Showing posts with label Barn Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barn Hill. Show all posts

Thursday 9 February 2023

UPDATE: After 6 days the stricken and weakening Barn Hill heron is still awaiting rescue

 

 

Photo Credit: Amanda Rose

I could not make it to Barn Hill pond today to check on the heron that has its beak constricted by material,  as I am social isolating with Covid.

 

So far despite calls to various agencies, no official rescue operation has been undertaken to help the heron and it is inadvisable for the public to try – the heron’s beak could produce a very nasty wound.

 

 Local professional photographer Amanda Rose has been taking a keen interest in the heron's light and produced some stunning images of the heron’s plight. (Please respect her copyright).

 

Many thanks to Amanda for this update:

 


 Photo credit: Amanda Rose

 

I spent an hour and a half with the heron this afternoon, at times there were three other people who have all contacted various authorities over the past week to try and get help. We were relieved to see it today as there were no sightings yesterday.

 

The heron let us all approach closer than ever before, presumably too weak to fly, conserving its energy, or too hungry to care. Most surprisingly, it didn't flinch while a dog was running around the water’s edge, thankfully the owner kept the dog out the water.

 


 Photo credit: Amanda Rose

The heron caught a small fish and a newt but dropped both back into the pond and wasn't able to eat either. Someone produced a bag of scrap fish for the heron, and drove to the top of Barn Rise to give it to me, but by the time I'd walked to the roadside to collect it and walked back to the pond, the heron had flown away.


Tuesday 7 February 2023

Barn Hill heron still awaiting assistance after at least 4 days with bag/material wrapped around its beak

 

The heron managed to catch a small fish (Photo: Amanda Rose)

For the last four days locals have been seeking help for a heron that has been seen with material (or perhaps rubber ballon or plastic bag) wrapped around its beak.  The heron has been seen often on Barn Hill Pond, Wembley. It had not been seen yesterday so there was relief today that it was still alive.

By the time I saw it today it appeared to have weakened, allowing people to approach close rather than flying away.  During the half hour I observed it was scooping water up from the pond but it only appeared to catch anything once.  Later, local professional photographer Amanda Rose, photographed it catching a small fish.  It appears that the constricted beak would not open wide enough for anything bigger.

Please send a link to this article to any organisation that you think might be able to help catch the heron and unwrap the material. 

 


 Photo: Amanda Rose

This magnificient bird's plight should help people stop and think before discarding litter on Barn Hill.

Saturday 10 December 2022

ANNIVERSARY TODAY: Celebrating 90 years of the Stanmore Line

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

From the 1932 edition of “Metro-Land”

 

From 5am on 10 December 1932, members of the public had the first chance to travel on the Metropolitan Railway’s new branch line, to and from Wembley Park. It was called the Stanmore Line, but you will know it as part of the Jubilee Line. Its 90th anniversary is perhaps a good time to share its story with you. 

 

The 1920s saw the rapid development of suburban housing estates around London, as people moved out of crowded conditions in the more central areas of the capital. Many of the new suburbs grew up around the railway out from Baker Street, in leafy countryside promoted as “Metro-Land” by the railway company. As districts like Wembley Park started to fill up with housing, developers were looking for new areas to build on, but they wanted good transport connections, to attract buyers for their homes.

 

An advert for Haymills’ Barn Hill Estate. (From the 1932 edition of “Metro-Land”)

 

In November 1929, the Metropolitan Railway Company announced that it wanted to build an extension from Wembley Park to Stanmore, which would give local commuters direct trains to London. Within twelve months, plans for the branch line were in place, and a price for the construction work of £168,628-17s-3d had been agreed with the contractors, Walter Scott & Middleton Ltd. The work began in January 1931.

 

A map showing the new extension to the Metropolitan Railway. (From the 1932 edition of “Metro-Land”)

 

The route could not go in a straight line, because Barn Hill was in the way, so the track had to curve around that before heading north-west, roughly parallel to and east of Honeypot Lane. This meant taking the railway along the valley of the Wealdstone Brook, which proved to be one of the project’s biggest problems. The brook meandered to and fro across the planned route, and first a concrete channel had to be constructed to divert the stream, so that it would run alongside the line around the base of the hill.

 

Diverting the brook, near what later became Uxendon Hill. (From the 1932 edition of “Metro-Land”)

 

Then, a long embankment had to be built down the valley, to provide a gentle gradient for the track to run along. This involved transporting thousands of tons of clay, dug out from the cutting where Kingsbury Station would be built, down a temporary single-track line. As can be seen in this photograph, a Ruston & Hornsby steam drag-line excavator was used to do the digging, and loading the clay into the trucks, pulled by an old Metropolitan Railway steam locomotive.

