Hayes is a town in west London, situated 13 miles (21 km) west of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, Hayes became part of the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1965. The town's population was recorded as 95,763 in the 2011 census.
Hayes has a long history. The area appears in the Domesday Book (1086). Landmarks in the area include the Grade II* listed Parish Church, St Mary's - the central portion of the church survives from the twelfth century and it remains in use (the church dates back to 830 A.D. - and Barra Hall, a Grade II listed manor house. The town's oldest public house - the Adam and Eve, on the Uxbridge Road - though not the original seventeenth-century structure, has remained on the same site since 1665.
Hayes is best known as the erstwhile home of EMI. The words "Hayes, Middlesex" appear on the reverse of The Beatles' albums, which were manufactured at the town's Old Vinyl Factory. The town is the location of the U.K. headquarters of companies including: Heinz, United Biscuits, Fujitsu, and Rackspace U.K.
Notable historical residents include the early modern "father of English music", William Byrd, and a pre-eminent figure of twentieth-century English literature, George Orwell.
The place-name Hayes comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning (land overgrown with) brushwood. The town's name is spelt Hessee in a 1628 entry in an Inquisition post mortem held at The National Archives.
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