Fordhook House

"Fordhook" was a large country house demolished circa 1903. Henry Fielding, the novelist (Tom Jones) stayed there during the last year of his life and left there on the 26th June 1754 on his last voyage to Lisbon; - hence Fielding Terrace. More famously Annabella Byron, the estranged widow of the poet lived at Fordhook and appears to have become quite attached to the place. Her daughter Augusta Ada lived there from 1832 and was married to William King, later the Earl of Lovelace, at Fordhook on the 8th July 1835, the venue being preferable in order to avoid publicity which the Byron’s daughter attracted. Fordhook was a perfect suburban retreat. Ada was a forerunner of modern computer programmers in her work with Charles Babbage, hence the software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honour in 1979. For more information on Ada Byron, read the new biography "The Bride of Science" by Benjamin Wooley.

Restrictive Covenants

The majority of the houses in the CARA area are today still under the restrictive covenants of the original Estate

The main covenants relate to residential user, building lines and nuisance and annoyance

The outcome of our High Court case is that the covenants are still enforceable, they can not be changed and as we have shown take precedence over planning

Street Names

Origins of the names can be found in the Local History section of Ealing Library

Stanway, Birch, Lexden and Layer are all named after villages near Colchester in Essex.

Hale Gardens some claim, may have been named after Sir Matthew Hale, a Lord Chief Justice.

Creffield Road is named after a well known Colchester family.

Buxton is also named after a well known Colchester family.

Freeland and Inglis Roads are named after Trustees of the Estate