Welsh Harp Drought - In 1929!

 I am grateful to the account NW London Time Machine for this link https://twitter.com/time_nw

After School Nature Activities this term for children aged 6-14 years

 

This is good news.  I understand that Thames21 will have a short-term extension (6 months) to January 2022 on the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre, pending a longer term solution.

Barnet Council's £18.8m plans for West Hendon Playing Fields at the Welsh Harp

Barnet Council have approved a scheme to go to Planning Committee in 2022 for the transformation of the West Hendon Playing Fields at the Barnet end of the Welsh Harp. 

 

Satellite image of the area as it is at present

The Welsh Harp is within the boundaries of both Barnet and Brent Councils and is jointly managed by them and the Canal and Rivers Trust.

In a Press Release LINK  Barnet Council said:

New facilities will include tennis courts, 3G artificial turf pitches, a high ropes course, bowling green, multi-use games area, outdoor gym, play area, skate park and more. There will be a Hub building with a café, indoor climbing, activity studio, nursery, soft play, community rooms, changing rooms and toilets.

Councillor Dean Cohen, Chair of the Environment Committee, said: 

It’s great to see Barnet reaping the benefits of growth in our borough. This has included vast improvements to our parks and green spaces. This latest investment comes on top of the £5million regeneration of Silkstream Park and Montrose Playing Fields, and £1.1million put into the ongoing refurbishment of Colindale Park. This will benefit the borough’s residents, businesses and visitors, and I look forward to seeing our vision become a reality.

Work on the sports hub project will continue after an outline business case for its development was approved at a recent meeting of Barnet Council’s Policy & Resources Committee. Funding for the project will come from a range of sources including the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The Community Infrastructure Levy is money collected from new development which is used to fund infrastructure to support development. Part of the CIL funding from the scheme will be generated from the West Hendon estate, providing 2,194 properties – including 1,553 new homes including 543 affordable homes.

The development follows a £5million investment in the regeneration of Silkstream Park and Montrose Playing Fields, between Colindale and Burnt Oak, which was completed last year. It will follow a £1.1million regeneration of Colindale Park, which is currently in progress.

Construction of the new facilities in West Hendon is expected to begin after an outline planning application has been submitted in 2022.

“Being Green” – a new Brent video, with a message for its Council.

The River Brent below the Welsh Harp dam (an image from “Being Green”)

 

 

Guest post by Philip Grant 

Brent Museum and Archives is currently running a project called “Being Brent”. One of the products of this is a new video film which has just been issued, called “Being Green”.

 

 

 

 

The video features various community groups, and green spaces such as Fryent Country Park, Gladstone Park and the Welsh Harp reservoir, and people whose efforts there help to benefit the wider community, as well as the benefits of our green spaces to the wellbeing of Brent’s residents. This struck a chord with me, and I have sent the following email to all of Brent’s councillors, with a “link” to the video:-

Dear Brent Councillors,

 

I am writing to commend to you a short video film produced for Brent Museum and Archives. “Being Green” is part of Being Brent, a community project which aims to improve the wellbeing of local residents by connecting them to the borough’s rich heritage. 

 

I hope you will enjoy the video (just over 8 minutes long), which you can view here, and that you will share the “link” with residents in your Wards, so that they can enjoy it too: https://t.co/WxYSKbJ12N?amp=1

 

Brent’s green spaces are so important for the wellbeing of our borough’s residents. That is why the Council (you and your elected colleagues) have adopted planning policies whose purpose is to protect them. 

 

This is the promise in Core Policy CP18, which the Council adopted in 2010:

 

‘Protection and Enhancement of Open Space, Sports and Biodiversity

 

Open space (including waterways) of local value will be protected from inappropriate development and will be preserved for the benefit, enjoyment, health and well-being of Brent's residents, visitors and wildlife. Support will be given to the enhancement and management of open space for recreational, sporting and amenity use and the improvement of both open space and the built environment for biodiversity and nature conservation.’

 

The Development Management Policies which you adopted in November 2016 reinforced this, saying:

 

‘The provision of open space is important for sustainable communities, contributing to health and well-being.

