Footpath 47

 I had a bit of time on my hands so I took a random ride out to Barking Riverside to see if it had changed much since my previous visit in August 2022 not long after the new station opened. Back then it was very much a building site.

 Now? Still a building site really, a bit tidier but not a lot going on on a Friday afternoon.

The area outside the river side of the station is a bit more finished and there's a horse box, which I assume dispenses coffee at some unspecified times but it wasn't open. I took a stroll down to the riverboat pier again but this time it was chained shut it being about 4 p.m. and there being no boats between 11:35 and 17:12 on a weekday.

So no escape that way. Not wanting to get straight back on the train I looked for something else to do and found Footpath 47 signposted from the "esplanade" near the pier. It's not a long walk, roughly a mile, but it takes you along the river side eastwards along what is currently a grassy bank with a large open space fenced off on the landward side which no doubt one day will be covered in blocks of identikit flats. Best make the most of this prime outdoor facility while it's here then. 

The Thames is around half a mile wide here giving a view over to Cross Ness and the water works which I visited in 2019 and more prominently the white and blue Belvedere Incinerator at the Riverside Resource Recovery Energy from Waste Facility, turning London's rubbish into power.

There was a fairly strong south-westerly breeze coming across the river, bending the long grass and short, scrubby trees on the riverbank but not disturbing the birds feeding on the exposed mudflats below - although they did all take care to keep their heads pointing into the wind.

Looking back past Barking Riverside Pier the horizon was studded with south east London towers and the cranes at the new Barking Riverside developments.

Intermittently aircraft bound for London City Airport made their way westwards following the Thames. Despite which it feels quite remote out here and is fairly quiet. I'm sure that will change as the flats and houses get closer.

After half a mile or so Footpath 47 reaches Horseshoe Corner where it turns inland to follow The Gores stream from its confluence with the Thames up a short valley with reed beds in the bottom to come out on Choats Road. The far side of The Gores is very different to the Footpath 47 side for here are the industrial estates of Dagenham Docks, with an aggregate plant blocking any further Thames side progress.

Over a high bank and a fence on the left of the path I could just make out ground works beginning on what The Masterplan for Barking Riverside describes as The Village – On The Horizon. With plenty of family homes and located close to the local schools and shops, The Village is an ideal neighbourhood to raise a family. The area also benefits from plenty of green spaces and long views over the River Thames.

Which is a good example of what Diamond Geezer refers to as "bolx".

The stretch of path from Horseshoe Corner to Choats Road starts out quite flowery with a lot of what Google Lens tells me is Goat's Rue and finishes very littery at the point where you squeeze out between substantial chunks of metal embedded into the ground, there to prevent the entry of motorbikes I suppose.

I squeezed out, turned left and walked down to the bus stop by the BRL Infrastructure Office where I caught the EL2 to Barking Station.

I can now say I've walked the remote Footpath 47 while it's still (relatively) remote and if you're anywhere nearby you should too, although to be honest it's not worth a special trip form afar.

I've put some more photos on Flickr

London Loop Section 8

Ewell to Kingston Bridge

This fairly level 8 mile stretch mostly follows the Hogsmill River except where that isn’t possible in Old Malden and again between Berrylands and Kingston. I started outside Ewell West station at about 11:25 in the morning having travelled there by train.

The section proper starts in Bourne Hall Park which is access through an arch in a brick wall in Chessington Rd. By the pond, which was crowded with Canada Geese I turned right and shortly afterwards re-read the directions and retraced my steps because I should have turned left to leave the park, crossing Chessington Rd. and then turning left into the woods and shortly after joining the Hogsmill River (hereafter to be referred to as the Hogsmill for short) by the white clad building which was formerly the Upper Mill which was in production until 1953. Actually the building you see now was mostly pulled down and rebuilt as offices in 1984.

I followed the Hogsmill to the site of Lower Mill (burnt down 1938) where a boardwalk – more of a bridge really – runs above the river and through the tunnel carrying the Raynes Park to Epsom railway line thus avoiding the Loop having a lengthy detour away from the Hogsmill.

The next bit involved following the river through the partly wooded Hogsmill Open Space, swapping from one bank to the other via a bridge and then back again after passing the playing fields, crossing Ruxley Lane and eventually coming to the unwelcome intrusion that is the A240 Kingston Road. This required a short diversion to the traffic lights to get across the busy dual carriageway. I went through the gap in the fence to find the Hogsmill again and followed it as it paralleled Worcester Park Road. The river here forms the boundary between Greater London and Surrey with the path on the London side. An information board here says that The Worcester Park gunpowder mills were along this part of the river and on several occasions blew up. In 1851 it was the door of one of the derelict gunpowder huts near here which pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt used in his picture "The Light of the World". 

 And having learnt that nugget of information I shall evermore think of that painting as “Jesus and the Abandoned Bomb Factory” :-)

I’d now reached the point where the route leaves the Hogsmill, there being no continuous path ahead and for road safety reasons takes to suburban roads heading first SE then ENE and curving around to head NNW and what the directions omit to mention is that this is a long uphill slog just to avoid the footway-less Old Malden Lane which would be considerably shorter. At the highest point the path heads down through the woods to meet Church Road. Here I had a choice of turning right on the main route past the church of St. John the Baptist or left to cut down through the woods on the Alternative route via Six Acre Meadow. I chose left.

