Stanmore – Borehamwood Walk – 15.07.2012

Our walk of the day was to take us around Stanmore and back up to Borehamwood, via the London Loop – or so we thought! This walk was to prove to take us around in circles and drive us around the loop, rather than actually walk along it LOL

Even as we started out we began to discover things. We immediately encountered an unusual sign “Site of Restored Blast Shelter”.  Stanburn School has surviving examples of the Air Raid shelters which were built in their grounds during the Second World War.  These shelters were built during the winter of 1939 and used heavily throughout the time of the Blitz (September 1940 – May 1941) and towards end of the War (June 1944 – March 1945)  during the V1 and V2 raids on London.   Whilst the Children were in the Shelter all of there lessons would still continue!  The School had been using the shelters as a storage facility, but after 2005 they felt that they would restore them and in 2008 they were fully restored!

We left the air raid shelters behind and continued our walk onto Old Church Lane. We diverted off the lane to walk through “Stanmore Park”. As we did so, I spotted through the trees a lovely old Ruin. In fact it was a brick spire from the “St John the Evangelist” Church. This Church was built in 1632 and was consecrated by William Laud the Bishop of London of the time. He wrote in his diary for 1632

“Julii 17, Tuesday, I consecrated the church at Stanmore Magna in Middlesex, built by Sir Jo Wolstenham”

Sadly for William Laud, after the English Civil War, when he was Archbishop of Canterbury, he was put on trial and one of the charges which were put against him was the consecration of this very church and in January 1645 he lost his head at the scaffold in the Tower.

The present church, which was built to replace it in 1851, resides just behind it. As this was the case we could not see the newer church, this was a shame as apparently the church has a stained glass window by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. The foundation stone of the newer church was laid in 1850 by the Earl of Aberdeen in the presence of Queen Adelaide who was living at Bentley Priory at the time 🙂 Although the brick church is no longer officially used as a church, it is still consecrated and is used occasionally for services.

From 2012 – 15.07.2012 – Stanmore – Borehamwood Walk

As we were strolling through this quiet residential area of “Stanmore Park” we wouldn’t really have known that in years gone by it has been used by the RAF Fighter Command, a Boys School until 1938 and previous to that the 18th Century Mansion was a home to a Bankers family. The Mansion was built by the Drummond family in 1763, the grounds that surrounded the mansion had been redesigned by the well known Capability Brown and was it was seen as one of his best works. During the late C18th the estate grew in size and when the mansion was used as a School the fish pond was converted to a swimming pool! Sadly when the Air Ministry took over the property in 1938 they demolished the mansion to make way for RAF Stanmore.

Our walk took us away from Stanmore Park, over Uxbridge Road and into the lovely “Bentley Priory Nature Reserve”. It was nice to be able to return here as I said I would! It was a nice day to enjoy it too! We decided to veer off the path, as we thought we would like to look at the pond we could see in the distance. I must admit the ground was extremely difficult to walk, it was very muddy and still damp from the rain. I don’t think it helped as this was also grazing land for the cows! It was still worthwhile walk over to the little Boot Pond looks like a nice place to sit and ponder.

From 2012 – 15.07.2012 – Stanmore – Borehamwood Walk

We were going to take the route through Bentley Priory that would eventually join up with the “London Loop” to take us up to “Stanmore Common”. The path was quite smooth through the park, particularly as most of it is cemented over. I actually didn’t mind on this occasion, after experiencing how wet the ground still was after the rain that we have been having. The path wound it’s way through Heriot’s Wood and then past the Deer Park. In fact when we saw the deer, we immediately thought of Christmas as they looked like Santa’s Reindeer as most of them had antlers, they were so cute! I am not quite sure about the history of the deer in this park, but if anyone knows, please do let me know!

The path at this point became more of a muddy track but it wasn’t too bad to difficult to traverse. It was not long before we came out into the open and we had finally joined the London Loop. Our path was to lead us out of Bentley Priory Nature Reserve Completely. It was odd little path, as it ran alongside a barbed wire fence. We could just about make out “Bentley Priory” itself which I know I will be visiting at some point in the future so will find out more about that at a later stage.

