| Walk Notes |
This is an interesting if noise-challenged and likely time-limited route from Heathrow Airport’s largest terminal through Longford Moor and Harmondsworth Moor, followed by a loop to and around the historic Harmondsworth village, with fine viewpoints and plenty of stretches along peaceful waterways.
The start of the route is about getting away from the busy and noisy airport while keeping distance from the M25 and M4 where possible, while the remainder of the route is dominated by a handful of waterways – the River Colne and two anabranches off it, the Wraysbury River and the Frays River; as well as two distributaries, both supplying some West London park estates with water – the Longford River (Hampton Court/Bushy Park) and the Duke of Northumberland’s River (Syon Park).
Harmondsworth Moor is a recultivated former gravel works and landfill site, with toxic waste having been removed and a Country Park-like environment then being created instead, and provides for fine viewpoints from modest heights to places including Wembley Stadium, Windsor Castle and the North Downs. Harmondsworth village delights with its Grade II*-listed St. Mary’s Church, a charming village green and the 13th century Great Barn, England’s largest timber-framed building and Britain’s largest barn.
You continue past BA’s HQ back into Harmondsworth Moor, leaving it through a wet woodland (on a boardwalk) into West Drayton, now through meadows and past paddocks then through Frays Island, a narrow strip of woodland between the Rivers Colne and Frays, and follow roads to West Drayton Station.
The southern half of the route would be buried by a third airport runway and its associated buildings.
Note: The start out of Heathrow Airport (which is private ground) leads along road pavements that are signed as ‘Cyclists Only’. This is not adhered to by locals, including some Heathrow employees, but – technically – walking along them is trespassing. If you are uncomfortable with this, the alternatives are frequent buses to the Moor Bridge stop, either from T5 (not TfL) or from Hounslow West Underground (TfL). From there, continue in the direction of travel and pick up the directions on page 4 at the asterisk *).
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| Notes |
Heathrow Terminal 5
Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (T5) opened in 2008, and the main building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the UK at 396 x 176 x 40 metres. The lead architects for T5 were Richard Rogers Partnership. In 2018, T5 handled 32.1 million passengers on 211,000 flights, beyond its design capacity of 30 million. It stands on a 260-hectare (640-acre) site on the western side of the airport formerly occupied by the Perry Oaks sewage works and an area of smallholdings. Two artificial watercourses, the Longford River and the Duke of Northumberland's River, originally ran through the middle of the site and had to be diverted and the A3044 dual carriageway and Western Perimeter Road had to be realigned.
A preparatory archaeological dig at the site found more than 80,000 artefacts, including 18,000 pieces of pottery, 40,000 pieces of worked flint, and a wooden bowl dating to the Middle Bronze Age, around 3,000 years ago. Earthworks were also discovered, including a pathway and evidence of agricultural boundaries.
The building cost £4.2 billion and took almost 20 years from conception to completion, including the longest public inquiry in British history. On the day of opening, it became apparent that the terminal was not operating as planned, forcing British Airways to cancel 34 flights and suspend baggage check-in. Over the following 10 days some 42,000 bags failed to travel with their owners, and over 500 flights were cancelled. The difficulties were later blamed on a number of problems with the terminal's IT systems, coupled with car parking. As a result, BA's director of operations and director of customer services were sacked.
River Colne
The River Colne is a 58 km/36 mi long Thames tributary that springs in the North Weald in Hertfordshire and flows through it for about half its length, before forming the boundary between Hertfordshire, then Buckinghamshire and the London Borough of Hillingdon. West of Heathrow Airport it flows into Surrey and joins the Thames in Staines-upon-Thames.
The Colne becomes universally so-named after two close subterranean streams converge at a spring (or in very wet weather in the meadows above) along the east side of North Mymms Park. The source streams are long, multi-source, in their final, northern stages, partly underground tributaries: a north-eastern, which can be considered the Upper Colne, and the Mimmshall Brook. Their main sources are in western Northaw, Brookmans Park, Hadley and Borehamwood. The Colne’s main tributaries are the Potters Bar Brook and River Pinn (left) and the Rivers Ver, Gade, Chess and Misbourne (right).
