Iver
Iver's three similar settlements form a jointly administered community. Footpaths run to the Colne Valley regional park, the train station and branch into the Chiltern Hills, London and the London Loop.
Iver is located in Buckinghamshire
Iver
Iver
Location within Buckinghamshire
Area20.1 km2 (7.8 sq mi)
Population11,119 (2011)[1]
• Density553/km2 (1,430/sq mi)
OS grid referenceTQ0381
Civil parish
  • Iver
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townIVER
Postcode districtSL0
Dialling code01753
PoliceThames Valley
FireBuckinghamshire
AmbulanceSouth Central
UK Parliament

Iver /ˈaɪ.vər/ is a civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park and the hamlets of Shreding Green and Thorney.[2]

Geography, transport and economy

Part of the 43-square-mile Colne Valley regional park, with woods, lakes and land by the Grand Union Canal. Most of the open land is classified as Metropolitan Green Belt.

Surrounding the Ivers are neighbouring villages and towns of Fulmer, Denham, Gerrards Cross and Wexham. Also nearby are Colnbrook, Langley, Uxbridge, Cowley, Yiewsley and West Drayton.

The Ivers have public transport and motorway links. The M25 motorway and M4 motorway, including the Thorney Interchange, are nearby, while to the north of the Ivers is the M40 motorway as well as the A40, which is parallel to the M40.

Also situated on the Elizabeth line, Iver, Richings Park and Thorney are less than 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from Iver railway station, with Langley railway station and Uxbridge tube station nearby for other villages across the Iver's.

Two significant employers in the parish are the Ridgeway trading and warehousing estate in Richings Park and Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath.

History

In the Domesday Book of 1086 the whole area was recorded as Evreham or homestead by the brow of a hill and it was in the possession of a man called Robert Doiley.

Postcard of Iver Village

In 1351 the area was granted a Royal charter to hold a weekly market. This charter was confirmed 110 years later in 1461.

Iver

Iver village on the Uxbridge to Langley road has a pre-Domesday foundation and Neolithic pottery fragments and other artefacts have been discovered. The village church has shards of a Saxon window, and elements dating from the 15th century, 16th century and 17th century can be seen. The village has numerous houses from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Thorney

In the spring of 893 a Viking raiding army plundered through Kent and Sussex. After reaching Farnham in Surrey it was intercepted by Alfred the Great's son Edward with his West Saxon Fyrd. The Danes were routed, fleeing over the River Thames into Mercia with the West Saxon army in pursuit. Having reached the River Colne the Danes mounted a defence on what was known as Thorney Island, believed to be land between the Colne and an offshoot channel of the river between Thorney and Iver. Edward began a siege of the island and was joined by Æthelred of Mercia with soldiers from the Mercian garrison in London. After a prolonged stalemate an agreement was reached with the Danes that they would to leave the Angle and Saxon controlled lands peacefully and go directly to the lands in the east under Danish control which they duly did, without any of their plundered spoils.[3][4]

Iver Heath

Iver Heath is the location of Heatherden Hall, a Victorian estate with spectacular grounds. It was purchased by Lt. Col. Grant Morden, a Canadian financier, who transformed the mansion by adding a huge ballroom and Turkish bath. During the 1930s it became a retreat and private meeting place for politicians and diplomats. The agreement to form the Irish Free State was signed at Heatherden Hall. The Church of St Margaret was built in 1862. Iver Heath itself is centred on a triangle of roads. The village post office is on the Slough Road to the south, while a parade of shops used to be found along Church Road to the north. Slough Road and Church Road are connected by Bangors Road North to the east.

Richings Park

Richings Park was once the estate of Lord Bathurst. In the 1630s, the Richings estate was owned by the Salter family, who in 1678 sold it to Sir Peter Apsley. His daughter Catherine married her cousin, Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst.[5] Around 1740, the estate was sold to the Earl of Hertford, and in 1776 to Sir John Coghill, 1st Baronet of Richings.[5]

In the 1780s, the house was burned down and rebuilt. It was later the home of the Sullivan and Meeking families.[5] Ironically, in 1924, Viola Meeking married into the Bathurst family who had held the Richings Park estate two centuries earlier.

