Hertfordshire's Historic Inland Waterway: Batchworth to Berkhamsted

2015 | Transportation

Hertfordshire's Historic Inland Waterway: Batchworth to Berkhamsted takes the reader on a fascinating journey along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, which meanders through what is arguably one of the most picturesque stretches of inland waterway in the county. Using a vibrant selection of old picture postcards and photographs, together with superb modern-day images, John Cooper traces the history of the canal from its beginnings at the start of the early nineteenth century as an essential means of transporting raw materials to the new factories and mills, to its eventual decline in the mid-twentieth century and its renaissance with the emerging pleasure boat business. During this time, canalside industries thrived, firms like W. H. Walker of Rickmansworth, where many of the narrowboats on what was then the Grand Junction Canal were built; the highly successful John Dickinson paper mills and the Frogmore Mill at Apsley, home of the world's oldest mechanised mill, still producing paper.

We pass the magnificent Grade II listed Croxley Great Barn, a fourteenth-century threshing barn, before arriving and Ironbridge Lock in the beautiful Cassiobury Park, once the vast estate of the Earls of Essex. Wandering past quaint waterside inns, we reach our destination - the attractive country town of Berkhamsted, with its ruins of the eleventh-century castle. Interesting anecdotes and a wealth of information abound in this well-illustrated book about Hertfordshire's historic inland waterway.

John Cooper (Author)