Its buildings and all associated holdings were demolished, along with almost all of the often grouped locality of The Magpies in 1944 for the construction of the new London Airport, which would later assume the name of Heathrow after 1967.

The two lightly populated places dotted the brickearth-over-gravel soils in the east of Harmondsworth which historically butted on to Hounslow Heath.

Detailed 1910s maps show its unusual continuing agricultural focus so close to London; about half of the buildings and homes were at the two farms.

[2] The northern was Heathrow Hall, 500 metres south of the area of Harmondsworth that was from the 16th century until the mid 20th century known as The Magpies,[n 1] a mix of terraces and houses on and off of the Bath Road, the west of which was a set of 18 densely packed houses, Belch's Row and the east of which was Sipson Green, further orchard-backed homes along the Bath Road in the same parish.

[3] It will be re-sited or see elements curated in a museum if a third runway for Heathrow Airport receives final planning permission and all appeals are dismissed.

Old maps show Heathrow as a row of houses along the northwest sides of the curve of a lane occasionally named Heathrow Road or Lane, which faced land until 1819 part of a great set of common lands belonging to neighbouring parishes — Hounslow Heath.

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 upright cannon heads which are still to be seen.

[11] The marker and landmarks on the Bath Road enables visitors and historians to picture features on old maps when visiting today's airport, without the use of grid references.

Agriculture became the main source of income for residents in the hamlet, as the brickearth just as the underlying gravel in soils in the area made for reliable farming for fruit trees and bushes, vegetables, and flowers as it held manure well and markets were in easy reach of these perishable cash crops.

The farms and buildings across most of south-east Harmondsworth greatly changed in the early 20th century; mostly a web of rural roads and lanes.

The ford where High Tree Lane crossed the Duke of Northumberland's River was a scenic spot used sometimes for picnics and courting couples.

From the Three Magpies, the lane's northern end – much reduced and curtailed today – to Covent Garden is 14 miles (23 km) which was about 6 hours at laden horse-and-wagon speed; goods had to set off before 10 pm the day before to reach the market when it opened at 4 am,[8]: 33  until motor trucks came.

An 11.93-acre (4.83 ha) field south of the Bath Road, about 600 yards (550 m) east of the lane, was, between 1912 and 1935, allotment gardens (shown on a map dated 1935) and in the 1940 Luftwaffe air survey.

In the 1910s a small gravel pit of just under an acre was on the east side of Tithe Barn Lane at the far west of what could be loosely, based mainly on Heathrow Hall's ownership be considered part of Heathrow and a similar marsh then pond to the north, all where today's Compass Centre stands.

Fern Hill was another ramparted prehistoric site, represented in 1944 by a roughly circular cropmark about 250 feet (80 m) in diameter, near Hatton Cross.

The long delay caused by planning discussions allowed a thorough archaeological dig at the site, which found more than 80,000 artefacts.

A sewage sludge works was built in the Perry Oaks part of Heathrow in 1934, and a 2-foot (610 mm) gauge railway installed three years later.

[25] It has been inferred that the route of the under-pressure sludge sewer, which needed access points to prevent blockages, could have stopped the building of the airport.

[8]: 38  He states if it had gone across the Heathrow fields area, e.g. straight from Harlington Corner to Perry Oaks, the amount of work and time in wartime needed to divert it would have stopped the airport from being developed.

Pupils from the few Perry Oaks cottages for more than a year travelled by taxi to avoid construction works, until its sludge-to-fertiliser farm led to the end of almost all its homes.