Pond dipping nets stand ready for what may be the last groups to use the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre
Today marks a week since Brent Council were asked for a statement on the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre.
Today also marks the last day of term. A lively crocodile of excited primary children walked by the nearby allotment this morning, oblivious to the fact that they might be the last to make use of the Centre.
As far as I can ascertain local schools have not yet been informed of the withdrawal of the charity Thames21 from managing the Centre or of any transitional arrangements while a new sponsor is sought.
A prettty poor show that raises doubts about Brent Council's commitment to our young people and their education about the climate and ecological emergencies that will shape their future lives.
There were two primary classes happily engaged at the WHEEC today when I popped by after watering my allotment on Birchen Grove. I thought it would be useful for the general reader to know what their offer to local schools and nurseries is. This brochure is from 2019 but I suspect little has changed, except perhaps for the very reasonable pricess.
Following my request for information on Friday, Thames21 today released this statement:
Thames21 has given Brent Council notice that it is withdrawing from running the WHEEC at the end of this month.
After recent discussions with Brent Council, Thames21 is sad to announce that it will no longer continue to support the operation of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre as of from the end of July 2025.
Unfortunately, Thames21 has been operating the centre at a loss for several years. Despite the value of the work being done, we simply cannot continue to sustain these financial losses. We had hope—and still hope—that the Council might step in, especially given their plans to redevelop the site.
Chris Coode, CEO at Thames21, said:
Over the last nine years, the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre has had a significant impact on the local community and is a much-loved facility.
I want to pay a special thanks and tribute to the schools, schoolchildren, volunteers, employees (especially Debra Frankiewicz), members and local community who have made this place so great.
We hope that the Council will work with local partners to find a long-term suitable solution to keep the Centre open and offer vital opportunities for children and local people to learn and spend time in nature.
Thames21 remains committed to working in the borough and will continue to focus on working with communities to restore and care for our rivers.
Brent Council was also asked for a statement on Friday bit so far has not responded,
As we experience extreme heat as a result of climate change and an escalating bio-diversity crisis it comes as a shock to learn that once again the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre might be in jeopardy.
In the penultimate week of the school term Thames21 who currently run the Centre have given notice that their involvement will stop at the end of the month. The Centre is well-used by local primary schools (I know because my allotment is next door to the Centre and I hear excited children coming and going).
David Attenborough has repeatedly said we cannot expect children to defend nature if they haven't experienced it and the Centre plays a vital part in giving that experience in an era when Brent council has declared a Climate and Environmental Emergency.
With schools busy with end of term activities this news may not get through before the long summer holiday and it will only be when they try and book for the autumn term tht they will find the facility is no longer available.
It may be that Brent Council has safeguarding the Centre's future in hand but ominously neither the Council Press Office nor the lead Cabinet members responsible have responded to Wembley Matters' request for a statement. Thames21 have not yet responded to a request for confirmation of their withdrawal. I had hoped that it might be temporary while building work took place.
The two classrooms that form the Centre have been deteriorating for years and it was envisaged that the WHEEC would share the new build accommodation planned for a 16-19 SEND facility in the grounds.
Generations of Brent pupils have enjoyed visits to the Centre and many adults will have memories of bug hunting, pond dipping and much else. Let's hope if necessary we can get together and Save Our Centre.
Get ready explore the Welsh Harp Education Centre and the Welsh
Harp Reservoir this May Half Term Holidays for FREE activities supported
by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Canal and Rivers Trust.
Activities include:
Junior Bird Watchers Walk Thursday 1st June 10.30am – 12.00pm
Join us at the Education Centre for a guided walk to the Welsh Harp
Reservoir on a bird spotting adventure! Feed the birds and see how many
you can identify. Ages 5-12.
Dip your net in the ponds at the Education Centre to see what
creatures live underwater and venture out into the wild woods to see
what mini-beasts live there. Ages 5-12.
Tree ID & Plant Art Friday 2nd June 10.30am – 12.00pm
Join us at the Education Centre for a guided walk to the Welsh Harp
Reservoir to explore different types of trees! Create beautiful plant
art by using flowers and other plants on watercolour paper. Ages 5-12.
Shelter Building & Nature Quiz Trail Friday 2nd June 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Build a shelter in the Education Centre woods and see if you can make
it waterproof. Go exploring around the woods to find the quiz clues and
see if you can solve the word puzzle! Ages 5-12.