 

Core Strategy policy CP18 protects all open space from inappropriate development. It also seeks improved provision in areas of deficiency and where additional pressure will be placed on open space.’

 

You may wish to reflect on why it is that Brent Council, in developing some of its own projects in recent years, has chosen to ignore this key planning promise.

 

These are just three examples of proposals (inappropriate developments that there is still time to change, if you have the will to do so) which would deprive Brent’s residents of “protected” green space which is important for their health and wellbeing:

·      

 The community garden in front of 1 Morland Gardens, due to be built over as part of the Brent Start redevelopment;

 

·      Areas of Brent River Park, which the proposals for the St Raphael’s Estate propose to build on;

 

·      The open space and mature trees which would be destroyed and built over, if the Council’s plans for Kilburn Square go ahead.

 

Enjoy the video about Brent’s green spaces, and the benefits to the health and wellbeing of our community that they provide. 

 

But please also think again about the Council’s own plans to destroy some of those green spaces, in breach of its own planning policies. 

 

Thank you. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.

Bee Walk at the Welsh Harp on Saturday

 

Let's Walk- Bees and Other Pollinators Guided Walk, Saturday 17th July, 11.30am – 1.00pm

 

Canal & River Trust together with Friends of the Welsh Harp bring you a Bees & Other Pollinators Walk with ecologist Russell Miller.

Russell will demonstrate how to find and identify bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and other pollinating insects.

This is also a great way to explore what's on your doorstep and meet new people.

 

All ages welcome to attend! 

 

Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../lets-walk-bees-and-other...

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Another of Brent’s beautiful tile murals – in Neasden!

Guest post by Philip Grant 

Yes, this is another “guest blog” about tile murals with a heritage tale to tell, but this time they are not at Wembley Park.

 

1.Water sports on the Welsh Harp Reservoir, in colourful tiles.

 

The murals pictured in this article are in a pedestrian subway under the North Circular Road at Neasden. Although I have driven over them, and have visited Neasden a number of times in the past (to visit the former Grange Museum, and former Neasden Library on the site of the 1930s Ritz Cinema), I have never actually seen them myself! 

 

These photos were taken by Russell Cox, an Area Manager for Daniels Estate Agents, and sent to me by his colleague, Francis Henry, who knows of my interest in local history (the Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals). As soon as I saw them, I knew that I wanted to share them with you, and some of the stories they represent. Russell has kindly agreed that I can do that.

 

The first mural scene above clearly represents the nearby Welsh Harp Reservoir. Its history goes back to the 1830s (you can read about that here). You may think that water sports on the reservoir are a fairly modern addition, but you would be wrong. Although the canoeists in this mural may have been from the Youth Sailing Base (opened by Middlesex County Council in 1963, and closed by Barnet Council in 2004), a canoe was first tested on the Welsh Harp by “Rob Roy” Macgregor in the 1860s! The Royal Canoe Club he founded in 1866 met at the reservoir well into the 20^th century.

 

2.Sailing dinghies racing on the Welsh Harp.

 

Since the Second World War, sailing rights on the reservoir have been leased from British Waterways (now the Canal & River Trust) by the Welsh Harp Sailing Association. It has around eight member clubs, mainly based at Birchen Grove. It is enjoyable watching the dinghies in action as you walk nearby, but the Wembley Sailing Club is offering families the chance to actually try out sailing, with a free lesson on Sunday 27 June (see the Kilburn Times article).

 

The Brent Reservoir (as it is officially known) was built to supply water to the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, which opened in 1801, so it’s no surprise that the murals also show scenes from the canal. “The Feeder”, which runs through Neasden (between the Railway Village and Quainton Street Open Space) and Stonebridge, to join the canal at Lower Place, was dug through Willesden’s fields in 1811. It first took water from a bend on the River Brent at Kingsbury, and since 1835 has provided the link between the Welsh Harp and the canal.

 

3.A narrow boat passing under a canal bridge.

 

4.A lock and lock-keeper’s cottage.

 

If you walk through this pedestrian subway, between the shopping centre and Neasden Lane North, it might encourage you to talk a stroll alongside the canal itself. There are a number of places in Brent where you can join the canal-side path, from Alperton in the west, past Acton Lane to Kensal Green / West Kilburn in the south-east.

