BENTLEY PRIORY MARATHON

BENTLEY PRIORY MARATHON

A stroll along the quiet lanes of Harrow Weald and Stanmore including a circumnavigation of Bentley Priory, a visit to the Boot Pond and culminating in a steep climb over 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. After approx 100 yards turn left on to Chestnut Drive until you reach a right turn just before the road ends in a dead end.


 Turning right almost immediately you enter the footpath leaving the road on the left hand side adjacent to the school.

 Continue along the footpath until you emerge on to White Gate Gardens which you follow around a left bend until the junction with Wynchgate Gardens where you turn right up a sharp incline.

Continue a short distance along the pleasant suburban road until you reach the junction with Wilsmere Drive where you turn right and enter the grounds of the former Mansion known as Harrow Weald House and now entitled Barchester - Wilsmere House care home.

This magnificent  house was surrounded by park land and formally laid out grounds, and included a series of man made lakes formed by damming the Wealdstone Brook that runs through its grounds.

The Wealdstone brook still flows roughly along its original course, although it is now sadly in a buried  culvert. However, the valley of the river can clearly be seen when approaching its course from either side of the level crossing at the junction of College Hill Road, College Avenue and Church Lane.

Passing the former Harrow Weald House and entering a short alleyway we emerge on to Richmond Gardens which passes  an enclosed island of grass that was formerly  one of the lakes formed by damming the Wealdstone Brook. If you stand quietly you can even hear the river running below your feet as it flows through its enclosed culvert towards its eventual confluence with the River Brent in Wembley Park. 

On leaving Richmond Gardens you turn left on to Kenton Lane and proceed uphill towards the junction with the Uxbridge Road. You pass a mix of Victorian and Edwardian architecture as you rise up the hill. A number of older terraced cottages are situation to your right just before the road junction that is known as Brockhurst Corner, formerly a cross roads, but now a mini roundabout. 

If we were to proceed across the junction of the previous crossroads, we would ascend Clamp Hill, although we will in fact turn right and almost immediately turn left on to a tree line pathway located just before a red bricked Victorian building adorned with the date 1882. 

We follow the path past the edge of a 70’s built housing estate with pleasant greenery to our left, and emerge on to Byron Crescent. Passing rundown council estate housing and proceeding around a curved roadway, we pass the entrance to Bentley Wood High School, and soon arrive at the junction with Masefield Avenue.

 Masefield Avenue was created from a former estate pathway running off the Uxbridge Road in to the Bentley Priory Estate after the 2^nd world war, so that land could be developed by the council to offset the housing destroyed by bombing during the war.

Returning to the junction with Masefield Avenue, we turn left and after approx. 200yards we are at an entrance to the Bentley priory Open Space and Nature Reserve. Passing through the entrance in to the fields and woods of the open space, we bear left and follow an unmarked grass pathway through small copses of bushes and trees and enter the main wooded section and turn left on to a pathway with a large crossbar gate blocking your progress.

Be aware that as cows and other livestock roam these fields on a daily basis, your route along the pathway will occasionally need to negotiate steaming cow pats and if you are not careful, you may ruin your footwear for ever!  

 Pass over the style or through the gaps provided for ease of access and continue along a country lane with thick woods to your right and open fields to your left. 

Before long, on your right is the entrance to the large lake known as “Summerhouse Lake”. Large notice boards are provided to explain the nature and fauna of the lake and its surroundings, and a small wall provides a resting place for your weary legs.

The Lake was artificially created as an integral part of the landscaped gardens and park developed for Bentley Priory, and formerly had a substantial “Lake House” situated on its banks.  However, this fell in to disrepair and was destroyed by fire towards the end of the 20^th century.

We pass along the path running adjacent to the left bank of the lake as we face north, and passing the remnants of the bunt down Lake House, we turn left to view the largest, widest and probably the oldest tree in Middlesex. 

The huge oak tree named “The Master”, was probably a seedling during the reign of King Henry VIII, and is approximately 500 years old.  Although mindless thugs have attempted to burn the tree down by lighting fires at its base, it is now protected by a fence, and at the time of writing is still alive and going strong. 

After admiring the magnificent oak tree, we pass through a gap in the fence and find ourselves in open fields that lead on to a pathway that runs up a steady incline towards the priory. 

