GOLF COURSE BOOGIE

GOLF COURSE BOOGIE

A brisk stroll along the quiet lanes of Harrow Weald and Stanmore culminating in the bisection of Stanmore golf course.

As with all walks on this Blog, you start the walk by turning on to college avenue and heading downhill towards the Duck in the Pond pub.

After appox 100 yards take the first left on to College Hill Road and immediately turn right on to The Avenue. Continue along the pleasant suburban road until you reach the junction with  Kenton Lane when you turn left and then immediately right on to the Highway.

Proceed along the Highway and start to ascend the step hill with 1930's "Metroland" house's to each side of the quiet roadway.  At the end of the road, and upon reaching the summit, you can pause for a breath and look back upon a vista of suburban sprawl interspersed by the spire of St Mary's church and the green swath at Harrow on the Hill.

Returning to our walk, we continue through the traffic barriers at the end of the road, and continue along a pleasant footpath between large, spacious and attractive 1980's built detached housing . We continue along the properties private estate road and arrive at a  junction with one of Harrow Weald's more wealthy roads, Gordon Avenue.

Gordon Avenue was originally laid out at the end of the 19th century by the proprietor of the hotel that occupied the Bentley Priory site. Built as an access road for the railway station at the terminus of the "Rattler" extension to the Euston  - Birmingham main railway line. As with the road, the line was built largely at the expense of the hotels wealthy proprietor Frederick Gordon.

 The land the road and accompanying house's are built on formerly formed part of the substantial and beautiful "Stanmore Park Estate" owned by the founder of "Drummond's Bank "Andrew Drummond, and later owned by George Glynn , founder of Williams and Glynn Bank.

The estate was gradually sold off piecemeal for housing in the early 20th century, with the properties developed all being of a substantial size, and situated adjacent to the newly formed Stanmore Golf Course built across many acres of the former estate.

These acres including a man made mound known as "Belmont" due to is bell like shape, originally built as a view point and folly for the Duke of Chandos who lived in the adjacent "Cannons Estate".

The surrounding settlement still being known as "Belmont". 

However, a large area surrounding the mansion house remained as open space when the main property became a school, and then a Balloon Station for the RAF. Unfortunately, within the last few years, even this land was developed and the remnants of the once glorious estate are a lake less than half its original size, and soulless modern housing and flats.

Returning to our mini marathon, we turn right on to Gordon Avenue and continue past large and substantial properties, although only two of the original Victorian mansions survive in their original state.

As you proceed along Gordon Avenue, on your right are a strange but not unpleasant grouping of substantial detached Victorian housing, sixties built semi’s and flats, and recently constructed large detached houses with neo Greco columns and Italianate design.  As detailed earlier, these properties sit on the former fields of the Stanmore Park Estate and were originally substantial mansions with outhouses and a considerable amount of land laid out as gardens.

It is for this reason that most of the original houses have been demolished to make way for low rise blocks of flats and small cul-de-sacs comprising of expensive but relatively much smaller semi-detached and detached housing.

Behind these developments remain the green wide open spaces of the original estate, as the land is now occupied by Stanmore Golf course and the grand clubhouse of Stanmore Golf club.

On the left of Gordon Avenue, opposite those just detailed, there are no original Victorian or Edwardian properties remaining but yet again, numerous new developments utilising the original large plots.

As you reach the end of this stretch of road, you reach a sharp left bend with the entrance road to the golf club to your right, and continued urban development to your left.

Approx. 100 yards from the apex of the bend, you reach a number of old houses that sit between the road and Temple Lake.

 Temple Lake was the largest water feature of the Stanmore Park Estate, and sat behind the mansion house with lawns running down to its banks. The lake was formed by damming the small brook that originates on the elevated land of the adjacent Bentley Priory Estate. The brook leaves the lake between the apex of the bend earlier described, and the stone pillared and still existing former east entrance to the Stanmore Park Estate grounds. It continues across the road through a wooded enclosure that has a pleasant short footpath winding its way alongside the small river until it returns to a culvert that runs under Woolverton Road.

Returning to Gordon Avenue, we continue forward around the gentle right handed bend until we meet the junction with Old Church Lane.
On your immediate right is the former Stanmore Station located at the head of the rattler line built to service the former hotel at Bentley Priory.

However, as you may have guessed, it is no longer a station, as the line was torn up in the early 1960’s after Dr Beechings decision to decimate local railways.

