The London/Buckinghamshire boundary. Cowley

The London, Hillingdon/ Buckinghamshire boundary goes northwards along the River Colne
TQ 05679 80295

Some old industrial sites and canal side industry along Cowley Peachy High Street

Post to the west Iver Court
Post to the south West Drayton
Post to the north Cowley Peachey

Sites on the London,Hillingdon, side of the boundary

Canal
Site of the Junction where the Slough Arm meets the Grand Union Canal.
Grand Junction Canal
. The original Grand Union Canal was built between the Thames at Brentford and the Midlands in the 1790s and designed by William Jessop. It amalgamated with others to become the Grand Union in 1929.
The Slough Arm is a 5-mile branch canal and almost the last canal built in London. It dates from 1882 and was used by brickworks around Langley. Construction was overseen by Alfred Walker and the route included a major cutting and embankment. It was 5 miles long, and had no locks. It was briefly closed in the 1950s.
Footbridge to the Slough Arm Marina
Packet Boat Marina. 120 berth with facilities run by British Waterways.This was used by the Paddington Packet Boat. This was a passenger service which was run by the canal company to here from Paddington in the earliest days of the canal.
Stoplock at Cowley Peachey junction
Aqueduct over Frays River. Cast iron and very low slung

Cowley Peachey High Street
Originally a Westminster Abbey Estate which was granted to Bartholomew Peachey in 1252 and his name became the name of the Manor. ‘Couele Peche’ 1358, ‘Coulepecche’ 1371, ‘Cowleypechey ‘1560.
Silt dredging from the canal dumped all round the area. Designated a contaminated site
Council housing in the 1950s. .
2 timber framed houses of the 16th
Key House – was Yiewsley Town Hall. This modestly proportioned neo Georgian building was erected in 1930 to the designs of A. S. Soutar for the newly formed Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District Council now rented by voluntary sector bodies
152-156 Chapel House. Rail line.
Line of the defunct Great Western Branch. Where the branch once crossed the A408, the site was later a photographic/video equipment centre

Philpott’s Close
Philipott's farm. 17th century barns. Farm meadows part of local ‘green corridor’

Merrivale Mews
Rail line. Directly on the site of the defunct Great Western Railway line

Rail Line
The West Drayton and Staines Railway Line left the main GWR line west of West Drayton Station and falling and curving it ran round and back again under the main line. Opened 1888. The line was closed from 1962 to passengers. A sidings at the southern end served the Middlesex Oil and Chemical Works at Yiewsley 1964-1976.
Coal post north of the GWR main line west of the Staines line underbridge
Rail Branch from Staines West bears round from your right and crosses the Frays River on an elderly bridge, flanked by trees. Last hundred or so yards into West Drayton station, Uxbridge trains shared the metals with those serving Staines, skirting an extensive coal concentration depot, opened on 18th December 1963.

Trout Bridge
Brick paving on the towpath stamped 1910. Bridge is marked “GJC Co. 1911”
Trees now mark the spot where the Great Western branch line crossed the road.

Trout Road
Works on land owned by St. Thomas's Hospital became the site in 1921 of Lactine Ltd. and Hobdellway and Co. Ltd.. The site was bought in 1928 by the Kenilworth Chemical Manufacturing Co. and the English Metal Powder Co. producing flake and atomized aluminium powders and aluminium pastes. This site was later taken over after 1935 by the Middlesex Oil and Chemical Works Ltd., manufacturing oils, petroleum jellies, and resins.
Kenilworth and Metal Powder in adjacent works

Sources
British History Online. West Drayton
Canal Walks
Coal Posts lists. Web site
London Railway Record
Field. London Place Names


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