The Cedars

In 1834, Thomas Blackwell, who came from a prominent local family and with his friend Edmund Crosse is famous for the food processing company that bears their names, married Jane Ann Bernasconi, the heiress to The Cedars, then known as Clock House. The house used to stand in the north west corner of the public park until at least 1956. Numerous large houses were built as the area was beginning to be developed particularly after Harrow Station opened in 1837, later renamed Harrow and Wealdstone Station. The house was later enlarged by his eldest surviving son Thomas, later Sir Thomas, Francis Blackwell, who owned and farmed much land in the area around Watford and Harrow. At his father's death in 1879 he assumed control of the Crosse and Blackwell business, and he was a prominent local benefactor. His many charitable works included the presentation of Harrow Weald Recreation Ground to the parish, the restoration of Harrow Weald's parish church of All Saints (q.v.), and the donation of a site for the church of St Anselm at Hatch End. Like his father, when he died in 1907 he was buried in Harrow Weald churchyard.

Thomas Blackwell held parties for local children in the grounds of The Cedars, which contained a small rabbit warren that provided food for residents. An area of mature woodland in the north-west was planted with numerous exotic trees and shrubs including maples, pines, Portugal and cherry laurels, rhododendron, Chinese privet and bamboo. At one time there was a sundial that commemorated a visit by Sir Walter Scott in 1806, when he was staying at Bentley Priory (q.v.), an occasion recorded in Walter Druett's 'The Stanmores and Harrow Weald Through the Ages' (1938). The former entrance has remarkable stone gate piers, wrought iron gates and curved flanking railings and remains on the Uxbridge Road.