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Crane Park is a linear park along the north bank of the River Crane from Meadway in Twickenham to the Hanworth Road in the west. The Crane had various names, including 'the Powder Mill River' due to its most important industry; the western end of the park was the site of Hounslow Gunpowder Works, which opened c.1766/8, flourishing into the early C20th. After it ceased to operate for gunpowder manufacture, the subsequent owner sold part of the site for housing and part to Twickenham Council who turned it into a public park, which was opened in 1935. It still retains important industrial archaeological remains including the Shot Tower built in 1828. Crane Park Island was created to contain a mill-pool of water used to drive mill machinery, some remains of which are still found.
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Diamond Jubilee Gardens is a new public garden created on part of the former site of Twickenham Swimming Pool, which opened in 1935 in commemoration of the Jubilee of George V. The public swimming pool closed for repairs in 1981 but did not re-open and the site became derelict. Part of the land opened in 2005 as a public open space. Following public consultation the new riverside garden was created in 2012, renamed in commemoration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee; a black poplar was planted by HRH Princess Alexandra on 23 June 2012. The design of the garden recalls the former use with swimming lanes demarcated in the grass of the main lawn.
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Hidden away at the end of a cul de sac is the remains of the dissenters' burial ground of the East Sheen Congregational Church. An independent chapel was first built on Sheen Lane in 1716 and later enlarged. It was attached to the British Schools in South Worple Way, at the back of which was a small piece of ground used as a burial ground by the church. By the 1990s it was a rather overgrown, railed site containing up 12 - 16 tombstones. The British School then sold the site to a developer whose initial plan to build bungalows here was refused permission by Richmond Council. However, the burial ground is practically unrecognisable as such, having been landscaped by new owners into a small garden with grass, shrub beds and gravel path, with chain link fencing to the back gardens of houses to the west.
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The site is shown in 1893/4 as woodland and opened as Barnes Cemetery in 1905. In 1913 the northern triangular section of the site was laid out as the cemetery while to the south was a nursery. The cemetery is linked to the main road to the north by an avenue of plane trees, with a lodge at the entrance and a mortuary chapel on the south boundary. In the 1930s the area to the south of Barnes Cemetery was laid out on a grid and the cemetery was subsequently renamed East Sheen Cemetery. Although it now forms a continuous area of graves with Richmond Cemetery, the old Barnes Cemetery boundary is still clearly defined by a holly hedge. The cemetery contains various fine trees, clumps of pampas grass, with yews behind the chapel and on either side of the main roadway between the entrance on Kings Ride Gardens and the chapel.
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Adjoining Richmond Park and separated from it by a brick wall, Sheen Common was once part of the extensive common land predating the formation of Richmond Park. In the C18th George III had a farm to the west of the common near the parish boundary and King's Ride recalls the route from Kew Palace to the farm and Richmond Park. In 1845 the parish pound was moved to the common, which remained in the ownership of the Lord of the Manor until the East Sheen Common Preservation Society purchased the freehold in 1880. Today, owned by the National Trust and leased by Richmond Council, East Sheen Common consists of woodland, a cricket field, tennis courts and a bowling green.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Eric Lyons' Span developments were built from the late 1950s, particularly in Twickenham and Petersham, with a governing principle being to set the housing amidst gentle landscaping with trees planted, communal lawns, and courtyard gardens. Fieldend was built in 1960/61, a development of 51 weather-boarded terrace houses with private gardens arranged informally among landscaping that has silver birches, grass areas and shrubs. The estate was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as 'now the most sylvan of all Span developments in London'.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Garrick's Lawn is one of a number of riverside gardens between Hampton Court Road and the Thames. Actor/manager David Garrick purchased Hampton House in 1754, later called Garrick's Villa. 'Capability' Brown advised him on the layout of the grounds including the narrow river frontage, recommending the linking grotto-like tunnel under the road. Garrick built the octagonal Shakespeare Temple on the riverside lawn, where he entertained friends. During the C19th later owners permitted the grounds to be used for recreational activities, and it survived threat of demolition in 1899. In the C20th the riverside garden became rundown until the local council purchased the land for a public recreation ground. In 1996 The Temple Trust began a scheme to restore the garden and Temple to their C18th appearance, the scheme completed by 1999. The tunnel under the road has been restored and is privately owned and the house is now private flats.
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Gordon House, originally called Seaton House, was built in 1720, added to by Robert Adam in 1758. The grounds are said to have been Venetian in style with ornamental gardens, fountains and classical garden features. In 1856 it became a school for the daughters of naval officers and later a Royal Naval School. Within the grounds is a huge plane tree and an orangery and mound survived from earlier landscaping. By 1949 it was a teacher training college, which in 1976 became part of West London Institute of Higher Education when Borough Road and Maria Grey teacher training colleges and Chiswick Polytechnic merged, with campuses in Isleworth and Twickenham. In 1995 West London Institute was incorporated into Brunel Universiy. In 2005 the campus at Gordon House closed, the remaining staff and students moving to Uxbridge.
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Grove Gardens were provided as a secluded public green as part of a cottage housing estate built by the Royal Dutch Shell Company in the 1920s. The small estate was designed along 'garden suburb' principles. The railed gardens are surrounded by mature pine trees, with grass and shrubs, seats and paths. The garden has a bowling green, with two timber pavilions between which is a sculpture of a huntress or goddess with a deer. The garden at one time had a putting green.
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Grove Road Gardens are public gardens adjacent to Richmond Old Cemetery. At one time known as Grove Road Pleasure Ground, it appears to have existed as public open space by 1885. By the mid 1890s it was laid out with perimeter trees and winding paths in much the same layout as today. Among the fine mature trees are conifers and monkey puzzle, and a drinking fountain donated by the Metropolitan Cattle Trough and Drinking Fountain Association is in the north corner. The gardens' square sectioned railings and gate are no longer in place although one of the gate piers, albeit damaged, remained.
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Ham Common is adjacent to Richmond Park beyond Ham Gate. In 1635 the local inhabitants were granted certain rights on the common by Charles I in return for the 483 acres he took when creating his New Park, later called Richmond Park. There are a number of fine C18th houses overlooking the common, particularly the western open area, such as Cassel House, now a hospital and St Michael's Convent, formerly Orford Hall. The South Avenue that leads from the riverside Ham House extends onto Ham Common. Ham Pond is the focal point here, where horses were watered in the past. East of the main road Ham Common Woods are thickly planted, and have paths and horse tracks crossing it.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Ham House is the remains of a C17th estate and its gardens. Built in 1610, Ham House was extended in the 1670s for the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale, who laid out formal gardens, planting fine approach avenues to the east and south of the house, which also had fine riverside views. The Lauderdales' gardens were praised by John Evelyn in 1678. The house and c.7 hectares of the grounds were given to the National Trust in 1948, and restoration of the gardens to their late C17th form began in the mid-1970s.