by Nicholas Schofield

The De Burgh Arms originated in 1838, shortly after the opening of the nearby Great Western Railway station. Part of the building dates from the seventeenth century or earlier, and there was originally stabling for 40 horses.

It quickly became a popular haunt for locals and travellers alike, and for many years functioned as a hotel. Among those staying were visitors joining local hunts and patronising the race course, once situated on the meadows to the south of the station.

A hub for the community, the De Burgh Arms was used for meetings, auctions, and even coroner’s inquests for railway and canal deaths. A particularly tragic event occurred on 15 February 1856, when Elizabeth Ann Harris arrived at the De Burgh Arms with her three illegitimate children and her niece. Apparently en route to Portsmouth, they spent the afternoon here. Giving the baby to her niece, she then left with Ellen (aged 5) and Agnes (aged 2 ½), claiming that she was putting them to bed at the nearby Railway Arms. Instead, she took the two children to the canal and drowned them. Harris had previously been residing at the Uxbridge Workhouse; she was sentenced to death, though this was later commuted to transportation for life.

The De Burgh Arms takes its name from the family who were Lords of the Manor of West Drayton between 1786 and 1939. They lived for much of that time at Drayton Hall, where Hubert De Burgh had the honour of entertaining the exiled French emperor, Napoleon III, in 1872. Hubert died later the same year and, after his burial with military honours at St Martin’s, members of the Uxbridge Yeomanry Cavalry and Rifle Volunteers ‘marched to the De Burgh Arms, and partook of a cold collation.’

The pub made a brief appearance in the popular 1953 film Genevieve: the two couples competing in the London to Brighton car race are shown stopping there for an ice cream.