The Bell Yard - a Slum of West London ca. 1860-1870
In May of 2023, I was visiting Chatham, Massachusetts, walking in and out of the charming shops on Main Street. I can’t resist an antique shop and walked into Kahn Fine Antiques. One interesting item caught my eye. It’s a large piece of vellum with older writing on it. [I took a photo of it which I posted below.] It was an Indenture deed from 1867 and it’s authentic. The genealogist in me was intrigued! It’s from Uxbridge, Middlesex. At first I thought it was from Uxbridge, Massachusetts, but that couldn’t be because that Uxbridge is in Worcester County, not Middlesex County. After examining it further, I realize this document is from England, not Massachusetts. It’s a beautiful document with the original stamps, seals and all. The shop owner told me he bought it in England but didn’t provide many details. I believe he also had a couple of other documents, but I couldn’t let this one stay there.
As mentioned, it’s an Indenture dated 19 October 1867 to lease 22 Occupation Road, Bell Yard, Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, between the widow, Mrs. Catherine Hollings of Olive Lodge, New Hillingdon by Uxbridge in the county of Middlesex and Mr. Joseph Wilks of No. 30 Great Green Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields in the county of Middlesex. I searched the parties named in the document but found nothing conclusive. I’m unfamiliar with English research so I didn’t go too far.
I did find the location of the Bell Yard which has a fascinating history. It was located where the present-day Uxbridge tube Station is in Uxbridge, a borough of West London.[1] During this time period the indenture was made there were many lanes and alleys that were low-income housing or what were called the ‘slums’ which were torn down by the 1960s. The residents of the Bell Yard lived in poor conditions and worked as laborers, laundresses, servants, bricklayers and other jobs. The Bell Yard was also home to lodging houses with housed peddlers, paupers and various others.
Maud Ireland Button (1877-1965) painted a picture entitled “The Bell Yard, Uxbridge” which can be found at Hillingdon Local Studies, Archives and Museum Service and gives us a visual image of what this area might have looked like a bit later in time.[3]
This is an important piece of history that somehow ended up with me in the United States but it couldn’t stay in my possession. It’s too valuable for the history of Hillingdon and Uxbridge, so I decided to donate the document to an archive. I emailed a couple of places, but I finally decided on the Hillingdon Museum and Archives at Uxbridge Library in Uxbridge, London, across the street from the original Bell Yard. They are thrilled to add it to their archives. It seems the Indenture is going back home to where it started.
I hope life turned out ok for Mrs. Catherine Hollings.
by Bonnie Wade Mucia, Bluffton, South Carolina. July 2023
[1] "Uxbridge's Vanishing Yards," Hillingdon, London; Hillingdon Council 2023 (https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/6609/Uxbridges-vanished-yards : accessed 24 July 2023).
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