Stanwell

Stanwell is a village in the Spelthorne district, in Surrey, England. It is west of central London. A small corner of its land is used as industrial land for nearby Heathrow Airport. The rest of the village is made up of residential and recreational land. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it has, like the rest of Spelthorne, been in Surrey since 1965. The village is to the south of the cargo-handling area of Heathrow Airport and to the east of the Staines Reservoirs. Stanwell is the northernmost settlement in Surrey,

bordering Berkshire and Greater London.

Its recognisable extent has been substantially cut three times – all in the 20th century. Land was taken for reservoirs in about 1900; a few decades later land was taken into Heathrow Airport; and in 1995, after the completion of the M25 motorway, the settlement of Poyle (beyond Stanwell Moor) was detached from the Borough and reassigned to Colnbrook in the Borough of Slough.

Stanwell Moor is near the village and has multiple reservoirs around it. It was recognised as a manor in medieval times. It has a few pasture/horse-riding fields, horticultural businesses and flood meadows. It is centred from the historical nucleus of Stanwell and is part of the same ward and ecclesiastical parish.

History

thumb|The first secular (and non-royal) owner, of the land representing most of Staines and Stanwell since the [[Norman Conquest, was Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet.<br/><br/>He arrested Guy Fawkes in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament when Fawkes was planting explosives to kill King James VI and I and was convicted of high treason, while rough justice was dispensed on others alleged to have conspired. Knyvet's actions, and those of a Roman Catholic peer who was forewarned, and of Edward Doubleday in preventing this plot from succeeding, are celebrated annually on Bonfire Night. <br/><br/>Knyvet often stayed at his earlier acquisition at Stanwell Manor, Stanwell, and rented Knyvett House, on the site of what later became 10 Downing Street, Westminster.]]

There are two theories regarding the origin of the name Stanwell. One is that it was named after St Ann(e)'s well in the village, but according to all known records the parish church has always been dedicated to St Mary. The second is that it means 'stone well', referring to stony soil or the adjoining street to the south. The first few letters of the name are the same as in the name of neighbouring Staines-upon-Thames, which also is said to mean 'stones', in the same way as the Great Vowel Shift failed to influence the spelling and pronunciation of the contemporaneously pronounced Stane Streets (i.e. stone streets), the Old English for many of the stone-laid Roman roads in Britain

The Domesday Book of 1086 records 'Stanwelle' held by Walter, son of Othere. This places it among the large minority of head manors retained by men with Anglo-Saxon names. Its Domesday assets were: 15 hide, 4 mills worth £3 10s 0d and 375 eels, 3 weirs worth 1000 eels, 10 ploughs, meadow for 12 ploughs and woodland worth 12 hogs. It rendered £14 per year to its feudal system overlords. The fruitful watercourse was the western border of the village and of Middlesex, the River Colne West Bedfont may have been a hamlet of Stanwell in 1086; however, the dividing line between West Bedfont hamlet in Stanwell parish and East Bedfont in the parish of Bedfont (now in Greater London) may not have been drawn before the 11th or 12th century. West Bedfont along with Rudsworth are no longer used by residents (as localities, hamlets, neighbourhoods). In the Middle Ages the parish was mostly open fields

thumb|Building of the former Free School founded by [[Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet|Thomas Knyvett]]

In 1603, Thomas Knyvet was granted the manor of Stanwell. Knyvet was the man who arrested Guy Fawkes in his attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. He was created Lord Knyvet in 1607, and in his will left money to found a free school in Stanwell, which was established in 1624. The building is no longer a school and now belongs to a housing association. It is Grade II* listed. However Thomas Knyvett College, bears his name in the twenty-first century.

James VI and I's infant daughter Mary died at Stanwell while in the care of the Knyvet household. Several members of the aristocracy lived there in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Cox's Orange Pippin was first grown c. 1830 by Richard Cox in his garden on the Bath Road within the parish, see Colnbrook which now has this piece of land. were it not for special provision Stanwell would have seceded with the rest of Middlesex to London: the Staines, Sunbury and Potters Bar Urban Districts transferred variously to Surrey and Hertfordshire, the most distant parts of the county from London. In 1951 the parish had a population of 8148. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished.

On Heathrow's construction

In the northwest of the parish, off Spout Lane, Middlesex County Council established 24 small holdings in the early 1930s: Burrows Hill Close estate and Bedfont Court. The part of Stanwell New Road north of Park Road opened as a main north–south route in 1948. The following year, most of the former Hounslow Heath land to the north-east, predominantly in Harmondsworth, became London Airport. The east end of the local road to Bedfont was diverted, and the roads running north were turned over, together with the eastern half of Spout Lane, where houses were demolished. competition, in the urban community category.

Notable buildings

thumb|upright|Parish church of St Mary the Virgin, seen from the west

Parish church

The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is a Norman building with a 14th-century Gothic chancel and 15th-century Perpendicular Gothic west tower. The tower has a spire with wood shingles. Inside the church are monuments to members of the Knyvet(t) family who bought Staines manor after their foiling of the planting of the gunpowder and Fawkes.

The church was restored in 1862 under the direction of Samuel Sanders Teulon, and restored again in 1903. The building is Grade I listed.

Stanwell Place

thumb|[[Stanwell Place]]

Stanwell Place was a grand manor house from the 17th century west of the village church, north of Park Road. The Gibbons family owned the manorial rights from 1754 to 1933, and slowly sold off the estate from the 1800s. Sold to John Watson Gibson in 1933, four years later were sold off to the Metropolitan Water Board for the development of the King George VI Reservoir, now in Staines. After Gibson's death in 1947, Stanwell Place was sold to King Faisal II of Iraq who owned it until his assassination in 1958. near Stanwell.

Transport

The nearest railway stations are Ashford (Surrey) railway station, south of Stanwell High Street, and Heathrow Terminal 4 railway station, east. Heathrow Terminal 4 is also served by the Piccadilly line of London Underground.

Stanwell High Street itself is served by minimal public transport provision, of bus routes that run only once or twice a day. However, Clare Road to the east of Stanwell is served regularly (three buses an hour) by London Buses route 203 between Hounslow and Staines, as well as by route 442 half-hourly between Heathrow Terminal 5 and Staines operated by local bus company Carlone Ltd.

Politics

Stanwell has historically been one of the few wards of Surrey County Council held by the Labour Party.

Demography and housing

{| class="wikitable"

|+ 2011 Census Homes

!Output area !!Detached !!Semi-detached!!Terraced!!Flats and apartments!!Caravans/temporary/mobile homes!!Shared between households

Richard Cox, British horticulturist, created Cox's Orange Pippin apple, first grown in his garden on the Bath Road
Sir John Watson Gibson, civil engineer, lived in Stanwell Lodge and then Stanwell Place between the 1920s and his death in 1947 Since 2015, one of the town's pubs has borne his name
Sir Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books, lived at Silverbeck, Stanwell Moor
King Faisal II of Iraq owned Stanwell Place from 1948 until his assassination in 1958
Pete Shaw, author and theatrical producer, was raised in Short Lane, Stanwell