Ruislip's farming family

The Ewers - one of Ruislip's prominent farming families - appear throughout the census. They occupied Manor Farm, then a working farm (as tenants of King's College, Cambridge). The 1891 census shows Henry James Ewer, his wife, 3 children, mother-in-law and servant Emily. At that time, many farms employed domestic servants.

The census shows Ewers at several Ruislip properties. Most can be traced back to a James Ewer at Hill Farm in 1851. James, Henry James' grandfather, was then 77, widowed and living with 6 adult children. With a farm servant, 11 labourers and 230 acres, he was a prosperous man.

James also held Bury Farm, which was later leased to a James Bunce who was  listed in the 1911 census as a retired hay dealer. Bunce opened tea rooms on Bury Farm land to serve day trippers arriving on the newly-extended Metropolitan Line. The railway spelled the end of Ruislip as an agricultural community. Manor Farm itself eventually closed to farming in 1933.