We had a little lay in this morning after our film night. We went to see 'The Hundred Foot Journey' that was a very lovely film that had tears and laughter and I highly recommend it.
The first lock of the day Uxbridge lock, that looks in the countryside but isn't.
Denham Deep Lock is a full 11ft 1" and is the deepest for a while I think. The sides definitely slope inwards towards the bottom.
We shared a couple of locks and then lost our partner to another. However this was okay as we were going to take on water at Coppermill Lock. This area has been a very industrial area in the past. There have been mills here since at least the Domesday Book Times. They were corn then paper and in 1802 the Royal Mines Company took over the mill near the lock. They brought in smelted copper from Glamorgan and rolled it to use on ship's bottoms. In 1803 the output was about 30 tonnes a week. It is also said that St Paul's dome was re-sheathed with product from here. However the Royal Navy moved over to iron built ships and the need for copper reduced and as the mill was so far from Glamorgan it was the first to close in 1863 and the mill was sold off. It then reverted to a paper mill for a short time and then asbestos factory and then to a rubber products. This was seen off by plastics. The site is being sold off for housing and you can see that they have had to strip a fair bit of soil off.
This is the Long Room that was part of the Royal Mines Company. It is soon to be converted to flats.
Just up from the lock are these cottages. They don't look much from straight on but from this angle they have a certain charm and they must have been workers housing for the mills.
It seems that this farm yard is often used as a film set near Stocker's Lock
Lock Cottage at Stocker's Lock. We have noticed that folks in these parts don't readily seem to make eye contact and do not easily chat to you. This couple ignored us for the whole time we were in the lock, in line with most other people.
One thing we noticed in London was the very many people, men and women, who were openly drinking from cans and bottles. Often you see people drinking in groups round a bench but down in London they seem to just wander about swigging and being quite drunk. It seems that there is no embarrassment and it is also around here too.
Before tea we went for a walk into Rickmansworth. The main street is quite cute. It is not a big place but we found the Weatherspoons and it was nice to see we are back to a wine and a pint for under a fiver.
Rickmansworth with St Mary's Church. The Weatherspoons is named the 'Pennsylvanian' after William Penn from here who helped found the state. On the other hand Barbara Woodhouse was also from here.
3 comments:
Hi Tony and Helen, We have found that having an NZ accent (practise kint for Kent and iggs for eggs, let your voice rise at the end of sentences and you'll be right!) and saying hello first encourages people to talk to us. We found in London when we lived there back in 2004&5 that no eye contact was the name of the game. I blitzed that by greeting people chirpily - they may not want to communicate, but even less do they want to appear rude ... I do remember that I wa salways being asked for directions when we lived in London and I think that was because I looked people in the eye so they knew they could talk to me. I even used to talk to people on the Tube - an that is NOT the done thing at all! We have got to Bugbrooke - are we going to see you on our way back up to Barby? Hope so!
Mxox
We have been to see Hundred Foot Journey tonight. We enjoyed it too :)
Sorry about the typos in my first comment - I didn't proofread and I'd typed it when I was about ready for bed! Hopefully down through Stoke Bruerne today although I was a bit daunted to see that the tunnel is over 3000 yards long - AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
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