Acton, Middlesex

Description
Acton, a metropolitan suburban parish in Middlesex, about 8 1/2 miles W of St Paul's, London. It has stations on the North London, Great Western, and Metropolitan District railways, and has a head post office in the Western Metropolitan postal district. It is governed by a local board of twelve members, formed in 1886, Old Oak Common, traversed by the Great Western railway and by the North and South-western junction, was anciently a thick oak forest. Acton Wells, on the common, were in much repute, about the middle of the 18th century, for their medicinal waters. Berrymead Priory was once the seat of the Savilles and the Evelyns. Sir P. Skippon, Richard Baxter, Sir Matthew Hale, Bishop Lloyd, Provost Rous, Thicknesse the traveller, and Byres the author of "Mercurius Rusticus," resided in Acton. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London; net yearly value, £414 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of London. The church is a modem structure of red brick in the Decorated style. There are also Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. The parish includes the ecclesiastical parishes of South Acton and East Acton, and the ecclesiastical district of Acton Green. Area of the parish, 2805 acres; population, 24,206. The living at South Acton is a vicarage; yearly value, £420, in the gift of the Bishop of London. The church, consecrated in 1872, is a building of red brick in the Florid Gothic style. Thcro ia also a Catholic chapel. South Acton has a station on the North London railway. East Acton was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1879. The living is a vicarage; net yearly value, £500, in the gift of the Goldsmiths' Company. The church, which was built in 1879 at the cost of the Goldsmiths' Company, is a structure of red brick in the Gothic style. The living of Acton Green is a vicarage in the gift of the Bishop of London. The church is a building of red brick in the Early English style. Acton Green has a station on the Metropolitan District railway.