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Croxley photos


Chertsey

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I recently dug out these photos and put them on the blog but thought they deserved a wider audience as I don't think that some of them, at least, have been published before.

 

The first four are courtesy of Diamond Geezer (who writes a brilliant blog; check it out if you haven't already) and show a pair of Willow Wren boats at Croxley Mill, and then approaching, in, and leaving Common Moor lock. They were taken by dg's father. The boats are Grebe and Wagtail (ex FMC Antelope and Freda - I think Antelope is still around?). Maybe someone will be able to come up with a date and even steerers?

 

(Sorry about all the different sizes)

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approaching%2BCroxley%2BLock.jpg

 

in%2BCroxley%2BLock.jpg

 

leaving%2BCroxley%2BLock.jpg

 

Then there is Chertsey (with Renfrew) in the same lock on July 30th this year (kicking myself for not thinking to reproduce the same angle)

 

Croxley%2Block%2B2.jpg

 

And below, courtesy of Richard Pearson, steerer on the trip, is Chertsey loading coal at Gopsall Wharf on the Ashby on August 18th 1970, and then unloading it at Croxley Mill.

 

1970_M_42-43_2.jpeg

 

1970_M_64-65_2.jpg

 

Finally, here is the loading note for Chertsey's probable last commercial carrying job (the traffic ended a couple of weeks after)

 

img_0146.jpg

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The first of the three photo's of the empty Willow Wren's at Croxley isn't the same pair that's in the second and third photo's, . . . the motor in the first photo looks like a 'Northwich', so it's almost certainly either 'Mallard' or 'Warbler'.

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The first of the three photo's of the empty Willow Wren's at Croxley isn't the same pair that's in the second and third photo's, . . . the motor in the first photo looks like a 'Northwich', so it's almost certainly either 'Mallard' or 'Warbler'.

Ah, well spotted, yes. I didn't pay that one enough attention. Maybe the first two are contemporaneous, and the second two?

 

I'm also curious as to whether the one of the boats about to come out of the empty lock could have been taken from the bank by a local resident.

 

Interesting to see the woman steering the motor and the man the butty.

 

I will send possible Warbler pic to current owners.

Edited by Chertsey
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Interesting to see the woman steering the motor and the man the butty.

 

 

Frequently done with empty two-handed pairs South of the Cowroast, and elsewhere on the Junction where you wouldn't single-out empty boats.

In fact, nobody's steering the butty because they running abreast, and they'll stay abreast all the way to Cowley Lock where they'll single out for the Cowley Pound.

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Nice photos and good information. I lived in Rickmansworth (Batchworth moorings) for a few years in the mid 00s and went up to common moor a lot to walk the dog.

I had never seen Croxley Mills as pictured so its nice to see how it used to be up there before the bland housing :)

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I'm kind of surprised that gate lines don't seem to be in use to open the bottom gates whilst running downhill.

 

I kind of remember this practice as almost universal.

 

Mind you it looks like the line on the mast of the butty is in use for something else. Possibly as a washing line, although there is no washing.

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I'm kind of surprised that gate lines don't seem to be in use to open the bottom gates whilst running downhill.

 

I kind of remember this practice as almost universal.

 

Mind you it looks like the line on the mast of the butty is in use for something else. Possibly as a washing line, although there is no washing.

 

There is a line on the motor's topmast [ it hasn't been used at that lock, . . it's laying across the middle beam], but if you look at how far the motor's counter is out, it wouldn't hold back well enough to pull both gates open, so whoever was off the boats on the lockside would be opening the butty's gate and getting back on as the boats came out of the lock.

Edited by Tony Dunkley
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Nice photos and good information. I lived in Rickmansworth (Batchworth moorings) for a few years in the mid 00s and went up to common moor a lot to walk the dog.

I had never seen Croxley Mills as pictured so its nice to see how it used to be up there before the bland housing smile.png

Croxley Mills was a huge site behind those wharfs. I regularly used to sneak in and poach fish the private bit round the back and regularly got caught by their security when I was a nipper. Once we got held in a hut and questioned briefly iirc to try to find out where we lived to get our parents out to get us.

 

They had a primitive railway istr. Also there used to have a bulldozer working virtually continously mounting up huge piles of coal onto I assume a conveyor.

