Hayes parish extends from Wood End in the north to Botwell in the south.

Hayes Town, or Cotman's Town as it was also called, was one of the least settled parts of the parish for most of its history. In the 1590s there were only twelve houses in Hayes Town, all close to St Mary the Virgin parish church.

Even today, Hayes Town retains much of its quiet, almost rural character.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the centre of Hayes Town comprised a small group of shops and residential buildings.

These included Wistowe House, a seventeenth century building refronted in the nineteenth century, home between 1908 and 1914 to photographic pioneer B J Edwards.

Other buildings included Barden Cottage, Providence Villas, Porch House and Craven House.

Hayes Town was home at various dates to a butchers, provision merchants and a post office – established in 1887 by Mrs Ann Calf.

Hayes Town (Congregational) Chapel was founded in 1788. It was enlarged in the nineteenth century but demolished in 1959. It was closed between 1829 and 1842 due to internal dissension.

Nearby were the Royal Oak public house, and the Queen's Head pub on the corner of Church Green.

The building began life as a rectory, but was divided in 1913 into two cottages – The Hawthorns and The Briars.

Later in the 1910s the cottages combined to form Hawthorns High School for Boys, where Eric Blair – better known as writer George Orwell – taught from 1932 to 1933.

The sixteenth century lych gate, swivelling around a central wooden pillar, is unique among west Middlesex churches.

The railings to the left of the lych gate originally belonged to Hayes Court, home of the wealthy Minet family from 1766. The Minets were originally French Huguenot refugees who held most of the land around what is now Central Avenue.

Hayes Court was possibly the old Hayes manor house. It was demolished in 1968.

In the nineteenth century, there was a village lock up (or cell) to the left of the green, as well as a fire engine shed.

The oldest part of the church is the chancel, which dates from the thirteenth century, though virtually the entire building was built before the sixteenth century.

One of the earliest memorials inside the church is to one of its rectors, Robert Levee, c1370.

Also commemorated is Sir Edward Fenner, Judge of the King's Bench from 1611 to 1612.

There is a sixteenth century wall painting on the north aisle of St Christopher carrying the infant Christ, with an accompanying mermaid, fish and eel.

Church Walk was the site of the original Dr Triplett's School, which opened in 1863 and closed in 1969 when the current school was established in Hemmen Lane. The school housed 330 children – over 40 in each class.

The school was founded by the Rev Dr Triplett, who lived in Wood End House from 1649 to 1660 near the present site of the Beck Theatre.

Dr Triplett was buried in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Once called Fleet Lane, this quiet road was renamed after John Neville Freeman, vicar of Hayes, 1792-1843.

On one side of the road stood number 18, erected circa 1830 by the Hunt family as a Sunday school. It was a neat, brick and timber-framed building with a small garden.

In 1884 the house was the site of a murder. Elizabeth Gibbons was accused of shooting her husband. Though she protested her innocence she was sentenced to fifteen years' in prison.

This road was named after Judge John Heath, who served in the Court of Common Pleas for thirty years from 1780.

He was notoriously severe in his sentencing, and favoured hanging in all capital cases.

Barra Hall was originally called Grove House.

In the late eighteenth century it was home to Alderman Harvey Coombe, later Lord Mayor of London.

Around 1871 it was bought by auctioneer and surveyor Robert Reid. He refaced the building in the Scots baronial style.

The building later became the town hall for Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council.

The park was opened in 1923. The 1934 Hayes Gala in the park was visited by British actress and singer Jessie Matthews, who was born behind a butcher's shop in Soho and went on to star in a string of stage and film musicals.

This community-based theatre once stood on farmland – part of Rectory Farm.

The theatre was built by the London Borough of Hillingdon from a bequest by Councillor Alfred Beck. It opened in 1977.

The adjoining Norman Leddy Memorial Gardens were originally the site of Wood End House, which had its own large ornamental garden as well as a walled fruit and vegetable garden.

In the early 1900s the house became a private nursing home. It was later the headquarters of the Hayes Parks Department, but was later demolished.

Originally the Hayes Botanic Gardens, they were renamed in 1993 in memory of an Assistant Director of Parks.