The Wraysbury River is an ‘anabranch’ of the Colne, leaving it at West Drayton and re-joining it in Staines’ town centre. Two of its distributaries in the same area can be likened to The New River off the River Lea, although their main purpose was not drinking water: the 19 km Longford River supplies Hampton Court Park (built 1638/39) and Bushy Park (from 1710), and the earlier Duke of Northumberland’s River supplies the Duke of Northumberland's estate at Syon Park via the River Crane.
Digging for gravel and clay along its lower course near Rickmansworth has created a belt of flooded pits below the water table, as established lakes.
Colne Valley Way/Colne Valley Trail
The Colne Valley Way is the southern part of a 33 km/20.4 mi long waymarked trail following the River Colne (often at some distance) from Rickmansworth through the Colne Valley Regional Park to Staines-upon-Thames. North of Colnbrook the trail is referred to as the Colne River Trail.
Harmondsworth/Harmondsworth Great Barn
Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon with Heathrow Airport to the south and Berkshire to the west. The village adjoins the M4 and the A4 (Bath Road). It is an ancient parish that once included the large hamlets of Heath Row, Longford and Sipson and was in the county of Middlesex until 1965. The west of the parish has two major airline headquarters and two immigration detention centres. In October 2016 it was announced that Heathrow Airport would receive permission to apply for a third runway. According to current plans, around half of the existing village of Harmondsworth will have to be demolished to make way for it and surrounding grass safety area. The other half, including the parish church and Great Barn, will be only a few metres from the airport perimeter.
‘Harmondsworth’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon Heremōdes worþ, meaning "Heremund's enclosure", and it was first recorded in AD 780 when King Offa granted land to his servant Aeldred. Before 1066, the manor was owned by Harold Godwinson (Earl Harold), and at the Conquest it passed to William I.
Harmondsworth Great Barn (aka Manor Farm Barn) is Grade I-listed and Britain's largest barn as well as the largest extant timber-framed building in England. Erected on the site of an earlier great barn, it was put up in 1425-27 on land bought in 1391 by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, to endow his colleges in Winchester and Oxford (New College). It remained in agricultural use until the 1970s. Bought in 2011 by English Heritage after years of neglect, the barn ranks alongside the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey for its exceptional architectural and historic interest. The oak-framed barn is an outstanding example of medieval carpentry and contains one of the most intact interiors of its era. At 58m long, 11.4m wide and 11m tall, with 12 bays and 13 massive oak trusses holding up the roof, both its size and aisles evoke the space and shape of a cathedral and it was dubbed the "Cathedral of Middlesex" by Sir John Betjeman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmondsworth_Great_Barn
Frays River
The Frays River is an 8.9 km long semi-canalised river that branches off the River Colne east of Denham, at Denham Weir by Uxbridge Moor and rejoins it at West Drayton. It is believed to be a mainly man-made anabranch of the Colne north of the confluence with the River Pinn to feed watermills in the Parish of Hillingdon. The river is believed to be named after John Fray who owned Cowley Hall in the 15th century. It also goes by other names, namely the Uxbridge and Cowley Mill Stream, the Cowley Stream or the Colham Mill Stream. Both the Grand Union Canal Mainline and its Slough Branch are carried across it in aqueducts.
West Drayton Station
West Drayton station is located in Yiewsley, just to the north of West Drayton and serves both West Drayton and Yiewsley, western suburbs of London. The station has been named ‘West Drayton and Yiewsley’ between 1895 and 1974.
It is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, between Hayes & Harlington to the east and Iver to the west, and was opened on 4 June 1838 at the same time as the line.
Until 1884 the original station was located 200m further west, but was moved to enable the opening of the Staines and West Drayton branch line. Only freight trains still run down that line, serving the aviation fuel terminal for Heathrow Airport at Colnbrook and aggregates depots at Thorney and Colnbrook.
West Drayton nowadays is a stop on the Maidenhead and Reading branch of the Elizabeth Line, with four trains per hour running in each direction, while some GWR services also stop during peak hours.
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