Heathrow Expansion: Eighty years of Bad Decisions

Heathrow destruction 1944

In 1939, at the beginning of WWII there were 351 people living in the hamlet of Heathrow. Some went off to serve in the Armed Forces, but the majority stayed to do their “bit” for the war effort by producing fruit and vegetables to sell at London’s Covent Garden market. For the patriotic farmers of Heathrow it came as a shock when on the 2 May 1944 a letter dropped through their letter boxes to say their land was being requisitioned and they had two months to pack up their homes, outbuildings, livestock, and, leaving their growing crops in the fields, find somewhere else to live.[1] The letter was from the Air Ministry and was in response to a decision made at the wartime coalition’s Cabinet meeting on 10 April 1944 when the Ministers had approved the “sterilisation” of the whole of Harmondsworth for the development of an airport.[2] However, just before D-day, with manpower and money in short supply, the Government could not afford to build more than three runways. The airport was to be built in stages. Stage one would be to requisition land south of the Bath Road (A4) which would completely remove Heathrow.

BAD DECISION NUMBER 1

The decision to fix Britain’s first international civil airport at Heathrow had first been muted by Lord Abercrombie who was commissioned to produce a Greater London Plan for post-war London. With the growth of air transport he knew that a civil airport would be needed after the war and he suggested ten possible sites around London. All of these existing airports were surrounded by housing estates and not expandable. The only leading contender was the Fairey Airfield at Heathrow, but there were many objections. Sir Richard Fairey did not want to give up his airfield. The Ministry of Agriculture did not want to bury the land, which, in Abercrombie’s plan, was described as “… a soil fit to be ranked with the world’s very best – a high-class market gardening and orchard soil, also growing fine grass and ordinary farm crops.”[3] It was not until just before D-day in 1944 that the Air Ministry began to construct the first stage by building three runways which would be completed by May 1946 at a cost of £3.8m. This stage would concrete over the grass Fairey airfield and all the Heathrow farms.

Stage 1 Airport Layout

Two years later on 10 January 1946, even before the airport was complete, Atlee’s post-war Cabinet meeting discussed a memorandum put forward by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Viscount Addison.[4] It proposed the establishment of Britain’s main international airport at Heathrow. He said the site of the airport was chosen after prolonged survey of the London area and it was considered to be the only suitable location. It will be necessary to acquire a large tract of land to the north of the Bath Road as well as a number of areas adjacent to the present site. The total cost of acquisition of 4,219 acres will be £7m. About 170 houses would have to be demolished in the area south of the Bath Road as well as a substantial proportion of the 1026 houses in the area north of this road. Also there would need to be “sterilisation” of further land on which building would be “controlled”. The airport was to be called “London Airport” and the name Heathrow discarded. Estimated total cost of the airport, including rail and road construction, was £30 million, but he was unable to estimate how much revenue the airport would generate. Bizarrely the Minister was also considering leasing some of the “sterilised” area of land, and even the land between the runways, to market gardeners. Obviously not considering what aircraft engine emissions would do to the crops or the environment. Estimated use of the airport when two runways were available would be 500 flights a day in normal weather. Total passengers per day would be 8500 of whom 1020 would travel in peak hour. The number of passenger movements per day for the extended airport was “guessed” at 12,000 to 15,000.

BAD DECISION NUMBER 2

During the Cabinet meeting the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Dalton, accepted the need for an international airport at Heathrow but was concerned about the expenditure involved, and was not convinced that it was necessary at this stage to acquire land north of the Bath Road.[5] He strongly urged that the new enlarged scheme be postponed until 1950. Even though 2650 acres had already been destroyed and concreted, he proposed there should be a discussion about finding a new site for the airport where houses and valuable agricultural land would not be lost. The Minster of Town and Country Planning, Mr. F. Marshall, countered this by saying that all previous experience had shown the advisability of acquiring ample land in order to allow for unforeseen developments, and that unless the land was acquired now it was impossible to plan the development of the main roads in the neighbourhood. The Cabinet gave their approval for the development of the civil London Airport at Heathrow, which would be spread over the next eight years. [6]

