West Twyford

West Twyford (also known as Twyford Abbey) was a small extra-parochial area, and later civil parish, in the county of Middlesex, England.

The area of West Twyford is part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is bounded by the Hanger Lane Gyratory to the west, the A406 North Circular to the north, Park Royal to the south and Willesden to the east.

History
The area now known as West Twyford started out as a manor house in the fourteenth century. A small community built up to the west around St. Mary's Church which had originally been a chapel belonging to the manor house. In 1901 the Alexian order of Monks took over the manor house as a nursing home. It has since been known as Twyford Abbey. The brothers ran out of funding in 1988 and joined another part of their order in Manchester. The abbey, which is a Grade II listed building, now lies derelict. Various grants for planning permission have been made but not granted.

The name Twyford relates to Twyford Brook. The brook now runs almost entirely underground. It formerly fed the Guinness brewery in Park Royal.

The area became a civil parish under the Extra-Parochial Places Act 1857 and formed part of Greenford Urban District from 1894. In 1901 it occupied an area of 281 acre and had a population of 97. When the urban district was abolished in 1926 the parish was transferred to the Municipal Borough of Ealing. Then in 1934 it was transferred to the Municipal Borough of Willesden. The area now forms part of Greater London and is preserved in the name of West Twyford Primary School. Much of the housing on Twyford Abbey Road was originally built by Guinness in order to house employees working in at the brewery in adjacent Park Royal.

The parish of St. Mary's was combined with the parish the church of the ascension in neighbouring Hanger Hill and currently has only an associate vicar of its own. The chapel of St. Mary's was extended with a newer church was suffered from subsidence. After a period of disuse caused by safety issues the new church became a church hall and the original chapel was re-dedicated to St. Mary in 2010. St. Mary's churchyard contains one of the oldest headstones in Middlesex.