During the construction of the new Uxbridge Library in 1985-1987, sections of timber framing to a much earlier building were discovered.

Careful investigation of this framing suggested that the original building did in fact consist of two separate parts.

12-14 High Street - A three bay 'wealdon' type hall house of the late 15th Century incorporating a central double height bay.

15-17 High Street - A three bay building of the 16th Century with evidence of a chimney to the rear of the central bay.

Having been carefully recorded these timber frames were dismantled and carefully stored. Today, some of these may be seen in the fully restored building in the Piazza as part of The Chimes development.

At the beginning of the 19th Century the most important activity in Uxbridge was the market and the mills connected with it. It was generally known as the largest pitched corn mill in the country and the mills supplied London with the bulk of its flour.

Early in the morning, even by 5 or 6 o'clock the farmers' wagons loaded with corn began to arrive; many came from a considerable distance - from Shepherds Bush, Edgware, Hendon, Hampton and other places along the Thames.

At 8 o'clock the first market bell would ring when Lentern Corn, which is oats, barley and other spring corn sown at the time of Lent, was offered for sale. A second bell was then rung at 12 o'clock giving notice that the sale of wheat could commence.

When considering the name of the development, Capital Shopping Centres decided to reflect the enormous importance of the bell in the history of Uxbridge and settled upon the name 'The Chimes' as a direct reference to the past tradition.

Prior to the commencement of works on site an agreement with the Museum of London and The London Borough of Hillingdon was reached to carry out a full survey of the site. The results from the survey demonstrate three distinct phases of human activity with the site, each of which led to the following finds:

Indicative of a Bronze Age field system, the type of which covered most of the prehistoric landscape of London and beyond.

In the form of pits, ditches and postholes; together with the use of a double up-draught kiln of the type used during the 13th Century. The kiln would have produced a type of pottery known as Denham Ware, a black, gritty pottery used mainly for cooking pots and bowls that would have been sold in the town on market days. Many hundreds of fragments of Denham Ware were found on the site.

Activity relating to anything later than approximately the 16th Century was demonstrated by the discovery of two chalk floors to post-medieval buildings. A large timber lined tanning pit dating from the18th/19th Century was also found; this would have been used to turn animal hides into leather by soaking them in an oak bark and water solution.