Full airport plan proposed 1946

The civil airport opened in 1946. The original Fairey Hanger was used as a fire station, and ex-army tents were erected alongside the A4 as terminal buildings. The next phase of the development, which was to extend the existing runways, started in 1948 when more land to the south of the Bath Road was requisitioned. The Three Magpies public house on the Bath Road(A4) lost the remains of its six acres of land. The farms of the hamlet of Longford were requisition leaving so little agricultural land that farming was not viable. Only Perry Oaks sewage works remained. A further round of land requisition to the north of the Bath Road in 1960 for the building of a spur road from the M4 to the central airport buildings involved the demolition of the Old Magpies on the A4 and the removal of the farmland in Sipson. However as planes got bigger and passenger numbers increased there was still a need for a larger airport.

BAD DECISION NUMBER 3

The Roskill Commission was set up by the Government in 1968 to look into finding a site for a third London airport. London already had Heathrow and Gatwick and now there was a requirement for a four-runway airport. The Commission published its report in January 1971 and after initially considering 78 sites they recommended Cublington in Buckinghamshire as a suitable site. The Government rejected this suggestion and chose another site from the Commission’s short list which was Maplin Sands, Foulness Island, on the Thames Estuary. An Act of Parliament in 1973 paved the way for this development, but this was shelved after Labour came to power in July 1974. Instead a small-scale redevelopment of Stansted airport in Essex was agreed even though this was not a site short-listed by the Roskill Commission.[7]

BAD DECISION NUMBER 4

In 1991 the Transport Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, promised a wide public consultation on the building of a third runway at Heathrow.[8] It started a wave of protest from local councils in Middlesex and Buckinghamshire, and local residents. [9] At the same time there were also suggestions that a fifth terminal could be built on the land then occupied by the Perry Oaks sewage works. The Middlesex Council were not happy about the loss of the sewage facility, and concerns were expressed by the Buckinghamshire County Council (on whose border it stood) about the increased noise and pollution of planes flying over the county.[10] All protesters were relieved when in October 1993 Heathrow Airport Ltd community relations manager, Jon Philipps, said Heathrow had no plans for a third runway as building a fifth terminal did not require another runway.[11]

BAD DECISION NUMBER 5

However in March 1994 the Department of Transport was holding exhibitions and public meetings about the possibility of building a third runway for completion by 2010. They leafletted all the homes in Harmondsworth and held exhibitions and public meetings in Harlington, West Drayton, Sipson, Uxbridge, Stanwell and Harmondsworth.[12] The preliminary design for the expansion would have removed the hamlet of Sipson, on the north side of the A4, and most of Harmondsworth. However in April 1994 at a meeting of the Hillingdon Council, whilst the public enquiry was still in progress, a copy of a letter from Heathrow Airport Limited was circulated. It read, “I can state categorically that at no stage has either Heathrow Airport Limited, or its parent company BAA plc given evidence to the RUCATSE (Runway Capacity To serve the South East) inquiry indicating support for another runway at Heathrow. The airport needs extra terminal capacity rather than runway capacity.” This letter was signed by Jenny Bradley, director of public affairs at Heathrow Airport Limited.[13] It was not until November 2003 that the government announced that there would be no third runway in the “short term” because to do so would break European pollution laws.[14] However, despite all the public enquiries and the protests from local councils and other public bodies, the fifth terminal was built and opened in 2008 which resulted in a subsequent increase in the number of flights from Heathrow airport.