 

The excavator at work in Kingsbury, with Barn Hill in the distance. (From “Meccano Magazine”, 1934)

 

The work of shaping and compacting the embankment proved difficult. Heavy rain during the second half of 1931 caused delays, particularly because of machinery (including some “new” petrol and diesel excavators) slipping and sinking in the wet clay. And a second embankment had to be built, further up the line, through Canons Park, using the spoil dug out for the site of the station and sidings at Stanmore.

 

Work on the embankment, with bridges to take The Avenue over the brook and under the railway.
(From the 1932 edition of “Metro-Land”)

 

The work on the line had a very tight schedule, as the Metropolitan Railway had promised the Treasury, which was giving financial assistance through an unemployment relief scheme, that it would be open in twenty-one months. The “navvies” building the line worked from 7am to 5.30pm on weekdays, with a half-day to 12 noon on Saturday. For their 49½ hour week (excluding meal breaks) the labourers received 1/6d (one shilling and sixpence) an hour, with the skilled men such as bricklayers and carpenters getting up to 2/2d an hour.

 

By March 1932 the contractors still had most of the massive cutting between Kingsbury Road and Princes Avenue to excavate, and brought in double shifts. The night men worked from 6pm to 6.30am (with 1½ hours for meal breaks) from Monday to Saturday morning, so that the machinery was working 23 hours a day, with just half an hour between shifts for greasing and maintenance. 

 

 Work on the cutting north of Kingsbury Road, from the “Wembley News”, 12 August 1932.
(Brent Archives – local newspaper microfilms)

 

Neighbours in the recently built houses in Berkeley and Brampton Roads were not happy at their sleep being disrupted by the noise, but a deputation to the railway company from Kingsbury Council was told that it was unavoidable. The Treasury had agreed a twelve-week extension to the completion date for the Stanmore Line, and it had to open by December 1932.

 

On 9 December 1932 a large group of dignitaries and invited guests gathered at Wembley Park station to see the Minister of Transport declare the Stanmore Line open. The Metropolitan Railway’s Chairman, in top hat and tails, pulled a lever in the signal box (still there at the end of platform 3) to open the points, so that a special train could take them all on a tour of the new line and its stations, before returning to Baker Street for a celebratory dinner.

 

The Minister of Transport and other dignitaries visiting Kingsbury Station (note the design of the Metropolitan Railway sign!) on 9 December 1932. (Courtesy of London Transport Museum)

 

The total cost of building the Stanmore Line was around half a million pounds (including £142,791 for buying the land, and a separate contract for the signalling), equivalent to around £24.4m now. Paying passengers could travel on the line from the following morning. Stanmore, Canons Park and Kingsbury stations offered passengers 144 electric trains a day. Many were shuttle services to and from Wembley Park, but they included through trains to Baker Street in just 25 minutes. However, local residents complained at how expensive the fares were.

 

Season ticket prices from Kingsbury, from the “Wembley News”, 16 December 1932.
(Brent Archives – local newspaper microfilms)

 

The opening of the Stanmore Line did contribute to suburban development along its route, including a new neighbourhood called Queensbury, for which a station was opened in December 1934. By that time, the Metropolitan Railway lines had been taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board. Over time, this section of the Metropolitan Line became part of the Bakerloo Line (from 1939), before eventually being the northern end of the new Jubilee Line from 1 May 1979.

 

An advertisement for new homes near Kingsbury “Met” Station in 1934.

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip along the history of our local railway line. It could be seen as nostalgia, but it’s also an important part of the story which shaped the northern part of Brent as it is today. And don’t be too jealous of the house prices and train fares of ninety years ago. If you were living then, you’d be comfortably off if your salary was £200 a year!

 


Philip Grant.

Monday 8 August 2022

Brent Council comes to the rescue of Nicole and Bibaa's memorial tree on Barn Hill


 

Brent Council has come to the rescue of the wilting memorial tree dedicated to murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman after an appeal for help from Wembley Matters. The tree close to Barn hill pond has been badly affected by the current drought.

Brent Council said:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  Please note we are are getting water to the tree. It is suffering, but we are hoping that some intensive watering will help to revive it.


 

 

Sunday 31 July 2022

Tinder box danger exposed by vegetation fire on Barn Hill. Fire chief backs ban on disposable barbecues.

