Lovely artwork – but who really lived there?

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

I refer to Douglas Orchard’s letter entitled ‘Another twist on Norton history’ about a hoarding in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, advertising a development ‘on the site of the house in which the Norton family once lived’.

This is one of the appealing hoardings surrounding the housing development in Hampton Hill, Middlesex. To put everything into context, though, last month’s letter never once mentioned that James Landsdowne Norton himself had actually lived there.

As a local resident and long-time Norton owner I was intrigued, because to the best of my knowledge James Landsdowne Norton spent the whole of his working life in the Midlands and Birmingham, where he died.

After quite extensive research, it seems that a gentleman with the surname of Norton did live there, and that he designed bicycles, but he wasn’t James Landsdowne. That’s not to say there wasn’t a more removed family connection to James, but I couldn’t trace it.

However, as the graphics on the hoarding and the publicity for Norton are so excellent, it does not worry me if the claimed association proves not to be entirely accurate.

Bill Stewart,
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