BAD DECISION NUMBER 6

In 2012 the UK Government established an independent Airports Commission to look again at the future of London’s airports. The 2015 final report of this Commission concluded that Heathrow Airport required a new northwest runway.[15] On 25 June 2018 the House of Commons voted to adopt this recommendation. This time the plan was to demolish the hamlet of Longford on the western edge of the airport, and to extend the runway over the M25 with the motorway disappearing into a tunnel. The Colne River would also be placed in an underground culvert. The hamlet of Sipson would survive but would be so close to the third runway that life in any of the houses would be unbearable. The timetable for the construction was to begin in 2021, when planning consent would be sought from the various local councils, and then construction would begin in 2023. Fate intervened with the schedule in the shape of the pandemic of 2020, when air travel was severely reduced and extra airport facilities were not needed. All talk of building a third runway was quietly dropped, but the residents of the parish of Harmondsworth and its hamlets of Sipson and Longford were left, once more, in limbo with the threat of demolition postponed but not removed. After a change of Government, in January 2025 the new Administration revised the prospect of a third runway and once more the protests began. Successive governments with their short-term thinking and procrastination have blighted Harmondsworth parish for eighty years. The constant threat of further airport expansion, the insecurity of tenure, and uncertainty for the future, has caused a slow decline in the number of long-standing families staying in the parish. Speculators have moved in to buy up property, letting them out on short-term leases, or turning them into houses of multiple occupancy. Some of the many ancient Grade II listed buildings have been left unoccupied and decaying. If the voice of the 1946 Minister of Town and Country Planning had been heard, and sufficient land purchased at the outset for future development of the airport, it might have avoided the prolonged indecision and decades of controversy. Meanwhile the residents of Longford, Sipson and Harmondsworth are in limbo. They have fought hard over decades to preserve their pretty villages that have survived since the Saxons built settlements there. These once peaceful rural agricultural villages with over twenty listed buildings are once again facing an uncertain future.

For the story of what will be lost under the Third Runway read:

‘Longford: A village in Limbo’ by Wendy Tibbitts.

[1] Sherwood, Philip. Heathrow: 2000 years of history, (Stroud, 1999)

[2] The National Archives CAB 66/48/39

[3] Stamp, L.Dudley, ‘Land Classification and Agriculture’, in Abercrombie (ed.), Greater London Plan 1944. (London, 1945),p.87

[4] The National Archives. CAB 129/6/4 5 January 1946

[5] National Archives CAB 128/5/4

[6] The National Archives' reference CAB 66/48/39 April 1944

[7] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roskill_Commission#

[8] Middlesex Chronicle - Thursday 10 January 1991

[9] Harefield Gazette - Wednesday 25 March 1992

[10] Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News - Friday 15 June 2001

[11] Hayes & Harlington Gazette - Wednesday 20 October 1993

[12] Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Wednesday 16 March 1994

[13] Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Wednesday 27 April 1994

[14] Wolverhampton Express and Star - Saturday 29 November 2003

[15] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airports_Commission

THE HIGHWAYMAN’S HIDEAWAY

The former Kings Head or Peggy Bedford 2006 © David Hawgood

Highwaymen were a public menace in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially on the vast open area of Hounslow Heath, on the western side of London. Hounslow Heath had to be crossed, with trepidation, by anyone travelling west from London on the Great Bath Road (now the A4) and thieves would lurk, inconspicuously, ready to stop the carriages of wealthy travellers and rob them of their valuables. Travellers breathed a sigh of relief when the carriages and stagecoaches reached the relative safety of the Kings Head in Longford village unscathed. At the Kings Head inn the passengers would enter the warm bar and enjoy refreshments whilst waiting for carriage or stagecoach horses to be changed for the onward journey. As they chatted to their fellow travellers they would not have noticed shadowy figures in dark corners listening to travellers’ tales and deciding who would be the next victim of the highwayman. There are many stories of highwaymen and their activities around the village, but Longford had one of its own. One night, just before Christmas 1769 a farmer left the Kings Head after an evening of heavy drinking. He walked to his nearby farmhouse, saddled his horse, put a kerchief round his face and ventured out on the Heath. With the bravado of a heavy dose of alcohol he held up a private carriage and with no more than a knobbly stick as a weapon he demanded money. The occupant of the carriage, who was prepared for a hold-up, shot and wounded the farmer who rode off. The man was found lying on the Bath Road a little further along from the incident and was taken back to the Kings Head. There his friends nursed him, but he died a few days later and is buried in the parish churchyard. The wealthy farmer was John Tillier, normally a respectable citizen, but his young wife had just died and with Christmas approaching he had let his melancholy make him reckless.

