Langley, also known as Langley Marish, is an area of Slough in Berkshire, South East England. It is two miles (3 km) east of Slough town centre and 18 miles (29 km) west of Charing Cross in Central London. It was a separate civil parish and village until the 1930s, when the built-up part of Langley was incorporated into Slough. Langley was in the historic county of Buckinghamshire, being transferred to the administrative county of Berkshire in 1974.
Etymology
The place-name Langley derives from two Middle English words: lang meaning long and leah, a wood or clearing. Langley was formed of a number of clearings: George Green, Horsemoor Green, Middle Green, Sawyers Green and Shreding Green. They became the sites for housing which merged into one village centred on the parish church in St Mary's Road. The clearings are remembered in the names of streets or smaller green fields.
Marish or Maries commemorates Christiana de Marecis who held the manor for a short time in the reign of Edward I.[3]
Langley Hall was built in the 17th century, but the façade was added in the 18th. In the early part of the 20th century it housed a preparatory school for boys and was known as Langley Place.[6]
The Hall then served as the Actor's Orphanage,[7] and was used by RAF Bomber Command during World War II, then by the Road Research Laboratory, Langley College and East Berkshire College.[6]
The Hawker Aircraft Company bought Parlaunt Farm at Langley in 1938 and built a major factory and airfield there. Over 9,000 military aircraft were manufactured at the site especially the Hurricane during World War II and also the Tempest and Sea Fury. The final Hurricane built (a MkIIC serialled PZ865, which still flies today with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) was completed here on 27 July 1944 and named 'Last of The Many' in a special ceremony. Retiring Chief Test Pilot P W S 'George' Bulman made the first flight of this the aeroplane on this occasion – he having made the first flight of the prototype from Brooklands almost nine years earlier.
The Hawker factory closed in 1958 having also manufactured Hawker Hunter fighters and earlier jet prototypes. Production and staff were transferred to the flight test airfield at Dunsfold Aerodrome and the parent Hawker factory in Kingston-on-Thames (now Kingston upon Thames), both in Surrey. Little of the factory or airfield remain today although the area's aviation past is remembered in street-names such as Spitfire Close and Hurricane Way. A marker stone was unveiled by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust on 5 October 2019.[9]
Ford
The Ford Motor Company opened a commercial vehicle component factory at Langley Airfield in 1949, and then bought the entire site from Hawker Siddeley in 1959. The former aircraft factory was re-used for commercial vehicle manufacture and the Ford Transit was built here until production was transferred to Ford's Southampton plant at Swaythling, Southampton, and later the Ford Cargo. The Langley factory became part of Iveco in 1986 but finally closed in September 1997. Demolished a year later by Gregory Demolition, the site is now redeveloped with new housing, offices and warehousing (including Royal Mail's International Mail Centre, which services nearby Heathrow Airport).
Miscellaneous
Langley Carnival is held annually on the second Saturday in July at the Langley Park Memorial Recreation Ground.
The Cable Corporation, based at Langley, was the first[citation needed] cable company in the world to offer voice, video and data services to business and residential users.
The first volume of writer Charles Tyrie's autobiography is titled The Langley Boy; Tyrie grew up in Langley in the 1940s and 1950s. ISBN1-4259-6403-6 / ISBN978-1-4259-6403-0
Langley is reputed to be haunted by a ghost in a yellow coat.[10]
On 15 December 2019, it became part of the Elizabeth line with services operated under TfL Rail branding until 24 May 2022.
Due to the addition of the Elizabeth line, the station was upgraded to include three new lifts along with a new ticket hall, new ticket office and new ticket gates.
Langley forms part of the unparished area of Slough. It therefore has no separate parish or community council, but is governed directly by Slough Borough Council.
Langley was formerly a separate parish, also known as Langley Marish or Langley Marsh.[11] From 1835 the parish formed part of the EtonPoor Law Union. When parish and district councils were established under the Local Government Act 1894, the parish of Langley was given a parish council and was included in the Eton Rural District. Following significant development in the southern part of the parish adjoining Slough, the area south of the Grand Union Canal (including the parish church and old village centre of Langley), was transferred into the parish and urban district of Slough on 1 April 1930. The residual, more rural, part of the parish north of the Grand Union Canal continued to be administered as a parish called Langley for another four years before being finally abolished, with most of the northern rural area being transferred into the parish of Wexham on 1 April 1934, and smaller areas being transferred at the same time to the parishes of Fulmer and Iver.[12]
^A domed temple in the park, c. 1740, attributed to Roger Morris, no longer exists; Colvin, H.M. (1997) [1954]. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (3rd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN0-300-07207-4.: s.v. "Leadbetter, Stiff", "Morris, Roger".