I reckon this was the better choice, Six Acre Meadow was a good place to eat my picnic lunch, it now being just after 1 p.m. and there being a handy bench. Next to the bench was another information board introducing a second artistic encounter. Sir John Everett Millais painted the background to his work “Ophelia” along this stretch of the Hogsmill in 1851. “Ophelia” herself was added afterwards afterwards in 1852, modelled by 19 year old Elizabeth Siddall lying fully clothed in a full bathtub. Probably a wise move looking the river water if she’d laid down in that she might have spent a long time afterwards sitting on the loo.

After Six Acre Meadow I rejoined the main route to reach the A3 Malden Way / Kingston bypass road which was audible long before it was visible. It’s a bit of a schlep up the road, through the subway, and back down again to reach the far side of the road and they’ve put a high fence along the central reservation to thwart anyone tempted to take a shortcut. Having rejoined the Hogsmill it soon got a bit quieter and the next half mile or so followed the river through Elmbridge Meadows Nature Reserve, popular with the local dog walkers.

At Berrylands I left the river again, passing under the South Western Main railway line at the station and plodding down Lower Marsh Lane between the Hogsmill Waste Water Treatment Works and Surbiton Cemetery, turning right along Villiers Road to cross the Hogsmill by the Spiritualist Church and left down Swan Walk to rejoin the river by Hogsmill Community Gardens, busy with green-fingered types.

From here it was all through Kingston town centre, the route following the Hogsmill where it could, past Kingston Town Hall to Clattern Bridge. A nice cast plaque on the bridge says “Clattern Bridge, which crosses the Hogsmill River, is one of the oldest bridges in Surrey and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The earliest known reference is in a deed of 1293 and the medieval name, "Clateryngbrugge”, is thought to have been descriptive of the sound of horses crossing the bridge. The stone arches on the downstream side are the oldest parts of the bridge which until the mid nineteenth century was only 8 feet wide.” You can only really see the old bit from the downstream side.

From Clattern Bridge I followed the Hogsmill past the trendy eateries on Charter Quay to its confluence with the Thames, thereby completing another London River walk since the source of the Hogsmill is way back in Bourne Hall Park, and then along the Thames to complete Loop Section 8 at Kingston Bridge. It was ten to three. Good, time to go and have a pint in the Druids Head before getting the bus back to Ewell West Station just in time to catch the trains home.

I’ve added some more pink highlighter to my Urban Good London National Park City map and can tell that for whichever section I do next the logistics of getting to and from it are going to become more involved and the journeys longer.

Here's a Flickr Album of 26 photos I took along Section 8.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea

Looking for something to do for the rest of the day after my visit to Locomotion I decided to stay on the train from Shildon back to Darlington and go to the seaside at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Being able to buy a ticket from Darlington to Saltburn and back while on the train from Shildon to Darlington using the Trainsplit app helped the decision no end.

 

The journey took about 55 minutes and was through new territory for me so I had an aha! moment passing through Middlesborough when I spotted the famous Tees Transporter Bridge in the distance, confirming that it never did get moved to a Native American Casino resort in Arizona  😀

 

 

 

 Saltburn was very breezy. Also very hot so the breeze was quite welcome. The town sits on top of the cliffs and the beach, prom, and pier are some 120 feet below. The good news is that Saltburn has the oldest operating water-balance cliff funicular in the United Kingdom. The bad news is it isn’t currently operating since suffering a fire in January 2024 and as yet there’s no firm date for its repair and reopening 🙁

 

 

 

 So it was down the steps instead, 175 of them (I counted on the way back up) which as everyone knows is the equivalent of a 15 storey building 😉 I went out to the end of the pier, as you always should, the views are good but the wind out there was blow-your-hat-off strength. 

 

 

 

Then I walked along to Old Saltburn, the original settlement at Saltburn Gill. It’s much smaller than the Victorian town up on the cliffs but importantly right on the front is the Ship Inn so I took the opportunity to get a pint and find a relatively sheltered spot on the terrace to enjoy it.

 

 

 

 A walk along the length of the prom and back followed by obligatory seaside chips (untroubled by seagulls thankfully) and then it was time to climb back up those steps and back to the station to get a train back to Darlington. I liked Saltburn-by-the-Sea, I’ll have to visit again, preferably when the funicular is back in operation because I do like riding those.

 

 

Doing the Locomotion, a trip to Darlington and Shildon.

I’ve been to the National Railway Museum in York twice, first on a school trip around 1977 and again in 2017. I’d never been to the other National Railway Museum site, Locomotion,in Shildon, County Durham though although I’d often thought about it. It’s not quite as easy to get to from here in the south as York but now seemed like as good a time as any so I booked a couple of nights midweek  in a hotel in Darlington, which was the closest I could find a railway-convenient vacancy. Then bought a couple of train tickets, packed my bag, and crossed my fingers for a good trip. 

