Harlington is a district of Hayes in the London Borough of Hillingdon and one of five historic parishes partly developed into London Heathrow Airport and associated businesses, the one most heavily developed being Harmondsworth. It is centred west of Charing Cross. The district adjoins Hayes to the north and shares a railway station with the larger district, which is its post town, on the Great Western Main Line. It is in the west of the county of Greater London and until 1965 it was in the south-west corner of the historic county of Middlesex.
Etymology The place-name Harlington is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Hygereding tun: "Hygered's people's farmstead".
History
The earliest surviving mention of Harlington appears to be in a 9th-century charter in which land at Botwell in Hayes was said to be bounded on the west by "Hygeredington" and "Lullinges" tree. The first of these must be Harlington; the second has not been identified. The boundary between Hayes and Harlington, which may thus have been defined by the date of this charter, was later marked by North Hyde Road and Dawley Road, but Dawley Road may not have followed the boundary before the 18th century.Susan Reynolds (ed.), A History of the County of Middlesex, vol. 3 (1962)
Administrative history By 1834 the select vestry (informally known simply as the vestry) employed a paid assistant overseer. In 1824 a surgeon for the poor of Cranford and Harlington was appointed by the vestries of both. Their later co-operation saw the establishment of Harlington's National School jointly with in 1848, and its cottage hospital jointly with Cranford and Harmondsworth in 1884. DatesEntities c. 1840Harlington Parish then Civil Parish 1872Staines Rural Sanitary District 1889Middlesex County Council 1894 Staines Rural District 1930 Hayes and Harlington Urban District1965 London Borough of HillingdonHillingdon L.B. with Mayor of London, London Assembly and predecessorHistory of Harlington: Units and Statistics A vision of Britain through time. The University of Portsmouth and others. Accessed 2015-08-31. In 1924 the civil parish council (CPC) asked Staines Rural District Council (RDC) to light the village street and this was done a year later. The cemetery in Cherry Lane was opened in 1936 by the UDC and the CPC started its first allotments in 1895, but they rejected proposals to acquire a recreation ground or parish hall. See the entry for Hayes for the later detailed local history. On 1 April 1965 the parish was abolished. At the 1951 census (one of the last before the abolition of the parish), Harlington had a population of 15,946.
Sanitation The chief task from 1872 for local government was the making of sewers in villages beyond a handful of homes such as this. Sewerage had been discussed in the vestry as long ago as 1864. The increase of population in the 20th century, growing preference for flush toilets and prohibitions on ground water contamination made the need for proper sanitation more urgent. In 1912, for instance, there were said to have been eleven cases of typhoid near the 'White Hart', and there was an outbreak of diphtheria in 1916.
During the 1920s the RDC made plans for constructing sewers, and the relative cost of their scheme and of schemes proposed by Hayes Urban District Council largely influenced the parish council's views on local government reorganisation. In the end the council seem to have acquiesced peacefully in the amalgamation with Hayes that took place in 1930, only on the grounds that this seemed to provide the best and cheapest chance of sewers being constructed soon. A sewerage scheme for the parish was completed by Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council in 1934.
Present day
Harlington LibraryHarlington Library is towards the north of the village/district.
The village contains six public houses: Captain Morgans', The Great Western, The Pheasant, The Red Lion, The Wheatsheaf, and The White Hart. There are two churches, a Baptist church and a Church of England church, St Peter & St Paul's. Schools include Harlington School.
Hellenic Imperial Airways has its United Kingdom offices in Axis House in Harlington."Hellenica Airways ." Hellenic Imperial Airways. Retrieved on 10 May 2011. "London / United Kingdom Hellenic Imperial Airways Axis House 242 Bath Road Harlington UB3 5AY" Harlington Locomotive Society on the High Street of the village - operates a trestle railway around the site of an old orchard. Harlington is covered by a community radio station: 91.8 Hayes FM, which is licensed with the national authority.
Churches S.S. Peter and Paul, contains, inter alia, sculpture by Edgar Boehm, Richard Cockle Lucas, William Theed and Inigo Thomas, and glass by Charles Eamer Kempe, Arthur Louis Moore and Thomas Willement.Eight Hundred Years of Harlington Parish Church in the County of Middlesex, Herbert Wilson, MA, Rector, Uxbridge, 1909.
The glebe was absorbed into the land of Sir John Bennet of Dawley, who held the benefice during the Interregnum."Harlington: Churches." A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington. Ed. Susan Reynolds. London: Victoria County History, 1962. 270-273. British History Online. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
Gallery
Transport Central London is east. The area is served by Hayes & Harlington railway station, served by Elizabeth Line trains from London Paddington, Shenfield and Abbey Wood to Heathrow Airport and Reading.