The Kings Head is now a Grade II listed Elizabethan building, on the western edge of London Airport  and only 450 meters from the northern runway. It is a shadow of the former coaching inn that was well-known throughout the country.   The walls of the building can just be glimpsed through the tall trees and overgrown garden on the opposite side of the Old Bath Road from the Littlebrook Nursery. The gates are now closed with concrete blocks and its ancient windows are boarded up. It is a forlorn sight for an inn once visited by Monarchs and nobility, but also the haunt of highwaymen and scoundrels. The Kings Head has many tales to tell, but it did not always look like it does today.  When Queen Anne visited Bath to take the medicinal waters she made Bath a fashionable place for high society to visit. The Bath Road became busy and The Kings Head needed more room. At the end of the eighteenth century the inn was extended out to the road side. It added a 60-horse stable, spacious bar, more accommodation for travellers, and a large ornate reception room known as the Queen Anne Room. This room had a large fireplace with china cabinets in each recess and comfortable furniture fit for Royalty. Unfortunately Queen Anne never saw the inside of the room built for her comfort because by the time she was travelling to Bath to take the waters she was overweight and suffering from gout which made walking difficult. She would stay in the carriage whilst the horses were changed. However many other Kings and Queens did make use of the inn’s hospitality, especially Queen Victoria who in January 1842, famously handed the baby Edward VII to the landlady to hold whilst she drank her tea.

The landlord of the Kings Head in the late eighteenth century was John Bedford. He was a widower when he married local girl Mary Dean in 1778. When he died in 1794, aged 54, his widow, Mary, took over the running of the business with the help of her two eldest children, Joseph and Peggy aged 14 and 13. There were also three younger children. Joseph and Peggy inherited the pub when their mother died in 1807 and then Joseph also died leaving Peggy Bedford to continue as landlady for a total of fifty years. She made the pub famous nationally and it was always referred to as Peggy Bedford’s. She never married, but there were rumours of her being the mistress of a highwayman. Her death in 1859 was reported in newspapers all over the country. Over the centuries many fascinating events occured at the inn, from deaths and scandals, to public meetings, annual dinners, and inquests all of which have been told in the book, “Longford: A Village in Limbo”. In the early twentieth century the pub was a destination for cycling clubs and beanfeast outings. The four-acre kitchen garden was turned into an ornamental garden with a pond, a bowling green and a summer house. An enterprising landlord converted the stables (which are also listed and ‘at risk’) into a training gym for boxers and some of the leading British boxing champions of the day trained there before a major fight.

The Queen Anne extension and the first motor bus through Longford 1920. The number 81 still runs the same route through Longford from Hounslow to Slough today.

In 1928 the Colnbrook bypass was built through the Peggy Bedford’s gardens and the bypass cut the pub off from passing trade. The pub surrendered its licence and a new Peggy Bedford was built on the apex of the old and new roads. The original pub became residential, but in 1934 there was a serious fire that caused the roof to fall in and destroyed the eighteenth century part of the house. However the older part was saved as were two great elm trees which stood in front of the pub. They were said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth I (although this is unlikely). One was hollow with age and people threw coins in it for luck. The fire was reported in newspapers all around the country. The older house continued as a dwelling.  In 1944 large parts of the farmland around Longford were requisitioned by the Air Ministry to build a airfield with a concrete runway which obliterated the hamlet of Heathrow and Perry Oaks farm. The first Commandant of the Civil Airport, which opened in 1946, was Air Marshall Sir John D’Albiac.[1] He and his family moved into a house they called The Stables which was in fact the now Grade II listed remains of the original Peggy Bedford. They lived there from 1947 until at least 1955. It was under his command that the airport developed the two east/west parallel runways rather than the triangular runway system originally built.[2]