 

At closing or shift change loads of workers piled out across the Gade bridge and up the hill or across the common.

 

They used to put warm water into the Gade and the water had a peculiar green colour and blobs of pulp.

 

Eta Once being michievous I hid behind a tree and fired my air rifle xxxxxxxx nah I'll not go into detail but Croxley Mills had two staff on the roof of the offices whilst I was in fits of laughter hiding after driving them mad.

Edited by mark99
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They used to put warm water into the Gade and the water had a peculiar green colour and blobs of pulp.

 

 

That pulp smelt absolutely vile! Lorry after lorry full of the stuff used to go past when I was taking my children to school. This was, of course, after the mill had closed and the site was being cleared. I have no idea what they did with the it!

This may be of interest http://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/aerial-photos.html

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That pulp smelt absolutely vile! Lorry after lorry full of the stuff used to go past when I was taking my children to school. This was, of course, after the mill had closed and the site was being cleared. I have no idea what they did with the it!

This may be of interest http://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/aerial-photos.html

 

 

Thanks for the photo's. Near the end of Ops, the Gade got badly polluted and tonnes of fish died and the water in the river was almost hot to touch. I assumed it was Dickensons although I never did find out but it was a terrible sight. I found a shoal of quite large fish right under the railway bridge downstream at end of the Common about a mile away who were recovering in the shallow water which was the only sign of life I saw.

 

More here incl some stuff about narrowboats.

 

http://www.croxleygreenhistory.co.uk/john-dickinson.html

Edited by mark99
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In the late 1970s/early 1980s I was working for the Dickinson Robinson Group, DRG, the merged company who were by then the owners of Apsley, Nash and Croxley mills, developing computer systems mostly for Croxley, which I visited regularly.

 

"Dickensian" would have been a better name than "Dickinson" with working practices that looked so dangerous that they would not be allowed if you came up with them at the time, and which they only seemed to get away with because nothing had changed in decades.

 

It is certainly true that there were regular problems with what got discharged into the cut, which was often strange colours, with the inevitable result on fish and other living things.

 

When I was given a tour of the mill, we were shown these large "vats" where paper that had to be scrapped when the lines went wrong was re-pulped for reuse. They had large rotating blades at the bottom of a large open cylindrical tank. We saw many rodents around the site, resulting in lots of stray cats, and were told these caused some issues if they fell into these "vats". When asked what that meant, we were told "we have to use that pulp to produce the pink paper". I don't think I was being wound up, but of cause it is possible I was.

Croxley was something out of history, really. The odd thing was that if you walked through one of the large halls where one of the paper lines was operating, there often appeared to be nobody in attendance. However if the web broke and the resulting mess needed sorting out, people suddenly appeared by the dozen. Watching people poke "sticks" between large rotating steel rollers of many tons was frightening. The more modern machines had massive covers that were supposed to be lowered over the whole thing as a protection. However they never seemed to be, because they hampered people sticking bits of their body into the machine when things went awry! The older machines didn't even have the possibility of this protection.

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  • 3 years later...

The overhanging sheds at Croxley appear to have been added after 1926. The coal I assume was not dropped off at the overhanging sheds as ISTR the coal being unloaded near the lock also backed up by the 2nd image.

 

Image 1 (Britain from above) is noted 1926. The second image 1932. In between the overhanging sheds appeared.

 

I also recall the floor under the "overhanging sheds" were below canal level as you could see heads bobbing up and down at canal level. (I could be wrong!). This is where the paper was kept.

 

 

 

 

1926.JPG

 

 

1932.

 

 

 

1932.JPG

Edited by mark99
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From the Alan Faulkner article in Waterways World, January 2003, (previously posted on this forum to which I don't have a link) it is stated the overhanging sheds were installed in 1928. Images in that article state that the coal brought by narrow boat were lining up awaiting unloading by a conveyor adjacent to the boiler house chimney. Another shows esparto grass loaded wide boats being tied adjacent to the four curved roof buildings nearer the lock. There is a canalside travelling crane which would facilitate unloading onto trucks of sorts leading into the sheds. The ground the sheds were on is clearly seen as lower than the canalside by as much as 8 - 10 feet. Images are thought to date from 1910.

