Joining the dots - on the Grand Union Canal

Saturday, 06 August 2011 08:31

It was time to get back to manual locks, again. To get to Bull's Bridge Junction we had 10 locks to do.

Gallows Bridge built in 1820

This attractive bridge contrasts with the M4 embankment which runs alongside and then over the canal but then the canal feels a little more rural, although Hanwell is not far away to the north .....

The trip up to Bull's Bridge on the Grand Union Canal "joins the dots" for us, as we came down the Grand Union to Bulls Bridge back in November 2008. At the bottom of Hanwell Locks there were quite a number of boats moored and of course, all the locks were set against us!

Hanwell Bottom Lock (97) and the River Brent entering from the right

The Locks here have side ponds and there has been a lot of work done to tidy the flight up thanks to English Heritage and British Waterways. Eventually the hope is to put the side ponds back in to use. There are six locks in the flight with short pounds between them so John walked the flight - twice between each lock as he went ahead to set the next lock before coming back to close the top gates after me. (And, oh boy, was it HOT! Ed.)

Lock 96

Beside the locks was the old Hanwell Asylum, which in its day (1831) was pioneering treatments for the "pauper insane". The site is now used by the local Mental Health Trust and Ealing Hospital Trust. The coal for the boilers  was delivered by canal and taken to the entrance to a dock above Lock 96 (named Asylum Lock by the working boats).

Looking back to Lock 96 with the blocked up entrance to the dock

Above the flight is Three Bridges - an unusual intersection of canal, road and rail. There is also a supermarket nearby so we began to look for supermarket trolleys! We did not spot any.

Looking back at Three Bridges

We were gongoozled as we went through the next couple of locks, Hanwell Lock and Norwood Top Lock. So this was the Norwood of North London, not a wood but once a flat area and Manor. My childhood was spent in the Norwood of South London, Upper Norwood to be precise: once The Great North Wood on the highest point on the rim over the London bowl.

Norwood is now part of Southall - where we picked up an Anglo Welsh wide narrowboat back in 1997 for a holiday on the Grand Union. We passed Adelade Dock, which now looks very different to then. The hire boats have gone and it now looks like a working yard.

Adelaide Dock

Approaching Bull's Bridge there are some house boats and, at the junction, the Tesco moorings.

Boat houses

Bull's Bridge Junction with the Paddington Arm

Now we had joined the two ends and we turned right onto the Paddington Arm .......