Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bulbourne Dry Dock
.
Cowley Peachey Junction brings in the Slough Branch of 1882, one of Britain's newest
canals, which is very straight but surprisingly narrow at the junction. The desire of canal en-
thusiasts to link this branch to the Thames or Jubilee River at Slough faces constraints in the
form of buildings, the railway and the M4, so it must remain low on the priority list.
The canal turns east at Yiewsley as other traffic begins to intrude. The Reading to Pad-
dington railway comes alongside at West Drayton station and Heathrow airport is 3km ahead,
the main runways lying parallel with the canal, although a third runway might be just over a
kilometre away. The UK's largest airport with the world's largest throughput of international
traffic, it has the longest British civilian runway at 3.9km.
Parts of St Martin's church date from the 15th century, including the font. It also has fine
monuments, among them the grave of Captain Billingsley, who was lost with the
Royal Ge-
orge
and 800 men in the Solent in 1782. Opposite an aerial is Stockley Park, a country park
golf club and business park.
From the A437 the view is to the railway crossing, usually with a background of a pro-
cession of aircraft landing. A coffee smell comes from the 1929 Nestlé factory. The canal
crosses over Yeading Brook aqueduct, the stream formerly being called Bulls Brook, and is
then crossed by the A312 in a former brickfield area. Bull's Bridge Junction takes its name
from the old name for the brook and is where the Paddington Arm leaves. Tesco have a su-
permarket on the site of the headquarters of the former Grand Union Canal Carrying Com-
pany depot, a place where a Bofors gun was manned during the Second World War and where
there was a school and social club for boat crews. The British Docks Board research centre
