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Harlington
Church of S. Peter & S. Paul, Harlington & war memorial, late August 2013.jpg
The Grade I Listed parish church is the oldest of the listed buildings in Harlington. The War Memorial was designed by C. O. Scott.
Harlington is located in Greater London
Harlington
Harlington
OS grid reference TQ085775
• Charing Cross 13.5 mi (21.7 km) E
London borough
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town HAYES
Postcode district UB3
Dialling code 020
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament
  • Hayes and Harlington
London Assembly
  • Ealing and Hillingdon
List of places
UK
England
London
51°29′09″N 0°26′11″W / 51.4859°N 0.4364°W / 51.4859; -0.4364

Harlington is a district of Hayes 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 13.6 miles (21.9 km) 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 south-west corner of the historic county of Middlesex.

Harlington as seen on Ordnance Survey map sheet 71, 1822-1890, with railway added 1891
Harlington as seen on Ordnance Survey map sheet 71, 1822–1890, with railway added 1891.

Etymology

The place-name Harlington is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Hygereding tun: "Hygerǣd's people's farmstead".

History

DawleyHouseLysonVariantPrint
Bolingbroke and Ossulston's demolished Dawley House, north-west of the station
Dawley House & barns, Harlington, Middlesex, 1902
Photograph of dilapidated Dawley House and barns, Harlington, 1902. (Between the Great Western Railway and the canal). Home of Bolingbroke and Ossulston.
Dawley House, Harlington, Middlesex, 1902
Dawley House, Harlington, c. 1902. This was the remains of the house of Bolingbroke and Ossulston. It can be seen to the east or right of the mansion in the print.
Photograph of Dawley House, Harlington, Middlesex, in the spring of 1902
Photograph of Dawley House, in the spring of 1902.

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.

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.

Dates Entities
c. 1840 Harlington Parish then Civil Parish
1872 Staines Rural Sanitary District
1889 Middlesex County Council
1894 Staines Rural District
1930 Hayes and Harlington Urban District
1965 London Borough of Hillingdon Hillingdon L.B. with Mayor of London, London Assembly and predecessor

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 rejected proposals to acquire a recreation ground or parish hall. See the entry for Hayes for the later detailed local history.

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 reorganization. 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

The extent of Harlington.
Dawley Court, Goulds Green, Middlesex in 1893
Dawley Court, Goulds Green, Middlesex in 1893, when it belonged to W. Fane De Salis. (Just to the west of Corwell Lane).

Harlington 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. 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. The glebe was absorbed into the land of Sir John Bennet of Dawley, who held the benefice during the Interregnum.

Gallery

Great Western Railway and part of the former HMV & EMI factory at Harlington, 2014
Great Western Railway and part of the former HMV & EMI factory at Harlington, looking east, 2014.

Historic transport

The Grand Junction Canal runs through the Dawley land, east to west: it was constructed c. 1794–1800. 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 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.

Historic transport

The Grand Junction Canal runs through the Dawley land, east to west: it was constructed c. 1794–1800. 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 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

name type built use and main features
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul (Grade One Listed) Religious 12th century Christian faith centre; the Harlington Yew, formerly probably the largest example of topiary in England, survives in the churchyard, unclipped
Veysey's Farm Farm late 18th century Mixed agricultural/nature
Shackle's Barn Agricultural early 1800s Scouts headquarters
Barn at Manor Farm Agricultural Restored in the 1970s, used as offices, timber-framed
Small hospital (Sipson Lane) Social 1884 Hindu faith centre.
Dower House (High Street) House 16th century Timber framed building
Harlington Baptist Church Religious 1879 Christian faith centre.

Former listed buildings in the parish

name type built demolished (exact or between dates) use
Dawley Manor Farm House 17th century 1962 M4 motorway and part of St Peter's Way
Shackle's House House early 1800s 1960–70 Pembury Court (street)
Harlington rectory House Victorian 1970 Homes and the new church hall
Old Church Hall Church hall early 1900s 1970 Was in rectory grounds. Houses.
Bletchmore House House 1970–80 Bletchmore Close
Woodlands Farmhouse House 1960–65 178-182 High Street
Poplar House House 18th century 1970–75 Felbridge 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