The loop brought us out into a very quiet road and we had to follow the London Loop signs from here on. It took us across to Warren Lane and onto Stanmore Common. The loop did not seem to take us into the open heaths of the common just through a very woody path. The open heaths that I had been looking forward to seeing were a result of clearance in C16th and earthworks in C17th, possibly even down a Rabbit Warren that had been documented in the area in 1667! The loop then took us across the lane and past the Stanmore Cricket club and then past some beautiful ponds. These ponds are frequented by many fishermen today, were actually created as a reservoir to serve Clutterbucks Brewery in Stanmore in C19th.

The loop the took us to Little common where the Brewery would have been. Unfortunately for us, this is where we lost the London Loop! I decided to walk towards Stanmore Hall. This great mansion was built circa 1843 in a Gothic Style. It was extended in 1885 with William Morris interiors, I would love to have looked around but unfortunately the hall is now offices so the inside is hidden from the public :-(. However the gates to the hall are very impressive to look at!

From 2012 – 15.07.2012 – Stanmore – Borehamwood Walk

It was here that our walk was a little confusing, as we had no London Loop signs to follow. Our route for the next part of the walk was much longer than planned! We decided to take the route down Dennis Lane so that we could find our way into “Stanmore Country Park”. We located an entrance into the park, which we decided to take, regardless of there not being any London Loops signs. From the history of this country park, this was park was part of the grounds of a large country house which later became a Golf Course in the early 20th Century. However, I am not sure I could not see the signs of a Golf Course in the middle of a woodland! Somehow we caught up with the London Loop in the middle of the wood 🙂

The London Loop was to take us out of the park and out to Stanmore Station and we could not find any other signs 😦 . From this point, we decided to walk the roads instead to continue our walk. When we reached the Royal Orthopedic Hospital on Brockley Hill we stopped outside to have lunch, it was here I spotted a sign on the other side of the road which said “Site of the Roman Pottery of Sullonicae c65 – 160AD “. Apparently evidence of pottery had been found here indicating that possibly there had once been a Roman Settlement in the area. Our walk then took us through familiar territory which we had walked before right up into Elstree Village. However we did not carry on into Borehamwood as we turned off to go down the Watford Road and go towards Aldenham Country Park.

We came off the main road into a lane and as we did we noticed a road called “Lands End” – after our huge walk and being not able to find the Loop, we both felt we had reached it! I know we both felt the same when we reached the Worlds End when we walked Offas Dyke… As the lane gently turned around the corner we finally found the London Loop sign! I think we were both relieved! One of them was into Aldenham Country Park, which was the route we took. It was nice to be back at the park after all this time

We strolled alongside the lake for a while to watch the boats, ducks and geese glide along the water. What a gentle life the wildlife lead here, so quiet too, I could have spent ages just staring out at the water. How that differs from the images, that what I know, that this beautiful park as one of the locations for Hammer Horror movies. It is difficult to imagine a Dracula film being made here when it is a tranquil afternoon and all you want to do it sit and watch the clouds roll by above the lake :-). We didn’t spend too much time here sadly before rejoining the London Loop again on the final stretch of our walk for the afternoon.

The loop was to take us up Elstree Hill and this was one of the muddiest trails that I have walked in a long while. It was definitely worse the one we encountered off Barnet lane. We encountered numerous footpaths en-route and in fact I felt sorry for this particular farmer as he had so many on his field that he had to ensure the public had access to! The footpath came out in Watling Street and I found the sign we saw about 2 weeks ago and it was good to see that we had picked up on a route that we said we would follow up on. Our journey from here took us to Borehamwood and to Deacons Hill, we left the London Loop behind at this point as we will pick up the trail from here another time! I will admit to you all I have invested in a Map!

