The present location would have been fine but they allowed all that building of houses and other clutter around it when I went there to work in 1947 all you could see was fields and market gardens and now with the growth of the big jets and the popularity of air travel it has got hemmed in.
I believe there was always a plan to build a 3rd runway across the other side of the A4 some of my work mates lived in houses in that area and the land was owned by B.A.A and that was in the 60s.
It not the Ideal place with its fog and the closness to the Resevoirs but there was only 1 to the west at that time so leave it alone it has now got rail ,bus travel but I must admit a creaky road system. Its biggest mistake was to have all the terminals in the center untill 4 and 5.