Sipson

Sipson is a small hamlet lying just north of Heathrow airport in the parish of Harmondsworth in the county of Middlesex which has been in existence for nearly 900 years. Despite being part of Greater London and hemmed in by the airport and urban sprawl it still manages to retain its character as a village and the residents are fiercely protective, fighting hard to save Sipson from the threat of being buried under a third runway (External link) for the airport. I am no historian and an excellent brief history and description of Sipson is provided by Philip Sherwood, a local historian, here. (This links to an external PDF file.)

The Wild family lived and farmed in Sipson for over 400 years. The earliest reference I have is the death of Humphrey Wild in October 1589. This information comes from the Manorial Court Rolls of Harmondsworth which are held in the London Metropolitan archives and was researched by Mr William Wild of Essex. When Humphrey died he held free one acre and one rood of land. My grandmother, Margaret, was the last Wild to live in Sipson. She died in 1988. My younger sister has the (dubious?) honour of being the last Wild to be born in Sipson in 1967. And me…well I can claim the (dubious?) honour of being the last male to be born in Sipson having been born in 1961.

I do not know what trade Humphrey was employed in but I have the will of his son William Wild who gives his trade as tailor. His will is dated 1652 and he died in 1656. He must have carried on some form of farming, albeit subsistence, as there were orchards and sheds amongst his bequests and he bequeathed arable land to his son James. His son William (1629-1702) was a weaver but again must have kept animals etc as his father’s will ensures he has access and egress with his cattle across the property he bequeaths to his wife. I then have to skip a generation to William’s grandson James Wild to find farming becoming the primary business of the Wild family. His will comprises almost exclusively of land. It is his son Thomas, born in 1753, that started the line of Thomas Wilds of which I am the 8th.

From around 1750 Parliament started passing the Inclosure Acts, Harmondsworth's was passed in 1819. At this time Thomas Wild II was the the principal famer of the family and in 1796 he had his land measured presumably in anticipation of this act. I have a copy of the breakdown of the land within the open field which he was farming and it amounted to 38 acres, 2 roods, 16 perches. This was signed R.W. which is quite probably Richard Weekly, his uncle. I belive Richard was to be the inclosure commisioner at the time the act was implemented.

Farming continued to be the family trade and during the next century and a half there were branches of the Wild family farming in Sipson and the neighbouring villages of Heathrow, Longford, Harmondsworth and Colnbrook. However it was the Wilds of Sipson which were to become the most well known in the area when around 1894 Thomas Wild IV offered the job of farm manager to 20 year old Rowland Richard Robbins. Rowland agreed on condition that he had a half share in the business, Thomas agreed, and the firm of Wild & Robbins was born. This partnership continued until 1949 when R. R. Robbins retired and my grandfather Thomas VI bought his shares, although the name Wild & Robbins continued. During his time with Wild and Robbins Rowland was twice president of the National Farmers Union, in 1921 and 1925, and was thought by some to be their greatest president of that era. Another successful farming partnership was that of D & J Wild of Cains Farm, Heathrow. Their business enterprise was cut short when Cains Farm became the subject of a compulsory purchase order in the 1940’s so the government could develop Heathrow as a wartime airfield, a ruse to obtain the land for a civil airport. David Wild moved to Essex and William Wild, who has supplied much information cited on this site, is a descendent.

The early death of my grandfather in 1955 was the beginning of the end for Wild & Robbins as it left my grandfather, by then aged 77, and my father aged only 20, to run the business. Five years later the M4 motorway and the spur road into the airport carved the farm up and the ensuing legal battle for compensation and a fair price for the land sounded the death knell for Wild & Robbins. Wild & Robbins as a firm was dissolved in 1962. My father tried to keep the farm going but the general decline in farming in the area caused by the airport was the final nail in the coffin and in 1967 the last farm in the area owned by the Wilds went into liquidation.

My father joined the NFU as assistant county secretary in Cornwall and my family moved from Sipson. My grandmother remained, living in the house, Inglenook, built for her parents when they were married in 1906. As mentioned earlier she died in 1988 ending 400 years of association with the village.