Cranford, United Kingdom
Cranford is a town of 12,330 people in England, United Kingdom.
Why visit Cranford
Townapedia lists 14 museums and landmarks, 32 parks and trails, 62 places to eat, 24 places to stay and 4 attractions in and around town.
Highlights include Beck Theatre, Windmill Bridge, Osterley House and Concorde G-BOAB.
Weather in Cranford
Forecast from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Full forecast
About Cranford
Cranford is a suburban area straddling the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow. It is located 12.5 miles (20 km) west of Charing Cross and immediately east of Heathrow Airport, from which it is separated by the River Crane. A village till the mid-20th century, Cranford was developed with the building of major roads in its area.
From the Wikipedia article Cranford, London (this version), under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photos of Cranford
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Things to do4
Beck Theatre
Cinema and theater · 3.1 mi
Theatre in Hayes, London, England
Windmill Bridge
Bridge · 3.1 mi
Also known as 'The Three Bridges'. Designed by Isambard K Brunel. Road, rail and canal intersect at this bridge.
Open Air Theatre, Barra Hall Park
Cinema and theater · 2.9 mi
Open-air theatre in Barra Hall Park, Hayes, London, England
Museums and landmarks14
Magna Foodservice Limited
Monument and historic site · 1.0 mi
Magna Foodservice Limited is a leading supplier of food, beverages, food packaging, and hygiene products, to restaurants, caterers,...
Unit 19-21 Phoenix Way, Greater London
2 more on the map.
Parks, trails and playgrounds32
Crane Park Island
Park · 2.7 mi
Island in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England, UK
Norman Leddy Memorial Gardens
Park · 3.0 mi
Park in Hayes, United Kingdom
Barra Hall Park
Park · 2.9 mi
Park in the London Borough of Hillingdon, UK
Cranford Park
Park · 2.9 mi
Park in London Borough of Hillingdon, United Kingdom
20 more on the map.
Restaurants and cafes62
Starbucks
Cafe · Coffee Shop · 0.4 mi
9 Bath Road, Hounslow
Mo-Fr 06:30-23:00; Sa 07:00-23:00; Su 08:00-23:00
Super Singhs
Restaurant · Pizza, Burger · 0.9 mi
Fagg's Road, Feltham
Mo-Fr 12:00-22:00; Sa,Su 14:00-22:00
50 more on the map.
History
Its name came from Anglo-Saxon cran-ford = "ford of cranes" as at the time the word heron was not used for that bird and it covered an almost north–south rectangle lengthwise of 737 acres (2.98 km2).
Before the Norman Conquest, the village was a small Saxon settlement in all senses completely surrounded by its open fields abutting the north of Hounslow Heath and was in Elthorne Hundred for troop-mustering and taxation purposes. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor of Cranford being given to a Norman baron, William Fitz Ansulf. By the 13th century, the main area of Cranford Park and House, the High Street and Bath Road had been given to the Knights Templar (followed by the knights of St John of Jerusalem) as Cranforde St John. The rest, Cranford le Mote, included the manor house and stretched in a narrow taper to the north of the present M4.
Read more of the history
The manors were reunited by purchase by Sir Roger Aston, an official to the King, 64 years after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and were bought by Sir Thomas Berkeley's widow Elizabeth in 1618. These stayed in the Berkeley family, who granted smallholdings over this period, until selling the house and Cranford Park to Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council in 1932, before being sold again to Middlesex County Council in 1935. The Park was then leased back to Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council who jointly administered it with Heston and Isleworth Borough Council, to whom Cranford had been transferred in 1934. For the history of the south of the present ward this was part of Hounslow Heath within Heston parish.
On 1 April 1934 the civil parish was abolished to form Heston and Isleworth, part also went to Harlington and East Bedfont. At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the parish), Cranford had a population of 765.
There was a ford to the north of the church on Watersplash Lane, but the main crossing was where the bridge replaced it on the Bath Road. The river was widened, probably in the 18th century, on either side of the Church Road to form two ornamental lakes. By 1820, there were at least four large ponds, three of which lay in the village on the edge of the common on the Southall Road. The fourth lay immediately east of the moat. By 1958, these had all been drained.
The village still has some distinguished houses, including Stansfield House, a 17th-century listed building. Cranford also has one of only two remaining "lock-ups" in the Metropolitan Police area, this one built in 1838 to hold drunks and vagrants overnight, before finding use as a mortuary for the parish council. The wider borough states that Cranford "was described for centuries as one of the smallest and prettiest villages in Middlesex".
The Berkeley family also gave their name to Berkeley Parade, where there are now many shops, largely convenience or regular services, which were built on remaining common land open fields on the south of the Bath Road in the 1930s – the "château-type" buildings with little slated turrets were branded "ingenious architectural fun" in the journal Architectural Review in 1939. The Parkway was built in 1959 as a bypass and this became a link to the 1960-1964-built M4 motorway cutting through the north end of the area. Both had considerable impact on the area. Much of Heston was developed in the early 1930s and this extended westward towards Cranford later, which also became developed to the west and south of the Parkway. The Parkway has cut Cranford in two, severing the high street into two sections, and along many sections there is not even a pavement for pedestrians though instead a green footpath alongside an inter-London trunk route.
