I had never heard the farmer story but it always struck me as odd that so much land close to LHR remained as open farmland for decades and I always assumed that it was somehow safeguarded perhaps by that rarest creature the far seeing bureaucrat.
The area south of the airport is pretty much a no no with a huge fuel farm lots more hosues and a hulking great reservoir to be disposed of before you even get to the listed status of Stanwell church , 1120 or similar so its north of LHR or nothing