Since 2018 the expansion plans for the airport included the demolition of the whole of the village of Longford. While the future of Longford is unknown the village is blighted and no one will want to live in this wonderful old building. The Old Peggy Bedford will remain on Historic England’s At Risk register.  It is a sad fate for such a distinguished building.

[1] For a Ministry of Information Film about the building of the airport see https://archive.org/details/london_airport_TNA/london_airport_TNA.mpg

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/the_day_britain_stopped/timelines/heathrow/html/1940s.stm

The boarded up remains of the Tudor building 2018. Now on Historic England’s At Risk register

For more historical stories about Longford, Heathrow and Harmondsworth in West Middlesex read:

“Longford: A Village in Limbo” by Wendy Tibbitts.

 

Mercury House: The aviation history of Hayes, Middlesex

 

Mercury House, North Hyde Road, Hayes, Middlesex

The Fairey Aviation Factory was a landmark on the North Hyde Road, Hayes, for half a century. Mercury House was built in 1926 as the main office block for the business, and contained Sir Richard Fairey’s office in which he entertained his most important guests, including Royalty.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Hayes, Middlesex, was an agricultural area that developed into an industrial town with the building of the Hayes & Harlington railway station in 1868. Businesses bought up the land around the railway line and constructed new factories, knowing there would be a ready workforce in the new housing estates being built around the town. Two of the early enterprises, who “turned a village into a town”, were EMI at the Gramophone Factory in Blythe Road, and Fairey Aviation at North Hyde Road Hayes named after its founder.[1]

Charles Richard Fairey, (later Sir Richard Fairey), a gifted engineer, won a £200 first prize offered by Hamley’s toyshop for a flying model aeroplane in 1910.[2] He transferred his skills to designing full-size planes and five years later starting the aircraft manufacturing company that bears his name.  After the formation of Fairey Aviation Limited in 1915, aircraft manufacturing began on the site at Hayes in five wooden sheds which cost £807.6s.8d to build. The first brick built office building cost £1013.18s.5d.[3] By 1928 the Hayes factory covered 19 acres of land, and had a workforce of 1500.

The Fairey Factory built both float planes and biplanes for the WW1 war effort. After the war more military planes were developed and made at Hayes. By 1934 the torpedo bomber biplane called the Fairey Swordfish, affectionately known as the ‘stringbag’, by the Fleet Air Arm, was in service. The Swordfish played a part in the sinking of the Bismark in WWII.

In 1940 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the factory, and no doubt were entertained in Mercury House. In 1954 Prince Philip toured the factory with Sir Richard Fairey. His visit to Hayes was greeted by a crowd of 300 people outside the factory.  Afterwards the Duke was given lunch in Mercury House by Sir Richard and the Board of Directors.[4]

The first planes manufactured at Hayes were taken to Northolt Airport for flight testing. However in 1929 the Government declined to renew Fairey’s lease on Northolt and the search was on for a new testing ground as close as possible to Hayes. The company brought 178 acres of farmland in the hamlet of Heathrow from four different sellers in the early part of 1929 and increased this area by another 29 acres a year later. As well as a grass runway the company had a large hanger. It was known as the Great West Aerodrome.  Fairey hoped to make the airfield a manufacturing base and bought more land in 1939, 1942 and 1943 making a total of 240 acres.[5]This airfield continued to be used for flight testing until it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in 1944 under the Defence of the Realm Act, for which there could be no appeal and no right of compensation. Concrete runways were built on all this and the surrounding requisitioned farmland and in 1946 it become London Airport. The seizure of the Fairey airfield was a major financial blow to the company and devastating for Sir Richard. It was not until 20 years later that compensation was paid by the Government. In 1960 The Westland Aircraft Company acquired Fairey Aviation Limited with aircraft manufacturing continuing at the Hayes Factory until the premises were sold in 1972. Only, Mercury House, the art deco Fairey Aviation Head Office, remained.

