Editing Acton, London (section)

==History==
===Origins===
[[File:Stmarysacton2.jpg|thumb|[[St Mary's Church, Acton, London|St Mary's Church]], King Street, Acton Central]]
Different phases of prehistoric settlement are marked by a range of finds. It begins with a cluster of [[Upper Palaeolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] flint cores,<ref name="AGL">{{Cite web |title=Evidence of Ancient Humans |url=https://www.mola.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/The%20archaeology%20of%20Greater%20London%20an%20assessment%20of%20archaeological%20evidence%20for%20human%20presence%20in%20the%20area%20now%20covered%20by%20Greater%20London_Part1.pdf |access-date=6 December 2022 |website=www.mola.org.uk}}</ref> flakes<ref name="AGL" /> and artefacts<ref name="AGL" /> mainly to the north of [[Churchfield Road]]. Around the Mill Hill Park area, a [[Neolithic]] axe,<ref name="AGL" /> and a group of [[Bronze Age]] [[Deverel-Rimbury]] urns and cremated bone<ref name="AGL" /> were found, along with an [[Iron Age]] pot shard.<ref name="AGL" /> [[Iron Age]] coins were also found near [[Bollo Lane]]. The [[Roman Britain|Roman]] period is represented by a ditch<ref name="AGL" /> in the same area, and a hoard<ref name="AGL" /> north of Springfield Gardens. In the Middle Ages the northern half of the parish was heavily wooded. Oaks and elms still stood along roads and hedgerows and in private grounds in the early 20th century, but most of the woodland had been cleared by the 17th century, even on the extensive Old Oak common.<ref name=growth>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22546|title=Acton: Growth|editor1=T F T Baker |editor2= C R Elrington |author1=Diane K Bolton |author2=Patricia E C Croot |author3=M A Hicks|publisher=Institute of Historical Research|date=1982|work=A History of the County of Middlesex |volume=7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden|access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref>

===Medieval era===
Landholders figuring in county records were resident by 1222 and houses were recorded from the late 13th century. The main settlement, Church Acton or Acton town, lay slightly west of the centre of the parish along the highway to Oxford (Uxbridge Road) at the 5-mile post out of London. By 1380 some of the tenements, such as ''The Tabard'' and ''The Cock'', along the south side of the road, were inns. The hamlet of East Acton, mentioned in 1294, consisted of farmhouses and cottages north and south of common land known as East Acton green by 1474.<ref name=growth/>

Medieval settlement was mainly around the two hamlets. At Church Acton most of the farmhouses lay along the Oxford road or Horn Lane, with only a few outlying farms. Friars Place Farm at the north end of Horn Lane and the moated site to the west, occupied until the 15th century, were early farms. East of Friars Place farm were commons: Worton or Watton Green and Rush green in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Friars Place in the 18th century, where there was some settlement by 1664. To the north-west were Acton or Old Oak wells, known by 1613. In the parish's extreme south, a few farmhouses on the northern side of Acton common or Acton Green were mentioned as in Turnham Green until the 19th century and were linked more closely with that village than with Acton. ''Gregories'', mentioned in 1551 as a copyhold tenement with 30 a. near Bollo Lane and the Brentford high road, probably lay in Acton.<ref name=growth/>

Londoners were increasingly involved in land sales from the early 14th century but apparently did not live in Acton until the late 15th. The [[Manorialism|manor]], part of Fulham, had no [[demesne|resident (demesne) lord]], and apart from a brief period before {{Circa|1735}}, when a branch of the landed [[Duke of Beaufort|Somerset (Duke of Beaufort's) family]] lived in Acton, there were no large resident landowners. Many of the tenements without land, including most of the inns, frequently changed hands.<ref name=growth/>

===Early modern period===
The parish had 158 [[Holy Communion|communicants]] in 1548. In 1664 it had 72 chargeable households and 59 exempt, with 6 empty houses. Six houses had 10 or more hearths, 16 had from 5 to 9, 33 had 3 or 4, 23 had 2, and 53 had 1. Acton had about 160 families resident in the mid 18th century.<ref name=growth/>

By the 17th century Acton's proximity to London had made it a summer retreat for courtiers and lawyers. Sir [[Richard Sutton (MP, died 1634)|Richard Sutton]] bought the seat at East Acton known later as Manor House in 1610 and Sir [[Henry Garraway]] probably rebuilt Acton House in 1638. Sir [[John Trevor (1596–1673)|John Trevor]] MP bought several Acton properties in the mid 17th century, including Berrymead/Berrymede, improving it with a lake and stream, home of [[George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax]] and his second son after him, and afterwards of the [[Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull]], with a much-praised landscape.<ref name=growth/>

