This was I think where my maternal grandfather had his smallholding, a couple of hundred yards north of the railway line to the west of Bedfont Lane and Southern Avenue. The land, like this building was derelict when I took this picture, and I don't know what these buildings once were and whether he would have used them.
 
But I think that the trees behind the chimney may be a part of the orchard he planted, now rather overgrown. Before this was built over as a part of the Bedfont Lane Estate in the 1990s, some years after I took the picture, I would look up shortly before my train drew into Feltham Station and see the orchard with its rows of small and rather gnarled trees. It was just to the west of Southern Ave and I don't think any of the trees have survived the redevelopment, though someone may have and old apple tree or two in their back garden.
 
My father told me that the orchard was never really a commercial success, as his father-in-law had planted too many different varieties of apple in it, one of every sort he could find, rather than choose a reliable variety and plant enough to get a good crop. At the time he planted his orchard this area had many market gardens, and the nearby village of Heathrow was covered with orchards, so there would have been be no lack of advice and example as to what would do well. Just on the other side of Heathrow, in Longford or Colnbrook was where Richard Cox found the king of apples, his Orange Pippin in 1830. His grave is in the churchyard at Harmondsworth.