Walking the Lea Valley 3: Bromley by Bow to Stratford

A red telephone box, cut in two, straddles a path in the Olympic Park by the River Lea. Look carefully and you’ll see an inscription that runs around the glass panes:

   “Before you are spread the arteries of Victorian London. Once busy with boats, by 2005 these were polluted and largely disused. London 2012 unclogged them of 34,144 tonnes of rubbish and brought them back to life.”

And that was really the theme of this month’s Lea Valley walk, although the arteries we discovered were also serving London back in Saxon times. We started at Bromley by Bow on a misty November morning, and once past the roaring traffic on the A102, turned right, and crossed a bridge which spans both the Limehouse Cut and the Lea, running parallel at this point.

Here we entered the picturesque enclave of Three Mills Island. Eight mills were recorded here in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Over the centuries they produced flour for the city’s bread and  gunpowder for the military.gunpowder for the military.

The picturesque Clock Mill (above) dates from 1817. Opposite is the House Mill, said to be the largest tidal mill in the country, and perhaps the world (tours on Sundays from May to October). Peering through the windows we could just see the huge water wheel, driven by high-tide water that was trapped behind a sluice and then released to drive it. 

On the wall is a coat of arms - probably put there by Daniel and Sarah Bisson when they built it in 1776. The third mill, a windmill, survived until 1840. The whole site is now a conservation area with cobbled streets, and home to London’s largest film and television studios. The path then led us round to the new Three Mills Green, the first of a series of planned park spaces that will connect the Olympic Park to the north with the Thames to the south. It’s on the banks of the Three Mills Wall River, where a huge amount of regeneration and redevelopment is going on.

In the distance to the east you can just glimpse the ornate roof of the Abbey Mills Pumping Station (1865 – 8). This Gothic masterpiece was the work of Joseph Bazalgette, chief engineer for the Metropolitan Board of Works, who created a network of sewers under London which was instrumental in relieving the city of cholera and began the cleansing of the Thames. It was designed to lift lower level sewage into the outfall and still operates as a backup for the new pumping station nearby.

We paused at a memorial sculpture with a dedication to four men who “lost their lives in a well beneath this spot on 12 July 1901.” It’s a tragic story of self-sacrifice. A working party had set out to investigate the well, which had been sealed off for ten years. The first to descend, Thomas Picket, was overcome by “foul air” – carbon dioxide –  apparently caused by rotting weeds in the remaining water. The three who successively tried to effect a rescue also succumbed, and by the time the Fire Brigade arrived, it was too late.

 Among those who died was Godfrey Maule Nicholson, Managing Director of the Nicholson Gin Distillery, the then owner of the Three Mills site and part of the famous gin family whose name still adorns many of the pubs around London today. The cross erected to mark the spot was replaced in 2001, the centenary of the tragedy, by the new ‘Helping Hands’ sculpture.We retraced our steps back to the Lea, and walked along the towpath, under the A11.

Just past here the Lea is joined by the Bow Back River – now overlooked by shiny new high-rise developments.

Here there’s a glimpse of the former Bryant and May match factory, the scene of the London matchgirls strike of 1888, prompted by the terrible working conditions. This led to the first British trade union for women. The red-brick building is now a gated community, the Bow Quarter. 

Now the river is clear of rubbish and pollutants, a number of birds have made it their home, among them this coot, poised above its watery reflection. Quite a few canal boats are moored here, some decorated...

...others more obviously working vessels.

They have to pass through Old Ford Lock, first built in 1769 and upgraded and improved in succeeding years. 

Old Ford was the site of a Roman crossing. It’s likely this was a bridge - forty timber piles were found in excavations at Dace Rd, close to the famous Formans smoked salmon headquarters and restaurant on the western river bank.

There’s another bit of history here: the company was founded more than 100 years ago by Harry Forman, who arrived in London from Russia and used his skill in smoking fish to start a family business, producing what is arguably the finest smoked salmon in the country, the London Cure. The factory was previously on the opposite side of the Lea, but had to relocate, along with 283 other businesses, when the site was chosen to house the 2012 Olympics. The new factory (above) dates from 2009 – its shape resembles a darne of salmon.

There’s quite a lot of imaginative graffiti along this stretch of the Lea, which now splits again into the river and the Lea Navigation, which here becomes the Hackney Cut. We followed the latter around the outskirts of the Olympic Park and caught a glimpse of the Hertford Union Canal (below), branching off to the west.

Lunch was in one of the many riverside restaurants, after which we headed south-east through the Queen Elizabeth Park to Stratford City and a train home. Leafy paths criss-cross the area, one of which took us past the deconstructed phone box (top) and its paean to the transformation of the area.

Nearby was  another example of what has been achieved – a rare ‘wet woodland’ on a former industrial site (above). By creating hollows and channels to encourage the land to become boggy and wet and planting black poplars and alders, it’s become a haven for plants and wildlife. There are fish, insects, kingfishers, goldfinches – and even perhaps, one day, otters. We'll have to return for them.

National Apple Day, October 21

On Friday, people across the country will be celebrating the apple – recognising the wealth and variety available in the UK. National Apple Day was started in 1990 by Common Ground in Covent Garden, and has since spread, with hundreds of events taking place. In NW London we have been playing our small part. Over the past few weeks the local fruit-harvesting group (part of the Abundance scheme) has picked more than 400 kg of fruit that neighbours couldn’t reach or didn’t want, and given the excess to charities. A couple of weekends ago we joined members of some other Brent picking groups at nearby Fryent Country Park and together gathered  a further 418kg, much of which went to the Sufra foodbank.