 

In Marks images, it can be seen that a rail track runs from these sheds towards the main complex. The 1910 images also show trucks. It would appear the grass was off loaded from the wide boats and 'trucked' to the works, whilst the coal was off loaded using the conveyor, which itself is seen clearly in both Mark's images.

 

I would hazard a guess that the covered sheds were an improvement on being able to unload grass under cover, and would be closer to the main works. Even in the 1910 images, at least one of the curved roof sheds has its bridge from the canalside to the first floor doors showing decking to be missing. Maybe their use was being phased out even back then.

 

Great images.

Edited by Derek R.
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In the mid 70's, there used to be, where the last dark hut is, a huge pile of coal that a bolldozer spent hours piling up. I think most of the dark sheds were gone then. I assume the boats delivered coal it was offloaded into a pile which the bulldozer shovelled into some form of transit /conveyor and tidied up the pile. How exactly the coal got to the boiler house - not sure - just saw the bulldozer. But yes I do remember the railway (lines) it was narrow gauge and stretched right back into the site.

 

I said before their security guard/yardman "nicked" me as a kid. I was always trying to get in there as the fishing was good behind their works  ;) way upstream of the weir. The railway lines went way past the Gade weir.

 

In '76, the canal people put a huge pump/6" pipe across to the Gade and backpumped Common Moor Lock.

 

 

 

Edited by mark99
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Actually - looking again I think you can see a train carriage - highlighted in yellow. Now that means the train had to cross the Gade - and 400 yards upstream of the weir <in the 70's> there was a very low derelict bridge there that no-one used....... I think it carried the railway over the Gade. That coincides with the place I remember the railtracks in situ and next to this low bridge the security bloke/clocking in clerk had a hut. (He used to take me to the hut to tell me off!).

 

 

 

Capture.JPG

 

 

It was quite bigger than I thought (the railway). 1953 image - railway lines etc can be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

Capture.JPG

Edited by mark99
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I wonder if the coal deliveries augmented by railway/lorry where also the fodder for the bulldozer once transported into a pile?

 

 

 

1957 image.

 

 

Capture1957.JPG

 

 

Train

 

 

 

Capturetrain.JPG

Edited by mark99
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Lovely atmospheric shots. The loco looks like one that might be charged with steam from an external source to save having a live fire in a grate. Something that might be a safety requirement for working in and around works where flammable materials are used - as Victor Vectis has just pointed out. Those trucks also look a bit large for narrow gauge.

 

The link gives access to OS 1940's - 1960's and shows clearly the extent the railway went into and around the site:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.6458&lon=-0.4352&layers=170&b=1

Edited by Derek R.
  • Greenie 1
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4 minutes ago, Derek R. said:

Thos trucks also look a bit large for narrow gauge.

 

The link gives access to OS 1940's - 1960's and shows clearly the extent the railway went into and around the site:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.6458&lon=-0.4352&layers=170&b=1

 I agree Derek. I thought the same thing with evidence in front of my eyes  ( ie too big for narrrow gauge).

 

That's the trouble with memory. I think I was brought up on the electrified system and got it wrong width wise in the mind!  :)

 

What's rather depressing is the creep of housing across the decades.

Edited by mark99
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9 minutes ago, mark99 said:

 What's rather depressing is the creep of housing across the decades.

 

Just as is planned for the now demolished Ironbridge Power Station alongside the Severn. Several thousand houses are planned. Whether sufficient thought has been put into supplying services, sewage, and the potential school traffic, is unknown.

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3 minutes ago, Derek R. said:

 

Just as is planned for the now demolished Ironbridge Power Station alongside the Severn. Several thousand houses are planned. Whether sufficient thought has been put into supplying services, sewage, and the potential school traffic, is unknown.

 

:(   In my mind Shropshire/Worcestershire/Herefordshire is the last bastion of "space" or undensity !  Without going too far North.

 

Edited by mark99
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16 hours ago, mark99 said:

 

:(   In my mind Shropshire/Worcestershire/Herefordshire is the last bastion of "space" or undensity !  Without going too far North.

 

We all know North starts at the end of The Caledonian Rd just past Holloway, but I'm intrigued now where "Too Far North" is.

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