Safeway Stores (formerly Argyll Foods) took over several office buildings on what had become known as the Westland Trading estate in 1986.[6]These included Mercury House. It was the last remnant of the original Fairey Aviation factory, and contained Sir Richard Fairey’s office and many art deco features including a magnificent staircase.  

 Safeway used it as offices, but it was not an efficient building with high ceilings and no lift. However the planning authorities felt the Art Deco building should be preserved and refused permission for Safeway to replace it.  Safeway Stores Head Office relocated to Bradford after being taken over by Morrisons in 2004, and Mercury House was vacated.  By 2007 the Hillingdon Council planning committee were persuaded that after standing on the site for nearly eighty years, Mercury House could be demolished and with it disappeared another piece of Hayes industrial heritage. A Premier Inn has now been built on the site today.

[1]Hayes & Harlington Gazette - Wednesday 27 June 1990

[2]The Bossington Estate. https://www.bossingtonestate.com/history
[3]Birmingham Daily Post - Friday 25 November 1955

[4]Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette - Friday 22 October 1954

[5]Sherwood, Philip, Heathrow: 2000 years of History, (Stroud, 1999)

[6]Companies House, London company-information.service.gov.uk

For more historical stories about West Middlesex:

 “Longford: A Village in Limbo” by Wendy Tibbitts.

For a Look Inside option for this book go to  https://b2l.bz/WUf9dc 

The Three Magpies pub and the pre-Olympic movement.

Image from: Harper Charles, G., The Old Inns of Old England, Vol.1, p.315 (London, 1906)

 

Long before the people of Wenlock in Shropshire opened the town’s race-course to all-comers to compete in the first Wenlock Olympian Society games in 1850, The Three Magpies in Harmondsworth, Middlesex, had been hosting various sporting events for nearly half a century. The Wenlock games is now recognised as the start of the modern Olympic Games movement and it could be argued that public interest in sporting events at the Three Magpies contributed to the pre-Olympic movement.

The Three Magpies, still a thriving pub today, is on the wide, flat, Bath Road (which now forms the northern perimeter of Heathrow Airport). The road and the pub were ideal for sports such as foot races, bare-knuckle fighting, steeplechases, shooting and hunting, and at only 14 miles from Hyde Park Corner, was a convenient distance for spectators to travel from a wide area.

A boxing match was arranged on 28th February 1822 between Acton and Kendrick. Vehicles of every description gathered on the Bath Road outside the Three Magpies. In a nearby field, the spectators stood around to form a ring. Boxing in the first half of the nineteenth century was not the organised sport it is today. It was bare-knuckle fighting in the open-air with an unlimited number of rounds. The fighters fought until one was unconscious or too exhausted to continue. In this match the betting was 2-1 on Kendrick. By 17th round, both men were at a standstill, but Acton was declared the winner over the exhausted Kendrick.

The sport of fast walking was thought to derive from the late 17th and early 18th century in England when footmen were compelled to walk or run alongside their Master’s carriage as they travelled. Noblemen would take pride in their footmen’s fitness, and would bet each other that their footman could walk further or faster than their rivals could.  Samuel Pepys, in his diary, mentions attending several such foot races and the sport became known as pedestrianism. It was particularly popular during the first half of the 19th century when crowds of spectators would gamble on the outcome. The sport had spread to America by the end of that century.

Mr Greatrex, a former sportsman, was landlord of the Three Magpies and encouraged the leading sportsmen of the day to take part in athletic events at his pub. A few yards from the pub was the fourteenth milestone (which is still in place today), and this was used as a meeting point for the start or finish of races.

