The capital city's waterways
I wrote this about 10 years ago for the internet. Here it is once again published for #AdaLovelaceDay Astute readers may notice a connection with Little Venice even though I havent exactly mentioned it here 🙂 Ockham is a village in Surrey, England. Just off the A3 London to Guildford road. It was originally known as Bocheham (Domesday Book of 1086.) […]
Read moreThe Surrey Iron Railway pages have now been added. This,with the McMurrays canal feature, covers the history and route of one of the earliest public railways between the River Thames and Croydon. SiR 1 – McMurrays Canal SiR 2 – Surrey Iron Railway SiR 3 – Through Wandsworth SiR 4 – Wandsworth to Earlsfield SiR 5 – Summerstown to New […]
Read moreThe Olympic legacy is killing London’s creative culture. This article discusses how the 2012 legacy’s screwing artists based along the Lee Navigation at Fish Island. Clearly the gentrification disease continues to spread througout London’s waterways. Prices are pushing out many of London’s creative artists with some saying they will have to relcate to different parts of England or even venture […]
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Today (2nd Sept) a leaflet dropped through the letter box. It details plans for a East-West cycle superhighway. Clearly this could provide some partial relief for the oversubscribed Regent’s Canal towpath route when one considers this along with the Barking to Tower Gateway route. The two routes combined would provide a through cycle route from Barking to Little Venice and […]
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Salter’s Cut was a 500yd cut opened in 1804 (or 1805 as some sources claim) and served Salter & Co’s Brewery, but later also extended to serve a gravel pit (now Sabey’s Pool) and Rickmansworth Gasworks. Here we look at the lock on the branch to Sabey’s Pool and the site of Town Wharf. 1) Sabey’s Canal and lock Looking […]
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This was a 500yd cut opened in 1804 (or 1805 as some sources claim) and served Salter & Co’s Brewery. The firm’s director, Stephen Salter, paid for the river to be canalised. This was the course of the River Chess, deepened and widened, to permit boats to reach the brewery. Known as Salter’s Cut, invariably it was later extended to […]
Read moreThe Navigation offices were at Friary Street, long since demolished, and now the site of the new road that passes between the Rodborough Buildings and Debenhams. The site included a wharf, warehouses and a treadmill crane which still exists. The Navigations office in Friary Street, Guildford in the sixties. Picture by permission of the National Trust (with whom the copyright […]
Read moreShalford railway bridge carries the Reading – Redhill/Gatwick route. Major refurbishment took place during 2007/2008 and the offside channel was dredged so boats can now use both arches. Broadford – lovely early morning summer scene Stonebridge Wharf. This was regularly serviced by barges off the nearby Wey and Arun Junction canal and by powder barges which took gunpowder from nearby […]
Read moreThe Town Mill at Guildford. This used to be the unofficial terminus of the Wey Navigation beyond Town Wharf – until 1764 when the Godalming Navigation opened. Despite the older and narrower Town bridge below Millmead records show that barges squeezed through to serve the Mills. The Toll House is the small brick building on the far end of the […]
Read moreGeneral view of Stoke lock with Beauchamp (not the electric powered one!) The navigation passes the large Slyfield Industrial Park as it makes it way to rejoin the river by Stoke bridge. The start of the ‘flowing river’ constructed by Sir Richard Weston in 1618 was to the left of the lock. The lock’s access road follows in part the […]
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