Sunday 16 January 2011

PymmesBrook

The Great Cambridge Road, the A10, slicing through Enfield, was lined with radio manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.  
http://www.gorge.org/a406/north.shtml
http://wikimapia.org/9596441/Great-Cambridge-Roundabout

Pymmes Brook, Edmonton
  • During 2005/06, the Environment Agency strengthened the channel walls of a section of the Pymmes Brook which had been culverted within the former Tottenham Gas Works. Inspection of the culvert revealed a risk of it collapsing, putting 1,500 properties at risk of major flooding.
  • The Environment Agency's work removed pressure on the existing culvert walls, allowing removal of the roof of the culvert and the associated flood risk.
  • The restoration will encourage more wildlife and fits with the Environment Agency's policy to remove existing culverts and open up river channels where possible.
  • The project cost was £1.9 million with an allocated £25,000 from the budget for environmental improvements in the area.

Powys Lane 
This marked the boundary of the Walker Estate.  It was very beautiful and crossed Pymmes Brook.  There was a footbridge for pedestrians and a water splash for horses and carriages. All around beyond low trimmed hedges was farmland and haystacks of Broomfield Farm.  The Lane was made up and developed in 1907.
There was a small pond, Littler’s Pond, named after the last tenant of Broomfield House, where Powys Lane joined Broomfield Park and near there Broomfield  dairy farm. The pond disappeared in 1906/07 and the farm was demolished in 1912.
http://improvingourplace.co.uk/content/karl-brown-writes-local-history-project-undertaken-his-son

Starting point Cockfosters tube station. Having been brought up in the countryside, I was initially sceptical about the appeal of urban walking.
 http://londonwhenyourepoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/pymmes-brook-trail/


The Parks in this video are:

1) Broomfield Park

2) Arnos Park
3) Brunswick Park (Waterfall walk)
4) Pymmes Brook, Oak Hill
5) Oak Hill Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6VqtudWWE

This thread got me thinking about the Moselle, it runs underneath Carbuncle Passage in Northumberland Park, then across Clendish Marsh, then into Pymmes Brook. I took the dog out this morning, I think I've found where it goes into Pymmes Brook. I also think I've found a little bit of it where it comes out into the open, before it goes under train tracks at the Victoria Line depot (photos to follow).

Returning to the subject of the course under The Green, I have been looking at the 1867 and 1894 O.S. maps more closely and realising what had been staring me in the face. The maps indicate that the brook ran south along the east side of what became The Broadway. It then turned east to run just south of Knight's Lane and follow today's course. I had been thinking that a potential diagonal course under The Green was a little odd given the massive developments above it but had overlooked the obvious. It would explain why The Broadway was so broad for starters! The photo on the left shows a 1909 view with Salmon's Brook clearly in the open though it isn't visible in photos of the New Road junction dated 1910 so that could be when it was covered over.
Having just walked in this area I realised that a course south of Knight's Lane would take the brook straight under the swimming pool and certainly a picture above does show the brook emerging from that direction though it could change direction once underground. I don't think Knight's Lane has moved much so either it does indeed go under the pool or they have moved the brook!
Since writing the above I have seen it confirmed that the brook does indeed go under the leisure centre and that there are plans to divert it behind the police station when the leisure centre is replaced by a superstore (to be occupied by Asda). This was once talked of for 2004/5 but is more likely to be 2007 at earliest. Presumably this will all be underground which is a bit of a shame.
Something else I hadn't realised, and what led me to piece this together, was that somewhere under the site of the old Town Hall a second stream splits off from the brook to run south beyond Osman Road and then dogleg away to the south-east. There are modern roads called Brookfield Road, Brookside Road, and Brook Crescent near its course. This stream turned south to run along the west side of Montagu Road and join Pymmes Brook. On the 1801 enclosure map there is also a suggestion of a stream joining this just where it turns away from the line of the high road and I wonder if this might explain the curious alignment of the south end of Shrubbery Road.
Lesley Andersen, of the Montagu Road Flood Action Group, has kindly confirmed my assumption that this branch of Salmon's Brook still exists in a culvert though it now operates as an overflow system which channels water away from the main course at The Green when the brook is running high. This channel no longer feeds directly into Pymmes Brook as it once did as this historically caused flooding across and on both sides of the North Circular Road. Instead it has been diverted into the Intercepting Drain which carries it under the railway line to feed into Pymmes Brook further downstream. The culvert runs under the Police Station at The Green and was grated over when it was built, presumably for security reasons. Lesley would be interested to know if anyone knows anything about this as neither the council or the Environment Agency claim to be the body to have authorised this work