The new Richings Park mansion, very briefly the home of RAF Bomber Command, was destroyed during World War II, and its site is now a residential area with its own shopping facilities. Local street names reflect the history of the estate. The cellars of the house are still visible in fields now overlooking the M4.

Richings Park is the location of Iver railway station on the Elizabeth Line.

Black Park Country Park and Langley Park Country Park

Black Park adjoins the Pinewood Studio complex. It has a lake that extends over 13 acres (5.3 ha).[6] Due to its proximity to Pinewood Studios, Black Park was used for outdoor sequences in some of Hammer's Dracula films, a number of Carry On films, the Gerry Anderson Sci Fi series UFO and in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger.

To the south, Black Park is separated from Langley Park by the A412 / Uxbridge Road. Langley Park covers 130 acres (0.53 km2) and is known for its rhododendron and azalea-filled Temple Gardens.

Pinewood Studios

Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio to the immediate west of the developed land of Iver Heath, which is in all other respects residential. The studios have hosted many productions from blockbuster films to UK television shows, commercials and pop music promos. The Superman and James Bond film franchises have used the film studios which provides tours of its museum.

Pinewood was built on the estate of Heatherden Hall, a large, attractive Victorian house with spectacular grounds. The Pinewood estate had previously been purchased by Lt. Col. Grant Morden, a Canadian financier and MP for Brentford and Chiswick. He spent a fortune transforming the mansion into a showpiece home, adding refinements such as a huge ballroom, a Turkish bath and an indoor squash court. Due to its seclusion, the house was used as a discreet meeting place for high-ranking politicians and diplomats. Here the agreement for the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. When Grant Morden died in 1934 the estate was purchased at auction by Charles Boot, who had recently inherited a large construction firm from his father, Henry Boot, who died in 1931. Within twelve months Charles had formed a partnership with J. Arthur Rank, who transformed the mansion into the office building for a film studio complex. He based his new studios on the latest Hollywood designs of that era. Charles Boot named the complex Pinewood Film Studios, a reference to the many pine trees in the area. The entrance to the studio is on Pinewood Road.

Activities and facilities

The Evreham Sports Centre

The Sports Centre is based in Iver, which is in the south of the District. The centre is run by Greenwich Leisure Limited. Facilities include a multi purpose sports hall, dance studio, lounge (with adjoining kitchen), sunbed, outdoor floodlit synthetic surface pitch, grass soccer pitches and a changing facility and fitness suite with equipment including a nautilus tread climber. The fitness suite contains pieces of equipment designed to be accessible to those persons with limited mobility.

Evreham Adult Learning Centre

Adjacent to the Sports Centre on the border of Iver Heath and Iver, this facility is a former secondary school which hosts independent and Council-run events and courses. These include Zumba, Slimming World, Pottery, Guitar and Woodwork. The venue also hosts the Tiny Toes Nursery and a Youth Centre.[7]

Demography

2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005[1]
Output areaHomes owned outrightOwned with a loanSocially rentedPrivately rentedOtherUsual residentskm2
Civil parish14621720569377431111920.09

Notable people

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Neighbourhood Statistics 2011 census Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed 2 February 2013
  2. ↑ "The Ivers Parish Council". www.iversparishcouncil.gov.uk.
  3. ↑ Cox, A.H. (1983). West Drayton & Yiewsley through the centuries. Hillingdon Borough Libraries. p. 9. ISBN 0907869033.
  4. ↑ Merkle, Benjamin (2009). The White Horse King, The life of Alfred the Great. Thomas Nelson, Nashville. pp. 210–221. ISBN 9781595552525.
  5. 1 2 3 "Parishes: Iver Pages 286–294 A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3". British History Online. Victoria County History, 1925. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  6. ↑ "Explore georeferenced maps – Map images – National Library of Scotland". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  7. ↑ Buckinghamshire Adult Learning
  8. ↑ "Prince and Princess Michael of Kent". The Official Website of the British Monarchy. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Introduction: Ralph Hancock". Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "Obituary: Captain John Fairey". telegraph.co.uk. The Daily Telegraph. 23 July 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  11. ↑ The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 103, Part 1. 1833. p. 559. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  12. ↑ "Interview with Brian Muir". Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  13. ↑ "Nash, John Biography". The Bookroom Art Press. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
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