The Ordnance Survey Explorer Map you will need is 173. Feel free to browse through all the photos for the day by clicking here –

2012 – 15.07.2012 – Stanmore – Borehamwood Walk

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Borehamwood – Edgwarebury Walk – 08.07.2012

Finishing our starry eyed trail from the previous week, we decided to return to Borehamwood just to finish our tour. To see the Stars beneath our feet at Borehamwood station and to read the rest of the plaques, in the High Street, which we missed the previous week. Our walk for the day began in Stratfield road, amidst a group of unassuming flats. Why would a block of flats be so interesting? For any movie buffs, one of these flats was used for filming locations for Stanley Kubrik’s “Clockwork Orange”.

This Sunday stroll was to take us away from the glorious Borehamwood and out into the Countryside. Firstly, the trail was to take us down the Furzehill Road. Pondering as to why this road was rather long, I have discovered that along with Shenley Road (where the Studios reside), Allum Lane (which we walked last week), Barnet Lane (which we were about to encounter) and Theobald street were all created as a result of the “1776 Enclosure Act”. This act divided up Borehamwood Common, which was approximately 684 acres in size, between the various landowners of the era, including the Church and included these new roads to be laid out! I was glad, however, to discover a small public footpath which was to take us away from the walking the road, to our chosen destination – Barnet Lane.

The footpath was shaded by trees and made the walk very dark and not particularly inviting :-(. Although it is a nice short woodland walk, I think I would have much preferred to have walked in the meadow which ran alongside the path, sadly it was behind a fence. The trail took us through the wood and out into the open, but even then the path was not really looked after. It was really difficult to walk through the tall weeds and brambles that had grown up either side of the path, such a shame really! Despite the fact that I do not like walking along the pavements, suddenly the road that we were walking parallel too looked very appealing to walk along! Luckily this part of the path was not too long and it brought us out in the road and the next path which was in “Woodcock Hill Village Green”. As we started to cross the green, I was so glad that I had my walking boots on as the path was really muddy and the ground was sodden. Although it is hidden under all that green grass! –

From 2012 – 08.07.2012 – Borehamwood – Edgwarebury Walk

As we turned the corner from the field, much to my surprise we had discovered yet another beacon! It was good to see that this beacon had been lit for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee :-). So now I have found my 9th Beacon during my walks and only 3,491 to find across the Globe! So far I have only found Beacons in this Country, I will need to walk further afield to find more. Most of the beacons that I have found have been along the coastline, whereas this particular Beacon has been located on a hillside and once it is lit, I can imagine it could be seen for miles around.

Woodcock Hill’s visibility had not gone unnoticed in years gone by. During the Napoleonic Wars, a temporary hut was stationed here which housed a “Shutter (Optical) Telegraph system”. The Optical Telegraph was developed by Lord George Murray, who was actually a Anglican Cleric when he created it in 1797! The tower stood 30 foot (~9 metres) high above the hut, with 6 shutters and could transmit 64 coded messages. At the time the shelter was built there was a clear line of sight to St Alban’s Church which had another tower to transmit messages along the “Semaphore Line”. It seems the British Admiralty at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, had a number of these Semaphore Lines across the country, the one we had stumbled upon would have eventually stretched all the way to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.

From 2012 – 08.07.2012 – Borehamwood – Edgwarebury Walk

We were a little unsure where the path went from here as the path seemed to run out at the information point! We decided to take a short cut we found before the information board into Barnet Lane. It seemed like the correct path to take, despite there being no footpath signs, as plenty of people had been using it! Now that we were in Barnet Lane, we found that we had joined up with the London Loop. Somehow, I thought that we may came across it at some point in our walk! Whilst we were walking along, we noticed some very odd looking brick structures in the farmers field. In fact these strange structures are nothing more exotic that are just air tunnels for the train tunnel that we were now walking above! These brick buildings is the only evidence the Trains were under our feet!