 

Tree damage by fire


 The proximity of the fire to garden fence

Charred tree trunks
 

Timely action by the Fire Brigade prevented a vegetation fire on Barn Hill from spreading to the garden fence of a nearby property. The fire was during the recent hot period a day before the 'Extreme Heat' warning days.

The family at the property were out at the time but fortunately  the alarm was raised by neighbours preventing any serious damage.

Wembley Matters asked the Brent Fire Brigade for any information they have on the cause of the fire. It has been suggested that wood had been dumped on the site in addition to fallen trees.

The London Fire Brigade responded:

 

Our fire investigators wouldn’t be sent to a small fire like this so we don’t have any details on the cause.

 

Firefighters were called to bushes and trees alight on Barn Hill in Wembley on 18 July.

 

The Brigade was called at 1954 and the fire was under control by 2018. One fire engine from Willesden Fire Station attended the scene.

 

The fire highlights the potential for serious outbreaks on Barn Hill and Fryent Country Park given the extremely dry vegetation.  Warnings have been issued on social media about the danger of dumped fuel from disposable barbecues igniting grass.  

 

 

The London Fire Commisioner has highlighted the need for the banning of  disposable barbecues and issued this statement:

London’s Fire Commissioner is calling for a total ban on disposable barbecues following one of the busiest weeks in our history.

The call comes ahead of a possible second summer heatwave and an unprecedented number of large grassland fires London’s firefighters worked in tough conditions to tackle last week. New statistics show that week commencing Monday, 18 July the Brigade received 8,302 calls and attended 3,231 incidents. In addition:

  • Firefighters attended more than 1,000 fires.
  • The number of 999 calls received was more than double taken for the same period last year.
  • Thirty-four grass fires required an attendance of four fire engine and above.

Significant fire risk

Disposable barbecues pose a significant fire risk if they are not put out properly, causing grass fires in open spaces and scorching the grassed areas. The dry spell has left grassland like a tinderbox and increases the chances of a fire caused by a disposable barbecue

We are also reiterating that people should not barbecue on balconies and during this exceptional dry spell Londoners should not have any barbecues or open fires in parks and public spaces.

London’s Fire Commissioner Andy Roe has already written to local authorities asking for a temporary ban on the use of barbecues in all public parks and open spaces. We're very grateful to councils which put bans in public places but now feels disposable barbecues need to be taken off the shelves needed to help prevent widespread blazes like last Tuesday.

Retailers, including Waitrose and Aldi, have announced they will no longer stock disposable barbecues because of the detrimental impact they have on the environment and wildlife.

Back ban petition 

Disposable barbecues also pose a health risk and heat can be retained for many hours after a barbeque has been put out. The Brigade is backing a petition set up by Toby Tyler whose son Will was severely burned by a disposable barbecue. The petition can be found here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618664.

Commissioner Roe said: “Despite our grass fire warnings, we’ve still seen some people behaving carelessly and recklessly. On Saturday (23rd July) firefighters prevented a serious blaze at Wanstead Flats caused using a disposable barbecue. We need urgent action now to see a national ban on the sale of disposable barbecues. They can be bought for as little as five pounds and can cause untold damage, especially when the grass is as dry as it has been over the last few weeks.

“Last week is another example of how we are increasingly being challenged by new extremes of weather as our climate changes and we’re developing long-term strategies to deal with more incidents like this in the future.”

Grass fire prevention tips: 

  • Don’t drop cigarettes or anything that is burning on dry ground. 
  • Don’t drop cigarettes out of car windows - they may land on dry grass by the roadside.  
  • Don’t have barbecues in parks and public spaces.
  • Do not barbecue on balconies, the wind may carry smouldering ash towards nearby grassland.  
  • Be aware that children, animals, balls or anything else may knock over barbecues, increasing the risk of grass fires, especially when in a busy parks or public spaces. 

 

Tuesday 7 June 2022

Women tell the Met 'Enough is Enough' as they march for justice for Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry


 Bearing the slogan, 'Enough is Enough', a group of mainly women set off at 1pm from Barn Hill, Wembley today, to march the 10 miles to New Scotland Yard, to demand an end to the police racism and misogyny that so impacted on family and friends of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

Mina Smallman, the women's mother, was unable to  take part but sent a message of support.

Marchers were asked to set their mobile phone timers for 16 hours so that their alarms would go off after the march was over, demonstrating how long it took the police to act on reports of the women's disappearance.

The Raised Voices choir sang as people assembled on Barn Hill and the music loved by Nicole and Bibaa  accompanied the marchers.