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. He bought Dawley in 1724 and sold it in 1737, or 1738.
Oval miniature of Catharina Barbara De Salis
Lady De Tabley is buried alongside her eldest daughter in the SS Peter & Paul graveyard.
  • 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), who had bought the manor of Dawley from the heirs of Sir Ambrose Coppinger in 1607. In 1649 Sir John Bennet owned around 600 acres (2.4 km2) 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;
  • Sir Michael Stanhope, (c. 1549 – c. 1621), groom of the privy chamber, was granted the manor by the Crown in 1599. 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), 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. 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. 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, who passed it on again soon after 1748;
  • Dame Lettice Poyntz (died c. 1610), aka Laetitia FitzGerald, niece of the fair Geraldine and sister of Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Kildare, first wife Sir Ambrose Coppinger, of Dawley, (c. 1546 – 1604), MP for Ludgershall in 1586. She married secondly John Morice, MP, (1568–1618), aka Sir John Poyntz. She left £100 to the village, eighty pounds of which was later used to purchase six acres of land the income from which was to support good causes in the parish;,
  • Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge (1719–1769), of Dawley House. His heir Lord Paget sold it c. 1772;
Glencoe1
Tattersall's stallion Glencoe stood at Dawley in 1835.
Scout Hut, Shackle's Barn, Harlington, Middlesex, 2014
Shackle's Barn, Harlington, Middlesex, from the west, October 2014.
Wheat field beside the M4, once part of Dawley Manor Farm, at Harlington, Middlesex. July 2015
Wheat field beside the M4, once part of Dawley Manor Farm, at Harlington. July 2015. Looking to the south-east.
  • Founder of Tattersalls, Richard Tattersall (1724–1795), c. 1779 began a stud farm at Dawley (aka Dawley House) which was called Dawley Wall Farm. In the 1830s this was described as '13 miles from London, 3 from Uxbridge, 1 from Hayes and 2 from Cranford Bridge'. Coincidentally, in 1779 Tattersall bought for £2500, for the purpose of breeding, 2nd Lord Bolingbroke's unbeaten Highflyer. Operations at Dawley were continued after his death by various other Tattersalls including his son George I (1792–1853), and perhaps grandson George II (1817–1849): thoroughbred stallion Glencoe (1831–1857) stood at stud there in 1835. Middleton, the 1825 Derby winner, was there in 1832. Sire Sir Hercules was sent there in 1833 and The Colonel in c. 1837.
  • Composer William Byrd (1539/40-1623) lived as a Catholic recusant in Harlington, 1578–88, or 17 years;
  • Sports impresario Simon Clegg was born in Harlington;
  • Former professional footballer and football manager Paul Goddard was born in Harlington;
  • Rev. Count Henry Jerome de Salis, DD, FRS, third son of the Jerome, 2nd Count de Salis, was appointed by his parents Game keeper of and for their said manor of Dally otherwise Dawley, near Hayes, Middlesex, from 13 June 1775; His mother, the Hon. Mary Fane, later Madame de Salis, and then Countess de Salis (died 1785), had lived for a while in central Harlington in c. 1770, and then his parents seem to have purchased the Dawley Wall estate (now approximately Stockley Park and more), including Dawley House or its remains, from the heirs of Lord Uxbridge in 1772. Henry Jerome, his daughter, wife, parents, one brother, and nephew were all buried in the family vault in Harlington's churchyard. Peter de Salis (1738-1807) acquired the site of Dawley House in 1797. In 1841 members of the de Salis family (Peter Fane de Salis (1799-1870) and his step-mother and half-brothers) owned together 533 acres in the parish. Most of this lay in the north, in or near the former park, but it also included Dawley Manor Farm, in the High Street, The Gramophone Company (then Electric and Musical Industries Ltd.) acquired the site of Dawley House from Cecil Fane de Salis for an extension to their works across the road in 1929;
  • Jerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio (1771–1836), Anglo-Irish visionary, lived (and is buried) in Harlington, and his son W. Fane De Salis and grandsons J.F.W. de Salis and Sir Cecil Fane De Salis, KCB;
  • John Kyte, (died 1537), Rector of Harlington until 1510, and then Bishop of Carlisle from 1520;
  • 17th-century churchman John Pritchett (died 1681) lived in and was rector of Harlington during the Commonwealth period. He was Bishop of Gloucester from 1672 to 1681;
  • William Roper (c. 1496 – 1578), husband of Margaret Roper, thus son-in-law of Sir and Saint Thomas More; with his second son, Anthony, Lords of the manor, 1551–83;
  • Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord of the Manor in 1086; and his son Robert of Bellême c. 1102;
  • Rev. Dr. Joseph Trapp, (1679–1747), rector of Harlington, 1733–48, (also an academic, poet and pamphleteer);
  • Ovine scientist Eric Underwood (1905–1980) was born in Harlington;
  • Wigot of Wallingford, Lord of the Manor at the time of Edward the Confessor.
  • Political supporter of Bolingbroke, Sir William Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, married in Harlington church the Rt. Hon. Maria Catherina, Marchioness of Blandford, the daughter of Peter de Jong, a Burgomaster of Utrecht, on 1 June 1734;
  • Both Chelsea (1970s until July 2005) and Queens Park Rangers (from 2005-) football clubs have used the Imperial College Sports Ground, (aka Harlington Sports Ground), just west of the village in Sipson Lane.

Sport

A greyhound racing track was opened during the 1930s, off the Bath Road. The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the National Greyhound Racing Club) and was known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. In 1959 plans for two large hotels, The Skyways (Now Sheraton) and Ariel (Now Holiday Inn) were revealed to serve Heathrow, which resulted in the track having to be being demolished and the last meeting was on 22 January 1962. The track would have stood very near to where the Holiday Inn is today.

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