The path meanders through grasslands with abundant wildflowers growing across the wide acres.
After crossing the dried up bed of a small tributary of the stream that feeds the lake, we climb sharply until we can see the clock tower and main building of Bentley Priory on the horizon.

Bentley Priory was first built in the 13^th Century as an Augustinian House attached to the Priory of St Gregory, Canterbury.

After the break with Rome and the Dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII, the ownership of the Priory changed many times, and in 1775 a large Mansion was built on the site of the original Priory by Sir John Soane for a wealthy businessman.

It was again extended in 1788 for John Hamilton, the 1st Marquess of Abercorn, who had been educated at Harrow, and was a close friend of he politician, William Pitt the Younger. Lord Abecorn made the property his principle home outside of central London, and died at Bentley Priory in 1818.

The Priory was later the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, Queen Consort of King William IV, who rented the property and died there in 1849.

In 1882 Frederick Gordon opened an unsuccessful Hotel at the property and at the then enormous cost of £48,000 built an extension to the Euston – Birmingham railway, with a new station at Stanmore on Gordon Avenue. 

The property then became an equally unsuccessful school until its final closure in 1924.

In 1926 the estate was broken up enabling Middlesex County Council to purchase 90 acres of land as part of the Green Belt for a public park. The park is now owned by the London Borough of Harrow and maintained as a Nature Reserve. 

The Air Ministry purchased the Mansion and 40 acres of land and gardens and was the Headquarters of Fighter Command and centre of operations for the Battle of Britain during the 2^nd world war.  The Air Force continued to occupy the mansion for many years, but was recently sold to developers who have constructed large expensive housing and redeveloped the mansion in to spacious luxury apartments and flats. However, a considerable part of the main building has been retained in its original form and houses the very interesting Bentley Priory RAF museum. 

  

 

The remaining 240 acres of the estate were sold to a building syndicate that developed the surrounding roads and housing in the years leading up to the outbreak of the 2^nd world war.

Upon reaching the top of the slope, we encounter a tarmacked path that runs across the frontage of the priory. On this occasion we will turn right and proceed with the priory buildings to our left. After diving in to a dark wooded dell, we rise on to a swath of greenery known as “Furze Heath”. 

At this stage we turn right and cut our way through grassland and shrubbery heading towards a number of Scots Pine trees that stand out amongst the deciduous woodland. As you reach the first pine trees, continue a bit further and you reach a clump of pines with a path running off to the right.  Follow this path through the tall red barked trees and passing though a gap in the fencing you reach the main track that runs past Summerhouse Lake.

You can see the lake in the distance through the assorted trees and shrubbery, and some fantastic views of the lake can be observed. Turn left and continue forward with the lake to your right and on reaching a gate, follow the path to the right which hugs the lake side and a brick built low wall, This is the start of the Dam that established the lake, and we eventually reach the end of the lake and the wall that we rested on when we first encountered the lake.

 An overflow drain releases water to ensure the lake does not burst its banks, but other than this concrete construction the scene is extremely rural and pleasant.

We turn  back on to the main pathway and retrace our earlier steps when we first entered the park from Masefield Avenue. However, we do not rejoin the road, but continue forward through the deep woodland until we emerge in a clearing that often has cows grazing. We turn to our right and crossing the open space arrive at a small artificial lake known as "The Boot Pond".

This lake was another watercourse created as part of the ornamental gardens of the Bentley Priory Estate and has remained as a nice feature of this part of the nature reserve. It contains many fish, and is often lined with anglers chancing their luck at catching one of the larger specimens.

We leave the park at the exit adjacent to the lake and join "Bentley Way", a pleasant suburban road built in the late twenties on former estate land. We continue to the end of this cul de sac where it joins the Uxbridge Road.

At this junction we cross the road and enter "The Chase".  We continue along the chase and soon reach Gordon Avenue, where we cross the road and enter the path that crosses the Stanmore Golf course as described in an earlier Blog (Golf course Boogie).

If the weather is good and the sun out, you will enjoy fantastic views of Harrow, Stanmore and Bushey from the summit of "Belmont", an artificial mound built by the Duke of Chandos as a folly and viewpoint from his nearby Cannons Estate .

Follow the path to the roadway which is "Mountside" and turn right towards the Duck In the Pond pub for refreshments and your walk is at an end.