This is an event timeline and minor geographical information about Heathrow hamlet.
Founding and early history A sizeable Neolithic settlement is believed to have been in the Heathrow area. Many artefacts have been found in the gravel around what is now the airport, and the Colne Valley.Cotton, Mills & Clegg 1986, p. 34 Waste pits filled with struck flint, arrowheads and fragments of pottery were also found in the area, indicating a settlement, though none other remains of such a settlement.Cotton, Mills & Clegg 1986, p. 36
Until about 1930, there was only one building (part of Bath Road Farm) on the north side of Bath Road between The Magpies (an area around and opposite the north exit of the recent Heathrow Road), and Longford; other buildings were built afterwards there before World War II, including three factories (Technicolor and Penguin Books and Black+Decker). By 1944, there were no buildings on the south side of Bath Road between The Magpies and Longford.
Heathrow was away from main roads and further away from railways; that kept it secluded and quiet although near London. As Middlesex changed to market gardening and fruit growing to supply expanding London, parts of Heathrow held on to old-type mixed farming, and thus was chosen for Middlesex area horse-drawn ploughing competitions, which needed land which was under stubble after harvest.
The ford where High Tree Lane crossed the Duke of Northumberland's River was a scenic spot used sometimes for picnics and courting couples. There was a footpath along beside the river from the ford to Longford.
Development Agriculture became the main source of income for residents in the hamlet, as the brickearth soil in the area made farming ideal (it held manure well and did not go sticky when wet), so Heathrow became part of the west Middlesex market gardening industry. Many residents grew fruit, vegetables, and flowers,. The page includes an image of a half-timbered cottage in Heathrow village. which they would travel with into London to sell, on the return journey collecting manure for farming.Sherwood 1990, p. 18; Sherwood 2009, p. 32 As the coming of motor vehicles made urban horse manure (from stables and cleaned off roads) much less, they started instead using sewage sludge (up to 50 tons per acre) from the Perry Oaks sewage works as fertiliser.
The Middlesex Agricultural and Growers' Association held annual ploughing matches in Heathrow, until the last, the 99th, was held on 28 September 1937;Sherwood 1990, p. 20; Sherwood 2009, p. 33 the 100th match (in 1938) was postponed to 1939 due to severe drought, and in 1939 it was cancelled because World War II had started.
The Royal Commission on Historic Monuments listed 28 historically significant buildings in the parish of Harmondsworth, a third of which were in Heathrow.Sherwood 1990, p. 33 Notable buildings included Heathrow Hall, a late 18th-century farmhouse, which was on Heathrow Road,Sherwood 2006, p.14 and Perry Oaks farm, which was Elizabethan.
In the 19th century much brickearth-type land in west Middlesex, including in Heathrow, was used for orchards of fruit trees, often several sorts mixed in one orchard. Much soft fruit was grown, often in the orchards under the fruit trees. Sometimes vegetables, or flowers for cutting, were grown under the fruit trees. An author in 1907Stephen Springall, Country Rambles round Uxbridge, 1907 reported "thousands and thousands" of plum, cherry, apple, pear, and damson trees, and innumerable currant and gooseberry bushes, round Harmondsworth and Sipson and Harlington and Heathrow.Sherwood 2009, p. 31 After World War I the amount of fruit growing in the area decreased due to competition from imports and demand for more market-gardening land, and by 1939 less than 10% of the orchard area was left.
Produce was taken to Covent Garden market, or by smaller growers to Brentford market, which was nearer but less profitable. From the Three Magpies lane junction near Heathrow to Covent Garden is 14 miles by road, which was about 6 hours at laden horse-and-wagon speed, so goods to market had to set off at 10 pm the day before to reach the market when it opened at 4 am,Sherwood 2009, p. 33 until motor trucks came. Lighter produce such as strawberries where freshness was important could reach Covent Garden Market in an hour and a half in a light vehicle behind a light fast horse.
An 11.93-acre field fronting on the south side of the Bath Road, about 600 yards east of Heathrow Road, was shown as allotment gardens on a map dated 1935,Old 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey maps, reproduced at about 15 inches = 1 mile, publ. Alan Godfrey Maps:- Heathrow, 1934, Middlesex sheet 19.08, Hatton, 1935, Middlesex sheet 20.05, Sipson, 1935, Middlesex sheet 19.04, and it appears to be allotment gardens in the 1940 Luftwaffe air survey.Sherwood 2009, p.14
In the 1930s Heathrow Hall and Perry Oaks were mixed farms with wheat and cattle and sheep and pigs, and the other farms were largely market gardening and fruit growing. Photographs from early in the 20th century show milk cattle (about 22 in the photograph) at Cain's Farm and the yearly horse ploughing competition held along Cain's Lane, in the southeast of Heathrow; later photographs show ploughing competitions in the north near Tithe Barn Lane on land belonging to Heathrow Hall. Sipson Farm at the north end of Sipson may have owned land in Heathrow.
Timeline 13th century 1265: First mention of Southcote (later Southcoterow), a hamlet, or a name used for an area of farmland and houses (probably in the southwest of Harmondsworth parish). It occurs intermittently in mediaeval records until the 16th century, usually alternating with 'Heathrow'. At one time it included Perry (= Perry Oaks).
14th century 1337: Perry Oaks is mentioned (called "Perry") in a rental.
