Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District

Yiewsley and West Drayton also known as Yiewsley and West Drayton U.D. was an urban district in Middlesex, England (1911–1965). It expanded to the south-east in 1929 and to the south-west in 1930. Its area became the south-west of the London Borough of Hillingdon.

The former Yiewsley Town Hall
Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District within Middlesex in 1961

Establishment, expansion and abolition

The district was formed in 1911 as Yiewsley Urban District co-existing with a reduced powers unit with the same boundaries, the civil parish of Yiewsley (1,080 acres (4.4 km2)).[1] The civil parish had, for ​2 1⁄2 decades, been part of Uxbridge Rural District, created in 1894. The residual, reduced parent rural district was abolished in 1929 prompting the immediate gain of West Drayton (878 acres (3.6 km2)) and the extended name. Legislation added to the district the parish of Harmondsworth to the south (3,308 acres (13.4 km2) including Longford, Sipson and Heathrow),[2] in 1930, from the disbanded Staines Rural District.

The three civil parishes in the district, of ever lessening consequence, merged in 1949 and were abolished in 1965.

The London Government Act 1963 abolished the unit in 1965. Its areas thereby became part of the London Borough of Hillingdon in the new county of Greater London.

Civic history

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Yiewsley and West Drayton, which included Heathrow Airport, was granted in 1953 shortly before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was:

Per chevron enarched or and vert in chief two cartwheels sable and in base an eagle displayed argent a chief gules thereon on a mount vert a representation of the Gatehouse at West Drayton proper. Crest: On a wreath of the colours between two eagle's wings or charged with a cross gules a Tudor rose proper. Motto: 'WE SERVE'.[3]

The eagle came from the arms of the Paget family. The manor of West Drayton was rented then owned by William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, a long-serving ambassador and courtier of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary. Edward granted the manor to him. The family added the manors of Harmondsworth (also known as Harmsworth) and extra-territorially the manor of Dawley (part of Harlington, also known as Arlington). The manor house gatehouse West Drayton is the surviving feature of the tudor great house. The house was demolished in 1750. The gatehouse was used as a badge by the Council of the unit before its arms were granted. The cartwheels stood for traffic along the nationally arterial Bath Road. The eagle's wings with crosses of St. George symbolised the arrival in England of Queen Elizabeth II at London Airport by air, where she first set foot in the country after her accession; the Tudor rose, the connection of William Paget with the Tudor monarchs.[3]

The coat of arms of the London Borough of Hillingdon replicated in its logo re-uses splayed eagle wings, the Tudor rose and the main feature of its crest above is a red demi-lion with silver/white wings whose undersides (one visible as the lion is side-on) have the red cross of St George.[4]

References
  1. "Yiewsley and West Drayton CP". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  2. "Harmondsworth". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. "Yiewsley and West Drayton – Coat of Arms". Heraldry of the World. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  4. "Hillingdon's Coat of Arms". London Borough of Hillingdon. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
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