I live in a small narrow fronted Victorian cottage on May Road in Twickenham. The property was built in the 1890’s, during a spurt of house building that coincided with the expansion of the railways and trams. The area is now thriving with families and young professionals who enjoy the many local amenities. However before the house was built, the area was used for slightly more unsavoury purposes…
St Mary’s Church has been central to Twickenham life since the early fourteenth century, and the vestry records paint a picture of more difficult times.
The Green at the bottom of my street is now a pleasant area for eating, drinking and cricket, but a workhouse originally stood there, dating from 1725.
The vestry records also refer to the Watch House, also known as the Cage, Lock-up or Round House; a place of incarceration for ‘Beggars and Vagabonds that shall lye abide or lurk about the Towne’.
Entries in the records order the erection of a whipping post at the end of the seventeenth century and there are stories documented about residents who failed to follow the law being forced to spend up to a day in the stocks at Twickenham or nearby Brentford.
These places of punishment were moved to different locations over 150 years, but the last known standing place of the Cage was at the junction of Colne Road and May Road, just moments from my front door.
It is interesting to think about what kind of unfortunate or villainous characters may have resided there.
The History Channel has teamed up with Teachers TV to invite teachers across the country to plan a class project investigating local buildings.
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