River Colne - London Colney

River Colne
The Colne flows south westwards

Post to the east London Colney
Post to the west Napsbury

Broad Colney Lakes Nature Reserve
This is made up of three lakes which are the result of gravel extraction and donated to the trust by Lafarge in 1977.
Long Lake fed by the River Colne which flows through it. Otters are known to pass through. It is used as an angling resource.
North Lake which is still and deep
Small Lake – this is the smallest and is part marshy woodland. Used for carp fishing
Site of Sewage Works built by St. Albans Rural District Council

High Street
Police Station. This is now closed
Golden Lion Pub. This is a 17th building with a timber frame and painted brick outside. Alongside is a 20th hall. Inside are ground glass windows and signage for Truman’s Brewery.
Embatool House. This is the head office of a group of companies set up in 1953 by F.J. Pistol and it remains a family business. They market engineering components with a speciality in pharmaceutical equipment. This was formerly the site of a printing works.
War Memorial. This commemorates 52 local residents killed or missing in the Great War and another 24 from the Second World War.
Baptist chapel. In 1812, after the formation of the Hertfordshire Union of Baptists, a preaching station was established in London Colney. In In 1875 a purpose built chapel was built in the High Street and this remained until 1960 when it was replaced in Kings Road. The site is now the site of the housing in Richardson Close,
White Lion.  The pub closed in late 2009, and by August 2011 the outbuildings beyond the pub had been demolished and new houses were being built. The pub itself is due to be converted into a house.

Shenley Lane
Broad Colney Bridge. Carrying the Colne under the road. Under the bridge is a pale yellow graduated strip as a water level gauge board. There was previously a ford here
Coal duty post. This is on the east side of the road, alongside the bridge to the south.
Broad Colney Chapel. This is on an oval shaped island surrounded by a moat and appears to have been a chantry chapel to St. John the Baptist. The earliest information is from the 12th when it was attached to the manor of Shenley. It was not used after 1571. The moat is dry but of the two paths onto the island one is across a modern concrete bridge. The foundations of the chapel are at the east end and were partly restored in the 1920's apparently on the line of the original chapel.  There is also a circular pond, now dry with a modern brick built causeway across it. as part of the, now closed, nearby Roman Catholic religious institution a shrine was built here because It is said that as an island in the river Colne it was where St. Alban hid before his arrest and execution.
Fir Tree Farm
Barley House Farm
Broad Colney Cottages. Bittleston Ltd. Precision Engineers
Broad Colney Works – light industrial and trading area
Southern entrance to Napsbury Hospital. The driveway is now a track which runs west and then north-west
South Lodge. Built 1905 in an Arts and Crafts-style in brick and rendered
Broadlakes Lodge Social Club. This is a road café complex which has evolved as a social club from the closure of the local British Legion. It is also a venue for local bikers. The site was once a sea cadets training centre

St. Anne’s Road
This was previously White Lion Lane
Sheep House Farm. The farm house was near the White Lion pub.  The farmland became the estate of houses surrounding it and to the west.

Telford Road
Bowmansgreen Primary School. The school was built on land on the Sheephouse Farm Estate and opened in 1952. A metal cockerel was given to the school when it opened as a sculpture. In 2002 the school celebrated its Golden Jubilee and soon after it was extended with five classrooms, a new ICT suite, a library and a new sports hall.

Walsingham Way
St Bernadette Catholic Primary School. This opened in 1971. The school was designed by Mr T Denny. The nursery was opened in April 1979 and replaced in 2009

Sources
Bowmansgreen Primary school. Web site
Brewery History Society. Web site
British History Online. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
English Heritage. Web site
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust
London Colney Baptist church web site
St Bernadette Catholic Primary School. Web site
Wallsgrove. Hidden Hertfordshire

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