Building Heathrow

Heath Row was once a hamlet in the middle of the Middlesex countryside (bottom left, north east of Staines). As we know from Douglas Adams and John Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff, the phrase "Aird of Sleat" is the name of an ancient Scottish curse placed from afar on the stretch of land now occupied by Heathrow Airport.

The airport was built there in 1946, and in this amazing film from the period you can see just how unbelievably idyllic the surroundings once were before the curse took effect.