Heath Row was a small hamlet along a minor country lane called Heathrow Road in the ancient parish of Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

Heath Row’s buildings and all associated holdings were demolished in 1944 for the construction of London Airport.

During the Second World War, the decision was made to locate Britain’s principal civil airport. The use of wartime powers circumvented the need for a public inquiry.

In just a few months in 1944, four square miles of concrete and tarmac buried centuries of history. The ghosts of residents past didn't get to tell their story. Here, we try to put some of that right...

To answer an oftasked question, the mapping software used can be found at www.theundergroundmap.com

And the second oftasked question is “which of the shots in the old film used depict Heath Row and which shots are simply 1940s stock footage?” The answer is that all of the movie footage depicts scenes within the confines of the modern airport from farmers to surveyors to children playing to demolitions. It’s all Heath Row 19441946.