A lot of ancient roads and paths started as the boundry of two properties. With the drivers leaving London wanting to avoid the Turnpike on the High Road and diverting down Chiswick Lane and across the fields of Chiswick, along the side of Manor Farm House to Devonshire Passage looks a very plausible route. However on the Tithe map of Chiswick, Devonshire Place/Passage connected Devonshire Road with a six way junction, you can just make out the six roads on the 1894 map. On Rocques map Dukes Avenue didn’t exist, you can see Devonshire Place/Passage, but it was a T junction with Hogarth Lane and the road to Little Sutton. Although it may have been an ancient path itself, it seems unlikely it was ever a continuation of Dead Donkey Lane. On the Tithe map and Rocques map the only bit of Barrowgate Road that existed was the bit from Sutton Lane to Burlington Gardens, from there it turned again and headed slightly further south to connect directly with Hogarth Lane, the path can be seen on the 1894 map just to the south of Barrowgate Road, by then the section from Burlington Gardens to Garth Road had already disappeared.
Manor alley, although it may have been used as a path along a boundary wall before, it doesn’t appear to have been a public right of way until as late as 1895, when it first appeared in Kellys directory. In 1877 Benjamin Hardy built eight houses on Chiswick Lane, two of them were rented by the Tukes to expand their asylum next door in Manor Farm House. Although the two houses the Tukes rented no longer exist the other six do. The garden wall of these houses are now the garden walls of some of the houses in Cranbrook Road. In Brackley Terrace you can see the size of the gardens for the asylum, I’ve never worked out if Mr Gurr, the builder of Cranbrook Road, ran out of money and built the last section of garden walls lower or if they are the original walls to the asylum. With the asylum either side of Manor alley it seems unlikely there was a public right of way through the middle of the gardens and explains the missing section of the wall from Brackley Terrace to Chiswick Lane.
The Tukes moved out of 1 & 2 the Laurels in 1894 and Manor Alley appeared in Kellys in 1895. They didn’t move out of Manor Farm house for another few years and Wilton Ave was built on the site in 1897. In 1899 the rates for 1 & 2 the Laurels went from £64 each, down to £43 and £38 when the houses lost their gardens to make space for Cranbrook Road. The last section of Cranbrook Road was built on the grounds of the asylum but wasn’t completed until 1904 when it was finally connected to Chiswick Lane, 10 years after the first house was built at the other end.
There is still a bit of the old Manor Farm house wall along one side of Manor alley, the corner of the wall is still there but looks very odd now. This odd corner was the boundary of the property and with Wilton Ave being built on the site it is the reason it doesn’t connect to Devonshire Road, the bit of land from Devonshire Road to this corner was owned by someone else. What is less easy to spot is the Manor Farm House walls on the other side, there are a few bits that can be seen in Ashbourne Grove.
Manor Alley
The back wall of Manor Farm House, Manor Alley.
The back wall of Manor Farm House, the path from Ashbourne Grove to Wilton Avenue.
Ashbourne Grove.
Colin Potter ● 601d