Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ine crews was undertaken in the canal at Rickmansworth. Batchworth Lock is at the conflu-
ence with the Rickmansworth Branch, the dredged part of the River Chess, which served the
town wharves, gasworks and gravel workings. It has a rare wide beam lift bridge. In 1973
there was a study for a barge depot to serve road traffic from the M1 after lower canal en-
largement.
A restored lock cottage with canal artefacts and an ivy-clad Georgian house are to be found
at Stocker's Lock. Otherwise there are 16th century farm buildings with steep grazing to the
south and some very smart horses.
The canal now moves from Hertfordshire to London. Chalk quarries are cut into the hill
and orchids grow in them. Springwell Lock has been used for filming
Blake's Seven
and
Doc-
tor Who
episodes. Springwell Lake is also used for angling and birdwatching. It has a nature
trail with the Springwell Reedbed Nature Reserve at Maple Cross. Its industrial estate is by
the canal and Lynsters Lake. Lilies appear in the canal.
Black Jack's Lock takes its name from a black man employed by a mill owner to harass
boat people and stop night-time toll evasion. He acquired a stock of windlasses that he stored
in a hollow tree. His efforts were not universally appreciated and he was murdered by the
boaters, his ghost still haunting the area.
One of the Seabrook locks
.
Beyond Widewater Lock at South Harefield is the Horse & Barge public house and a pill-
box. Harefield Marina is in a former gravel pit where over 50 working boats were sunk in
1958. Hoveringham Lake is used for a watersports centre and carp angling.
The west side of the canal has a golf course, Denham Country Park, a picnic area, a visitor
centre, Tudor half-timbered cottages and a church with a 500-year-old Judgement Day mural.
An aqueduct takes the canal over the Frays River, a diversion of the River Colne at Ickenham.
