Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney | Page 9

"William Payne of Pallenswick, Esq.," who placed a monument in
Fulham Church to the memory of himself and his wife before his own
death, and who left an island called Makenshawe "to the use of the poor
of this parish on the Hammersmith side." This bequest is otherwise
described as being part of an island or twig-ait called Mattingshawe,
situated in the parish of Richmond in the county of Surrey. At the time
the bequest was left the rent-charge on the island amounted to £3 yearly,
which was to be distributed among twelve poor men and women the
first year, and to be used for apprenticing a poor boy the second year,
alternately. Sir Richard Gurney, Lord Mayor of London, bought the
manor in 1631. It was several times sold and resold, and in Faulkner's
time belonged to one George Scott. It had only then recently begun to
be known as Ravenscourt. The house was granted to the commissioners
of the public library by the London County Council at a nominal rent,
and the library was opened by Sir John Lubbock, March 19, 1890. In a
case at the head of the stairs are a series of the Kelmscott Press books,
presented by Sir William Morris. Round the walls of the rooms hang
many interesting old prints, illustrative of ancient houses in
Hammersmith and Fulham. There is also a valuable collection of
cuttings, prints, and bills relating to the local history of the parish. In

the entrance hall are hung prints of Rocque's and other maps of
Hammersmith, and the original document signed by the enrolled band
of volunteers in 1803. Among the treasures of the library may be
mentioned the minute-book of the volunteers, a copy of Bowack's
"Middlesex," and an original edition of Rocque's maps of London and
environs.
Just outside the park, on the east side, is the Church of Holy Innocents,
opposite St. Peter's Schools. It is a high brick building, opened
September 25, 1890. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel with school
attached in Dalling Road near by. In Glenthorne Road is the Church of
St. John the Evangelist, founded in 1858, and designed by Mr.
Butterfield. A magnificent organ was built in it by one of the
parishioners in memory of her late husband.
Behind the church are the Godolphin Schools, founded in the sixteenth
century by the will of W. Godolphin, and rebuilt in 1861. In Southerton
Road there is a small Welsh chapel. The Goldhawk Road is an old
Roman road, a fact which was conclusively proved by the discovery of
the old Roman causeway accidentally dug up by workmen in 1834.
Shepherd's Bush Green is a triangular piece of grass an acre or two in
extent. There seems to be no recognised derivation of the curious name.
At Shepherd's Bush, in 1657, one Miles Syndercomb hired a house for
the purpose of assassinating Oliver Cromwell as he passed along the
highroad to the town. The plot failed, and Syndercomb was hanged,
drawn, and quartered in consequence. The precise spot on which the
attempt took place is impossible to identify. It was somewhere near
"the corner of Golders Lane," says Faulkner, but the lane has long since
been obliterated.
St. Stephen's Church, in the Uxbridge Road, was the earliest church in
this part of Hammersmith. It was built and endowed by Bishop
Blomfield in 1850. Its tower and spire, rising to the height of 150 feet,
can be seen for some distance.
St. Thomas's, in the Godolphin Road, is rather a pretty church of brick
with red-tiled roof, and some ornamental stonework on the south face.

It was built in 1882, designed by Sir A. Blomfield, and the
foundation-stone was laid by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The chancel
was added in 1887.
In Leysfield Road stands St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, of which
the foundation-stone was laid by the present Duke of Argyll, March 30,
1870.
In the extreme west of the Goldhawk Road is St. Mary's Church, in
bright red brick, erected 1886. The Duchess of Teck laid the
foundation-stone. This has brought us to the end of the houses. Behind
St. Mary's lie waste land and market-gardens. Just outside the parish
boundary are two old houses of brick in the style of the seventeenth
century; they used to be known as Stamford Brook Manor House, but
they have no authentic history. Starch Green Road branches off from
the Goldhawk Road opposite Ravenscourt Park; this road, running up
into the Askew Road, was formerly known by the still more
extraordinary name of Gaggle Goose Green.
In Cobbold Road, to the north of the waste land is St. Saviour's. An
iron church was first erected here in 1884, and the present red-brick
building was consecrated March 4, 1889. The chancel was only added
in 1894.
In