Our walk continued along the Lane, whereas the Loop took a turn down “Deacons Hill Road”. Barnet Lane seems a lovely place to live and in fact, we found out that the Director Stanley Kubrick, who I mentioned earlier, actually owned a couple of the hourses in this very road! However, our walk was now to take us away from “Barnet Lane” and was to take us through “Edgwarebury Lane”. As we started along the Lane, we immediately took a short diversion to look at the beautiful “Edgwarebury Hotel”. This lovely Tudor house was built during the 16th Century and the first known resident of “Edgwarebury House” was Commander Sir Tim Dawson BT, of the Royal Navy in 1540. It remained a private residence for many generations of the Dawson family. However, during the 1930’s the house was turned into a private club and in the 1960’s it was then changed into a hotel. It has been used in many Elstree TV and Film productions, one Classic film would have been the 1968 Hammer Horror, “The Devil Rides Out”. The Hotel has had guests which has included Peter Sellers, Tom Cruise, John Cleese and Stanley Kubrick.

From 2012 – 08.07.2012 – Borehamwood – Edgwarebury Walk

The lane took us alongside the hotel grounds for a while, and it really did us a lovely view. The lane suddenly felt like came to a end, however, this was for cars and not for pedestrians. The next part of the walk was restricted to car traffic as we were to cross over the M1 on a bridge! I am unsure as to why the bridge is no longer used by cars, perhaps it is not deemed strong enough? Once we were on the other side, it really felt we were in the countryside. As we followed the lane around, I realised that the lane had brought us to “Bury Farm”. I had only just blogged about the Farm last week! It is nice to see that the farm which was established in 17th Century, is still going to this day 🙂

We hurried our walk slightly as it started to rain, it was here that the lane suddenly came out in to suburbia. As the rain began to subside, we turned off the road into “Edgwarebury Park”. This park was created in 1932 by two councils after purchasing it in two parts in 1929 and 1932. The earliest reference to this land is in 1216 when it was formerly within the “Manor of Earlsbury” domain, somehow the area was transferred to the ownership of “All Saints College Oxford” at one point! Walking through this lovely park, we discovered a beautiful rose garden which had been planted for Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee 🙂 Her Majesty even had her own collection of roses here, but sadly I could not capture any in bloom 😦 I did see the official of roses of our Commonwealth Team – how nice to see they have survived all our rain!

We left the wonderful flowers behind and walked out of the park and on towards Edgware where we were to finish our walk. Just before we did, I made one last discovery, a original gas lamp? Well I think it is, please let me know what you think?

For all the photographs that I took during the walk, I apologise for some of the photos as some of them have raindrops on them! :-

2012 – 08.07.2012 – Borehamwood – Edgwarebury Walk

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Borehamwood – Elstree Walk – 29.06.2012

“May The Force Be With You”© 1977, Star Wars

Indeed we were walking the trail of stars today. It was not Hollywood Boulevard, but Elstree and Borehamwood. A little town with film studios which has had some of the most blockbusting movies filmed there! We even managed to follow up our starry eyed trail with a walk into the small village of Elstree :-).

When we arrived at Elstree & Borehamwood Station, it really did feel like we had arrived somewhere special. Even the wall opposite the bus station had a lovely movie design emblazoned on it! We decided to follow the “Film and Television Heritage Trail” It seems that this walk is absolutely littered with information about the Stars and the films that where created in this provincial town of Hertfordshire! From the details that we found, Studios have been in this area since before 1930 and went from strength to strength making Classic movies. The Hammer film production company, known for it’s horror films, was based here from 1968. It was here Christopher Lee wore his Dracula cape in a Hammer movie for the last time. By the 1980’s Borehamwood had some of the most well known movie’s filmed here, including Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Return of the Jedi! The list goes on!

It is really nice to know that Elstree is really proud of it’s film and tv heritage, as the town has banners everywhere saying “Made In Elstree”. Despite this being a normal high street, particularly was we were walking past every day shops, you could not help but still feel that tinge of excitement of the movies everywhere! We did past “All Saints” Parish Church, however, I am unable to trace very much about it’s history. It is very unusual in style particularly as part of it looked like a Tudor house? Shenley Road was not very large, so it did not take us too long to reach Elstree Studios. I must admit I thought the studios did look very small but we were only at the entrance to the TV Studios! I was fascinated to see a large truck that had been left outside of the front of the studios – but which Indiana Jones film was this from?