Sometimes the race was against the clock and in 1848 two noblemen wagered the other 200-1 that no one could walk twenty miles in three hours.[1] The proprietor of the Blue Boar’s Head in Long Acre, London – himself a notable pedestrian – was asked to submit a candidate and Charles Westall was chosen. The parties met on the Bath Road at 2pm, and such was the excitement generated by two members of the nobility betting for high stakes on the ability of just one man, that over three hundred people assembled. Mr Westall, a Londoner, was 25 years of age and 5ft 9½in tall and weighed 9st 12oz. He was described as “manly-looking fellow in “extraordinary condition”. The race began at the Three Magpies (“the fourteen stone”) and proceeded towards London and back. The course was measured six times to ensure accuracy and with the spectators hushed he set off at 3pm. His style “elicited expression of admiration from the nobility and gentry present”. He had the support of a fellow athlete who regulated his speed and gave him refreshment. He was in fine form until the sixteenth mile when he began to get tired, and by the last two miles, he was struggling, but he completed the route in two minutes and thirty seconds under the three-hour target. When he finished he was greeted by great excitement and cheers from the spectators. He was taken into the Magpies and given “a good sound rubbing” to ease the cramp in his legs and to receive the warm congratulations of his Gentlemen supporters. This feat, equivalent to Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile record, was reported in newspapers throughout the UK.

As pedestrianism became popular, crowds would gather to watch and gamble on the result, Mr Greatrex, used his six acres of land behind the Three Magpies to build a  440-yard (a quarter of a mile) athletic track that circled a large fishing lake. On the 1st of May 1848 two well-known walkers, Robert Fuller and John Mountjoy staged a 40-mile match using a measured mile from the fourteenth milestone, near the Three Magpies, to the fifteenth milestone – still in place today near Longford village.[2] This was a race much anticipated because both of them were major stars of the sport, but also because of the gruelling distance. The good weather and the vast interest in the race brought out many spectators. However the wind and the clouds of dust and the horse-drawn traffic on the busy road was a hazard for competitors and spectators alike. The race was gruelling and Mountjoy, 45, appeared to be flagging until, after sipping some tea, he overtook Fuller, 32, in the 36th mile and was in front when Fuller suddenly collapsed a mile later. Mountjoy completed the race in seven hours, four minutes and seven seconds and went into the Three Magpies to be revived with a friction rub and warm tea. It was considered one of the best long-distance races on record. Meanwhile, during the day-long race, Mr Greatrex, ever mindful of keeping the spectators amused and their purses open, put on sporting entertainments at the rear of the pub on the new sprint ground. Sportsmen such as Ned Smith and Johnny Walker amused the public by a succession of bizarre races. One involved Ned Smith hopping for 120 yards whilst Johnny Walker ran 200 yards backwards which resulted in a defeat for Ned Smith.[3]

Although endurance racing was admired, sprint races were also popular and by mid-nineteenth century Henry Allen Reed (born in High Wycombe in 1826) held the record for running the fastest quarter of a mile with a time of 48.5 seconds. Reed competed against various challengers, each time for a larger purse, until he was challenged by an American, George Seward, to run a level quarter of a mile for £100 a side. The match took place on the turnpike road near the Three Magpies. The day before the match The Era described the proposed match as “the eve of a great event” which had generated intense excitement. Although both men were ranked at the top of their sport they had never competed with each other before. Reed had paid his opponent 10 sovereigns for the right to choose the venue for the race, and he had selected the Three Magpies Inn. The 25th June 1849 was a very hot day and although the match was due to take place at 3pm both parties agreed to postpone the start until 5pm, but they did not approach the start until 7pm. The measured distance was roped off two hundred yards from the finish in order to keep the 6000 spectators back.[4] The referee took up his position in a carriage half-way along the course, and the timer stood on the roof of the Three Magpies about midway along the course where he could see both the start and the finish line. When the racers moved to the starting line in their racing gear Reed was described as “being in the pink of condition having reduced his weight from eleven to a little over nine stone”. He was so confident of victory that he staked his last £20 on a bet to win. There were 25 false starts. Eventually Reed said to Seward , “If you are trying to ruffle my temper then the attempt will be futile. I will wait as long as you please because I am going to win.”