 

5.A canal-side walk, in a Neasden subway.

 

How did these murals come to be here, and when were they installed? I don’t know, and I’m hoping that one of you reading this can add some information in a comment below, please. I do know that the Neasden Underpass, which takes Neasden Lane under the North Circular Road, was built in the early 1970s. The subway, which takes pedestrians under the main road, was probably built as part of the same scheme, and was certainly in use by the 1980s.

 

Were these tile murals part of that original scheme, or were they added later, to brighten up what could have been an uninviting passageway? The style of the murals looks similar to those at the Bobby Moore Bridge, which date from 1993. They were the work of the Langley (London) Architectural Art Service, and designed by their artist, Kathryn Digby. Were these murals also from the 1990s, or were they earlier. If you lived or worked in Neasden then, please share your memories of these murals.

 

6.A holiday narrow boat, moored beside the canal (and the North Circular Road!).

 

Even if you know nothing about their history, you can still enjoy these murals, either in person or just by looking at these photos. Imagine yourself on a bright early summer day, sailing out on the Welsh Harp, walking beside the Grand Union, or relaxing on a narrow boat. These beautiful and colourful pieces of public art can help you to be there!

Philip Grant.

 

Welsh Harp Clean up May 15th 11am-1pm

 

welshharpies.co.uk/events

Barnet Library Service premiere new video on the Golden Age of the Welsh Harp

 

Barnet Council today premiered a video about the history of the Welsh Harp made be their Local Studies Department:

The Golden Age of the Welsh Harp – continues the series of descriptions of the 1st edition 25 inch to mile ordnance surveys from the London Borough of Barnet’s library service local history collection by examining sheet 11/10. At first it looks as if there is very little on the map, but film explores the rich history of the Brent Reservoir (universally known as the Welsh Harp), during it’s golden age in the mid 19th century from the building of the lake, to the building of the railways and the coming of the suburbs. Stories include, monks, floods, drownings, pumps and propellers. Most interesting of all is the story of William Perkins Warner, and his endeavour to create London’s foremost holiday and visitor attraction.

Brent Council respond to Welsh Harp litter issues after ITN report on the beauty spot's sad state

 

ITN REPORT CLICK HERE

ITV London News yesterday reported on the 'plague of litter' at the Welsh Harp Reservoir after local residents had despaired at the huge amount of litter and dumping revealed when the reservoir depth was lowered by one metre for maintenance.

 After the link to the report was widely distributed on social media many residents expressed shock at the state of the local beauty spot and Site of Special Scientific Interest and the threat the littering posed to animals and birds and their habitats.

Cllr Anton Georgiou wrote expressing his concern to Brent Council and received the following response.

 

We have been discussing the images that we have seen at Welsh Harp with Councillor Krupa Sheth as Lead Member.

 

As you may be aware, the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT) have purposely reduced the water level by one metre for maintenance purposes. Inevitably (and sadly) this has revealed a significant amount of detritus at watermark level that has built up over many years and demonstrates how some people act so irresponsibly in relation to such a significant asset within an urban area.

 

The Council has well defined responsibilities for the greenspace in Welsh Harp and we take those responsibilities seriously. We will add more bins, improve signage, ensure Veolia prioritise litter removal so our area is kept better and commit to supporting any longer term proposals for the whole site. Our remit does not stretch to the reservoir itself which is a CRT responsibility and one that the Environment Agency would also have some responsibility for as a water course.

 

Officers are therefore discussing with CRT and the EA their proposals to clean up the reservoir. We understand there are immediate plans to clear the more accessible rubbish from traps at either end of the reservoir, and that local volunteers assisted with a clean-up last weekend. Removing the more problematic detritus in the silted areas will be a longer term consideration given the likely cost and the operational difficulties.

 

You are correct that this goes beyond what volunteers could and should undertake. The silt is very dangerous and the clean-up will need to be undertaken professionally.

 

When CRT / EA have responded as to how they intend to approach this problem, I will liaise with Councillor Sheth and contact you again in order to update you.

 

 

 

The Welsh Harp Reservoir Story – Part 4

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.