Place Name
Agricultural heritage. A reminder that until the 17thCentury this area was once wide open countryside as this street was formerly part of Hay Hill Farm, a corruption of Aye Farm. At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 the land was within the Manor of Eye held by Geoffrey de Mandeville. Shortly afterwards he gave the land to Westminster Abbey. In 1531 it was written as Ayehille, referring to the slight ridge between Hyde Park and the Aye Brook, more commonly known as the River Tyburn. Five years later Henry VIII confiscated it as part of his land grab against the Roman Catholic Church. Within two decades the property, including the 28 acres of Hay Hill Farm was sold to two men, one of whom, William Jennings, bequeathed it to his grandson who held it until the first Lord Berkeley acquired it in 1675. Gillian Bebbington in London Street Names writes: “The modern Hay Hill was then a track leading to the farm, along which Lord Berkeley’s carts had right of way; at the bottom go the hill was probably a wooden bridge over the Tyburn, which had to be crossed to reach the farm.” This street along with others nearby was developed around 1750.
