Longford, Middlesex
| Longford | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The King Henry and The Stables, Longford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ045765 |
| Location: | 51°28’40"N, 0°29’39"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | West Drayton |
| Postcode: | UB7 |
| Dialling code: | 01753 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Hillingdon |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Hayes and Harlington |
Longford is a suburban village in Middlesex, immediately north-west of Heathrow Airport. It is one of the westernmost of the villages of Middlesex, standing very close to the border of Buckinghamshire. The M25 motorway marks its western boundary with Poyle, Middlesex's actual westernmost village.
Longford belongs to the Parish of Harmondsworth, in ecclesiastical terms and historically.
Through the village runs the Longford Rover, an artificial river created in the 17th century.[1]
The village is currently threatened by proposed expansion of nearby Heathrow Airport.[2]
Name
The name Longford has a derivation exactly as it seems: there was a long ford here over the River Colne, which is where the old Bath Road now crosses the river, and on over a middle ditch, and the Wraysbury River, carrying on west from the village street.
History
The settlement developed by this multi-channel ford of the River Colne and its distributaries, which presented numerous obstacles for travellers to and from the west of the edge of the county, on the old Bath Road west out of London. Longford may be founded on a small Saxon settlement dating from the 5th to 7th century AD. Historic buildings survive from the Middle Ages and the immediately following Early Modern period. Limited evidence survives of Roman occupation, though archaeological excavations have revealed two brooches of Roman date.[3]
Longford, the only mediæval settlement to grow up along the Bath Road hereabouts, had 30 inhabited buildings in 1337. An important part of the parish economy, aside from its four manor houses, 48 houses were on Moor and Sheep Lanes in Harmondsworth.[3]
In 1586 land on either side of the river was charged with the upkeep of Mad Bridge, which carried the Bath Road across the river. During the 18th and early 19th centuries this bridge was maintained by the Colnbrook turnpike trustees, who presumably erected in 1834 the bridge with cast-iron parapets which now stands.[3]
Rocque's map of 1754, shows clearly the settlement pattern: at Longford, Harmondsworth, Sipson there were small compact groups of houses, and a straggling group at Heath Row, a minor hamlet. At Longford they lined both sides of the Bath Road from the east bank of the Longford River up to and across the Duke of Northumberland's River.[3]
The uncultivated area west of the rivers was to the north known as Harmondsworth moors, south of the Bath Road the area between the Colne and the Longford rivers was meadowland and, between the Longford and the Duke's rivers, arable.
The commons of Harmondsworth were inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1819. In the inclosure award, Harmondsworth's three open fields and Harmondsworth Moor and a big tract to and around Heathrow (part of Hounslow Heath) were divided among the local residents. During this process, two bad bends of the Bath Road in Longford were straightened.[4]
By 1839 Longford and Harmondsworth and Sipson had a shop serving the whole parish.[3]
In 1929 the Longford and Colnbrook by-pass was built.
In 1930 the Road Research Laboratory on the Colnbrook by-pass opened. In the same year the Fairey Aviation Company opened an airfield, the Great West Aerodrome, southeast of Heathrow village.
About 1930 a brickworks was set up east of the junction of Cain's Lane and Heathrow Road in Heath Row. Later the quarry's main purpose changed to excavating sand and gravel. The quarry company went bankrupt in 1943; after 1944 the airport obliterated the quarry along with every trace of Heath Row village.
A large sewage sludge settlement works was created west of Perry Oaks farm, which was removed in the 1990s when Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 was built there.
In 1648 the first bridge across the then-new Longford River was demolished. This had been replaced by 1675. In the 19th century, when it was called Stone Bridge, the Crown, not a local authority, was responsible for its upkeep and by 1960 it had been renamed King's Bridge.[3]
About the villge
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Longford village is a linear development astride the A4 Bath Road immediately north of Heathrow Airport and as such to the south of the M4, It is also immediately north of Heathrow's Western Perimeter Road. The area is characterized by an historic village core and similar-sized green buffer zones.
The Duke of Northumberland's River that runs from here to Isleworth since its construction in or about 1543.[3]
Longford retains an old-fashioned community centre character, in particular a former and an existing public house which are listed buildings only at Grade II mostly on age rather than simply architecture.[5][6] An old building, Yeomans, which has been subdivided into three flats is listed.[7] Other listed buildings include Longford Meeting House, Queen River Cottage and adjoining Willow Tree Cottage,[8] and King's Bridge which is the name of the 1834-built main bridge by the very last building at the west end of the (old) Bath Road street, which crosses the nearby siphoned off Longford River, which Was built at the order of King Charles I. This feeds Bushy Park and Hampton Court Gardens.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Longford, Middlesex) |
References
- ↑ Local history page at This is Longford
- ↑ "Heathrow expansion: Government supports third runway but local residents concerned" (in en). https://news.sky.com/video/heathrow-expansion-government-supports-third-runway-but-local-residents-concerned-13299088.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 4 pp 1-7: Harmondsworth: Introduction (Victoria County History)
- ↑ The Villages of Harmondsworth, edited by Philip Sherwood, publ. West Middlesex Family History Society, 1993
- ↑ National Heritage List 1080296: King Henry and Stables (opened before 1775 (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1192507: White Horse (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1080298: Yeomans
- ↑ National Heritage List 1358336: Queen River Cottage and Willow Tree Cottage (Grade II listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1080299: King's Bridge (Grade II listing)
- Sherwood, Philip: 'History and Guide to Harlington and Harmondsworth' (Harlington: PT Sherwood, 2002)