The church was embellished and maintained from the 16th century onwards with a number of memorial brasses, some fine monuments, memorial windows, an 18th century cupola to the tower and the insertion of a west gallery in the 1840s. The existing form of the building however dates to a comprehensive and sensitive restoration of 1880 by J. Oldrid Scot.
Once a rural village, surrounded by farmland and orchards, Harlington's traditional appearance survived until the 1950's. Today, it is predominantly a suburban area whose development has been heavily affected by the expansion of Heathrow Airport during the last sixty years. In contrast, amidst the noise and bustle of the community to which it now ministers, the Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul, provides an oasis of unchanging calm for both worshipper and visitor alike.
The earliest direct reference we have to Christian worship at Harlington is derived from the Domesday Survey of 1086. It records the existence of a priest with a land holding of half a hide (approximately 50 acres). Whilst a few examples of Saxon stone churches exist, it is more likely that any pre-Conquest church in Harlington would have been made from wood . As the flint and rubble construction of the present church, and others like it reveal, there was no local stone to be quarried in Middlesex, leaving wood as the only realistic alternative.
Although the whole of England had nominally embraced Christianity by the 7th century, we do not know when it first took root in Harlington or Herdintone, as the Domesday Survey refers to it. However, a passing reference to a place called Hygeredingtun, (the earliest known name for Harlington) is in a royal document dated 831 A.D. This takes us back another 255 years to the reign of King Wiglaf of Mercia. The king granted Wulfred, the Archbishop of Canterbury, some land in the vicinity of Hayes, whose westernmost border was Hygeredingtun. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that the presence of such an important ecclesiastical neighbour, would have hastened Harlington's conversion to Christianity, if it had not happened already.
At the published co-ordinates you should be on the pavement at the front of the church, where you will see a memorial erected in proud and loving memory of the men from this parish that fell in The Great War 1914-1918.
You will need to look and note down
The number of men listed with the surname Gibbs
The number of men listed with the surname Taylor
The number of men listed with the surname Bristow
The number of men listed with the surname De Salis
The number of men listed with the surname Williams
The number of men listed with the surname Eldridge
The number of men listed with the surname Tubb
The number of men listed with the surname Crutchfield
The number of men listed with the surname Rolfe
The number of men listed with the surname White
Now take a walk around the church tower. How many sides of the tower have clock faces on ?
The final cache can be found at at….
N51 29.((Taylor x Williams) + Tubb)) (de Salis + White) ((Gibbs + Eldridge) x Rolfe)
and
W000 26.(Bristow – White) (Crutchfield + Tubb) (No. Of Clockfaces)
…..which is a very short walk away, but it’s not in the church grounds so don’t look there.
Happy Hunting.
Congratulations to pfoagain and Lindylew on Joint FTF
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
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