Cycling The Colne Valley: The Colne Valley Regional Park was founded in 1965 but its development has been rather frustrated over the years, with the M25 being built along much of it and the M4 and M40 passing through, not to mention the increasing development of Heathrow – and if it ever goes ahead the third runway will cut a huge swathe through it.
The park stretches from Rickmansworth in the north to Staines in the south, and my bike ride on September 1st 2004 was only in the southern half of it, from Staines to Harefield and back.
Lock and bridge, Grand Union Canal, near Harefield, Middlesex.
Somewhere close to West Drayton was a finger post showing a bridleway – the Colne Valley Trail – to Staines. I rode and walked past it on various occasions; it led just a few yards to a fence and a firmly locked gate. More than 20 years later the trail has still not managed to reach Staines, though the map on the park site shows it now ending on the Colnbrook Bypass, so perhaps some progress has been made.
Weirs; Grand Union canal is out of picture to the right
As my account in 2004 below suggests, it was in some ways a frustrating ride, but the Grand Union Canal always has some interest as I hope the photos show. And there are some good short rides and walks in the park as well as places worth a visit – including Harmondsworth with its Great Barn – the village and others will be destroyed if Heathrow gets another runway and the barn may not survive being moved.
Here’s what I wrote in 2004.
On my bike
Staines – Harefield – Staines
Reflections on the Colne/Grand Union canal
September seems like the end of summer, but started with some of the best weather we’ve had this year, so I felt like a bike ride. I’m still waiting for the bridle path from Staines to West Drayton to open, so it started with the normal dusty trek up past the edge of the airport. A skeletal T5 (or are they building T6 or T7 as well) looms immense and threatening over the surrounding countryside, but there are no decent views past the fences and screening trees. I push on up to Harefield at speed before descending to the canal, only to find that I’ve picked the one bit of towpath that is actually closed for repair work.
New housing by Grand Union Canal, Harefield, MiddlesexOffice development on former industrial site next to Grand Union Canal, near HarefieldOffices along Grand Union Canal, Uxbridge, Middlesex
So I take some other footpaths, and don’t so much get lost as overcome with uncertainty as one of these disappears in the middle of a gravel site.
I give up and take to the main road, soon to discover it’s a mistake. Eventually I get back to the canal and cycle back along the towpath all the way back to West Drayton to curse again the barred bridle path and the busy traffic and bicycle hostile road engineering – now in the rush hour – past the airport.
Christmas Decorations: Twenty-two years ago I was younger and fitter and my doctor had told me to take plenty of exercise, which for me meant riding a bike. On one of these rides at the start of December I came across a house which had been decorated for Christmas and took a quick snap with the little Canon Ixus which was always in my pocket. I decided it would be an interesting project to photograph, particularly at night. I posted on a CIX photography forum asking for information about where there were houses worth photographing, but found a few others myself.
The Ixus wasn’t really up to this – as I wrote then, “they are .. very difficult to photograph well. In full darkness the contrast between the lights and the rest of the scene is too high. If you want to take pictures, then try and do so at twilight, when there is still enough light around to see clearly. The lupine hour is the best time for most ‘night’ photography.” There were just a few where I found a little flash could help but more often it ruined the effect.
During December 2003 I loaded the bag on my Brompton with my 6Mp Nikon D100, the first really affordable digital SLR and tied on a large Manfrotto tripod and either rode from home or went by train to various areas of London, riding around an taking photographs in late afternoon or early evening.
And of course I posted some of the pictures on My London Diary and wrote a piece about Christmas and the pictures – which is below- with minor corrections.
Christmas is on its way, and houses all over Britain are beginning to display the signs, some more tastefully than others. Some I’ve found are rather impressive, others I find amusing, but your opinions may well differ.
Christmas has almost completely lost the connection it had to the nativity, and the ‘Christmas Story’ is now one of cash registers and a Santa Claus who owes as much to advertising as to Saint Nicholas.
Originally of course this was a pagan festival from over 4000 years ago, the feast of the Goddess of Nature, an occasion for drinking, gluttony and gifts, so perhaps we really are getting down to our roots for once. Many celebrations, especially those for Yule (the ‘wheel’ or sun) were on the Winter Solstice – the shortest daylight, usually on Dec 21 or 22, when the rebirth of the sun was celebrated.
Pope Julius I decided it would be a good idea for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25 back in 350AD, so that Christians could go on celebrating yule and not feel bad about it, celebrating the birth of the Son of God while others were celebrating the birth of the sun. Though Christmas as we knew it only came in around the 1500s in Germany, many of its customs only really coming here when Victoria married Albert.
Our modern picture of Santa developed in the USA in the mid nineteenth century, particularly in the drawings of Thomas Nast for ‘Harpers’ magazine, and the jovial fat bearded man in red and white was well-established before Haddon Sundbloom annexed him for his fantastically successful coke adverts. Although Coke didn’t invent Santa, it was largely the power of their advertising that sold him to the world.
These decorated houses, often an attempt to go one better than the Joneses, have become an urban folk art. One of the glories of folk art is that it is seldom polite or tasteful, sometimes incredibly kitsch and over the top. Despite my misgivings on grounds of religion, ecology, upbringing and reserve I love them. at the very least they add a little colour to our lives.
The 15th was a glorious December day, cold but with a clear blue sky and sun. I took the Brompton on the train to Angel Road, then spent a couple of hours around there before heading north to Ponders End, further up the Lea Valley. around here there are still some of many industries that once filled much of the lower lea.
As it got dark I went to Enfield, in search of some houses I’d been told about, then on to North Tottenham and New Southgate and finally West Finchley. Somewhere I tried to cycle where the council had left a flower bed in the pavement and went flying, with rather painful results, but fortunately I don’t seem to have broken anything.
The weather was still good a couple of days later as I reached Rotherhithe in late afternoon, with a post-sunset glow along the Thames. Much of the Surrey Docks redevelopment seems sadly suburban and the new riverside flats depress by their lack of imagination, but there are some fine views along the river: even Canary Wharf can look good from a distance.
Here were a couple more houses with Christmas decorations worth photographing, before I leapt onto the east london line to new cross. Unfortunately there diddn’t seem to be any trains running to Hither Green from there (despite the timetable) but it was only a couple of miles to cycle.
The lights in Newstead Road are perhaps the most impressive of any I’ve seen, but I can’t really find a good way to photograph them, and there are too many people around. Apparently last year they raised £3000 for charity.
Back on my bike to the station, train to Waterloo and then another to Raynes Park and a cycle down Grand Drive to Lower Morden Lane, with fingers cold because I lost a glove on the way to Rotherhithe. This street is impressive for the number of houses with decorations, and the queue of cars driving slowly past to admire them. but none of them are really exceptional, and there wasn’t a lot to photograph.
So its back on the Brompton to Raynes Park and a couple of trains home. It was great to come in and find a hot dinner in the oven waiting for me.