Booking is essential, please use this Eventbrite link:
Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre
Birchen Grove, NW9 8RY. Follow the signs towards the Birchen Grove Garden Centre.
Further info:
An adult must attend & supervise children throughout activities.
Places are limited and booking is essential, please use the Eventbrite link if you need to cancel your booking.
Children and adults should wear comfortable outdoor clothing and
shoes that may get dirty as we will be walking on woodland pathways.
Please bring a waterproof jacket if it is forecast to rain.
Some years ago: Brent teacher unions, Brent Friends of the Earth, Brent Greens and Brent Campaign Against Climate Change fight to keep the WHEEC open
A paper going to the next Brent Cabinet from officers puts forward a cross-council plan that could ensure the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre after several years of doubt as to its future. Officers deserve credit for an imaginative scheme that could deliver a much enhanced programme and a new building to replace the current classrooms that are well on thew way out. There are more details to come including the future of the chapel, currently leased out, and the specific site of the new building. The papers says the classrooms will be demolished and returned to open space. The £3m capital cost will be funded from the High Needs Capital Grant.
The proposal is part of a Post-16 SEND offer:
It is proposed that the Post-16 Skills Resource
Centre operates from two sites.The Welsh Harp Centre would be developed to provide
a horticultural facilitywith
work experience and volunteering opportunities. The second site would bebased in new facilities on
the Airco Close site in Kingsbury, alongside anexpansion of the special
school provision that is delivered by the CompassLearning Trust. An
expansion of special school places had previously beenplanned at The Village and
Woodfield Schools.Use of the Airco Close site would facilitate the Compass Learning Trust
developing 14+ pathways toemployment for children with SEND. The intention is that the Compass
LearningTrust
also operates the Horticultural Facility at Welsh Harp to bring cohesion tothe offer across the two
sites. However, the lease would remain with the Councilwhich would oversee the
use of the site by third sector and communityorganisations, including
the Scouts who have shown interest in operating fromthe site in partnership
with the Council.
The detailed proposals for the Welsh Harp:
3.11 The proposed Welsh
Harp Horticultural Facility would provide training in horticulture, work experience, periods of
volunteering and employment and enterprise
development. This facility responds directly to the Borough Plan objectives ‘The Best Start in Life’ and ‘A
Healthier Brent’. The proposed facility would
also respond to the Council’s Climate Emergency Strategy 2021-2030, as it would provide opportunity for residents to be
better connected to nature and enhance green spaces
and biodiversity.
3.12 The Welsh Harp
Facility would re-provide with input from the third sector the existing Environmental
Education Centre that works with schools and volunteers,
operating in tandem with the Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee and supporting development of a
biodiversity centre. The facility would
also support pupils from across Brent schools to engage in environmental science. It would also be able to support Brent in
Bloom and the delivery of commercial contracts,
again increasing the economic activity and visibility of younger residents with
disabilities.
3.13 The Welsh Harp
Centre could operate as a training centre for 5 days per week and at weekends and the evenings would open to the
public for wider programme of activities
including supporting residents to grow their own food and learn about heathy meals alongside wider
environmentally based activities.
3.14 The current
building is in poor quality and at the end of its lifespan and requires significant capital investment to replace. This
proposal would enable the Environmental Education
programme to schools to continue to be delivered as part of the wider building use alongside the
Post-16 horticultural use. The capital project to
replace the building is estimated to cost £3m. This would be funded from the SEND Capital Grant (see below).
3.15 Table 1 below
proposes the high-level milestones to deliver the Welsh Harp new building. More detail will be included in the
capital project business case for the project.
3.16 As a revenue invest
to save proposal, the Welsh Harp Centre would provide activities focused on contributing towards the
following objectives, with funding allocated
to activities that would directly impact on outcomes for Brent residents that can be tracked and reported on annually:
a) Independent life and
work skills training and support for the post-16 SEND population resulting in a reduction in HNB
expenditure through, for example, a reduction in
the number of EHCPs that are maintained as young
people receive training that helps them to secure employment.
b) the Public Health
Outcomes Framework, and in particular indicators that improve the wider determinants of health / health
inequalities, for example increasing employment
opportunities for young adults with learning disabilities,
addressing social isolation and loneliness and supporting the wider public to make healthy lifestyle choices.
