Beam Valley Country Park Walk – 23.01.2011

Cloudy and a little gloomy. A typical January Sunday afternoon. However, we still decided to go for an afternoon stroll. On our way to Eastbrookend Country Park, I noticed some open space that looked worth investigating, so we this week we did!

We headed off to Beam Country Valley Park – or what is really known as “Beam Parklands”.

Unfortunately, when walked into the entrance, the board was missing any information (it was just a hole!!) … I would like just to point out that it had not been wrecked – it was brand new wood and was ready to be filled!! In fact the path was new… The park is currently being renovated so most of it was being dug over and very muddy. In fact in some places it was even growing a shopping trolley – which hadn’t yet been harvested LOL ! (Although I have managed to hide it in the photo!)

From 2011 – 23.01.2011 – Beam Country Valley Park Walk

It seemed that the park was a “work in progress” as there was only one new path and this did not seem to lead us very far, so we had to take a much older path, which took us over a lake – actually this was the River Beam.   This river was how the Park was given its name.       The River Beam, is originally known as the “River Rom” as the river rises from the north of Romford,  when it is joined by its tributary “The Ravensbourne” and continues on, it is known as the River Beam – it eventually joins the River Thames.  However, we didn’t see too much of the river at this point.

The walk seemed very short for some reason as we seemed to come out of the park very quickly!  We had to walk down a road, to return into the park at another entrance, just so we could explore another part of the park.  All a bit strange to me.    On immediately entering the park, we were met by a bridge,  which looked newly built.  This bridge took us over the River and it was only then we could really see the park may be a little larger than we first thought.

From 2011 – 23.01.2011 – Beam Country Valley Park Walk

Again we found some empty info boards, and a new path, indicating that the park was very much under renovation! At this point we decided to wander off the beaten track so to speak. We felt it was a good idea to investigate an older path and some entrances to a mound of earth that looked vaguely interesting!

So we climbed to the top of the hill but it was very muddy and very, very tricky – reminding me of an old nursery rhyme!!!! 🙂

“Oh, **Angelfish**
Had a friend;
Marched them up to the top of the hill,
And marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down”

But worth the View

From 2011 – 23.01.2011 – Beam Country Valley Park Walk

But do we know what the mud hill was for? We have no idea!! But I think we were stunned by the amount of land that we saw, it was simply amazing. Once we had managed to get down, we decided to take a wander around the area. It did look like some industrial buildings had been removed/demolished at some time but what I would not know.

As we walked on, I was very intrigued to find metal poles sticking out from the ground. Apart from being dangerous, why would these be interesting!?! They looked like Mooring posts. Why would metal mooring posts be in the middle of the ground no where near water? Well this was evidence of the Old Romford Canal. This canal was built from 1875 onwards and parts of were still in use right up until WW2 for defence – but once the war was over it was filled in. Much work was done on the middle/lower Beam Valley section, including a bridge and one lock complete with gates. At the upper end of the valley nearer Romford, a tunnel and short section of canal was built under the London Tilbury and Southend railway line.

Unfortunately, our walk run out at this point, both with light and with any path!  We ran in to surburbia and into fenced off land – quite rightly so as it looked very marshy to me!  So it was time to end our walk.  We may return to this park at some point to see how the renovations are going!!

All the pictures for the afternoon walk are –

2011 – 23.01.2011 – Beam Country Valley Park Walk

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