Yiewsley is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name first appears in records dated to the 13th century. The name probably comes from the Anglo-SaxonWifeleslçah "Wifel's woodland clearing".
There is little recorded about Yiewsley until the late 18th century, when the Grand Junction Canal was cut. A branch of the canal known as Otter Dock was cut between Yiewsley and West Drayton during the years 1876 to 1879 to service Yiewsley's brickworks. Brickmaking and agriculture were the main industries in Yiewsley during the late 18th and 19th centuries, and the expansion of the brickworks resulted in a large growth in population. Five million bricks moulded and fired in the Hillingdon Brickfields every year were transported by canal to a yard near South Wharf Basin, Paddington. The last brick field closed in 1935 following strikes and the Great Depression, and Otter Dock was filled in around that time. Chestnut and beech trees were than planted along the centre of Colham Avenue where the dock used to reside
