Six years in the past on New 12 months’s Eve we walked with a few relations from Sudbury to Brentford. This yr due to rail and well being issues none of our household are staying with us and “South Western Railway companies between 18 December and eight January are topic to alter and will not function”, so if the climate is okay we’ll in all probability do a slightly shorter stroll from dwelling.
The journey in 2016 to Sudbury Hill station was moderately quick; a brief prepare journey then a bus and a few quick hops on the Piccadilly line received us there in somewhat underneath an hour and a half, and inside a couple of minutes we have been strolling alongside suburban streets to Horsenden Wooden, the place we walked to the highest of the hill.
Sadly it was a boring and damp day, and we might solely see the intensive views this a part of the stroll would have given us had the air been clear dully by way of the murk, however the path up by way of the wooden was enhanced by the slight mist. We walked down the hill to cross the Grand Union Canal.
Quickly we reached the highpoint of the stroll for a few of us, the Thirties buying and selling property resulting in the Artwork Deco Tesco on Western Avenue, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Companions and in-built 1933 for Hoover, together with the Thirties moderne canteen, now an Asian restaurant. We selected the Tesco each for a tiny little bit of procuring and the bogs, then walked west to the footbridge to cross the busy highway.
Nearly instantly on the trail the opposite facet of Western Avenue we got here to St Mary the Virgin Perivale, now used for concert events, with simply an occasional service.
This Grade I listed redundant church dates partly from the thirteenth century and was the smallest church in Middlesex (outdoors London.) We explored its graveyard and sat down on a slightly damp seat there to eat our sandwiches in what was both heavy drizzle or mild rain.
The subsequent part of the stroll took us beside the River Brent, one other of London’s minor rivers and like the remainder of our stroll going to Brentford, although we needed to make some deviations to observe roads and footpaths. This was a comparatively quiet and generally boring part of the stroll, although its at all times good to stroll beside the river, and there was a slightly dumpy viaduct for a doomed railway, a council property and a protracted foot path to a Cuckoo Lane the place no cuckoos have been to be heard aside from our ludicrous imitations.
Issues received extra fascinating once more once we reached Hanworth Church, and early work of George Gilbert Scott who later known as it ‘a mass of horrors’ and Brent Lodge Park, the place I ignored the pleas of a few of my cfo-walkers and led us firmly away from a tea-room – we have been already and hour or so not on time if we have been to complete the stroll throughout daylight.
Brunel actually knew tips on how to construct a viaduct, and right here was the primary main engineering work on the brand new Nice Western Railway in 1836-7, with 8 semi-elliptical arches every of 70 ft span and rising 19 ft supported on hole brick piers – the primary time these have been utilized in a railway viaduct. 886 ft lengthy, the peak to the parapet is 81 ft, and when constructed it was 30 ft extensive to hold two broad gauge traces. Later it was widened to 55ft with a 3rd pier added to every current pair, and it might then take 4 customary gauge tracks, which have been laid in 1892. We walked underneath this spectacular construction beside the River Brent to the south facet which is the sooner half and carries the arms of Lord Wharncliffe, chair of the committee that gave permission for the GWR.
We continued by the Brent to hitch the Grand Union Canal, one other earlier nice engineering acheivement together with the remainder of the canal system, on the Hanwell flight of locks. Our route now ran alongside the towpath, so navigation was easy, all the best way to the Nice West Street.
There was nonetheless simply sufficient mild to take just a few pictures, however my companions have been flagging and our stroll was getting slower and slower.
By the point we reached the highway for the quick stroll to Brentford Station it was actually darkish they usually had slowed to a snails tempo, and regardless of my urging them to catch the subsequent prepare we arrived there to see it simply departing, for as soon as lifeless on time, although we have been an hour and a minute later then deliberate. It had been a very good stroll however would have been higher with out the 29 minutes wait there for the subsequent prepare.
You may see many extra footage from the stroll on My London Diary at New Years Eve Stroll.
Tags: 1930, Artwork Deco, Brentford, Brunel, canal, George Gilbert Scott, Grand Union Canal, GWR, Hanworth Church, hill, Hoover Constructing, Horsenden Wooden, London, London Pictures, moderne, Perivale, peter Marshall, River Brent, St Mary the Virgin, station, Sudbury, Sudbury Hill, Sudbury to Brentford, buying and selling property, Underground, viaduct, views, Stroll, Western Avenue, Wharncliffe viaduct, wooden
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