These indicators would be measured for young
people and adults accessing the Centre.
c) Adult Social Care
measures, specifically the proportion of adults with a learning disability in paid employment, the
proportion of people with a learning disability
living in their own home or with family and the proportion of people who use services who have control over
their daily life.
d) NHSE outcomes
including the employment of people with long-term conditions
or who feel supported to manage their condition and the NHS Learning Disability and ASD long term plan.
From Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre, Birchen Grove, Kingsbury, NW9 8RY
Activities include:
Build a Bug Hotel
Tuesday 14th, 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Create a new home for bugs and join a bug hunt around the woodland to see who lives there. Ages 5-12.
Forest Skills
Wednesday 15th, 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Gather round a camp fire in the woods to roast marshmallows and
bananas. Build a forest shelter and see if you can make it water proof!
Ages 7+
Make a Bird Feeder
Thursday 16th, 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Make a bird feeder and ‘bird cake’ to take home. Explore the woods to
look for birds of all sorts and sounds. Bring your own bottle or
container or use one of ours! Ages 5-12.
Booking is essential, please contact us on:
Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre
Birchen Grove, NW9 8RY. Follow the signs towards the Birchen Grove Garden Centre.
Back in August I wrote an article on Wembley Matters with the headline :
We need to firm up proposals for the future of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre or it will be our children's loss LINK
Yesterday the above tweet indicated that local groups have risen to the challenge with a positive meeting of various groups interested in using the Centre, perhaps as a consortium LINK , or as sub-leasers under present lease-holders Thames 21.
The road to survival?
There is a long way to go before the future of the Centre is secured with work to be done on the financial side as well on the collaboration agreements between the groups. The initiative shows that the Centre is valued and its survival, when nature itself is under threat from climate change, is recognised as vital to bring children and adults closer to their environment and engaged in its protection.
Brent Council is the owner of the site and will need to be convinced of the long-term viability of any proposals put forward.
Learn how to use your smartphone camera like a pro using simple and
fun methods by Jet Black Squares. Bring your smart phone and get ready
to explore the Education Centre woods! Ages 8+
Nature Fun in the Wild
Friday 28th, 10.30am – 12.00pm & 1.00pm – 2.30pm
Join us for pond dipping and mini-beast hunting in the wilds of the pond and woods at the Education Centre! Ages 5-12.
Booking is essential, please contact us on:
Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre
Birchen Grove, NW9 8RY. Follow the signs towards the Garden Centre.
Phone: 07711 701 694
Email: welshharpcentre@thames21.org.uk
Further info:
An adult must attend & supervise children throughout activities.
Places are limited and booking is essential, please contact us to book and also let us know if you need to cancel your booking.
Children and adults should wear comfortable outdoor clothing that may get dirty if you wish to come for a walk in the woods.
Representations were made both by councillors and the public at the last meeting of the Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee about the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre (WHEEC) and its future.
The Committee covers both Barnet Council and Brent Council and the chairing alternates between the two. This year Barnet chairs.
The Centre has been a well-used resource for educating primary school children about the environment for decades. Thames21 was chosen to take it over when Brent Council stopped funding as a result of government funding cuts. However, after operating the Centre for a few years they decided they could not continue. Following local campaigning they decided to continue for a year, albeit with a reduced offer, while a long-term solution was found to ensure the future viability of the resource.
At the Committee's March 10th meeting it was recorded:
..it had been agreed for Thames 21 to continue activities [at WHEEC] for a further
year, with a full programme to be confirmed. It was noted that the centre
required some infrastructure work in order to make the centre viable, which
would incur a revenue cost. The Committee would continue to be kept updated
regarding progress on the ongoing discussions regarding the future of the Welsh
Harp Environmental Education Centre.
Questions and comments were then invited on the update, with the following
issues raised: · It was noted that expressions
had been raised to extend the remit of classes at the Welsh Harp Environmental
Education Centre, including sessions for secondary schools and evening classes
for adults. It was asked if these plans were still in place to be explored. It
was explained that this was still being explored and had worked in other
similar centres in London, but would rely on a viable consortium to bring
people, resources and organisations together to make it happen.
