ACTON, a parish in the Kensington division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 5 miles (W.) from London, containing 1929 inhabitants. The name is supposed to be derived from the Saxon word Ac, signifying oak, and tun, a town; the neighbourhood having, in former times, abounded with timber of that description, and some land in the parish, from time immemorial, having been called Old Oak common. Previously to the battle of Brentford, in 1642, the Earls of Essex and Warwick had their headquarters here and, on Cromwell's return to London, after the battle of Worcester, the lord president, the council of state, the members of the House of Commons, and the lord mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London, met him at this place, when the recorder of London delivered a congratulatory address. The village consists chiefly of one long street; it is watched by private subscription, and plentifully supplied with water. The houses in general are, from their antiquity, inferior to those in most other places within, the same distance of the metropolis, but the whole place has a cleanly and cheerful appearance, and the air is considered particularly salubrious. The Paddington canal runs through the parish: a pleasure fair is held on Holy Thursday. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Middlesex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books at £ 14, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, which exhibits portions in the later style of English architecture, with modern insertions, was enlarged and repaired, at the expense of the inhabitants, in 1825. There is a place of worship for Independents, erected in 1815, and the detached buildings of a private mansion have been fitted up as a Roman Catholic chapel. A Lancasterian school has been erected near the church; and at that part of the village called East Acton are handsome almshouses, built and endowed by the Goldsmiths' Company, for twelve men and twelve women. In a garden, on Old Oak common, is a mineral spring, formerly held in general repiite, but now disused.