[1] Hounslow Heath has had major historical importance, originally crossed by main routes from London to the west and southwest of Britain.

[2][3][4] The eventual mapping of the whole of the United Kingdom by the Ordnance Survey began with the measuring of an accurate base-line on Hounslow Heath, chosen for its flatness and its relative proximity to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

By 1900, the heath was still in use as a training ground for horse-mounted cavalry based at Hounslow Barracks, a gun shooting range, and adjacent army medical units including an isolation hospital.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was established, that developed to become a fighter aircraft defence and training base.

On 10 April 2016, another memorial to the aerodrome was unveiled and dedicated by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust immediately south of the car park beside the Staines Road.

In 1999, excavations on the former Feltham Marshalling Yards to the south of the heath unearthed remains of an Iron Age furnace and post holes from a round house.

[4][9] Hounslow Heath is a designated local nature reserve[10][11] and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation,[12] and is made up of lowland heath, dry acid grassland, woodland, scrub, neutral grasslands, wetlands, wildflower meadows, providing a wild, rugged country setting with a large network of paths.