| Intro
| St.Giles Church | Church
News | Wartime Childhood | Swakeleys
School |
| 1900's
| 1910's | 1920's | 1930's
| 1940's | 1950's | 1960's
| 1970's | 1980's | 1990's
|
A decade dominated by World War I - in Ickenham, as in the rest of the country.
Girls of the Village School knitted socks, scarves and other woolly garments for members of the Forces. The Gilbey Family at Swakeleys gave 21 lbs. of wool to start the scheme, and the Rector, Canon Bury, gave 10 shillings (50 p). While the girls did knitting, the boys devised various activities to raise funds to buy more wool. 15 pairs of socks were completed in the first 6 weeks of the War, and this effort continued up to the end of the War.
The appearance of Army Officers in the district was an unwelcome sign of the War. They went to every farm to commandeer hayricks, leaving the farmer with only enough for his immediate bare needs, which did not please the farmers as the selling of hay to the stables of London business houses was part of their livelihood.
Soon after the creation of the Royal Flying Corps - later to become the Royal Air Force - an airfield was established on the fields of Down Barne Farm, Northolt, Glebe Farm, Ruislip, and Hill Farm, Ickenham. This was to become Northolt Airport and took most of the meadows and grazing land of Hill Farm. Depots for the new service were built in various parts of the country. No. 4 Stores (4MU) Depot was built on the pasture land of Home Farm; the site was bounded by the High Road, Austins Lane and the two railway lines.
During the latter part of the war it was not unusual to see a schoolboy driving a pony and trap in which were some German prisoners of war. These men were hired out to local farmers to help with the haymaking and other farm tasks.
When the armistice was announced on 11th November 1918, the children were given a day off school. Americans, camped by the Great Western Station, organised themselves into a percussion band and marched into Uxbridge, followed by the local children.
On the south wall of St. Giles church is a memorial tablet to the men of the village who gave their lives in the War; it is inscribed: "To the glory of God and in Honoured Memory of the Men who fell in the Great War, 1914 - 1918".
The term "Metroland" was first used in 1915. It referred to a dream fostered by advertising men and to the annual property guide of that name published by Metropolitan Railways Country Estates Ltd. The dream was of rural peace - "a Mecca to the City man pining for country and pure air."
Metroland offered a frequent train service to London, low price season tickets, excellent educational facilities and golf courses. The middle classes came to Metroland to buy houses - the working class came on day trips.