Aim -to Identify Different Types Of Land Use That Have Undergone Change In The Lea Valley Essay, Research Paper
Aim -to identify different types of land
use that have undergone change in the Lea Valley. -to examine the
reasons why the land use has changed. ??
- to investigate the impact of change upon the local community. -to investigate the impact of change upon the environment.Introduction-
The Lea Valley History Ponders End
started out as a large hamlet in the parish of Enfield. The High Street was
built up from Red Lane (Lincoln Road) to just south of Farm Lane (Southbury
Road). Houses were dotted along South Street as far as Ponders End Mill and the
Lee Navigation. There was also a small settlement clustered around Scotland Green.
There was no road access across the river to Chingford. (It was not until the
early eighteen-seventies that Lea Valley Road was built, financed by public
subscription). A report by the
General Board of Health (1850) on sanitary conditions in Enfield reveals an
alarming state of affairs in Ponders End. Many of the older cottages were
grossly overcrowded and extremely insanitary. The worst affected areas were
South Street and Scotland Green. The whole area suffered from poor drainage.Housing
development began at a fairly early date. Alma Road was developed from 1855 and
Napier Road had been laid out by 1867. The Lincoln House Estate (Derby Road and
Lincoln Road) was built up from 1871. Durants Road was developed from 1888 and
Nags Head Road from 1890. By 1914 much of the area had been built up, but there
was still open country separating Ponders End from Enfield Highway to the north
and Edmonton to the south.For many years
the nearest church was at Enfield Town. Then in 1831 St James Church was built
at Enfield Highway. Ponders End did not get a church of its own until 1878 when
St Matthew’s Church was erected in South Street. The nonconformists, however,
took Ponders End rather more seriously. An Independent Chapel was built in the
High Street in 1768. (This is the direct ancestor of the present United Reformed
Church).The oldest
industrial site is the Ponders End Mill. The present mill buildings date from
the late 18th century. In 1809 Grout and Baylis’ crape factory was built in
South Street. This closed in 1894 and the factory was later taken over by
United Flexible Metal Tubing. A jute mill was opened beside the Lee Navigation
in 1865, lasting until 1882. The building was taken over by Ediswan in 1886 and
used for the manufacture of electric light bulbs and later radio valves. During
World War I, a huge munitions factory, the Ponders End Shell Works was built in
Wharf Road. The factory buildings were sold off after the war. Further
factories were built in the thirties alongside the newly-built Great Cambridge
Road.After World War
II much of the older part of Ponders End was in a rundown state. From the
fifties onwards there was much council redevelopment particularly in the South
Street and Alma Road areas. Today Ponders End is an uneasy mixture of old and
new: the Mill buildings survive in the shadow of the Alma Road tower blocks.The River Lea
or Lee runs from Luton in Bedfordshire to the River Thames in east London.
Evidence of Bronze and Iron Age settlements have been found along the length of
the river and the Romans built Ermine Street parallel to the Lee shortly after
they arrived in Britain around two thousand years ago.The waters of
the Lee powered many mills producing flour, gunpowder and also England’s first
paper mill in c1494. As early as 1424 parliament passed an act allowing works
to improve navigation, and the Lee was for centuries an important goods highway
into London.? Malt, flour, coal and
gunpowder were all transported in large quantities to the capital. During the
mid 1700’s the navigation was much improved with new cuts and locks.?? Even after the arrival of the railways,
imported timber was still transported along the Lee to yards and factories at
Walthamstow and Tottenham, while coal was also taken up river to power stations
at Hackney, Brimsdown and Rye House.?