The following bus routes serve Harlington
81 Hounslow Bus Station - Slough 90 Feltham - Northolt 105 Greenford - Heathrow Central 111 Kingston - Heathrow Central 222 Hounslow Bus Station - Uxbridge 278 Heathrow Central - Ruislip 285 Kingston- Heathrow Central 423 Hounslow - Heathrow Terminal 5 H98 Hounslow Bus Station - Hayes End N9 Heathrow Central - Aldwych N140 Heathrow Central - Harrow Weald SL7 Heathrow Central - West Croydon SL9 Heathrow Central - Harrow
Historic transport The Grand Junction Canal runs through the Dawley land, east to west: it was constructed c. 1794–1800.A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3,, Victoria County History, London, 1962. In the late 1830s the main line of the Great Western Railway was also built across the former Dawley Park (by then Dawley Wall Farm). However, Hayes & Harlington railway station (just outside the parish) was not opened until 1864. Before then there was a choice of the stations at West Drayton and Southall, or of the daily omnibus and weekly carrier to London.A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington, Victoria County History, London, 1962.
A road going south-east towards Hatton was removed because of Heathrow's construction. The road along with Harlington High Street were formerly designated A312 until the 1950s.
Former cottage hospital
The Harlington, Harmondsworth and Cranford Cottage Hospital, in Sipson Lane, opened in 1884, demolished and closed in 1977. Its site hosts a branch of the Sant Nirankari Satsang Bhawan.
Listed buildings nametypebuiltuse and main featuresChurch of St. Peter & St. Paul (Grade One Listed)Religious12th centuryChristian faith centre; the Harlington Yew, formerly probably the largest example of topiary in England,Engraved broadside, 1729, British Library. survives in the churchyard, unclippedVeysey's FarmFarmlate 18th centuryMixed agricultural/natureShackle's BarnAgriculturalearly 1800sScouts headquarters & Shackles Family chapel (cross inset at front apex)Barn at Manor FarmAgriculturalRestored in the 1970s, used as offices, timber-framedSmall hospital (Sipson Lane)Social1884 Hindu faith centre.Dower House (High Street)House16th centuryTimber framed buildingHarlington Baptist ChurchReligious1879Christian faith centre.
Former listed buildings in the parish nametypebuiltdemolished (exact or between dates)useDawley Manor FarmHouse 17th century 1962M4 motorway and part of St Peter's WayShackle's HouseHouseearly 1800s1960–70Pembury Court (street)Harlington rectoryHouseVictorian1970Homes and the new church hallOld Church HallChurch hallearly 1900s1970Was in rectory grounds. Houses.Bletchmore HouseHouse1970–80Bletchmore CloseWoodlands FarmhouseHouse1960–65178-182 High StreetPoplar HouseHouse18th century1970–75Felbridge Court (apartments)
Manor Farm was demolished between 1930 and 1940 and pre-dated the possibility of statutory listing. It is the site of shops in Manor Parade and adjoining residential roads.
Notable people
John Derby Allcroft, glove manufacturer and philanthropist. Lived at Harlington Lodge; English statesman Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618–1685), part of Charles II's Cabal, was born in (and took his title from) Harlington. And his elder brother Sir John Bennet, KB, 1st Lord Ossulston. Their grandfather was Sir John Bennet (died 1627),The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603, edited by P.W. Hasler, 1981.The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604–1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010. who had bought the manor of Dawley from the heirs of Sir Ambrose Coppinger in 1607. In 1649 Sir John Bennet owned around of the parish including Dawley House and four farm-houses. In 1692 the family estate measured around 540 acres, and 602 in the early 18th century. Charles Bennet, 2nd Earl of Tankerville sold the manor of Dawley in 1725; A monumental inscription in the church features Sir John Bennet, KB, Lord Ossulston, and his wives Elizabeth, daughter of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex and widow of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave (died 1658), along with his second wife Bridget, daughter of John Howe;The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983. Sir Michael Stanhope, (c. 1549 – c. 1621), groom of the privy chamber, was granted the manor by the Crown in 1599.A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3, Victoria County History (VCH), London, 1962. It passed to his son-in-law, George, Lord Berkeley, and thence by descent, inter alia, to Lord Berkeley, of Cranford; Politician and philosopher, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751),The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690–1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002. of Dawley House. Alexander Pope describes his friend Bolingbroke, the noble farmer who had engaged a painter for £200 to give the correct agricultural air to his country hall by ornamenting it with trophies of spades, rakes, and prongs.Alexander Pope, by Leslie Stephen, 1880. Bolingbroke bought Dawley for £22,000 in 1724, moved there in 1725. With help from Charles Bridgeman he worked on the 400 acres of park and 20 acres of garden, making a ferme ornée, while James Gibbs beautified the house.The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia, by Pat Rogers, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. He sold it in 1737, or 1738, for £26,0000 to Edward Stephenson (1691–1768), MP for Sudbury 1734–41, and for two days Governor of Fort William, 1728,The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, edited by Rodney Sedgwick, 1970. who passed it on again soon after 1748;