The good-looking Seward smiled and nodded.

Reed said, “Do you mean to go now, George?” and they were off. Both started at a fast pace and the spectators thought that Reed had used up his resources too early. Seward had won the toss for the side and stuck well to his man on the left side for about 100 yards, but then fell slightly behind. At 150 yards Reed was still going at a good speed and increased his lead by nearly two yards and as they approached the Magpies it was evident that Seward could not keep up the pace and was gradually left behind. As Reed crossed the finishing line in his famous 8-foot long strides he turned his head to see his opponent fourteen or fifteen yards behind, but the fast pace left Reed in a state of near collapse. His time was a remarkable 48.5 seconds. It was the first 440 yards run under 50 seconds. The current World Record Speed (2016) is 43.03 for 400 metres. 

     

The popularity of pedestrianism was its downfall. The amount of gambling it encouraged and the enthusiastic crowds that blocked the highway caused the police to stop events, and the sport had to move off the roads onto the proliferations of arenas now being built by enterprising publicans. In 1866 the first English amateur walking championship took place in Fulham and by 1880 the Amateur Athletic Association was formed. It introduced rules and regulations for the sport, now called racewalking, which became an Olympic event when the International Olympic Committee was formed in 1893.

 

Shooting was less of a spectator sport and usually a wager between two opponents. On 16 February 1850 a shooting match took place in the Three Magpies grounds. Mr Stringer bet Mr Morrison to shoot at 50 pigeons for £20. These would have been captured wild pigeons held in “traps” and released by a “pull” on the sliding lid to release one “bird” at a time.[5] All these terms are used in the sport of clay pigeon shooting today.

 

Equestrian events were not forgotten. In 1825 betting took place on a steeple chase which started at the Magpies and ended at the Dog Kennel on Ascot heath racecourse. The cross-country race was between Mr Montague and Capt. Hordham for 100 sovereigns. Each gentlemen took different routes, the former went across the heath to Staines and the latter crossing the Thames at Datchet Bridge.[6] The Captain won the 11-mile race in 42 minutes.

 

Long before the construction of the sporting arena at the Three Magpies, the pub was a weekly meeting point, in the winter months, for the Royal Staghounds hunt. Although not an Olympic sport it was still an important country event for elite riders and was sometimes attended by up to 500 sportsmen and many spectators. This many hooves trampling down the crops in this market garden area caused complaints and by the end of the century hunting had moved away from urban areas.

 

Towards the end of the nineteenth century a new invention created a popular sport that boosted the income of the Three Magpies. Bicycle mania led to the formation of cycling clubs and their members would go on regular excursions in the summer months. The Bath Road was a popular route and the Three Magpies was a respectable distance from London for it to be a good place for the club members to stop and eat before making their return journey. Even then the Three Magpies had a reputation for providing good food and drink to the travelling public as it still does today.

 

[1] Hereford Journal - Wednesday 23 August 1848

[2] Morning Advertiser - Monday 01 May 1848. Both milestones are still in place.

[3] The Era - Sunday 07 May 1848

[4] Seldon, Edward. George Seward: America's First Great Runner (Sears 2008)

[5] https://www.bristolclayshooting.com/history.php

[6] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 07 April 1825. Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Friday 01 April 1825

Charles Westall from Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 27 September 1862

The fascinating 300 year-old history of the Three Magpies is soon to be published in paperback.

For more historical stories about Longford, and Harmondsworth read:

 “Longford: A Village in Limbo”

 by Wendy Tibbitts.

For a Look Inside option for this book go to  https://b2l.bz/WUf9dc