Acton was lauded as "blessed with very sweet air" in 1706 by rector urging a friend in verse to move there. The fashion for medicinal waters brought a brief period of fame, with the exploitation of the wells at Old Oak common, when East Acton and Friars Place were said to be thronged with summer visitors, who had brought about improvement in the houses there. Although high society had left Acton by the mid 18th century, many professional and military men bought houses there, sometimes including a small park, until well into the 19th century. The break-up of the {{convert|800|acres|km2}} Fetherstonhaugh estate, which had had no resident owner, produced four or five small estates whose owners, professional men such as Samuel Wegg, John Winter, and Richard White, were active in parish affairs. Grand early homes included: Heathfield Lodge, West Lodge, and East Lodge by Winter c. 1800, Mill Hill House by White, and Woodlands at Acton Hill soon afterwards. [[Acton Green, London|Acton Green]] also became increasingly popular, being near [[Chiswick High Road]] (the Great West Road). Fairlawn, substantial, on west side of the green, was the home of the botanist [[John Lindley]] (1797–1865) as was the house to the north and Bedford House, another home of Lindley, and Melbourne House further east. A short row of houses had been built on the south side of the green by 1800.<ref name=growth/>

In 1804, Derwentwater House was built in the grounds of Acton House by the Selby family.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

===19th century development===
[[File:Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths' Alms Houses, Acton.jpg|thumb|Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths' Alms Houses, Acton, 1812.]]
In 1812, twenty [[almshouses]] were built by the [[Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths]] on the former Perryn estate, on land which had been left to the company by [[John Perryn]] in 1657.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=History of the Company |url=https://www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/company/history/history-of-the-company/ |access-date=6 December 2022 |website=The Goldsmiths' Company |language=en}}</ref>

There were 241 inhabited houses in 1801 and 426 by 1831. Growth took place mainly in the established residential neighbourhoods of Acton town and East Acton, but Acton Green also had acquired a cluster of cottages and houses at the bottom of Acton Lane by 1842. Acton was mostly rural in 1831. The few mansions contrasted sharply with most of the houses, which were described as 'beneath mediocrity of character'. Despite an overall rise in the number of houses, poor rates had to be increased in the 1820s because of a growing number of empty dwellings.<ref name=growth/>

More widespread building [[urban planning|was planned]] and took place in the 1850s. As a result of its soft water sources, Acton became famous for its laundries and at the end of the 19th century there were around 170 establishments in South Acton. These laundries would serve hotels and the rich in London's West End, leading to the nickname "Soapsuds Island" or "Soap Sud City". At least 600 different laundries operated within South Acton,<ref>{{cite web |title=Acton History |url=http://www.actonhistory.co.uk/acton/page10.html |website=www.actonhistory.co.uk |access-date=2 December 2024}}</ref> the last laundry closed in the late 1970s and is now a low redbrick block of flats.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

The parish of Acton formed a [[local board of health]] in 1865 and became an [[Urban district (England and Wales)|urban district]] in 1894.

In 1895, [[Acton Cemetery]] was opened on farmland near to what is now North Acton Station.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meller |first1=Hugh |last2=Parsons |first2=Brian |title=London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer |date=2008 |publisher=Sutton |isbn=9780750946223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTKLJQAACAAJ |access-date=24 January 2023}}</ref>

===20th century===
The town was incorporated as the [[Municipal Borough of Acton]] in 1921. This authority combined with the [[municipal boroughs]] of [[Municipal Borough of Ealing|Ealing]] and [[Municipal Borough of Southall|Southall]] to form the London Borough of Ealing, within [[Greater London]], in 1965.<ref name=growth/> An Acton Golf Club was founded in 1896, which closed in 1920 and the area was redeveloped for housing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=750|title=Golfs Missing Links|website=www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk}}</ref>

[[Municipal Borough of Acton|Acton]] formed an urban district and, later, municipal borough of [[Middlesex]] from 1894 to 1965. Its former area was used to form part of the London Borough of Ealing in 1965. The industries of North Acton merged with the great industrial concentrations of [[Park Royal]] and [[Harlesden]]. During the 20th century Acton was a major industrial centre employing tens of thousands of people, particularly in the motor vehicles and components industries. These included car manufacturer [[Renault]], that built the [[Renault 4CV|4CV]] and [[Renault Dauphine|Dauphine]], at a factory in North Acton from 1926 until 1960.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://londonist.com/2015/11/london-made-motors|title=London's Lost Manufacturing - We Were Once The British Detroit|date=17 November 2015|publisher=Londonist|access-date=16 January 2016}}</ref> Renault has remained on the site continuously since the 1920s and still has its main London showroom on the Park Royal site.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} [[Alfred Mond]] built a [[nickel carbonyl]] refinery here that was able to produce [[platinum]] as a by-product of the matte from [[Inco]]'s [[Sudbury Basin]] operations.<ref name=thompson60/>

Further south [[Acton Vale, London|Acton Vale]] had manufacturers including [[Napier & Son]] (engines), H. Bronnley & Co (Soaps), Evershed & Vignoles (electrical equipment), [[Lucas Industries#CAV|Lucas CAV]] (automotive electrical), [[Tony Vandervell|Vandervell Products]] (bearings), and [[Wilkinson Sword]] (swords and razors).{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}