 

Despite a delay between Reading and Paddington (when isn’t there? This time it was due to a vehicle striking a bridge) I easily made my connection to the LNER Azuma at Kings Cross and was whisked north. Such a long way north too although the limited number of stops helped make it feel less. Despite it being a busy train the seat next to mine remained empty and since I had showered that morning it must have been because strangely the reservation indicator showed “may be reserved later” although it never was.

 

Walking from the station to my hotel I thought “this is a bit bloody warm for t’North” and realised I’d managed to book my trip for a mini heatwave and in a hotel room without air conditioning 🙄 It was a bit of a sticky night even with the window open and a fan going. (The following day hit 25 C, I checked the weather at home, 31.5 C! Dodged that then.)

 

Of course the only sensible thing to do was go for a beer and marvel that a pint of Guinness only cost £3.55 in the centre of Darlington. In a real pub too, The Old English Gentleman, not sodding Wetherspoon’s. There was some football match going on so I don’t know if that affected the price but seriously compared to my area that’s a cheap pint 🙂

 

Not being any kind of football fan I went off in search of something I am a fan of, a curry. Cafe Spice, tucked away down a narrow passage called Clark’s Yard was midweek quiet and definitely provided the goods. Tasty chicken dansak, saag paneer, and mushroom pilau rice washed down with a couple of Cobras and quite wallet-friendly. Replete I returned to my hotel room and chilled out in front of the telly. Chilled isn’t the right word obviously given the overnight temperature remained stubbornly high.

 

The following morning after breakfast (and it would have been rude not to have had the full English included in the room rate) I walked to the railway station and got a return ticket to Shildon. I could equally have got a bus which would have taken about the same time overall but the train was actually cheaper with my railcard. Taking the train also led to a further adventure later which I probably wouldn’t have done had I been on the bus. 

 

Northern Trains two coach Class 156 grumbled along the former Stockton and Darlington Railway and I alighted at Shildon Station, a short walk from the Locomotion museum site. A much shorter walk in fact than the route that google maps took me on but I didn’t discover that until later. It doesn’t seem to know about the path which links the station to the museum. 

 

 

 

The museum now has two large buildings, or halls as they call them. The Main Hall contains the reception desk, cafe, shop, and the oldest exhibits and is passenger train focussed. Here is Locomotion No.1 the locomotive, Rocket, the Deltic, the prototype HST, and the APT amongst others. Here also is the children’s play area and the primary school parties to be navigated around and avoid when taking photos.

 

 

 

On the other side of the site is the New Hall. This is basically a big train shed and focuses on goods trains. It was somewhat quiete on my visit since the school groups weren’t in it. Large steam locomotive, very shiny Class 31 Diesel locomotive, cranes, shunters, and a variety of goods/freight rolling stock which are often overlooked for the more glamorous passenger services. There are clear information boards for the exhibits (as there are in the main hall) and I learned a good many things about railway goods services that I didn’t know before.

 

 

 

Outside between the two halls there are some sidings with more shunters and the replica Stephenson’s Rocket and here also is his iron Gaunless Bridge from 1823, the very first railway bridge to use an iron truss.

 

 

 

Away from the halls back towards Shildon Station (along the path google maps doesn’t admit to) and in the village are a number of historic buildings and structures which are also part of the wider Locomotion site. Shildon was the location of the Stockton & Darlington’s main engineering works making it the world’s first railway town and earning it the title of “The Cradle of the Railways”. The preserved buildings include a warehouse, a Sunday school, the goods shed, and a row of cottages including Soho House, built for Timothy Hackworth, steam locomotive engineer and the S&D’s first locomotive superintendent.

 

 

 

In the 20th century Shildon developed into the largest railway wagon works in the world employing around 2500 people and capable of building 1200-1500 new wagons a year and overhauling 20000. Despite a campaign to keep it open and find new orders it was closed down in 1984 by British Rail Engineering Ltd. and the Tory government resulting in most of the male workforce of Shildon losing their jobs and Shildon ceasing to be a “railway town”.

 

Is Locomotion worth travelling a long way to visit? Absolutely yes. Also entry is free, although they encourage donations (or just buy yourself something from the shop or cafe) and you don’t get better value than that. I took a lot of photos too.

 

 

 

I spent about 3 hours in Shildon and on the train back to Darlington wondered what else to do for the rest of the day, which was very hot and sunny. Then I realised that the train carried on all the way to Saltburn-by-the-Sea and I’d never been there either...

Dene Rally

 22nd June

Previously called the Dene Steam Rally but shortened to Dene Rally reflect the much wider range of mechanical marvels now displayed I took a ride down to Monkwood near Ropley in Hampshire and spent a really nice day wandering about amongst steam vehicles large and small, old cars, trucks, and tractors.

Apart from a brief shower on the tractor parade in the ring the weather stayed dry and warm, the beer and the hotdogs were good and there was enough to see that I stayed the whole  day from 10:00 until 16:00.

Which meant I took a lot of photos:

And made a lot of Moving Pictures which are in this YouTube Playlist.