Headstone Manor and Museum
Headstone Museum, also known as Harrow Museum, is the local history museum for the London Borough of Harrow in England. It opened in 1986 and is in the grounds of Headstone Manor, a site that has records dating back to 825 AD. The whole site is a scheduled monument, and Headstone Manor is a Grade I listed, moated timber-framed house built around 1310. It is the oldest surviving timber-framed building in Middlesex, and the surrounding moat is the only filled moat left in the county.
Over the centuries, the manor was owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury. In 1344 Archbishop John de Stratford expanded the land and used the site as his main Middlesex residence. It stayed in church ownership until 1546, when Henry VIII took it and sold it to Edward North. It remained in private hands for about four centuries, during which the building was extended and redesigned, including paneling of the great hall in 1631 and a brick façade added in the 1770s.
The manor is surrounded by a water-filled moat, dating from the same period as the oldest parts of the house. By 1925 the site was bought by the local council, and after local government changes it came under the London Borough of Harrow. After years of disrepair, the site was turned into the home of Harrow Museum, which opened in 1986. Restoration began in 2004, starting with the oldest parts of the building.
A key building at Headstone Manor is the Great Barn, built in 1506 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This oak-framed barn, 43 metres long and nine metres high, is Grade II* listed. It was restored in the 1970s and opened as part of the museum in 1986. In 2014 work began to transform the Great Barn into a function space.
Opposite the Great Barn is the Small Barn, which dates to the 14th century. It was originally two end-to-end buildings used for livestock. It was badly damaged by fire in the 1970s and was rebuilt and reopened in autumn 2017 with archaeological exhibitions and a film. The Small Barn is Grade II listed.
The Granary is another Grade II listed building. It was not built as part of Headstone Manor; it originally stood about a mile away at Pinner Park Farm as a cattle feed store. It was moved to the Harrow Museum site in 1991 and opened to the public in 1992. After restoration, the Granary now serves as a learning space.
The Moat Café and Visitor Centre nearby offers coffee, snacks and a shop selling gifts. The centre also has a disabled toilet and baby changing facilities. It is open every day except Monday. There is a free car park at Pinner View, about 100 metres from the entrance, and bike racks are available.
The Harrow Museum collection contains more than 15,000 objects connected to Harrow’s social and industrial history, including items from the Eastman Kodak factory, Whitefriars Glass and the Hamilton paint factory. The museum also holds many archaeological objects, spanning from prehistoric times to the recent past. Excavations at the site have uncovered prehistoric and Roman pottery, and the Small Barn’s foundations date back to the 14th century, showing the long history of the area.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:52 (CET).