TWICKENHAM, MIDDLESEX

1814 engraving - Published in London by John Harris, St. Pauls Church Yard, Dec. 1, 1814 (dated)

Engraved by J Lewis from a drawing by J. P. Neal - Artist: John Preston Neale (1771-1847) was a noted British watercolourist and oil painter. He painted a picturesque collection of antique historical architectural views of Country Seats, Abbeys, Castles, Parks and other buildings and landscapes of interest throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Engraved for the Beauties of England and Wales

Overall Size including margins: 4 3/4 x 7 inches

Condition: Excellent. A nice quality engraving. Guaranteed original antique print and not a modern reproduction.

Twickenham is a suburb in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west London. The town is bordered on the south-eastern side by the River Thames and Eel Pie Island. Gunpowder manufacture on an industrial scale started in the area in the 18th century, on a site between Twickenham and Whitton on the banks of the River Crane. There were frequent explosions and loss of life. On 11 March 1758 one of two explosions was felt in Reading, Berkshire, and in April 1774 another explosion terrified people at church in Isleworth. In 1772 three mills blew up, shattering glass and buildings in the neighbourhood. Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford wrote complaining to his friend and relative Henry Seymour Conway, then Lieutenant General of the Ordnance, that all the decorative painted glass had been blown out of his windows at Strawberry Hill. The powder mills remained in operation until 1927 when they were closed. Much of the site is now occupied by Crane Park, in which the old Shot Tower, mill sluices and blast embankments can still be seen. Much of the area along the river next to the Shot Tower is now a nature reserve. (wikipedia)