Hayes & Harlington Through Time Book

The early history of Hayes, alongside its neighbouring village of Harlington, is one of agricultural activity, with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding over Hayes as lord of the manor. The industrial Revolution brought the Grand Union Canal in 1794 and then the Great Western Railway arrived in 1864 at the shared railway station of Hayes & Harlington. A steady growth of industry followed in and around Hayes, with brickmaking in particular playing a key part in the economy of the area, but the real expansion of the area began in the twentieth century, with the arrival of a diverse range of industries, from electrical technologies and aviation to confectionery. With business booming, it was essential that the new workers had somewhere to live, and so Hayes as we know it today began to grow rapidly although Harlington remained smaller and in the early 1930s merged with Hayes with the formation of the Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council. It became part of the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1965. The proposed new book Hayes and Harlington Through Time would be a sequel to the author's two previous publications Around Hayes Through Time (2013) and Around Heathrow Through Time (2012) but would focus exclusively on Hayes and Harlington which although separate communities have been linked together since the formation of the Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council and are a parliamentary constituency of that name. He has sufficient new material to avoid repetition of photographs used in the previous publications. Despite its massive growth, Hayes and Harlington still retain a number of historical buildings alongside more modern development, and this unique selection of historical and present-day photographs compiled by local historian Philip Sherwood is a fitting showcase for this fascinating area.Read More