River Colne - - Staines Moor


River Colne
The Colne flows south and is met by the Bonehead Ditch from the north. The River Ash leaves it to the east.
The Bonehead Ditch flows south and meets the Colne
The River Ash flows eastwards
The Wraysbury River flows south and east

Post to the north Staines Moor
Post to the west Yeoveney
Post to the south Staines and Egham/Staines The Hythe

Aqueduct
The aqueduct was completed around 1900 to take water from the River Thames, to the two Staines Reservoirs. The river Colne passes over it in its own aqueduct.

Bonehead Ditch

King George IV Reservoir
The Reservoir was opened in 1947 and named after the then reigning monarch King George VI. It is owned by Thames Water.  It is entirely man-made, and Thames Water maintains a commercial flock of sheep on the reservoir banks to keep the grass on the reservoir banks close-cropped. The reservoir forms part of the Staines Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest and has wintering populations of wildfowl

Moor Lane
From Moor Lane a footpath runs north to give pedestrian and cattle access to the common. It passes over a number of features. A twin arch yellow brick brige crosses over the Wraysbury River, this is followed by a single arch red brick 1848 over the Windsor Railway line and a steel plate girder of 1885 over the now defunct Great Western Railway branch line
Staines West Station. Goods yard. There were two sidings, cattle pens and an engine shed and dock in an area with a separate entrance from Moor Lane.  There was also a water tower and a well with a signal box between the running lines and the goods area.  After closure the goods yard at Staines West was demolished and a rail accessed oil storage depot built in its place. The oil depot and siding processed oil from Purfleet owned by Cory/Shell.  When the line north of the station was severed by the M25 1981, a new rail connection to laid to serve the oil depot but it closed in 1991.
Moor Lodge. This was the Moor Keepers Cottage. There is a plaque which says  “1900 Herdsman’s Cottage erected by the Committee of Commoners out of funds received for the extinguishments of Certain Common Rights. Chas F Leake, Chairman”. The house is still owned by the Commoners Committee.


River Ash
The Ash is a distributary of the Colne but has been moved and altered in recent years. In the early 1960s its outflow from the Colne was moved south and east to make way for the Staines Bypass

Staines By Pass
Opened in 1961

Staines Moor
Designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, undisturbed by man for at least 1000 years. Local people have commons rights of Turbary

Vicarage Lane
Duncroft House.  The original house here is thought to have been Saxon and the site has signs of Bronze Age and Roman occupation. It is claimed that this is where King John, or someone, slept the night after he had signed Magna Charta at Runneymede – although the exact site of such a building is not clear. The current house was built in 1631 but the building now appears to be early 18th, enlarged 1893 in Jacobean style.  The rainwater head is dated 1621. Tudor style porch probably of the 1920s. Inside the panelled stair-hall seems 1770s. The Duncroft Approved School was here under Home Office control as a school 'for disturbed' girls, and later was under local authority control in the 1970s as a 'Community Home School', and was later taken over by Barnardo's.  The site has now been redeveloped for housing with flats in the main house


Sources
A30 Roaders Digest, Web site
Metropolitan Water Board. History
River Ash. Wikipedia. Web site.
Smith. London and the Thames Valley

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