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This page was last updated on 17 May 2007

The following is adapted from an article by Douglas Rust in the West Drayton and District Historian - The Chronicles of the West Drayton and District Local History Society, Issue 114 dated September 1996.

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To regular travellers on the main A4 road - locally known as the Bath Road - the demolition of the Peggy Bedford Hotel in September 1995 seemed an act of vandalism.  The building had stood for almost 70 years on the junction of the A4 Colnbrook Bypass and the B3378 - the old coaching road to Bath - which runs through Longford and Colnbrook, re-joining the Bypass at Brands Hill.

The Peggy Bedford photographed in the 1930's from the Colnbrook Bypass.

The unusual name had a significance not known to many locals - let alone motorists stopping for refreshments.

The building itself was a Mock Tudor inter-war building with pseudo half-timbering and was finished in the Elizabethan style.  It was visually pleasing, attractive and comfortable.  It was destroyed to make way for a petrol station and a drive-in McDonalds.

So why is a 70 year old building being mentioned on the history pages of this site?  First we need to go back to 1782.  Peggy Bedford was born in August of that year to John and Mary Bedford, the licensees of the King's Head Inn in Longford.  The earliest mention of the Bedford family at the inn is dated 1775.  She was christened on the 9th August 1782 by the vicar of St Mary's, Harmondsworth, a Rev. Robert Burt.  The same clergyman illegally married the Prince of Wales to Mrs Fitzherbert in 1785, although not at Harmondsworth.   The christening ceremony took place in the public house itself.

Peggy was the second child born to John and Mary who had married in Harmondsworth in December 1778.  Their first child, Joseph Henry, was christened on 5th March 1781 at the Kings Head Inn as were all the succeeding children.  Five children followed including Peggy.  It was Peggy whose name was to be immortalised.

The King's Head Inn in the early 1930s, by then known as the old Peggy Bedford.

  The Kings Head Inn stood about 60 yards east of the Duke of Northumberland's river.  It is not to be confused with the current pub of a similar name in Longford.  Colnbrook was regarded as the first major coaching station west of London and was the second changing town for horses - Hounslow being the first - but the taverns of Longford would always try to catch the first or last of the coaches. 

Highwaymen regularly robbed coaches and their passengers on Hounslow Heath

Longford also took advantage of the terrible road conditions that prevailed at that time: flooding and the enormous obstacle of fording the three rivers that ran through the hamlet - hence the name.  The King's Head Inn was fully prepared.  At the height of its popularity it could boast stabling for over 60 horses as well as vegetable gardens and orchards.  It was as good as any inn or hotel further down the road in Colnbrook.

The King's Head Inn in its heyday had four guest sitting rooms, nine bedrooms, spacious stabling with barns as well as pig sties, cow stalls and a fish pond for the table.  The gardens were extensive and in all, the property covered over thirteen acres. When the buildings were demolished in 1934, two dates, 1691 and 1756, were found incorporated in the chimneys.

An entry in the records of the churchwardens in Harmondsworth shows that in 1792, John Bedford was a church warden and in that year, Miss Bedford of Longford was paid £2-6s for wine.  This supports the view that wine was made in the village around that time.  In the following year, Miss Bedford received £1-18s for wine.

John Bedford died in 1794 aged 54 and his wife Mary died thirteen years later in 1807 aged 51.  It would seem that the King's Head Inn was jointly run by Peggy and her brother Joseph after their mother died.  Peggy became the sole proprietor in 1833 when Joseph died.  It is reputed that on one occasion when Queen Victoria was on her way to Windsor, the coach in which she was travelling stopped at the King's Head Inn.  During the Queen's stay, Peggy cared for the young baby, the Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward the Seventh.

In 1838, Peggy leased a cottage and garden belonging to the Society of Friends: this would have been the cottage opposite, now known as Longford Cottage or the Quaker House.  She was given notice to quit in 1856 for failing to pay her rent, a debt not settled until after her death.

Peggy died on the 2nd of February 1859 and was buried in Harmondsworth with her brothers and parents.

The inn was auctioned in May 1859 and the new landlord was Thomas Blondell of Harmondsworth.  Sometime between then and 1889, the King's Head Inn was badly damaged by fire; it was rebuilt and about this time the name 'The Peggy Bedford Inn' seems to appear.  It is mentioned as such on mortgage papers dated 1888.  In the next 30 years, both names seem to be used.   It is assumed that the official name was still the King's Head Inn and the local name The Peggy Bedford.

In the late 1920's, plans for the Colnbrook Bypass were approved.  The brewery who owned the building realised that trade would suffer as a result and decided to construct a new hotel on the junction of the new road.  In February 1927 the formal decision was made to close the old Peggy Bedford and work soon started on the new building.  On 19th October 1928 the new Peggy Bedford was formally opened.

The new Peggy Bedford and Colnbrook Bypass around 1929.  This aerial view shows the recently constructed Peggy Bedford and the eastern end of the Bypass still under construction.

Just eight days earlier the old Peggy Bedford was sold by auction.  It was then ran as an occasional guest house.

In 1921, Walter Edward Shubrook and Ethel Mabe Shubrook became landlord and landlady of the King's Head Inn, by then known as the Peggy Bedford Hotel.  They transferred over to the new Peggy Bedford in 1928.   Walter died in May 1930, aged 58 and Ethel died in 1948, aged 72 years.  They are both buried in Harmondsworth within 200 metres of Peggy Bedford herself.

At 11.25 on Monday evening, 22nd January 1934, a fire broke out in one of the main rooms of the old Peggy Bedford.  Despite the best efforts of the Harmondsworth Fire Brigade, by seven o'clock the next morning the building was a steaming ruin with only one wing partially remaining.  The new Peggy Bedford supplied tea and refreshments to the firemen from 2a.m.

The old King's Head Inn was gone.  Out of the rubble were constructed three new properties: Longford House, The Stables - a fair portion of this building had been saved from the fire; and the appropriately named Phoenix Cottage.  It was said that Oliver Cromwell and his roundheads were supposed to have gathered here and even Charles II and Nell Gwynne on their way to Windsor.  Longford had lost a house steeped in history.

The Colnbrook Bypass was fully opened to traffic in 1929 and by that time the new Peggy Bedford was well established.  But in time it experienced a similar fate.

One night in 1937, an electrical fault led to the whole upper floor and roof being virtually destroyed.   The building was saved and the bars were opened the next day but it was some months before the hotel rooms were again available.

During the Second World War enemy bombs fell across Heathrow narrowly missing the Peggy Bedford by a few yards and causing minor damage.  In the late 1960's, the building was again damaged by a minor fire caused by a faulty neon sign fixed to the gables.

With the Peggy Bedford in the background, spectators wait in 1953 for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to drive past on their way to Windsor soon after the Coronation.

The Peggy Bedford finally fell to the commercial realities of the early 1990's which deemed a petrol station and a fast-food outlet more important than preserving a building used as both a hotel and a public house with direct links to Longford's coaching past.

In 2002/03, the grave of Peggy Bedford and the graves of Walter and Ethel Shubrock are under threat from the proposed new third runway at Heathrow.  Please just let them rest in peace!

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