Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
An avenue of poplars at Water Eaton .
Marsworth, also known as Maffers, is one of the most attractive points on the canal, espe-
cially where the B489 crosses by the closed White Lion at Startop's End. Bluebells Tearooms
are in a lock building. The adjacent car park is notorious for theft. Tring Reservoirs were built
in 1802-1839, with water pumped up to the 120m summit level where the channel is deeper
than usual for storage.
Moving from Buckinghamshire into Hertfordshire the canal is now in Tring Cutting, 2.4km
long and up to 9m deep, the site of a wartime bomb strike.
Beyond Aldbury, with its village green, stocks and pond, is a 33m Doric column and urn
monument of 1832 to the 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, the canal pioneer who owned the 16km 2
Ashridge estate on which it is sited. The estate boasts good oak and beech woodland and has
been the location of many films.
Cow Roast is a corruption of cow rest, where there were pens for the use of drovers bring-
ing cattle from the Midlands to London. Earlier roasting took the form of iron working in
a Celto-Roman site. The lock begins the continuous descent to the River Thames. Crossing
the bridge is the Icknield Way Path. While there are various routes suggested for the Icknield
Way, the Ridgeway and the current footpaths that take their names, it is clear that the route
generally ran along the Chilterns in this vicinity. This Neolithic route was founded around
4000-2000 BC, the oldest road in Europe.
The proliferation of lock names continues. The next one, below which is a magnificent
copper beech, is called Bushes, Old Ned's, Awkward Billy or Crooked Billet. The two
Northchurch Locks, by a park and playground, are also called the Gas Two from a former
gasworks. Berkhamsted Top Lock is also called Broadwater and is positioned above a strik-
ing bridge painted black, red and gold.
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