‘Blissful’: Heathrow airport standstill brings rare silence to nearby villages

Andrew Melville in Harmondsworth: ‘Usually we get an early morning call and a late-night goodnight.’ Photograph: George Cracknell Wright/The Guardian

Chirping birds and unbroken skies come as standard in many English villages, though not in Harmondsworth – which lies under Heathrow’s flight path. But Friday was different.

“It’s been peace and tranquillity,” said 72-year-old Andrew Melville, who has lived in the village, which straddles the border of London and Berkshire, for 49 years. “Especially not being woken up by transatlantic flights in the early morning.”