Brent Council's report to last last week's meeting indicated little progress:
Welsh
Harp Environmental Education Centre:
Discussions
have continued between Brent Council and external partnerorganisations who have
or may have an interest in creating a viableenvironmental education centre. Thames 21
have agreed to provide someservices for another year while discussions
continue for a longer-term solutionfor the future of the Centre.
Committee members asked for further information stressing the importance of the Centre in the context of the Council's declaration of a climate emergency. No details were available of the organisations that had expressed an interesting in forming a Consortium to run the Centre, the reduced programme that will be offered by Thames21, whether local firm Carey's an original bidder to run the Centre had been approached again, or the status of the former chapel, known as Planet House, which shares the site.
When passing the Centre's classrooms and toilet block on the way to the Garden Centre it is easy to discount the Centre's most important resource. This is the extensive woodland (see photograph above) that stretches to the Barnet border north of the classrooms and the woodland on the other side of the access road that abuts the Welsh Harp Open Space. The towering mature trees and shrubs beneath provide an amazing unspoilt habitat for wildlife and add to Brent's quota of green space.
When I tweeted about the Centre yesterday these were some of the responses:
Any organisations or projects interested in joining a consortium should write to brent.parks.services@brent.gov.ukwith a brief summary of their interest/proposal.
The children in the 2013 Brent Council video above are teenagers now. Teenagers facing the prospect of a future wrecked by the impact of accelerating climate change.
Since 2013 the environment has become a major political issue and Brent Council itself has declared a climate emergency. However just two years after the video was made, Harry Mackie retired and Brent decided it could no longer fund the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre.
After campaigns, including on this blog, the charity Thames21 took it over and continued courses and tried to find other sources of revenue. However, despite full bookings the charity eventually decided it was not financially viable to continue and signalled their desire to end the arrangement.
Since then the Centre has limped on with Thames21 providing a skeleton service, while Brent Council sought a solution. I was a little worried about the Centre's future when I saw surveyors on the site recently. The structural condition of the classrooms has deteriorated since 2013.
Unfortunately a report going to Wednesday's Welsh Harp Consultative Committee devotes only a few sentences to the Centre and appears to be a repeat of the previous report with no indication of real progress LINK :
Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre:
Discussions have continued between Brent Council and external partner organisations
who have or may have an interest in creating a viable environmental education
centre. Thames 21 have agreed to provide some services for another year while
discussions continue for a longer-term solution for the future of the Centre
I hope that some of our newly elected councillors who have a good record on the environment will try and put some pressure on the council to renew its efforts.
The video speaks for itself and I can assure readers that the new generation is equally involved and excited by visits to the Centre. I hear their excited chatter as they walk past my allotment on Birchen Grove and I sometimes stop to talk to groups of pupils as their teachers marshall them at the end of the sessions.
Fourth of the guest series by local historian Philip Grant
The Welsh Harp Reservoir Story –
Part 4
Thank you for joining me again, as we sail towards
the finishing line of our local reservoir’s story. If you missed Part 3, you
will find it here.
1. A sailing race on the Welsh Harp
Reservoir, 2011.
Sailing became an important use of the Welsh Harp
in the years after the Second World War. Several large companies, such as
Handley Page and Smiths Industries from Cricklewood, set up their own sailing
clubs for employees. Others were local organisations, such as the Wembley
Sailing Club (formed in 1953) and the Sea Cadets. The various clubs have since
come together under an umbrella organisation, the Welsh
Harp Sailing Association,
based at Birchen Grove, which leases the reservoir for all water-based sports
and leisure activities.
2. Sir Frederick Handley Page (left) at a
dinghy naming ceremony for his company's sailing club, c. 1954. (Photo courtesy of the Handley Page Association)
The reservoir had come into public ownership in
1948, as part of the post-war Labour Government’s nationalisation of transport
industries, which eventually saw it managed by the British Waterways Board.
Under another environmental innovation from that time, the reservoir and its
shoreline were made a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1950, particularly
for their importance to rare bird species, but also for the plant life at the
water’s edge.
Most of the land around the Welsh Harp was still in
a mixture of private and local authority ownership. I mentioned in Part 3 that
Willesden Urban District Council had purchased 40 acres of land on the north
side in 1928. We saw in the articles on Church End and Chapel End that Willesden had opened a new cemetery in 1893,
but because of the district’s large population, this was already filling up. It
planned to put a cemetery here, but Kingsbury Council objected, saying that it
wanted the area used for housing. After a public inquiry, the Government agreed
to loan Willesden the money for a cemetery, but said it must sell Kingsbury 14
acres nearest to the reservoir for recreational use. This later became the
Welsh Harp Open Space.