The land surrounding the Lee near Stratford was ideally placed for
industries that London did not want right on it’s doorstep, such as
slaughterhouses or gas works, but did want products from. By all accounts it
was not hard to see (or smell) where the early bone china produced at Bow in
the 1700’s got it’s bones from! Many new industries later grew up around
Edmonton and Ponders End, including firms manufacturing the world’s first radio
valves and vacuum flasks.?? At Enfield
Lock, the Royal Small Arms Factory was the major supplier of arms for the
British Army for over a century, and the "Matchbox" toys of every
60’s schoolboy were made in factories on the Lee at Hackney. While there is
still industry in the Lee Valley, the nature of much of it has changed over the
past fifty years or so.?? Some of the
older traditional sites remain along the navigation, but many have been
replaced by smaller industrial estates bringing new light and service
industries to the region.As well as
manufacturing industry, the Lee Valley became one of the largest areas in the
country for horticulture.? By the 1930’s
almost half the glasshouses in England were here, growing a variety of fruit,
vegetables and flowers. The towns of Cheshunt and Broxbourne were by this time
almost surrounded by glasshouses.? This
was due to the quality of soil, good water supply, easy access to the markets
of London and the availability of seasonal labour from the capital.? Although greatly diminished, there are still
many glasshouses around Enfield and north of Waltham Abbey, growing not only
fruit and vegetables, but also plants and shrubs for the many garden centres
around London.? The extraction of good
quality gravel, deposited in the valley during the ice age, also became a major
activity, particularly between Waltham Cross and Ware Although there are still
some working sites,? most have now been
returned to nature, many as lakes used for fishing and water sports.?In 1967, an act of parliament established the
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority to develop the areas along the Lee, many of
them by now derelict,? for recreation
and wildlife. Today it is mainly pleasure boats and waterbirds that travel up
and down the river in place of the barges carrying grain or coal.? Compared to the
industrial and suburban southern half of the Lee, the river takes on a
different character north of Hertford, running through fields and countryside
past Hatfield House and the Hertfordshire towns of Wheathampstead and Harpenden.? Although not navigable here, the river has
always had an important role to play, providing power for the many small mills
that were constructed along it’s route, some of which are still standing today.?? It is possible to walk the entire length of
the river by following The Lea Valley Walk from Luton to the Thames.? official names
have been spelt Lee, e.g. Lee Conservancy Board (1868), Lee
Park (1967), etc. The first occurrence of Lea was probably on a map dated 1576,
and most maps since have continued to call the river the Lea, but Brimsdown is in
the London Borough of Enfield which is made up of a collection of small
communities, once scattered across the royal hunting grounds of Enfield Chase.? These area are still separate but within the
London Borough of Enfield and are merged into one large area on the northern
edge of London.? Enfield Lock, Enfield
Wash and Enfield Highway are all situated along side the Lee Navigation, to the
south of Waltham Cross together with the districts of Brimsdown and Ponders
End.In 1855 Enfield
Lock station (originally called Ordnance Factory) was opened.? This was followed in 1884 by Brimsdown
station.? The Southbury Loop line (1891)
gave the area another station, sited in Turkey Street. This was originally
known, somewhat misleadingly, as Forty Hill.??
However, this station lost its passenger service in 1909 as a direct
result of tramway competition.? The
Brimsdown Power Station opened in 1903. The cheap and plentiful electricity
supplies were to attract many other industries to the area.Brimsdown is
mainly an industrial area and Enfield town lies further west and is more like a
village, containing its own market square, and a parish church.? The New River also runs through Enfield
town. The town itself has grown far less attractive in recent years and has
become busier at the same time.? A
lottery grant of £1.8 million has been awarded to the area for cleaning,
restorations and safer pedestrian areas.The name
"Enfield" means an area of open land belonging to Eana.?? At the time of the Doomsday book it was
spelt Enefelde, and by Henry VIII’s reign had become a favourite hunting forest
for royalty.? This tradition continued
with James I who spent much of his time at nearby Theobolds Palace.Chingford is on
the western bank of the River Lea, on the valley slope which quickly rises by
250 feet here. The high ground gives panoramic views across two large
reservoirs to North London and an obelisk was built on Pole Hill in 1824 as a
marker for the former Greenwich Observatory.?Railway lines
of the Lea ValleyThe main Lea
Valley route was started as early as 1840 when the Northern & Eastern
Railway opened it’s line from Stratford to Broxbourne, continuing on to Harlow
the following year and Bishops Stortford in 1842, on a route that would
eventually reach Cambridge.? Initially
built to 5ft gauge, within a few years it was converted to the standard 4ft
8½in and taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway, whose line it joined at
Stratford.? A branch north of Broxbourne
to Hertford followed in 1843, to a station on the edge of the town, which was
replaced in 1888 by the present Hertford East.?? After another branch to Enfield Town in 1849 there was a gap of
some twenty years before the rest of the network that exists today started to
appear, due in part to the financial problems of the Great Eastern Railway
which had been formed in 1862 from among others the Eastern Counties.Initially
served by horse buses from Lea Bridge station on the 1840 built line,
Walthamstow got it’s own stations when a further branch was opened in 1870.