The Women's Equality Party who organised the march said that this was just the beginning of the campaign for justice.


Saturday 26 March 2022

Fryent Country Park extra! – Horse racing at Bush Farm

I am grateful to Philip Grant for this latest investigation into our rich local history 


Two years ago, I wrote the first of a series of articles about the history of the area which is now Fryent Country Park. In six parts, this told its story from more than 1,000 years ago up to the present day, but there are always new things which can come to light.

 

As a result of a reader’s comment, the “Cold War” story of the bunker on Gotfords Hill was uncovered in an “extra” article. Now, an enquiry from William, who is researching the history of horse racing in Victorian times, has led to the discovery of another piece of Fryent Country Park’s story that we didn’t know before.

 

Bush Farm stables, at the entrance to the Country Park from Slough Lane.

 

Steeplechases organised by John Elmore of Uxendon Farm in mid-Victorian times were mentioned in Part 2 of The Preston Story. As early as April 1830, Elmore was involved in organising a private race match between the wealthy owners of two top horses, “Niagara” and “Wonder”, for a stake of £300 each. “Niagara”, with Captain Martin Becher (whose name now graces a famous Grand National fence at Aintree) in the saddle, won the four-mile contest for the horse’s owner, Mr Caldecott.

 

A Harrow Steeplechase from 1864 pictured in a sporting paper. (Courtesy of William Morgan)

 

The cross-country course from Brockley Hill to Elmore’s farm on the northern edge of Barn Hill became the scene of further high stakes steeplechases. Another course, around the fields of Uxendon and Forty Farms, also proved popular with spectators, although a water jump across the Wealdstone Brook proved fatal to several horses before the approach to it was improved. John Elmore continued as organiser of and host to racing at Uxendon until the early 1860s.

 

The original enquiry Wembley History Society received was about the racecourse at Hendon, run by William Perkins Warner, the landlord of the Old Welsh Harp. I wrote about him in Part 2 of the Welsh Harp Reservoir Story, and mentioned that he had organised big horse racing meetings as part of the attractions that brought thousands of visitors to his tavern. What I didn’t realise at the time was that his steeplechases, that went across the fields of Kingsbury, were not run from the Welsh Harp itself!

 

The Grandstand at Warner’s Welsh Harp racecourse. (From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

Warner had taken on the lease of the tavern, and the fishery on its adjacent reservoir, in 1858. By February 1862, he was one of the promoters of a horse race meeting, with a course that began and ended in a field beside the inn. A report on this experimental meeting, in the “Bell’s Life” sporting newspaper, said that it was: ‘just sufficiently satisfactory to prove that something much better might, with judicious management, be brought to issue.’

 

A two-day race meeting in September 1862 drew large crowds to the Welsh Harp, and by 1864 this Hendon fixture was a regular feature of the racing calendar. “The Era” wrote in 1865: ‘the Meeting held on the ground in the rear of the Welsh Harp, Hendon, on Thursday and Friday, must be pronounced the very best ever seen under the auspices of Mr Warner, who has done all in his power to place the affair on a respectable and permanent footing.’ 

 

By this time, Warner had begun organising steeplechase races, over artificial fences, on his course beside the Welsh Harp, but these did not do as well. In December 1866, in conjunction with Edward Topham (the famous handicapper, who staged the Grand National at his Aintree course), leased land from Joseph Goodchild of Bush Farm, and put on the “Metropolitan Grand Steeplechases, Kingsbury (Edgware)”. 

 

A hedge between two fields on the Bush Farm land, with Harrow Hill in the distance.

 

The course they designed for the two-day meeting was described by the “Sporting Times” as one of the best around London. The oval-shaped course was a mile and a quarter long, and each lap included seven natural fences. These would have been existing hedges between the farm’s hay meadows, cut down to a manageable size for the horses to jump, along a course marked by wooden posts. But where exactly did this race course go? 

 

The site of Bush Farm still exists, and its fields were saved from housing development by Middlesex County Council, who bought the land from All Souls College in 1938, to create the Fryent Way Regional Open Space. Although the course never appeared on any published map, a series of sketches from a meeting in September 1875, published in “The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News”, did supply some clues.

 

“Kingsbury Showers”, some sketches from a rather wet autumn race meeting in 1875.
(Courtesy of William Morgan)

 

Several of the sketches showing racegoers at this Kingsbury meeting include details of the landscape in the background. I decided to take some of these images with me, when I went for a walk on the Country Park on a bright January day, to see whether I could identify where the artist had been standing when he drew them. I believe that I had some success!