15th century about year 1410: Heathrow was first mentioned, as La Hetherewe.
16th century Henry VIII of England's reign (1491–1547): The west part of the Duke of Northumberland's River was made past Heathrow. 1530: An old record lists an increase, probably temporary, of 42 labourers who were working on a new river cut from Longford, London (probably the Duke of Northumberland's River). 1583: Heathrow contained 14 houses.
17th century 1648 or 1647: Inhabitants of Heathrow and around unauthorizedly blocked the Duke of Northumberland's River to stop flood damage that it was causing. 1653: Petitions were lodged to try to stop the Duke of Northumberland's River from being reopened.
18th century 1784: General William Roy sought an area of land suitable for the base line of the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) trigonometrical survey. He chose the site because it was flat and near the Royal Observatory. The baseline for his measurements ran from King's Arbour (now within the confines of Heathrow Airport) to the Poor House in Hampton. See map. The ends were originally marked by vertical wooden pipes (which could support flagstaffs), but in the resurvey of 1791 they were found to be rotting and were replaced by cannons which are still to be seen.For full information and references see Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) Late 18th century: Heathrow Hall farmhouse was built.
19th century For much of the 19th century the Tillyer family lived in Heathrow Hall and the Weekley family in Perry Oaks. 18 March 1800: Start of lease of Richard Weekley at Perry Oaks. 1819: Enclosure of Harmondsworth parish. (Before that, most of the area bounded by Heathrow Road and the Bath Road and Tithe Barn Lane, and extending some way west from that, was one of the open fields of the parish and was called Heathrow Field, and the land southeast of Heathrow Road was common land locally called The Heath; those two area names stayed in local use long after.) Heathrow Field and the common land were divided into individual landholding fields. Cain's Lane was made straight across the common land: it was named after Isaac Cane, who was assigned land by the lane. High Tree Lane was made. Then or afterwards, a new row of farms was set up on this new farmland along both sides of Cain's Lane. Common land in the area of the later Wild's farm (Shrub End and Croft House) was assigned, some to Thomas Wild, Senior and some to William Wild, one area as freehold and other areas as copyhold. Much land in the north of the Heathrow area where the soil and brickearth above the gravel would be deepest, was assigned to "George Byng, Esq.", some as landowner, some in lieu of rights to tithe; all or much of this land later became property of Heathrow Hall.Sherwood, Philip 2009, p21 (At the time, the title "Esq." implied that he was a member of the upper gentry.) 71 acres was assigned to the Vicar of Harmondsworth in lieu of tithes. (It remained church property until on 31 Jan 1929 it was the first land in Heathrow that Fairey Aviation bought as a start to its Great West Aerodrome.) 14 February 1834: Cain's Farm farmhouse burnt down.Sherwood, 1993, pages 46-53 8 November 1845: During the Railway Mania a new railway was proposed, branching off an existing railway at Knightsbridge and running to Exeter, passing through or near Hounslow and Heathrow. This railway was not built; if it had been, a station at Heathrow might have started suburban spread there. 1847: John Byng, son of George Byng, was made John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford. (In 1799 the previous Earl of Strafford died without male heir and his title became extinct.) 25 September 1872:Bankruptcy meeting in the case of Thomas Fowke, of Heathrow House, Heathrow, market gardener. 1877: Heathrow School was opened on the north side of the Bath Road, almost opposite The Old Magpies. (The current Earl Strafford donated the land that it was built on.) 1880: The Mission Church of St. Saviour was opened on the north side of the Bath Road, almost opposite The Three Magpies. It was built in corrugated iron.Sherwood, Philip 2006, p29 1891: Rev. J. Williams Ashman (a curate to the vicar of Harmondsworth) is listed as living (probably as a lodger) in Heathrow Hall. 2 February 1874: A gale or a tornado demolished the Tithe Barn on Tithe Barn Lane. 29 October 1886: George Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford died aged 80 and was succeeded by George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford 1894: Death duty was introduced in Britain. 1898: A notice advertising sale by auction of an area of land east of Cain's Lane says that "Earl Strafford" (George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford (1830–1898) or Henry Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford (1831–1899)) owned some adjacent land that in the 1819 map was marked as belonging to George Byng, Esq. That lot was "lot eight" in the auction; it is not stated whether any or all the other lots were land. 28 March 1898: George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford died childless aged 68 and was succeeded by his brother Henry Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford. 16 May 1899: Henry Byng, 4th Earl of Strafford died aged 67. This double succession with less than 5 years' warning about death duties would probably have forced the Byng family to sell much land to pay the death duties.
20th century
Some time around 1900: Heathrow Hall was sold to Jonathan Smith, who then began to live there. 1901: A corrugated iron mission hall church ("tin tabernacle") was built on Cain's Lane, by the Baptist Church at Sipson. Early 1900s: Jonathan Smith sold Heathrow Hall to Josia Philp and moved into Wall Garden Farm in Sipson (on the north side of Sipson Lane, now due north of Heathrow Airport's main entrance). Jonathan Smith set up a jam factory (Smith's Jams) using fruit grown in the area, and later his son Frederick took over the factory;Information from Philip Sherwood, with thanks. its site is now under part of Kenwood Close in Sipson. 16 November 1905: a petition of bankruptcy was filed against Jonathan Smith (market gardener) of Heathrow Hall, Harmondsworth, "lately residing at Sipson".