Local brickearth and clay supported the manufacture of bricks, tiles and garden pottery in Brentford from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The Bull Lane Pottery is recorded in a naive painting of the 1840s, which shows its garden products.
The Chiswick nursery where later Thornton Road was built, was established by James Scott in the 1740s and managed by, amongst others, Richard Williams (of Williams Pear fame) and Robert Glendinning.
Who was John Middlemist, the gardener responsible for the camellia Middlemist’s Red? This bloomed in March 2010 in the newly-restored conservatory at Chiswick House and made the national press.