 

The approach to Bush Farm from Slough Lane, 1875 and 2022.

 

I’ve coloured in the landscape details on an extract from the sketches, to help with the comparison. I’m certain that racegoers approached the course up the driveway to the farm from Slough Lane. The present Stables building is in the same place as a farm building in the sketch, and may even still have part of the earlier structure within its construction.

 

Looking west across Bush Farm’s Home Field, 1875 and 2022.

 

I think that this second pair of “then and now” images are again viewed from about the same place. The shape of the distant hills against the skyline is very similar, as is the slope of the land. The course was described as having an uphill run-in to the finish of 300 yards, and you can just make out the “matchstick” figures of two horses and their riders approaching the final fence at the far side of the field. That would fit with the distance from the bottom corner of Home Field to where the grandstand appears in the 1875 sketch. 

 

The original steeplechase course was described as a pear-shaped oval, with the stand at its narrow end. As Bush Farm was leased from All Souls College, all of its fields will have been within Kingsbury Parish. Using all of this information, I have set out what I believe is a possible route for the mile and a quarter (ten furlongs) course, which does cross seven hedges.

 

Possible 1866 Kingsbury Vale steeplechase course (in brown), marked on an 1895 O.S. map.

 

Overnight rain between the two days of the original race meeting at Bush Farm in December 1866 ‘reduced the ground to the “slough of despond” ’. If you’ve taken a walk on Fryent Country Park in winter, you’ll understand the problems that wet clay, especially when churned up by galloping horses, would have caused. A low-lying field, like “Honey Slough” (on the left as you come down Fryent Way from Kingsbury Circle, after passing Valley Drive) did not get its name for no reason!

 

Future December meetings here were often troubled by wet ground or frost, and by competition from a Christmas meeting at Kempton Park (which still continues), but Spring and Autumn race meetings proved popular. This kept the Bush Farm course, known as “Kingsbury Vale”, in use for a dozen years. The course was lengthened to two miles, by going over the fields north of Barn Hill as far as Uxendon Farm. Part of its appeal was the open hay meadows and natural hedges, and racing papers such as “Bell’s Life” referred to it as ‘the charming Kingsbury Vale.

 

Looking north-east across Meade and Warrens fields on ‘the charming Kingsbury Vale’ course.

 

Crowds of 10.000 were not uncommon at the course, despite the lanes leading to it being narrow and in poor condition. Part of the attraction was the number of runners, including some good quality horses, attracted by the prize money offered by Warner to the winners. You can see him (with the beard) in one of the 1875 sketches above, alongside the caption “Cup presented by the owner”. 

 

The drink which was freely available (also supplied by Warner, from his Welsh Harp tavern) and the opportunity for betting, on races that (as far as Warner could ensure) were not “fixed”, were also reasons why these race meetings were popular. But they were not popular with everyone! By 1873, letters from local residents were appearing in “The Times”, and other papers, complaining about the ‘ruffians’ and ‘thousands of the biggest scoundrels and blackguards’ which the race meetings attracted to Kingsbury.

 

Warner found himself before the Magistrates Court several times for allowing illegal cash betting to take place on the course. Prosecuted for this offence at the December 1877 meeting, he was fined £7-10s plus costs, despite providing evidence that he’d done his best to prevent it. The fine was relatively small, but a bigger blow came when the Edgware magistrates refused him a licence to sell refreshments (alcohol!) at his race meetings. 

 

The loss of income from drink sales meant there was now little profit for Warner from this horse racing venture. The final straw came when the December 1878 meeting had to be cancelled because of frost, and the Kingsbury Vale course was abandoned. It would have become illegal anyway, under the Racecourses Licencing Act of 1879, which banned unlicenced horse racing within 12 miles of Marble Arch.

 

I’m glad that dealing with the enquiry has helped to identify where the Kingsbury Vale race course was. It has also given me the chance to share its story with you. I am grateful to William Morgan for allowing me to use information from his forthcoming book, “Strongholds of Satan” (volume 1 – covering the lost Victorian race courses of the south-east and East Anglia), to help tell that story.

 

Young people enjoying a horse ride on Fryent Country Park. (Photos courtesy of the Bush Farm Collective).

 

Horse racing at Bush Farm ended more than 140 years ago, but there are still a few horses kept at the stables on its former site, which continue grace the fields of this part of Kingsbury. Now, they are not ridden to jump the blackthorn hedges, but to give enjoyment to youngsters (and some adults) for recreation, as part of the many attractions of Fryent Country Park.


Philip Grant.