From 2012 – 29.06.2012 – Borehamwood – Elstree Walk

As we passed by the first studios, we found a tiny plaque hidden in the bushes stating that the offices that stood now in Imperial Place used to be the “British & Dominion Imperial Studios” 1929-1936. This studio was responsible for building the first Sound Studio in Europe and in 1929 Alfred Hitchcock produced his first sound movie “Blackmail” at this studio. Sadly the studio did not survive for long as in February 1936 the Studio suffered at the hands of a fire and burnt down 😦 . Our route then took us right past the Borehamwood Fire Station, which after reading about a studios burning down all those years ago, perhaps this fire station is now aptly placed near the current Elstree Studios!

As we journeyed on, a double decker bus caught my eye… Buses usually go through Borehamwood, in fact we took one to get there. This bus, however was not the usual type to be found here as it was an old routemaster. The bus had “On The Buses” as it’s location and in fact the TV series “On the Buses” and some of the movies for “On the Buses” were shot in Elstree studios. The reason I am happy to mention this, is because we visited the Holiday camp in Prestatyn where they filmed most of “Holiday on the Buses” 🙂 We, however, carried on our tour by foot rather than bus!

From 2012 – 29.06.2012 – Borehamwood – Elstree Walk

We turned back on ourselves to search for another studios, the BBC TV Studios. Unfortunately, it took us a while to find the the entrance and as it was not really obvious where to go! For any soap fans out there, the BBC soap Eastenders is filmed here and we could just about make out some of the set hidden behind the trees! Eventually we found the entrance to BBC Elstree and we could see more of the Eastender set “Albert Square”. I am unsure what else is filmed here at present, I would love to know 🙂

We decided to leave our film and tv tour here, and I am sure we may be back! There is still more to explore. We felt it was time to continue our walk along from Elstree & Borehwood Station. It was nice to know that we were possibly following the London Loop at this point, in fact this is part of the “Borehamwood to Stanmore section”, some of which I have walked previously. The loop took us past the community centre, which suspiciously looks like an old station? But of course I could be wrong! As we carried on, I did notice a road called “Boreham Holt” and “Holt Close”, normally I sign of an old branch line with a holt rather than a station on it? If anyone has any information I would be really intrigued to know!

We did not quite follow the London Loop, as the the Loop would have taken us through “Parkfields and Allumn Lane Spinney”, which we will save for another time. Instead, we carried on up Allum Lane, which steadily climbed towards Elstree Village and gave us some lovely views across the hills. Allum Lane, met up with Watling Street, a road I had walked only a few weeks ago, where it was to take us in the lovely little village of Elstree. Just before we got there, I did notice a sign to Aldenham Country Park, which was good to see, as I think I will be visiting there again!

From 2012 – 29.06.2012 – Borehamwood – Elstree Walk

We entered the small village of Elstree, where we walked past St Nicholas Parish Church. This little Church was in fact built and designed by English architect Philip Charles Hardwick in the 19th Century. He was responsible for more notable buildings in the City of London, including the Bank of England, Great Western Royal Hotel in Paddington and was the architect to St St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. We also passed by the Grade II listed building – the Holly Bush Pub – although we did not stop for a drink – it did look very tempting though 🙂 We therefore carried on our walk through the village and down Elstree Hill. Although it was not a very exciting walk along the road, it was still quite pleasant to walk along. It was not long before we came across a footpath for the “Edgwarebury Estate”.

The “Edgwarebury Estate” seems to have been around for a number of centuries. In fact a farm has been in this area before the Romans arrived in Britian. The farm which grew up in this area was known as “Bury Farm” and was considered to be in the centre of the “Edgware Manor” Estate, and the Lord would lodge in the farm when he was in the area. The farm became well known when the famous Gregory Gang, which included the Highwayman, Dick Turpin robbed the farm in 1735! Much later in it’s history was sold off as open space, all 29.5 acres of it, I will be back to investigate more :-).

We continued our walk up to Brockley Hill, where we were to finish our stroll for the day. It seemed like we had learned quite a lot for the day and we had found some more routes to follow too 🙂 . Please click this link for our walking route. For all the photos our walk please click here –

2012 – 29.06.2012 – Borehamwood – Elstree Walk

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