River Brent - Wyke Green

River Brent
The Brent flows south eastwards, in loops along the route of the canal, of which it forms part. Islands are formed between the canal and cut off loops of the river

Post to the nortth Hanwell
Post to the east Boston Manor

Grand Union Canal
The canal is in part the River Brent the route or which it has taken over
Hanwell boundary stone alongside the towpath
Osterley Lock. This is a single lock with a ‘labyrinth type’ weir.  A channel is being installed to allow eels to pass though
River Brent Outfall
Boston Manor M4 Motorway Bridge – steel truss viaduct

M4

Osterley lane
Wyke Green Lodge.  Belongs to the National Trust.

River Brent
The footpath from Hanwell to the Brent outfall is called Fitzherbert Path after Luke Fitzherbert, founder of Brent River and canal society
Weir. At the outfall in the Canal where the original course of the river goes off in a loop. The original Gallows Bridge was on this loop. W shaped labyrinth weir,

Trumpers Way
Hanwell sewage works. This was on the East side of the canal. The rural sanitary authority opened a sewage farm by the Brent about 1884-5. The outfall was into the Brent which was said in 1897 to be ‘disgusting’. It was on the area now covered by the Elthorne Park Extension. It appeared, from map evidence, to have had a substantial pumping station on site and also to have still been in place in the 1960s.  
Southall Norwood sewage works was on the west bank of the canal and dared from the 1880s. It covered 18 acres, plus an engine house, precipitating tanks and filter beds.  In 1897   its effluent flowed into the river and was said to be clean and free from smell.
Wincott Farm

Windmill Lane
Wyke House. 18th house
Hare and Hounds  Pub
Long Wood. This is ancient woodland bordered by the motorway and the railway line. it is also known locally as Blue Bell wood. and is part of Brent River Park
Trumpers Wood
Wyke Green Golf Course.  The golf course was begun by W.H. Tate, a local resident who built a fourteen-hole course in three hay fields in 1926 and this was soon followed by a club house. The site became a farm again during the Second World War and the course was rebuilt in 1951. An area was lost when the M4 was built. It is a private members club which bought the freehold of the course from The Earl of Jersey. The Kingston zodiac says that it was once called Fawkenors Fields – that is it was used for hawking. It is also said that the site given to Osterley was given by Edward III on condition that the owners ride round it annually with a falcon on his wrist. The Zodiac also says that the contour of earthworks stand for the Eagle on the Aquarius
Osterley Garden Centre. The land was originally agricultural, and by 1958 it was a dairy farm belonging to Wyke House

Wyke Green
Wyke was a manor to the south of here, eventually becoming part of Osterley
In the fantasy of The Kingston Zodiac they say that Capricorn here ‘noses the tor of Osterley’ in the same way in the Glastonbury Zodiac ‘Capricorn noses the tor at Wike’

Sources
Canal walks, leaflet
Cove-Smith. London’s Waterway Guide
Kingston Zodiac
Osterley Garden Centre. web site
Pevsner and Cherry.  North West London
Thames Rivers Trust. Web site
Walford. Village London
Welcome to Hanwell. Web site.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Elthorne School reopened in 1998. It closed in the early 1980s

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