Meridian Valley - Marking Ponders End the Green Capital of Europe, London's equivalent of Los Angeles's Silicon Valley.


Once a shining beacon of manufacturing Ponders End was known as an area of excellence for the invention of devices that changed the world. To list just a few. 

All the companies mentioned have either been in Enfield for a long time or have played a significant part in the industrial development of the area.

Belling & Co
Charles Reginald Belling was born at Bodmin, Cornwall in 1884. He served an apprenticeship in electrical engineering with Crompton & Co of Chelmsford. He subsequently joined the staff of Ediswan at Ponders End. In 1912 he started his own business in Lancaster Road, Enfield, manufacturing electric heaters. In 1913 he acquired additional factory space at Derby Road, Edmonton. The range of products widened to include electric water heaters (1913) electric cookers (1919) and immersion heaters (1920). A new purpose-built factory was opened in Southbury Road in 1924. The premises have since been progressively enlarged. A second factory was opened at Burnley, Lancashire in 1956. Mr Belling died in 1965.

Belling-Lee Ltd

In 1922 C R Belling (see above) formed a partnership with Edgar M Lee to manufacture mains powered radio sets. (B.B.C.radio broadcasting started in 1922). Maintenance problems caused the firm to temporarily abandon mains powered radio sets in 1924, production being switched to crystal sets. The original factory was at Queensway, Ponders End, moving to new premises on the Great Cambridge Road in 1932. The product range was widened to include fuses and fuse holders (1929) electrical gramophone pick-ups (1933) and radio aerials (1935). During World War II much of the production was switched to radar components and V.H.F.aerials for use on aircraft. The post war years saw a huge demand for television components. In 1961 an office block was built, followed by a big extension to the factory in 1964. Following the death of Mr Belling, the company became part of the Phillips group in 1966. Mr Lee died in 1972.

Ediswan
The electric filament lamp was invented simultaneously by Thomas Alva Edison in the USA and Joseph Swan in England. In 1881 Swan set up the Swan Electric Lamp Co in Newcastle. In 1883 Swan joined forces with Edison to form the Edison Swan United Electric Light Co. A factory was set up at Benwell, Newcastle. In 1886 the company took over the former jute mill at Duck Lees Lane, Ponders End and converted it for the manufacture of electric light bulbs. The light bulbs were originally made with carbon filaments. In 1907 the company pioneered the use of tungsten filaments. The bulbs were originally made of plain glass which resulted in a rather harsh light. To combat this problem the company introduced the opal lamp in 1921, followed by the pearl lamp in 1927.

Research carried out at the factory by Dr Ambrose Fleming in the eighteen-nineties led to the invention of the thermionic valve which was to be a vital component of early radio, television, radar and computers. Radio valves were manufactured in small quantities from 1906 and were mass produced from 1916. The search for a suitable material for making carbon filaments led to the discovery of artificial silk (rayon). The company became part of Associated Electrical Industries in 1928. The company became part of Thorn - AEI Valves and Tubes Ltd in 1961. The Ponders End factory was closed in 1969 and sold for demolition in 1970.

Grout and Baylis
A factory was built in 1809 at the junction of South Street and Scotland Green Road for the dyeing and finishing of black crape. The extravagant mourning customs of the time, combined with high death rates, ensured a big demand for black crape. By 1858 the factory was employing approximately 200 people. As with most textile mills, the workforce was predominantly female, the few men employed there working mainly in a managerial/supervisory capacity. The latter part of the century saw a decline in demand for black crape. The factory closed in 1894. The buildings were subsequently acquired by United Flexible Metal Tubing (see below).

