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MiddlesexWalk Details:
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The Walk:Following my wife (Ali) cooking a delicious Christmas Day dinner for both our families, on Boxing Day my family had been invited up to my in-laws for Boxing Day. Ali's Dad, Dave (a keen walker himself) had organised a walk for us all. Jim and I had mercilessly lobbied him on Christmas Day to get him to alter the course of the walk to the Middlesex county top, but given that it's located at a busy crossroads we were unsurprised when he refused. His walk took us within half a mile of the top, and it was agreed that when we reached that point Jim and I would sprint off and bag the top, and then catch up with everyone else later on. I'd walked the local paths with my in-laws many times before, and knew the way well. Leaving Harrow Weald on Boxtree Road, we crossed the A410 Uxbridge Road and headed down a narrow path between houses, eventually emerging into a sloping field where horses used to roam. Though the stables at the top of the hill have now closed, as you ascend along the right hand edge of the field you can look behind you for excellent views across the neighbourhood. Reaching the top of the hill we passed through the delightfully ramshackle and rambling former stables of Copse Farm. Here the female in-laws left us to return home and start preparing the traditional Boxing Day cold meat fest, leaving just Dave and my family continuing the walk. We soon reached Old Redding Lane near the Case is Altered pub, which we remembered from our LOOP walking days. Many pubs with this name are named for the legal profession, but this one is rumoured to have a different origin to its name. Apparently the pub was once run by Spaniards, who named it in their own tongue: "Casa Alta", meaning "High House". Joining the LOOP, we headed into the woods of Harrow Weald Common, with a brief diversion to see the Grimsdyke House, where Mr Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) once lived. Soon Dave and our Mum & Dad bore off to the right to continue following the LOOP into Bentley Priory, whilst Jim and I headed off on our quest to bag our 35th top.
Following the A4140 (aka "The Common") past some huge houses, we rejoined the LOOP at Priory Drive, where there were even bigger houses and a chap helping his kids to "skate" down the frozen puddles at the roadside. We were now walking in the "wrong" direction, anticlockwise around the LOOP, and it felt odd for we LOOP veterans to have London to our left rather than to the right! We soon entered Bentley Priory from the opposite end to that at which the others had entered. The Priory was absolutely heaving, I've never seen it so busy. I think the whole of Harrow and Bushey must have been there trying to walk off their Christmas flab! As seems to be the case when you get close to London, they were without exception unfriendly - no matter how you greeted another walker, whether with a friendly nod or a "good afternoon", they would turn away without a word and pretend they hadn't seen or heard you. It's such a sad attitude compared to the innate friendliness of the Wiltshire I was brought up in. We were walking very quickly (and rapidly overtaking the turkey-stuffed Harrowites), but we thought it would take ages for us to catch the others. In fact we caught them up very quickly as they'd stopped by the deer park within the Priory woods. The deer were certainly out in force today, no doubt tempted by the mass invasion of carrot-wielding locals. We descended through Heriots Wood, with Jim, our Dad and I taking the opportunity to "ford" a stream and get covered in mud in the process, eventually emerging on Clamp Hill. From here, Dave took us back to his place through an interesting multi-faith graveyard, where you could clearly see the different orientation of Christian and Muslim graves. Conclusion
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We soon joined the A409 Common Road, and followed
it up to the crossroads with the A4140, where the Alpine pub is situated
(this had caused quite a few bad jokes about us having to brave "Alpine"
conditions at the summit!). The highest point in the former County of
Middlesex is actually atop covered reservoirs to the north of the crossroad
- we could see these between blocks of flats and were pretty impressed
at their height. However, as these are temporary man-made structures,
they don't count; as they were private property we weren't about to go
trespassing either! The OS orange map shows a spot height of 153m at the
crossroads. Having wandered up and down nearby roads and into the service
road for the flats we established that the surrounding area was pretty
much flat at 153m, and decided to take the OS spot height as the "top".