London LOOP section 17 – Cockfosters to Enfield Lock 24th February 2011
Cockfosters has long been one of those names on the edge of my awareness. A name well known but a place unknown. I first heard mention of the name in “Some Mothers do Ave Em” when Frank Spencer left something on the tube which ended up at Cockfosters. At the time I thought it was a men’s outfitters. However once you become familiar with London you can’t avoid seeing its name as a destination inscribed on the front of tube trains heading north on the Piccadilly Line.
Arriving there on a spring morning is therefore the realisation of a dream, like finding yourself at Tipperary, Timbuktu or Rome perhaps. So many images of the place have run through your head, prior to arrival. Cockfosters does not disappoint. The station has a museum feel to it, as though you had stepped back eighty years. The 1930’s architecture, building materials, layout, general ambiance and even the floral displays fit with what one feels it must have been like in those interwar years.
So a great start to a day’s walk. Unlike many starts to a loop walk, you are immediately off the suburban streets and walking on grass, amongst trees and away from the roar of London traffic. However, as we were to discover, this is not the best walk to do after a prolonged period of rainfall, as the London Clay topsoil easily churns up on paths to make walking treacherous at times.
Very soon we encounter Trent Country Park and make use of the tea cabin to consume our sandwiches. There is a good hum about the place on this sunny spring day, which encourages us to stride out through the park. Striding however is not recommended when the ground is wet. Very soon we are slipping around on muddy paths or up to our ankles in boggy turf when we dare to deviate from the main path. Nonetheless it is still an enjoyable experience as we pick our way across the country park with its mix of mown grass, woodland and lakes.
As we climb the slope north through the woodland we miss our turning, but end up at a tall obelisk giving views south across the park. Sometimes map reading errors can be beneficial. We soon rejoin the route and after a short stretch of country road return back to more natural terrain. In fact the terrain is perhaps too natural, as we slip our way downhill focussing more on our foothold then our tranquil surroundings.
At the bottom of the hill we follow Salmon’s Brook, where our progress continues to be erratic. However, at least the terrain is more level here and enables us to enjoy a section of the Loop that is effectively beyond urban London. Few people appear to be aware of the Loop, or perhaps they just don’t venture out on spring days being fully aware what hard work this section can be at this time of year. For our part we are happy to have the sense of isolation, even if the physical effort involved provides a small penalty for it.
After 2 or 3 miles of rural walking we find ourselves climbing out of the valley of Salmon’s Brook towards a ridge. We note that the trees here have all been tagged and numbered, one assumes as part of a tree survey. It all looks very efficient, with even the smallest of hawthorns having been marked. Eventually we pick our way through a small woodland and into open fields adjacent to the A1005. It is a blessing that the route does not force the walker onto the road here, with the hedge providing a good visual and audio barrier for several hundred metres.
Once on the A1005 we tolerate the road noise for a few minutes before dropping down the track to Rectory Farm. We are now in the valley of Turkey Brook, which will be our constant companion for the rest of the walk to Enfield Lock.
Walking down the track we encounter a lady out walking with a toddler and a baby in a push chair. She is shod in high heels and obviously not a regular Loop walker. She is talking in Spanish to her children. A little further on a gentleman dressed in a shell suit is speaking rapidly in into a cell phone in Polish, Rumanian or a similar language. He carries quartet of beer cans, one of which he is in the act of consuming. The Loop has suddenly turned into Europe in microcosm!
After crossing Turkey Brook we head uphill and pass under the mainline to Hertford before encountering another stark reminder that we are on the London Fringe and not the Lake District. To our left is the burnt out shell of a farm out-building, quite likely torched by some disaffected youth. The smell of damp charcoal is heavy in the air. Not all is well beyond the city and even the well heeled have their crosses to bear.
Some very impressive glasshouses appear to our right as we walk down a pleasant road in the Clay Hill area of London, before turning right through woodland and a recreational grassland area. We sit on a conveniently placed bench and enjoy a biscuit whilst watching three teenagers kicking a football around. This is a sleepy area to live and I suspect not one best suited to kids of their age.
Suitably refreshed we continue downhill and encounter Turkey Brook. I like Turkey Brook and would recommend it to any school wishing to help children understand how rivers work and to carry out a field trip at a suitable site. This is one of the best. Reader please excuse my excitement, but as a field teacher myself I am aware how hard to come by are suitable places to take children for just such an activity. Professional interests aside, this stretch of river is as good as the River Cray encountered on Section 1 of the Loop. The river meanders almost carelessly downstream, as the waters of Turkey Brook pass over pebbles with all the abandon of children at play. I love this spot.
One of the things I particularly love about following the directions and route map of the Loop is how narrow and restricted the information is. You take a tube to Cockfosters and follow the directions, assisted by a simple map of the immediate area. With just this information, the experience is not unlike following a satnav. Unless you take an A-Z or OS map with you, you have little idea where you are. Few preconceptions, with places encountered almost by surprise, like Alice on one of her adventures.
After crossing Clay Hill, the route continues, but with Turkey Brook now a little lost within a deep incision. You won’t notice it, but you cross the old course of the New River, a manmade channel built in 1613 by Sir Hugh Myddelton, that took water from the River Lea to North London. You will encounter the new course of the New River a little closer to Enfield.
This section of the walk is still very pleasant, but the massive encroachment of Rhododendron is a modern day conservation threat, shutting out all light to native ground level plants. Eventually you will cross the road at Maiden’s Bridge. The Loop directions once again regale you with information about the history of Queen Elizabeth I. I suspect the main writer of the notes accompanying the Loops directions was an Elizabethan history graduate. She appears an inordinate number of times. Perhaps it is her reincarnation who wrote the notes, or maybe she is the original inspiration behind the Loop? Tread carefully. Her ghost is everywhere!
Whether Sir Walter Raleigh did or did not do his business with a cloak for QE1 at this point, the bridge certainly has the warning sign promised in the Loop directions. We therefore decide against driving our traction engine over the bridge and make our way through the kissing gate and along the tarmac path. It is here that we encounter the new course of the New River. Unfortunately it is encased in an underground culvert. Nonetheless it makes an impressive and mysterious noise as our path crosses over it.
Another roaring sound soon regales our ears as we approach the A10 Great Cambridge Road. Fortunately there is a metal footbridge over the maelstrom of cars below. The route quickly takes the walker away from the A10, however in our case the path alongside Enfield Cemetery is closed and we have to detour along the A10 to Turkey Street. As we are walking along Turkey Street we see 3 young afro-Caribbean women crossing the road by the zebra crossing.
Suddenly a BMW rounds the corner, travelling at speed. How he misses the 3 young ladies on the crossing I’ll never know, but he and the 3 burly blokes travelling with him seem to find it all very amusing. A little shaken by this insight into life and near death in Enfield, we carry on across the A1010 Hertford Road and then through Albany Park to where Turkey Brook takes its final course into the River Lea.
We rejoin the Lea on the next section to Epping Forest and Chingford. For now we make the short walk to Enfield Lock station and catch a train back to Central London as the light fades and the rush hour begins.
