Kim,Some more information.....Sir Alexander RoadThe land where Sir Alexander Road is now sited was once owned by John Perryn, a London goldsmith and alderman, who died in 1657. The Goldsmiths Company inherited his land, which (in modern day terms) was the area east of the London Overground line bordered by Western Avenue, First Avenue (maybe even Old Oak Road) and The Vale, and the area west of the railway line that now covers Goldsmith Road, St Dunstan’s Avenue, parts of Friary Road, Goldsmith Avenue and Cumberland Park.The Goldsmith Company sold off areas of land over the years and also gave land to build St Thomas’s Church on Bromyard Avenue (demolished and now flats) and St Saviour’s Church for the Deaf in Old Oak Road. Old maps show the area as fields in 1874 and ‘Garden Allotments’ in 1920. Sir Alexander Road first appears in the Electoral register in 1950.John Perryn lived in a house in East Acton Lane named East Acton Manor House. The site is now the Park Club. He was born in Bromyard, Worcestershire – hence Bromyard Avenue.The roads First, Second and Third Avenue were, according to R.N.G. Rowlands in ‘Acton a to z ‘, three of a series of nine numbered avenues which were to run north from The Vale. Thank goodness the other six were not built and named!Sir Alexander Paterson was a prison reformer. He ‘ introduced reforms that would provide a humane regime in penal institutions and encourage rehabilitation among inmates’.Hope this is of interest.
Amanda Knights ● 4754d