 1844 as Pinner
station.
With the railway came the developers and the year 1855 was significant on two accounts.
First, the school for the orphans of commercial travellers was moved from Wanstead to the
healthier country air of Pinner where it was built to the east of the railway. The Prince Consort
came by train to open it and was late for the ceremony!. Eventually, it became the Royal
Commercial Travellers School in 1919. Secondly, in 1855 fifty italianate villas were built to the
west of the railway and took the name of the nearest farm and became the Woodridings
Estate.
Many of the aspiring Victorian middle classes took up residence here to get away from the
cholera and polluted air of London. The roads and villas were named after various dukes e.g.
Wellington, Devonshire and Cornwall roads and some of the villas were along Station Road
which is now Hatch End Broadway and the Uxbridge Road. The new owners or tenants of the
villas were enticed with free first class return rail tickets to Euston for three months and thus the
age of commuting began. Eventually, the estate had a chapel and the Railway Hotel (the
Railway Pub became Locally Listed but was ruthlessly demolished over a weekend in 2004 to
make way for Tesco’s).
Notable residents of the Woodrdings Estate included Admiral Nelson’s daughter, Mrs Horatia
Nelson Ward. She spent her last years in Beaufort Villas. Isabella and Samuel Beeton, cookery
writer and publisher of the famous Book of Household Management lived in Chandos Villas,
roughly where Hatchets restaurant is today. A.E Houseman, poet, was a lodger in Yarborough
Villas in Devonshire Road.
hatchendtrade.com