Restoration Project

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Harlington - A Millennium of History and Significance

Whilst nationally known for certain if its building features, the fabric of St Peter and St. Paul displays evidence of some 900 years of continuous worship, care and careful conservation.

The Church and manor are undoubtedly Saxon but the earliest extant fabric is generally held to be that of the naïve and the south door. Whist the pillars of the door were reinstated in the late 1800’s, the door itself is original and extremely significant: Pevsner ranked it as the finest Norman door in outer London, its ornamentation is generally held to be equal of examples such as Patrixbourne in Kent.

Apart from the north aisle, the modern ground plan was established between 1300 and 1500, the chancel was built in the 14th century and the south porch is thought to date to the early 16th century.

The porch is problematic. It’s date is base upon the woodwork – the existing foundations are Victorian – but it has always been a badly fitted to the door. Indeed, prior to 1880 the situation was even worse, as the porch sat lower than it does now and the ornamation of the door had to be partly cut away to allow it to fit. Thus, whist the woodwork may be 16th century, it has always been suspected that the structure was imported from elsewhere and placed here at some unknown date prior to the late 18th century. The surmise that it may have originated as a lych gate appears to be no more than that: it was offered in the early 20th century as a possible explanation for the apparent incompetence of the fit.

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 Scott, the main features of which were

• The render which had covered the body of the church was removed to expose the flint and repair work to the tower – carried out in 1867 – was completed. Intriguingly, Scotts original report anticipated retaining the exterior render

• The west gallery of the 1840s was removed to expose the lower arch and the lost accommodation (required by faculty to be replaced) was gained by creating a north aisle and a new vestry. Windows and doors from the original nave well were reused in the new aisle.

• The nave and chancel ceilings were removed to expose the 14th century beams.

• A baptistery centred upon the 12th century font was created below the west tower.

• The existing chancel arch was inserted, the original having been replaced at some point with a wooden arch considered to be placed in the nave.

• The Bennet monument was removed from its position which blocked the easternmost window of the south wall and placed in the nave.

• The brick base of the porch was re-built and the porch slightly raised to expose more of the Norman door. The cut-away portions of the door were replaced and the columns of the door – having been previously replace with flat bricks – were restored with flat bricks – were restored on the basis of a found piece of surviving stonework.

Scott’s work was followed by further embellishment: new alter rails were installed and the east window tracery replaced in 1893, the glass dates to 1973; the baptistery was paneled and provided with a memorial window and a new west door in 1907-1908, new pews were added in the 1920s.

The Church’s physical setting remained largely unchanged until World War II, although a complex arrangement of ecclesiastical and civil graveyards led to no fewer than four separate burial grounds of differing tenure. For centuries, of course, the most remarked upon element of the Church yard was its ancient yew- though to be at least 500-600 years old and kept until 1825 in quite a remarkable topiary form. The tree partially collapsed in the late 1950’s when it was stuck by lighting but apparently remains in reasonable health.

Although Harlington remained as an independent parish until the creation in 1930 of the Urban District of Hayes and Harlington, the development with most impact upon the setting of the Church and village was obviously the war time and post war development of Heathrow Airport. Nonetheless, in spite of its 20th century setting, the Church remains of national as well as local significance: national for the quality of its building elements and local as a witness to almost a millennium of worship and collective parochial memory.