Three years later this was extended? to
Chingford, and linked back to the new GER line coming out of London via
Hackney. This new line also went north through Seven Sisters to join the
Enfield branch north of Edmonton.? A
second Edmonton Green station was built on the new line and the Enfield branch
was widened to double track north of the new junction and even merited the
building of a proper station at Enfield Town to replace the former mansion that
had until then been used as the station.?
The old Edmonton station became Edmonton Low Level and even received a
second platform at the turn of the century, as the original single track branch
continued to be served by workmen’s trains until 1939, and did not finally
close until the 1960’s.? In 1891 another
link was built, this time from Edmonton Green to Cheshunt, which became known
as the Churchbury (later Southbury) Loop.?
Despite new housing around Waltham Cross, the line was not successful,
due in part to the expansion of the competing tram network at the same time.
The line soon became goods only, but eventually delivered the promised
passenger traffic fifty years on, after electrification and the re-introduction
of passenger trains in 1960.?? During
the 50+ year gap, one line was used for local goods trains, the other as a
siding.?? Special passenger services
were run for workers during the first world war, and it was always useful as a
diversion when the main Lea Valley line was closed (this happened several times
after accidents, bad weather and when bombs damaged the line during the Second
World War).While the later
lines to Chingford and Enfield improved after the 1960’s, the oldest part of
the line did not.? The large marshalling
yards of Temple Mills have now gone and Lea Bridge station, which was on the
very first line in 1840, suffered a long and painfull decline until even the
few peak hour diesel trains from Stratford that stopped there in the 1970’s
were withdrawn.? The line still exists
for freight and has now been electrified!?
There is little left of the station, but one day it could return…… ?As well as the
lines in to and out of Liverpool Street,?
some parts of the Lea valley feature on other routes:Hertford and
Enfield are also served by trains to Kings Cross and Moorgate.? The Great Northern Railway’s line to Enfield
was extended during the early 1920’s, Hertford North station opening in 1924
(by which time it was the LNER).? Part
of the original Enfield Chase station has been preserved at the Whitewebbs
Museum of Transport.A line from
Welwyn to Hertford was opened in 1858 terminating at Cowbridge station, which
was next to McMullen’s brewery in the centre of the town.? The line became freight only when Hertford
North station opened, eventually closing in the mid 1960’s.? Approximately 2½ miles of the trackbed now forms
part of the Lea Valley Walk between Cole Green and the viaduct carrying the
Hertford North line.? The rest of the
line on into Hertford can still be traced, ending at new industrial units which
now occupy the Cowbridge site.? A short
spur also linked this route with the Liverpool Street line near Hertford East
station.The Midland
Railway built it’s Tottenham and Forest Gate line through Walthamstow and
Leyton in 1894.? The line still exists
today thanks to its importance as a freight route around London, rather than
due to the small number of passengers who use the non-electrified Barking to
Gospel Oak trains.???????????????????? PictureThe approach I intend
to take is a- fair and critical oneMy aims in approaching
this study are-to find out as much as I can and present it in a good way