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England London Boroughs  Hammersmith Fulham

Guide to London Borough of Hammersmith Fulham ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
As with all the other London Boroughs, Hammersmith Fulham Borough was organized by the central UK Government in 1965. This reorganization did not consider the need for historical records nor genealogical research. It was formed by merging the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith and the much more ancient Metropolitan Borough of Fulham. All were previously part of the County of Middlesex. Included later in this document is the web site for the now defunct County of Middlesex that should be of major help in researching family history.

What is provided here for history is a compilation of the older history for Fulham, and also material from Hammersmith.

Fulham, or in its earliest form "Fulanhamme", is thought to have signified land in river bend "of fowls" or "mud" (compare Foulness) (noting the Tideway would lap certain fields periodically), or "belonging to an Anglo Saxon chief named Fulla". The manor of Fulham is in medieval documents stated to have been given to Bishop Erkenwald about the year 691 for himself and his successors in the See of London. In effect, as is geographically clear, Fulham Palace, for nine centuries the summer residence of the Bishops of London, is the manor and parish of Fulham. In 879 Danish invaders, sailed up the Thames and wintered at Fulham and Hammersmith. Raphael Holinshed (d.1580) wrote that the Bishop of London was lodging in his manor place in 1141 when Geoffrey de Mandeville, riding out from the Tower of London, took him prisoner. During the Commonwealth the manor was temporarily out of the bishops' hands, having been sold to Colonel Edmund Harvey.

There is no record of the original erection of a Parish church in Fulham, but the first written record of a church dates from 1154 as a result of a tithe dispute. The first known parish priest of All Saints Church, Fulham was appointed in 1242. The medieval extant part of All Saints Church was demolished in 1881, during reconstruction by Sir Arthur Blomfield, in order to enlarge it, however, it did not date farther back than the 15th century. There is a comparably old church on the opposite bank of the Thames, St Mary's Church, Putney, across what was a ferried crossing.

The 19th century roused Walham Green village, and the surrounding hamlets that made up the parish of Fulham, from their rural slumber and market gardens with the advent first of power production and then more hesitant transport development. This was accompanied by accelerating urbanization, as in other centers in the county of Middlesex, which encouraged trade skills among the growing population. In 1824 the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company, the first public utility company in the world, bought the Sandford estate in Sands End to produce gas for lighting - and in the case of the Hurlingham Club, for ballooning.

In !907 the engineering HQ of the Piccadilly Line in Richmond Place (16-18 Empress Place) oversaw the westward expansion of the line into the suburbs. At the turn of the century, the London Omnibus Co. in Seagrave Road oversaw the transition of horse-drawn to motor buses, which were eventually integrated into London Transport and London Buses. This attracted a host of other automotive enterprises to move into the area.

Hammersmith originally meant "(Place with) a hammer smithy or forge", first recorded in 1294. Hammersmith is in the historic county of Middlesex. It was the name of a parish, and of a suburban district, within the hundred of Osselstone. In the early 1660s, Hammersmith's first parish church, which later became St Paul's, was built by Sir Nicholas Crispe who ran the brickworks in Hammersmith. It contained a monument to Crispe as well as a bronze bust of King Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. In 1696 Sir Samuel Morland was buried there. The church was completely rebuilt in 1883, but the monument and bust were transferred to the new church.

Hammersmith Bridge was first designed by William Tierney Clark, opening in 1827 as the first Suspension bridge crossing the River Thames. Overloading in this original structure led to a redesign by Joseph Bazalgette, which was built over the original foundations, and reopened in 1887. In 1984–1985 the bridge received structural support, and between 1997 and 2000 the bridge underwent major strengthening work.

In 1745, two Scots, James Lee and Lewis Kennedy, established the Vineyard Nursery, over six acres devoted to landscaping plants. During the next hundred and fifty years the nursery introduced many new plants to England, including fuchsia and the standard rose tree.

Major Industries established in Hamersmith during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries include the following: the Osram lamp factory at Brook Green, the J. Lyons factory (which at one time employed 30,000 people). During both World Wars, Waring & Gillow's furniture factory, in Cambridge Grove, became the site of aircraft manufacture.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Hornchurch Cemetery


 * 24 Upminster Rd
 * Hornchurch RM12 6PA

Romford Cemetery


 * 3 Crow Ln
 * Romford RM7 0EL
 * Phone: +44 1708 434433

South Essex Crematorium


 * Ockendon Rd
 * Upminster RM14 2UY
 * Phone: +44 1708 434433

Rainham Cemetery


 * Upminster Rd N
 * Rainham RM13 9RY
 * Phone: +44 1708 434433

Marks Gate Cemetery


 * 19 Rams Grove
 * Dagenham, Romford RM6 5LB
 * Phone: +44 20 8590 3280

Eastbrookend Cemetery


 * The Chase
 * Dagenham Road
 * Rush Green, Romford, Dagenham RM10 7DR
 * Phone: +44 1708 447451

