1.   DESCRIPTION

"Harefield is a parish and village in Elthorne hundred, Uxbridge union, rural deanery and county court district, 5 miles north from Uxbridge, and 21 from London, adjoining Ruislip on the north, at the north-west point of the county, bounded by Rickmansworth in Herts, and Denbam in Bucks. The parish church of St. Mary is a peculiar and donative of great antiquity, with square tower, 3 bells, clock, chancel, and ancient chapel on the south side of the chancel, exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, but subject to that of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, of which Charles Newdigate Newdegate, Esq., M.P., is sole ordinary, in which capacity he has refitted, enlarged and beautified this ancient church, having expended upwards of £3,000 upon its exterior and interior restoration: the church now affords accommodation for 550 persons; 160 new sittings have been added by the patron, for the accommodation of the parishioners; in the interior is an elegant monument to the Countess of Derby, who, in 1637, founded and endowed an almshouse for six poor widows; there are also several ancient monuments to the Newdegate family. This peculiar and donative has been in the Newdegate family (with but a small interval) since the reign of Edward III. The register dates from 1539. The annual value of the living is £64, in the gift of C. Newdigate Newdegate, Esq., M.P., and held by the Rev. Robert cave Wood Collins, M .A., of Exeter College Oxford. Here are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans. Here are National Schools, built at the expense of C. Newdigate Newdegate, Esq. The parish is bounded on the west by the River Colne and the Grand Junction Canal, which runs parallel with it to West Drayton. A stream having it source in the north-eastern part of the parish, falls into the Colne at Cowley. Breakspere, half a mile south-east, the seat of William Wickham Drake, Esq., J.P., is an ancient mansion. The only Englishman who was Pope of Rome (by the title of Adrian IV} resided at this house between the eleventh and twelfth centuries; his name was Nicholas Breakspere. The population in 1861 was 1,546, and the area is 4,513 acres."
Parish Clerk, Charles Filkins

From the Post Office Directory Middlesex 1866 published by CD Archive Books