please empty your brain below
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Your blog is like a 365 day Advent Calendar where you never know what is behind the door. Thank you for the daily intellectual stimulation. Happy Christmas
Richard | 05.12.17 - 8:20 a.m. | #
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Another classic DG post
I’m so Impressed by your dedication mate.
I’m a born and bred Londonder and had never even heard of these places.
Keep it up!
Paul | 05.12.17 - 8:34 a.m. | #
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Not many people look for the least connected place and think "Let's go there!"
So glad you did though, as it made for a fascinating read.
Cornish Cockney | 05.12.17 - 9:17 a.m. | #
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I used to cycle around that area quite regularly in the late 90s. I've barely been back since, except in a car passing though heading elsewhere.
The third image shows a rather nasty junction where I've had many close shaves with cars hurtling around the bend.
David @dtl | Homepage | 05.12.17 - 9:32 a.m. | #
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These back lanes are lethal for running and one of the reasons why the Havering Half Marathon stopped years ago and why I don't go there. However, Belhus Park is good for running. The farm shop is more expensive than supermarkets. I think the White Hart used to be Charringtons and OK as a pub, but a bit Essexy in clientele.
Running_Correspondent | 05.12.17 - 9:35 a.m. | #
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The farm shop also sells Pie (Mash) & Liquor, which says a lot about its clientele, as well as Oven Ready Free Range Turkey's, which says more about its owners.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 05.12.17 - 9:39 a.m. | #
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I remember being in the White Hart and being surprised to hear accents having more in common with rural north Essex rather than the prevailing Cockney/Estuary of neighboring areas. Mind you, this was 30 years ago now.
Paul Draper | 05.12.17 - 9:46 a.m. | #
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Yes, I like the Advent calendar simile. Also today's post - yet another near-London place name that I had never even heard of. Bravo.
dg writes: In London, Malcolm. In London.
Malcolm | 05.12.17 - 9:56 a.m. | #
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Do the Turkeys go running in Belhus Park?
Agent Z | 05.12.17 - 9:57 a.m. | #
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Bonnetts Wood - the link to the website claims there is car parking off of Park Farm Road, if there is ever an award for 'most discouraging entrance for a car park' this is it.
[streetview]
To reach the entrance to the wood from the car park you then have walk in and cross what is described as the 'busy Park Farm Road' going around a bend - no wonder no one goes there.
[streetview]
dg writes: Having actually been there, rather than viewing virtually, I can confirm that both your assumptions are kneejerk nonsense.
Still Anon | 05.12.17 - 11:48 a.m. | #
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It's union flag, not jack. ;)
Mark | 05.12.17 - 12:01 p.m. | #
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It's Union Flag, not union flag ;)
Paul | 05.12.17 - 12:18 p.m. | #
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Damyns Hall has an annual military vehicles weekend, which snarls the local roads up something rotten.
There is also a paintball/Airsoft site in the area.
Silent Hunter | Homepage | 05.12.17 - 12:34 p.m. | #
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It's Union Flag, not union flag ;)
It's union flag, not jack. ;)
Some people watched too much 'Blue Peter' (yet another flag) in their youth.
https://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/british-flags/the-union-jack-or-the-union-flag/
Richard | Homepage | 05.12.17 - 12:53 p.m. | #
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Disagree - the notice for Parklands Open Space isn't visible until you are on top of it (remember you are driving a car), I doubt if someone who wasn't local would find the entrance first time, contrast the approach to official signage with that of the private businesses you photographed.
dg writes: The road sign was easily visible from up the lane, across an open field, on a bend where a driver would be slowing down anyway.
No way does this deserve a "most discouraging entrance for a car park" award.
Still Anon | 05.12.17 - 2:29 p.m. | #
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I was over that way, a few years ago, looking to find the site of a WW2 anti-aircraft battery. A local I got talking with said 'if that's your interest, the place they have the airships is just over in Aveley.'
It was your mention of Damyns Hall Aerodrome that reminded me of this, so I did some searching.
I rather expected to find Damyns was one place and the 'airship place' quite another, given that - despite the similarity in names - Aveley and Aveley Road are hardly very near each other.
Nope, I got that wrong! Damyns, as it turns out, actually is "the airship place"
RogerW | 05.12.17 - 2:56 p.m. | #
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Just the thought of the place makes me shiver.
My sister lived in Hornchurch 1964-1966 and I visited regularly and spent school hols there and can recall seeing a Dave Clark Five film there in 1965. Two years of living in that, even then, unfriendly place was enough for her and I'll be happy never to return.
I did return occasionally to Romford for shopping until the early 1980s, but a couple of clicks on gurgle maps is enough to deter me ever doing it again, when and if I'm in the U.K.
IsarSteve | 05.12.17 - 3:16 p.m. | #
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As Eliza Doolittle might have said:
In Hacton, Hornchurch and Havering hurricanes hardly ever happen.
Another fascinating post - thank you.
Man of Kent | 05.12.17 - 9:46 p.m. | #
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This is almost my patch; I live in Thurrock and am a frequent visitor to Belhus Woods Country Park, which I'd always assumed was also in Thurrock. Fascinating to discover that it's not entirely so.
You might have been miles from a London bus stop, but you were only a few hundred metres from one of ours (Ensignbus 22).
Amanda | Homepage | 05.12.17 - 9:58 p.m. | #
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Also the London bus 372 from Hornchurch connects with the Ensignbus 22 at Aveley.
JohnC | 06.12.17 - 12:23 a.m. | #
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But it’s not a public transport desert on one day a year, just gone sadly (last Saturday was this years). On Ensign’s vintage running day the X55 runs from Upminster station to Gravesend via Lakeside through this very area, so you can enjoy the scenery from the top deck of a RT or RM or something more exotic for the London area.
MarkAN | 06.12.17 - 10:18 a.m. | #
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Not mentioned was the site of RAF Hornchurch, around Hacton. It was one of the two (unless someone knows better) operational WW2 airfields within what is now Greater London, along with Fairlop.
If aviation had not developed as it did from the aggressions of 39-45, Fairlop would have been one of London's airports. Never saw any civil aviation plan for Hornchurch - it stayed undeveloped for a long time.
Not sure what remains of RAF Hornchurch (and its semi-predecessor Sutton's Farm), but comparisons of old and current maps suggest it's nearly all housing.
Joel | 07.12.17 - 1:23 p.m. | #
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