Parishes
St Peter's


 * Gubbins Ln
 * Harold Wood, Romford RM3 0QA
 * Phone: +44 1708 342080

St Andrew's

4 St Andrews Rd
 * Romford RM7 9AT
 * Phone: +44 1708 728583

St Luke's


 * 201 Front Ln
 * Upminster RM14 1LD
 * Phone: +44 1708 222562

St Edward the Confessor


 * Church House
 * Market Pl
 * Romford RM1 3AB
 * Phone: +44 1708 744973

St Andrew's, Hornchurch


 * 222 High St
 * Hornchurch RM12 6QP
 * Phone: +44 1708 441571

St Michael and All Angels


 * Gidea Park
 * Main Rd
 * Romford RM2 5EL
 * Phone: +44 1708 731057

St John the Evangelist


 * The Green
 * North Rd
 * London RM4 1PL
 * Phone: +44 1708 721310

St Paul's


 * 35 Barley Ln
 * Ilford IG3 8XE
 * Phone: +44 20 8983 8998

Church of the Good Shepherd


 * 3 Redriff Rd
 * Romford RM7 8HD
 * Phone: +44 1708 745626

St Thomas'


 * Church Rd
 * Noak Hill, Romford RM4 1LD
 * Phone: +44 1708 343923

St Helen and St Giles


 * Rainham RM13 9YL, UK

St Thomas' of Canterbury


 * St Thomas Church Centre
 * St Thomas Rd
 * Brentwood CM14 4DF
 * Phone: +44 1277 201094

Non Conformists
Other Christian and non-christian groups follow:


 * Baptist
 * Celestial Church of Christ
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Evangelical
 * Immanuel Ministries
 * Jehovah's Witnesses
 * Lutheran
 * Methodist
 * Redeemed Christian Church of God
 * Roman Catholic
 * Salvation Army
 * Seventh Day Adventist

There are a number of communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Buddhist
 * Confucian
 * Jewish
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the UK government from July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, the only available records were those kept by the ecclesiastical bodies. As the Borough of Havering was previously considered part of Essex County, there is a link to the Essex County records below.


 * Havering Borough BMD records


 * ukbmd.org: Havering District BMD records


 * Essex County Council BMD records

Local Histories

 * british history on line: Romford


 * localhistories.org: Hornchurch


 * vision of britain.org: Upminster


 * vision of britain.org: Rainham


 * Romford; A History by Brian Evans


 * Voices of Hornchurch by Patricia Pound


 * Dagenham and Rainham past by Sue Curtis

Maps and Gazetteers

 * London Borough of HAvering map


 * old maps of Romford


 * francis frith: old maps of Hornchurch


 * oldmapsonline: Havering


 * francis frith: old maps of Upminster


 * hidden london: gazetteer of Havering-atte-Bower


 * hidden london: Romford gazetteer


 * hidden london: Upminster gazetteer


 * visionofbritain: Rainham gazetteer

Newspapers

 * The Romford Recorder


 * The Enquirer, Havering


 * The London Evening Standard, Havering

Occupations
The Borough of Havering is primarily a bedroom city for the greater London economy. Havering has a lower population density than other London Boroughs as large areas are parkland and 23 square miles (60 km2) (more than half the borough) is Metropolitan Green Belt protected land. Those areas of development are extensive but rarely intensive.

There are over 7,000 small businesses based in Havering Borough. Romford is the main commercial hub of the borough with a small district of mainly office development close to the railway station. There is also some industry to the south between Rainham and the River Thames such as Rainham steel headquarters, on the boundary or Elm Park. Light industry elsewhere in the borough has been in decline. New industrial development is encouraged in the south of the borough and has been encouraged by the London Development Agency (now GLA Land and Property), with the opening of the Center for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence.

The main retail district is also located in Romford with several interconnected or nearby shopping arcades to the main Liberty Shopping Centre. Romford Market is located to the north of Romford and is the largest market within the borough and in the surrounding area. Hornchurch and Upminster are the other main retail centers with extensive high street shopping areas.

Romford has a developed night-time economy with one of the highest concentrations of bars and nightclubs anywhere in Greater London outside the West End with public transport radiating into all parts of the borough. This activity provides a quite extensive employment opportunity locally.

Societies

 * East of London FHS


 * Romford and District History Society


 * Hornchurch and District History Society

Archives

 * City of London Archives: Havering


 * The National Archives: Havering


 * Havering Museum: Romford Archives


 * The National Archives: Hornchurch


 * Havering Museum: Upminster Archives


 * Medway Archives: Rainham

Web Sites

 * London Borough of Havering: wikipedia


 * Romford: wikipedia


 * Hornchurch: wikipedia


 * Upminster: wikipedia


 * Rainham, London: wikipedia


 * Essex England County Council