Basics

People

Properties

Can You Help?

Roads Off

Janet's Research

Sources & More

Brentford Basics

Location

Brentford is in the county of Middlesex, England and is about 8 miles west of central London, with the River Thames forming its southern boundary. Across the Thames from Brentford is Kew in the county of Surrey.

The High Street runs roughly east / west through the town, is about a mile in length (1.6 km) and was an important route to the west from London.

History

Brentford was a place of settlement from pre-historic times. For more information read Janet McNamara's history from Roman to modern times.

Brentford Registration District

At the start of civil registration, 1 July 1837, Brentford Registration District was created. It covered the civil parishes of
Acton, Chiswick, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Heston, Isleworth, New Brentford, Old Brentford, Perivale, Twickenham and West Twyford:
if your ancestor has Brentford as their place of birth, marriage or death in civil registration records, they may have been born, married or died in any of these parishes.

Registration districts were restructured - from 1 October 1947 Brentford events were recorded in the new Ealing Registration District, which covered the civil parishes of
Acton, Chiswick, Ealing, Heston & Isleworth, New Brentford, Norwood and Old Brentford.

In January 2021 Angela asked where the marriage register office was located in 1935, and- thanks to Carolyn Hammond and Janet McNamara - the answer is the Middlesex County Council office building on the Great West Road, near the corner of Windmill Road (and backing onto Glenhurst Road). Jim Lawes has posted a recent photo of the building.

Parishes

• Brentford End: Isleworth Parish
• New Brentford (or West Brentford): part of Hanwell St Mary parish until 1747; the chapelry of St Lawrence (High Street) was the parish church for New Brentford from this date
• Old Brentford: part of Ealing St Mary parish until 1828; the chapelry of St George (High Street) was the parish church for Old Brentford from this date; in 1867 St Paul's opened (St Paul's Road); in 1907 St Faith's opened (Windmill Road)

This web site focuses on the High Street, which is contained in New and Old Brentford, and the immediate area. See the diagram in Properties Introduction showing the High Street numbering, parish church locations and how the High Street has been split into into convenient chunks (sections) for this web site.

The site has details of parish registers including those available online.

For more about what types of material are available through the site, whether you are interested in a particular High Street address or a family that lived locally, try the Site Guide.

Views of modern Brentford

The web site also contains a number of photos taken in Brentford since 2000.

Historical Records for Brentford

Brentford is in the London Borough of Hounslow and its parish registers, tithe maps and (some) wills are held at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) at Islington. More details of parish registers.

The National Archives, Kew (TNA) holds 1909/10 Valuation Records, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills and a vast collection of state, military and business records. Both LMA and TNA have copies of census records for 1841-1901 and trade directories. TNA also has copies of the 1911 census.

Chiswick Library has copies of local newspapers (some going back to the 19th century), photographs, trade directories and also copies of some of the Brentford and Chiswick material held at LMA/TNA.

The site includes a list of local history books and other sources and web links.

Footnote

Thanks to Robyn Waymouth for suggesting a Basics page. She wrote in November 2009 having come across the site by chance when searching for a family surname Byass and suggested this page for those, like her, who have come into the site this way and who know little about Brentford.

Page published February 2010; updated February 2021