Royal Small Arms Factory
In 1804 a government-owned factory for making musket barrels was set up at Lewisham. In 1812 land was acquired at Enfield Lock for an enlarged factory. (The new site had the advantages of water power available to drive machinery and the Lee Navigation for the transportation of raw materials and the finished weapons). The new factory was completed too late to affect the outcome of the Napoleonic War. In 1816 the barrel branch moved from Lewisham to Enfield. By 1818 the reduction in demand for small arms meant that there were just thirty men employed at the Enfield factory. Later in 1818 the lock and finishing branches were transferred to Enfield, enabling the Lewisham site to be dispensed with. A sword making branch was set up in 1823. The factory narrowly fought off a threat of closure in 1831. The Crimean War of 1854/5 resulted in a big increase in demand for both small arms and ammunition. In 1857 the factory was completely reorganised on mass
production lines. The factory continued in operation, with periods of great activity during the Boer War and the two World Wars. In 1987 the Royal Ordnance Factories (including Enfield Lock) were sold to British Aerospace. The Enfield Lock plant was closed almost immediately and small arms manufacture was moved to Nottingham.

Tottenham & District Gas Co
In 1845 Alexander Angus Croll acquired a concession from the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Co to supply coal gas to the parishes of Tottenham and Edmonton. He took over a small gasworks which had already been set up to the south of Angel Road. He formed the Tottenham and District Gas Co in 1847. Gas was in increasing demand for street lighting, domestic lighting and later for cooking. By 1861 gas mains had been laid as far away as Wood Green. The gasworks was reconstructed 1902/5. The company then began to expand. In 1913 the Enfield Gas Co was taken over, with its gasworks at Ponders End. The company took over the Waltham and Cheshunt Gas Co (1928), the Hertford Gas Co (1932), the Hoddesdon and Ware Gas Co (1932), the Hitchin Gas Co (1933), the Stevenage Gas Co (1933) and the Southgate Gas Co (1938). (the last mentioned company had a large gas works at New Southgate). The Tottenham and District Gas Co was nationalised together with the rest of the gas
industry in 1949. The local gasworks ceased production in 1972 with the introduction of natural gas from the North Sea.

United Flexible Metal Tubing Ltd

The invention of flexible metal tubing took place in Paris in 1885. The inventor was Eugene Levasseur, a jeweller with long experience in making coiled gold necklaces. The UK rights to the invention were acquired in 1890 by Frederick Walton, the inventor of linoleum. He took over the former Grout and Baylis crape mill (see above) after its closure in 1894. Business grew rapidly as new uses were found for flexible metal tubing. Railways used it for brake and steam heating hoses. Another use was for the protection of electricity cables. The factory at Ponders End was damaged by a land mine in 1941 and was damaged again by a V1 in 1944. Additional factories were established at Finsbury Park and at Long Eaton, Derbyshire. The company became part of the T.I.Group in 1969. The Ponders End plant now trades under the name of T.I.Flexible Tubes Ltd.

G R Wright & Sons
The Ponders End Flour Mill is the oldest working industrial building in Enfield. The present buildings date from the late 18th century but there has been a mill on the site since at least the late 16th century and possibly since Domesday. George Reynolds Wright was born at Hitchin in 1842. At the age of twenty-five he came to work at the Ponders End Mill, eventually forming a partnership with the then miller, James Dilly Young. On Young's death in 1870, Wright assumed full control. In 1913 construction work on the George V Reservoir cut off the water supply which powered the millstones. The machinery was converted to electric power. The mill was re-modelled in 1950. There have since been further improvements. The business remains in the hands of the Wright family.
Today unfortunately this area has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former proud self.