3. Willesden's 1950 plans for its Kingsbury
Lawn Cemetery, and Garden of Rest. (From the National Archive)
After Kingsbury merged with Wembley in 1934,
Willesden’s plans were further delayed, as the new council tried to buy the
land from it, for its own cemetery needs. The only thing that the two councils
managed to agree on, when war came in 1939, was that they could both use what
is now the Birchen Grove allotments site for mass civilian burials, if the need arose
(thankfully, it didn’t!). Under the new post-war planning regulations,
Willesden applied again in 1950 to use their land as a burial ground. Approval
was eventually given and their Kingsbury Lawn Cemetery was consecrated in 1954,
with the superintendent’s house and chapel built by 1956. Despite this, the
ornamental gates at the top of Birchen Grove have never welcomed a funeral!
4. Sculling finalists and the British eight
at the Women’s European Rowing Championships, 1960. (Source: Brent Archives – Willesden
Chronicle photographers’ negatives)
On some websites, you will read that the Welsh Harp
was the venue for the rowing events at the 1948 London Olympic Games. That’s
incorrect (in fact, they were held at Henley, on the River Thames), but the
reservoir did host the 1960 Women’s European Rowing Championships (“click” for a detailed article on these). That
event was organised by Willesden Borough Council, and the competitors were accommodated
at the then recently opened John Kelly Girls School (now part of Crest
Academy), just up Dollis Hill from Neasden Recreation Ground.
5. Brent Regatta ad. from 1966, and the 1969
inter-Council rowing race. (Brent Archives online image 9787)
The Council had run a Whit Monday Willesden Regatta
on the reservoir for many years, and this continued as the Brent Regatta after
it merged with Wembley in 1965. One of the highlights for the crowds was
watching teams of local councillors from a number of London Boroughs taking
part in rowing race over a 500-metre course. The photo above shows the Brent
boat winning the 1969 race – I wonder who would be in the crew if the race was
still held today (any nominations?). This annual bank holiday regatta ended in
the early 1970s.
6. Two views of activities at the Youth
Sailing Base. (Images from Brent Archives)
It was not just adults who could enjoy water sports
on the Welsh Harp. In 1964, the year before it was disbanded, Middlesex County
Council opened a Youth Sailing Base on the northern arm of the reservoir, where
thousands of young people learned to sail or canoe safely. Another important
facility for local youngsters came in 1973, when Brent Council opened the Welsh
Harp Environmental Education Centre (“WHEEC”) on part of the proposed cemetery
site. A large nursery, to grow plants for Brent’s Parks Service, also opened on
the site in 1977.
7. The 1956 cemetery chapel building, later used
by the WHEEC and (here in 2011) by Energy Solutions.
The importance of the Welsh Harp for nesting water
birds had long attracted ornithologists to the area. When proposals for a
marina, close to a key nesting area near the Welsh Harp public house, were put
forward in the early 1970s, a number of them came together to oppose this. The Welsh Harp Conservation Group
was formed in 1972, and their volunteer members have helped to look after the
habitats on and around the reservoir ever since (in a similar way to the Barn
Hill Conservation Group, featured in my Fryent Country Park Story).
8. Welsh Harp Conservation Group volunteers
at work, winter 2008 and summer 2011. (L. by Roy Beddard)
As well as looking after nesting rafts and bird
hides, and the wider vegetation of the area to encourage wildlife of all sorts,
the group has played an important part in recording the natural history of the
reservoir, and sharing this with visitors. From a first guided walk on a bank
holiday in 1976, they expanded this to provide monthly wildlife walks. When my
children were young (in the late 1980s or early 1990s) our family benefitted from
one of these walks. For the first time in my life I got to see beautiful Great
Crested Grebes, an unforgettable sight!
9. Great Crested Grebes, courting and
nesting on the Welsh Harp. (Photos by Roy Beddard and Leo Batten)
While there was relative peace and quiet for the
bird nesting grounds at the eastern end of the reservoir, there were major
developments taking place not far away, at Staples Corner. The narrow roadway
under the Victorian railway viaduct was causing major traffic problems on the
North Circular Road, especially when it was planned to start the M1 motorway
from here. A massive Brent Cross flyover was built in the 1960s, to carry
east-west through-traffic over the top of this bottleneck. You can see this in
the photo below, and I have added part of a 1921 image to help show the line of
the viaduct, which you can just see in the modern picture.
