PUBLIC SERVICES.
Two fire-engines, which in
1782 might be used by other parishes for a fee, (fn. 69)
were ordered to be regularly tested from 1813. It
was decided to ask neighbouring parishes to contribute towards the upkeep in 1837 and, after the sale
of the workhouse, to commission a new engine-house
on Stanmore Common (fn. 70) in 1842. A paid keeper was
appointed but in 1866 it was resolved to support
him from subscriptions rather than church-rates
and the post was not filled. The vestry was still
responsible for repairing a hand engine in 1875. A
fire station was built by the county council on waste
ground at the corner of Honeypot Lane and Wigton
Gardens in 1961. It replaced fire stations at Wealdstone and Kingsbury. (fn. 71)
By 1640 water was brought to the manor-house
from a 'great pond' on Stanmore Hill. The source
was probably Spring pond, since John Norwood the
younger was accused of diverting part of the supply
through leaden pipes to a house on the common, (fn. 72)
although by the 19th century water was also collected
in a pond which had been dug at the foot of the hill. (fn. 73)
Repairs were ordered to a well on the common in
1783. A new well and pump were contemplated in
1802, for the use of subscribers and specified paupers,
and more wells four years later. In 1824 there was a
fund for laying on plentiful soft water and in 1846
4 a. near the engine-house were granted by the lord
for a reservoir. (fn. 74) A pump near the churchyard had
often to be kept locked in 1873, when a service was
proposed by the Colne Valley Water Co., which has
since always supplied the parish. (fn. 75) Despite optimistic reports from the nuisance removal committee,
the vestry was taken to task by the Hendon guardians
in 1866 and admitted the danger to the lower part of
the village from nine open drains running through
the fields. The drains were subsequently closed in,
leaking earthen pipes were replaced with iron ones,
and by 1871 a sewer by Old Church Lane had been
enlarged to become the main sewer. At the end of
the century the parish was served by Edgware and
Little Stanmore sewage farm, which lay in Kingsbury (fn. 76) and which was superseded by trunk sewers
leading to a central works at Mogden under the
West Middlesex Sewerage and Sewage Disposal
Scheme of 1933. (fn. 77)
Half an acre at Stanmore marsh, where the parish
boundary bulged east of Marsh Lane, was approved
as the site for a gas-works in 1858. (fn. 78) Stanmore gas
works were opened in 1859 (fn. 79) and still stood there in
1969. Gas was first supplied from Harrow by a
private contractor, John Chapman, whose concern
was later called Stanmore Gas Co. (fn. 80) In 1894 it was
joined with Harrow District Gas Co. to form Harrow
and Stanmore Gas Co., which was taken over in turn
by Brentford Gas Co. in 1924 and the Gas Light,
and Coke Co. in 1926. (fn. 81) Under an Act of 1906
electricity was supplied by Northwood Electric
Light and Power Co. (fn. 82)
Stanmore cottage hospital was built in 1890, near
the railway station and on the west side of Old
Church Lane, at the expense of Emily and Katharine
Wickens of the Pynnacles. The hospital, which
originally contained 7 beds and a cot, was endowed
by the Misses Wickens and afterwards run by four
trustees, who could decide on admissions and
charges. (fn. 83) After nationalization in 1948 it was converted into a home for old people. In 1971, when it
was administered by Hendon group hospital management committee as a geriatric sub-unit of Edgware
general hospital, there was accommodation for 14
inmates. (fn. 84) An isolation hospital, with separate blocks
for diphtheria and scarlet fever, was built in 1902 on
the east side of Honeypot Lane. After epidemics in
1928 and 1929 Hendon R.D.C. decided to double the
accommodation of 26 beds and cots. On nationalization the hospital was handed over to the county
council and converted into Stanmore residential
nursery, for children below five. It was transferred
in 1965 from Harrow L.B., which placed few of the
children there, to Brent L.B. (fn. 85) Warren House was
acquired with 11 a. from Sir John Fitzgerald in 1951
by the National Corporation for the Care of Old
People and, as Springbok House, was transferred in
1964 to the Hendon group. (fn. 86) Orme Lodge, a late
Victorian building in Gordon Avenue, was sold by
the Robinson family in the 1930s, used by the R.A.F.
during the Second World War, and afterwards
acquired by the county council as an old people's
home. In 1971 both Warren House, with 53 beds,
and Orme Lodge, with 22, were geriatric sub-units
of Edgware general hospital. (fn. 87)
In the 1960s by far the largest open space was
Stanmore Common, 120 a. stretching from the
Hertfordshire border south as far as the reservoir. (fn. 88)
The adjoining cricket ground, (fn. 89) granted as such by
the lord in 1853, (fn. 90) comprised nearly 7 a., as did
Little Common on the far side of the reservoir.
Much of the Grove estate, 63 a. bordering the
common on the east, and most of the Warren House
estate, 123 a. east of Little Common and stretching
south along Dennis Lane, had been bought by
Harrow U.D.C. to form part of the Green Belt in
1937. The Bentley Priory estate, purchased in 1936,
lay mainly in Harrow parish, although its eastern
strip was in Great Stanmore. Stanmore recreation
ground, between Dennis Lane and Stanmore Hill,
covered only 6½ a. Most of Stanmore golf course (fn. 91)
also lay within the parish, forming the largest open
space in the southern half, where Stanmore marsh
covered a further 10 a. The Whitchurch schools
playing field, administered in 1971 by Harrow L.B.,
lay north of Wemborough Road and the North
Western Polytechnic sports ground lay west of
Honeypot Lane. Farther south the 23 a. of Centenary park, bordering Culver Grove, had been acquired
in 1934. (fn. 92)