carefree walks


1.CockfostersOS Grid: TQ281964
Take the tube or the bus to Cockfosters.
Lat: 51.652003  Long: -0.149701
2.Games RoadOS Grid: TQ274967 ,  0.75 km (0.47 miles) from 1
Pick up the trail at the end of Games Road. From here, the blue arrow markers will guide you all the way along the route; rather than giving step-by-step instructions, this guide provides a handy overview.
Lat: 51.655299  Long: -0.159138
3.Beech Hill LakeOS Grid: TQ270969 ,  0.42 km (0.26 miles) from 2
The route follows the London Loop past Beech Hill Lake, the source of the brook.
Lat: 51.656948  Long: -0.16455
4.Victoria Recreation GroundOS Grid: TQ268965 ,  0.47 km (0.29 miles) from 3
Leave the brook and pass through Victoria Recreation Ground. From the southeast corner, head along Crescent Road, which lies just south of the brook (although you can't see it).
Lat: 51.653308  Long: -0.168109
5.Brookhill RoadOS Grid: TQ271956 ,  0.98 km (0.61 miles) from 4
Turn left at Brookhill Road and then right onto Cat Hill.
Lat: 51.644862  Long: -0.16394
6.Oak Hill ParkOS Grid: TQ273950 ,  0.57 km (0.35 miles) from 5
Rejoin the brook as it runs through Oak Hill Park. Remind yourself how lucky London is to have so many lovely parks.
Lat: 51.640154  Long: -0.160763
7.Parkside GardensOS Grid: TQ281945 ,  0.92 km (0.57 miles) from 6
Leave the park on the southern side and head along West Walk.
Lat: 51.635273  Long: -0.149992
8.Brunswick ParkOS Grid: TQ284941 ,  0.51 km (0.32 miles) from 7
Cross Osidge Lane and into Brunswick Park.
Lat: 51.631491  Long: -0.14571
9.Arnos ParkOS Grid: TQ292930 ,  1.37 km (0.85 miles) from 8
Across Waterfall Road, the Pymmes Brook enters Arnos Park.
Lat: 51.621265  Long: -0.134801
10.Broomfield ParkOS Grid: TQ302926 ,  1.08 km (0.67 miles) from 9
Head north a short way and walk along the southern edge of Broomfield Park. At the end, follow Broomfield Lane over the railway and onto Oakthorpe Road.
Lat: 51.617476  Long: -0.120468
11.Princes AvenueOS Grid: TQ315920 ,  1.47 km (0.91 miles) from 10
This little section is a wee bit tricky - keep an eye on the arrows as you cross over the North Circular and join Princes Avenue.
Lat: 51.612012  Long: -0.101166
12.Tile Kiln LaneOS Grid: TQ321923 ,  0.62 km (0.38 miles) from 11
The route continues along Tile Kiln Lane.
Lat: 51.614227  Long: -0.093
13.Silver StreetOS Grid: TQ326925 ,  0.62 km (0.38 miles) from 12
The brook can't make its mind up, heading back under the main road. At Silver Street, it passes through the grounds of the Millfields Arts Centre.
Lat: 51.616386  Long: -0.084762
14.Pymmes ParkOS Grid: TQ337925 ,  1.02 km (0.63 miles) from 13
The next bit of green is Pymmes Park.
Lat: 51.615669  Long: -0.070088
15.Park RoadOS Grid: TQ339930 ,  0.56 km (0.35 miles) from 14
Leave via Park Road and head onto Fore Street, turning left up to Plevna Road.
Lat: 51.620253  Long: -0.066657
16.Tottenham CemeteryOS Grid: TQ351932 ,  1.19 km (0.74 miles) from 15
The trail heads along Salmon's Brook and past Tottenham Park Cemetery.
Lat: 51.622032  Long: -0.049752
17.Pickett's Lock LaneOS Grid: TQ360938 ,  1.13 km (0.7 miles) from 16
Head up to Pickett's Loch Lane. Continue on to the William Girling Reservoir, where the trail ends.
Lat: 51.627394  Long: -0.035882
18.Lea Valley WalkOS Grid: TQ363950 ,  1.24 km (0.77 miles) from 17
For an additional bonus, head along the Lea Valley Walk on the western edge of the reservoir.
Lat: 51.637994  Long: -0.030395
19.Ponders EndOS Grid: TQ360955 ,  0.55 km (0.34 miles) from 18
Finish your day at Ponders End station, for the train onwards.
Lat: 51.641985  Long: -0.035107
Total Distance (roughly):15.47km (9.61 miles)