Hundreds of different varieties of apples are cultivated in the UK – Fryent’s 1000 fruit trees include 28 varieties of heritage apples, all grown organically and maintained by the Barn Hill Conservation Group. They include the Pinner Seedling, discovered in Harrow in 1834 and grafted on to root stock by the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale.

Some apples I found there have me puzzled – they look almost like a pear. No-one in our group was sure about the variety. Any suggestions?

http://www.abundancenetwork.org.uk/

https://www.commonground.org.uk/apple-day/ 

https://www.brent.gov.uk/services-for-residents/sport-leisure-and-parks/parks/park-finder/fryent-country-park/ 

Walking the Lea Valley (2): Hertford

The latest leg of our walking group’s ramble along the Lea Valley saw us in Hertford, not far from the Lea’s source. Here it is joined by three other rivers – the Rib, the Beane and the Mimram, which have all contributed to the town’s prosperity. Hertford has a long history, so there was a lot to see. 

We had arrived at Hertford East station, a Victorian gem dating back to 1888 and now a Grade II listed building. The ceiling of the ticket hall is embellished with plasterwork and the elegant front has arches that provided shelter for horse-drawn vehicles. 

Across from the station is a branch of what was Christ's Hospital School, founded in London by Edward VI in 1552 for the education of poor children. The Hertford premises were established as an overspill in 1682 and remained as a Bluecoat school until 1985, when pupils were moved to Horsham and the buildings sold.

Today, they contain offices and sheltered housing, but two painted statues of boys in traditional uniform still decorate the gates.

 Next stop was outside a very plain brick building that is the Friends' Meeting House. Built in 1670, it’s the oldest of its kind in the world still used as a place of worship. Quaker leaders George Fox and William Penn are known to have worshipped there. The gate was locked, but we could peer through at the carefully-tended front garden.

A short walk took us to the park that surrounds the restored Gatehouse, all that remains of Hertford Castle, and now used as municipal offices. Built on the site of a Norman castle, it was much visited by royalty, including Elizabeth I.

 A stone commemorates the first general synod of the English church, held nearby on Sept 24 673 AD.

Today, the park is a green and peaceful oasis.  The Lea flows through it, while geese and ducks waddle along its banks in hope of scraps from picnickers. 

Much of the town’s prosperity came from the river. Hertfordshire was a major corn-producing area, and a mill beside the Lea was recorded in the Domesday book. The brewery industry still flourishes there: we could smell the yeast well before we crossed the Mill Bridge and reached McMullen’s brewery, a family business founded there in 1827.

We admired it from the outside, then decamped to another part of the McMullen empire, the Salisbury Arms Hotel, to try their ale while tucking into a pub lunch of very generous proportions.

With low ceilings, blackened beams and a Jacobean staircase, the inn is where Oliver Cromwell stayed in 1647 before reviewing his troops. Some have reported seeing his ghost there. Reinvigorated, we made our way back into the High Street, where once lived Samuel Stone, who went on to found Hartford, Connecticut. There is some fine pargetting on buildings there, and I was impressed with the number of independent local shops that seemed to greatly outnumber the usual chains.

On Bull Plain we paused for a brief visit to the museum. One of its highlights is a collection of toothbrushes, donated when the local Addis factory closed. Just a fraction are on show – there are 6000 in total, conserved and labelled by volunteers. Other items include an 1830s shepherd’s smock, archaeological and natural history findings, household utensils and children’s toys.

Then it was back to the river, this time the Lea Navigation. Passing a row of picturesque cottages, we came across several brightly-coloured barges tied up at the visitor moorings. One even had a rotary clothes line on its deck. The Lea Navigation then meets and runs alongside the River Lea, the two separated by a walkway.

The trees were starting to gain their autumn colours and the low autumn sun glinted on the water. We stopped to watch the swans sailing gracefully past the boats moored in the basin.

Then it was time to return to the station, happily just around the corner. We didn’t quite make it to the Mimram, the Beane, or the Rib, but perhaps that’s for another day.

An interesting historic fact that I didn't discover until later:

This peaceful little town saw the trial of the last person to be condemned to death for witchcraft in England. In 1712 Jane Wenham, who had a reputation of being a 'wise woman', complained to a local magistrate that a farmer had called her a witch. She was offered a shilling as compensation, but wasn’t content with this, and when a servant of a local clergyman who had acted as mediator fell ill, the servant blamed her and said she’d seen cats with Jane’s face – a claim supported by other villagers. Eventually Jane was brought to trial, and although the judge ridiculed the idea of witchcraft, the jury found her guilty. The judge had by law to pronounce a death sentence, but later was able to use his influence to get her a royal pardon. It wasn't until 1736 that the laws against witchcraft were repealed.

From garden to table – an Egg and Chips update

I have finally dug up my Egg and Chips – a grafted aubergine and potato novelty plant from Thompson and Morgan. Nestled among the roots were around 750g of potatoes (above) - not quite as many as I’d hoped for, but still, for a newbie potato grower, a good crop - while the stem produced a lot of flowers, and four large aubergines. These were not at all bitter, and didn’t need salting. Three disappeared into moussaka, while the largest had pride of place on the table this evening, stuffed and baked according to this BBC recipe. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lamb-stuffed_aubergines_99219

Delicious!