The former station building has been converted in to a dwelling, although its former use can clearly be seen by those in the know.

At this road junction we will turn left and proceed further along Old Church Lane, and to our right we pass what is known as the “Tudor Well” believed to be a real well that serviced the former manor house. Indeed, a concrete and wooden structure is blocked off with a circular mill stone and the well is believed to be intact beneath the stone.

We continue and pass the site of the former Manor House situated to our right, now occupied by a faux 15thc building built in the early 20c, and to our left a number of new developments built on the site of more substantial Victorian detached villas.

To our left, we soon pass a series of 17c terraced properties, one of which was smithy, which are associated with both the old Manor House and the Rectory which stands on a small road behind them.

We are then at the end of the road where today, Old Church Lane forms a junction with the Uxbridge Road.
Turning right will take us in to the centre of Stanmore, and to the left Harrow Weald, via Brockhurst Corner and the public house formerly known as “The Leefe Robinson”, named in memory of the first British WW1 airman to shoot down a German Zeppelin.  
Leefe Robinson is himself buried just 50 yards away in a section of Harrow Weald Cemetery, and is entombed beneath an elaborate grave that is regularly decorated with poppies and other WW1 memorabilia and regalia.

Returning to the end of Old Church Lane, we are confronted with the strange occurrence of two churches standing side by side, encompassing a large cemetery plot, crumbling ruins of the 1632 church and the current church building, which had the foundation stone laid by the dowager Queen Adelaide in 1850.

The churchyard contains the ruins of the old brick church of St John the Evangelist, built in 1632, and the new church, which was built in 1850 when the old church was too small and also found to be unsafe. The parish had strong connections with the many local dignitaries with estates in the area, to whom there are notable monuments in the church and churchyard. These included Stanmore Park, Stanmore Hall and Bentley Priory, the latter at one time the home of Lord Abercorn and Lord Aberdeen, whose son Douglas Gordon was Rector and one of the donors of the new church.

Upon leaving the twin churches, we turn left on to the Uxbridge Road and then almost immediately right on to Green Lane. Green Lane was the original medieval roadway whose alignment was directly across from Old Church Lane, crossing the trakway that was to become the Uxbridge Road. However the roads were realigned to their current staggered status when the Uxbridge Road was widened to give easier access to Stanmore high street.

Green Lane rises up the hill running almost parallel to Stanmore Hill which is now the main northern route out of Stanmore. The lane consists of pleasant private housing, many of which date from the 18C or earlier. Upon reaching the end of the road you are at the junction with Stanmore Hill where you have the option of turning left, uphill towards Bentley Priory and Stanmore Common and ponds, or right, which takes you back down hill towards Stanmore Town centre. On this particular occasion we will turn right, descending the steep slope noting the splendid views of central London in the distance.

The road has what were originally 17C coaching Inns on its left as we descend, and antiquated private and business property mainly to the right hand side. At the bottom of the hill, we are again at the junction of the Uxbridge Road, and turning right we enter the western part of Stanmore High Street which unfortunately has no remaining buildings of antiquity or interest, with 1960’s and 70’s redevelopments lining both sides of the road.

After a couple of hundred yards we turn left back on to Old Church Lane, and with the twin St Johns churches to our right retrace our steps to the junction of Gordon Avenue where we turn right and proceed towards the Stanmore golf course entrance driveway.

Passing the golf course we continue to retrace our steps along Gordon Avenue until we reach an public right of way and footpath that turns left between the substantial housing.  

Proceeding along the narrow pathway we soon find ourselves marching passed the manicured greens and fairways of Stanmore Golf Course. The path steadily winds up the artificially built “Belmont” with fully grown trees lining both sides of the pathway.  

 There are occasional gates that give access to the greens and fairways and if you are careful and keep out of the way of stray golf balls, you may deviated from the path and wander across pristine countryside almost unaltered since the early days of the rural Stanmore Park estate.

The path climbs to the summit of the artificial Belmont mound, where magnificent views of the Bentley Priory Estate and surrounding countryside are available. As you turn 360 degrees fantastic views are available over London and Hertfordshire, providing the weather and light permits.

Leaving the heights, you descend the steep pathway until you meet Vernon Drive / Mountside and a right turn takes you past the Duck in the Pond pub, where a generous libation will relieve your aching legs and, if it’s been raining, your spirit.