Genealogy Australia

For centuries Hayes was a quiet farming community, but the building of the Grand Union Canal precipitated it into the industrial age. The growing importance of the Great West Road (and later, the vast development of Heathrow airport) led to the area's popularity with large companies, such as EMI, Fairey Aviation and Harrison's, the printers of banknotes and postage stamps.

For many years, the working population, arriving daily on the Great Western Railway, overwhelmed the facilities of what was little more than a village, but today the fields are covered with housing.