The area now known as Hampstead, sits on a hill on the Northern Heights of London, and was once part of the great forest of Middlesex. The name Hampstead comes from the Saxon Hamstede, meaning homestead, probably a Pig farm in the frognal area.
The first reference to Hampstead was in AD.975 King Edgar granted to his minister, Mangoda, the lands of Hampstead . In 986 Etheired the Unready granted it to Westminster Abbey. It is possible that both charters are forgeries. It was common for monks to forge documents to their own advantage and it continued into the twelfth century. In The Doomsday Book states that the Abbot of St. Peter’s holds Hampstead. 4 hides. Land for 3 ploughs. One villager had a virgate (old land measure, commonly 30 acres ). five small holders had virgate, and there was one slave. There was woodland and 100 pigs and the total value was 50s, half what it was worth when acquired before 1066. Its value had increased by 1535 when the monks earned £2800 p.a. from it. It continued in the possession of the Abbey until 1550 .
Washerwomen settled in Hampstead and Laundry work became a major industry in Hampstead for about 4 hundred years. Edward VI granted the Manor to Sir Thomas Wroth. Sir Baptist Hicks bought the Manor from Sir Thomas Wroth in 1620. 1707 to 1713 began the first real development of the village. In 1720 Maryon Wilson acquired the manor. They owned it until 1978. Hampstead became very fashionable in 1707 to 1713 when the chalybeate spring in Well Walk was in competition with the Spa‘s of bath and Tunbrige . Hampstead stayed a village until the nineteenth century. In the 1820’s the Finchley New Road was built. In 1846 Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson was the landlord who tried to build houses on the Heath, ( Heath large open space ) starting with the building of a viaduct road (Now the cycle track from Spanyards road to Downshire Hill ). Hampstead Junction Railway ( Hampstead Heath station )opened in 1860. In 1866 Sir Thomas starts building work on the heath ,first an estate office ( only the footings were laid near the flag pole by The White Stone Pond (takes its name from mile stone to London and is still there). Also the logs north west of Well Road . A Law suit Hosre v Wilson came before the master of the rolls in Chancery and all building work was put on hold. In 1869 Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson dies.
In December 1871 The Metropolitan Board of Works took possession of the Heath and it was sold by the Willson Family at full market value .(£47.000 inc costs). 1870’s to 1914 also saw the building of new roads and estates South and west of Hampstead Village mainly on land own by the Wilson family .1885 sees the town improvements by was of the pulling down of buildings so that the newly completed Fitzjohn’s Ave could join up with Heath St. In 1889 Heath Extension was added to Hampstead Heath .1905 The electrification of Hampstead. 1907 Lloyd George opens new underground railway to Golders Green .1911 building plans for Hampstead Garden Suburb are started.
Brief History of Hampstead