From the History section of Cranford, London on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable people from Cranford
- Fred RouseEnglish footballer (1881-1953)
Born in Cranford, according to Wikidata (CC0). Each name links to its Wikipedia article.
Where to stay24
Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport
Motel and hotel · 0.6 mi
Eastern Perimeter Road, Hatton Cross
Radisson Blu Edwardian Heathrow Hotel & Conference Centre, London
Motel and hotel · 1.3 mi
140 Bath Road, Hayes
Best Western London Heathrow Ariel Hotel
Motel and hotel · 0.9 mi
118 Bath Road, Hayes
Premier Inn London Heathrow Airport T2 & T3 (Bath Road)
Motel and hotel · 0.5 mi
15 Bath Road, Hounslow
Churches and places of worship29
St George’s Interdenominational Chapel, Heathrow Airport
Church · 1.8 mi
Shopping14
Gas and EV charging13
Schools, colleges and libraries19
Healthcare7
The Meadows Centre for Health
Clinic and pharmacy · 0.6 mi
Chinchilla Drive, Hounslow
Map of Cranford
218 places. The map loads OpenStreetMap tiles when you open it.
Getting there and nearby towns
Heathrow Airport (LHR) is the nearest airport with scheduled flights listed in OpenStreetMap, 2 miles away.
- West Drayton 3 mi northwest, about 4 min by car
- Isleworth 3 mi east, about 5 min by car
- Hanworth 3 mi southeast, about 5 min by car
- Stanwell 3 mi southwest, about 5 min by car
- Hillingdon 4 mi northwest, about 7 min by car
- Richmond 5 mi east, about 8 min by car
- Hampton 5 mi southeast, about 8 min by car
- Sunbury-on-Thames 5 mi south, about 8 min by car
- Northolt 5 mi north, about 9 min by car
- Kew 5 mi east, about 9 min by car
Drive times are estimates from straight-line distance, not routes.
Towns near Cranford
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Keep exploring
Local news
Headlines from INDB.
Reviews, tips and questions
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Sources and licences
- GeoNames (CC BY 4.0): population, coordinates, regions and time zone
- Mapillary (see each image): photos
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0): places, airports, map data
- Wikidata (CC0 1.0): elevation, founding date, time zone, website, landmarks and historic places
- Wikimedia Commons (see each image): photos
- Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): overview and history text
Photo credits
- Hayes, The Beck Theatre, Nigel Cox, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Brunel's road, canal and rail bridge (Three Bridges), Smeashy, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Osterley Park House, London-25June2009-rc, Osterley Park House, London-25June2009.jpg : Jim Linwood derivative work: Snowmanradio ( talk ), CC BY 2.0
- River Crane in Crane Park 2, Dudley Miles, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Crane Park Island Nature Reserve, Twickenham, London. (3350016620), Jim Linwood from London, CC BY 2.0
- Small Red-eyed Damselfly (2817634173), Alastair Rae from London, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Hayes (Hillingdon) St Mary from ENE GeoUK 1686342, John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0
- StanwellChurch, Maxwell Hamilton from Greater London, England, UK, CC BY 2.0
- The Church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Whitton, Anonymous, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Heston Church, Mstimson at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
- St Philip and St James Church in Whitton - panoramio, Maxwell Hamilton, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Radisson Edwardian Hotel Heathrow1, Uggboy, CC BY 2.0
- Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow, Sebastiandoe5, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The White Hart, Harlington (01), Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0
- G-BOAB 1 B.Ae-Aerospatiale Concorde 102 British Airways MAN 13SEP98, Ken Fielding, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Church of S. Peter & S. Paul, Harlington & war memorial, late August 2013, Rodolph, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Cranebank path, Dudley Miles, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ariel Hotel (London Heathrow), Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0
- Crane Meadows, JoshuaAnthonyGill, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Cranebank and British Airways Technical Block A from the air, Photograph by Mike Peel ( www.mikepeel.net )., CC BY-SA 4.0
- Suburban street with great big ugly glass office block at the end of it 2015, Andrew Bowden, CC BY-SA 2.0
- RA96010 (6715454961), Paul Nelhams from Shannon, Ireland, CC BY-SA 2.0
- G-TTNP British Airways Airbus A320-251N LHR 060722, Steve Knight, CC BY 2.0
- Thistle, River Crane Park, Simon from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
- Hounslow West station (6883217592), Ewan Munro from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Street-level photo, RyanBush, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, RyanBush, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, laye, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, laye, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, laye, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, 4004, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, themadcabbie, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, HandyHat, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, RyanBush, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, southglos, CC BY-SA 4.0
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