10. Staples Corner, with North Circular Road
flyover and the railway viaduct (including 1921 comparison).
You may be wondering what happened to the Welsh
Harp public house, which featured in Part 2 of this story. It had been replaced by a more
modern building in the 1930s (the fate of a number of historic inns in our
area), but it fell victim to more roadworks when the north-south A5 flyover was
built over Staples Corner in the 1970s. It was demolished in 1971, and its site
was where the north-bound slip road, from Staples Corner towards West Hendon,
passes the entrance to Priestley Way, a service road for a small industrial
estate. What a sad epitaph for the inn which gave the
Brent Reservoir its more popular name!
11. The 1930s Welsh Harp public house in
1971, and the site as it is now. (1971 photo by Geoffrey Hewlett)
Going back to the reservoir, this does have to be
drained occasionally, both for major maintenance work on the dam and to remove
the rubbish which unfortunately gets dumped in it. One remarkable feature when
this happens is that the original winding course of the River Brent can still
be seen, just as it was when it marked the boundary between Kingsbury and
Hendon parishes to the north, and Willesden parish to the south, when the land
was first flooded to create the reservoir in 1835.
12. The River Brent flowing through the
drained reservoir in 1974. (Photo by Leo Batten)
In 2012, responsibility for the reservoir was
passed to the Canal and River Trust, a charity set up when the Government
abolished the publicly-owned British Waterways Board. Questions were raised
about how safe the reservoir might be in the event of a severe storm, after a
similar Canal Age dam at Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire was in danger of collapse in 2019.
Luckily, it emerged that as well as regular checks, further reinforcement of
the dam with concrete had been carried out in 2005-07, following detailed
studies of how extreme heavy rainfall might affect the Welsh Harp reservoir,
and the river downstream of it. Brent Council also issued a statement following the Toddbrook Reservoir emergency, with
links to information for anyone who feels the need for reassurance.
Earlier, I mentioned facilities that had been set
up for young people near the reservoir. Sadly, Barnet Council closed the Youth
Sailing Base, which they inherited from Middlesex County Council, in 2004, and
sold off its site to a developer for building luxury waterside apartments.
Instructors from the Base went on to set up the Phoenix Canoe Club, so that
there is still a place on the Welsh Harp where youngsters can enjoy this sport.
13. Pond dipping at the Welsh Harp
Environmental Education Centre. (Photo courtesy of Harry Mackie)
The Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre went
from strength to strength. Back in the 1980s, my daughters were among the
thousands of local school children each year who have enjoyed learning about
nature in a hands-on way, from enthusiastic experts. But the squeeze on local
authority spending has also hit the former cemetery site. By the 1990s, Brent
Council had closed its Parks Department nursery, which later reopened as the
private Greenhouse (now Birchen Grove) Garden Centre.
During the past ten years, cuts to funds allocated
to youth services first saw the WHEEC receive financial support from the Careys
construction group, then its threat of closure. Luckily this environmental
“jewel in the crown”, celebrated in a 2015 Council video, was saved when Brent
passed the Centre to the Thames 21 charity, under a Community Asset Transfer in
2016.
I hope you have enjoyed discovering more about “the
Welsh Harp” in this series of articles. With all Brent’s Libraries now open again (with restricted hours), you can
find even more information and pictures in Geoffrey Hewlett’s 2011 book, “Welsh
Harp Reservoir Through Time”, in the local history section at ref. 942.185.
14. The reservoir in 2010, and the cover of
Geoffrey Hewlett's book. (Photo: London Canal Museum)
But it’s also a place to visit and enjoy, on our
doorstep, if you can do so safely, whether for a walk, some wildlife watching
or perhaps to learn to sail or paddle a canoe. After all, it is (officially)
the Brent Reservoir!
Philip Grant
Next weekend we’ll take the No.32 northbound from the Priestley Way bus stop
(by the site of the Welsh Harp Inn) for a one-off special article, then ride the
same bus route southbound for a new local history series. Hop aboard “Wembley
Matters” to find out where these journeys will take us.
