The View From The Top of Harrow Weald Common
Between Harrow Weald and Hatch End is "Old Redding" - a hilly rural lane with glorious ancient beech woods on both sides of the lane. It is notorious for its connection with The Grimsdyke Hotel where Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame met his death in a drowning tragedy.
It is also famous for its reputation among local young people who congregate in the car park for different purposes by day and night. On a clear day you can look south past the spire of St Mary's at the top of Harrow-on-the-Hill and all the way to Heathrow Airport and see a succession of aircraft taking off and landing. As a young boy I would enjoy picnics there and watch the planes in the distance.
However, as I grew older I learned from my teenage friends that the car park was a wonderful place at night for courting! I think most of us in the St Anselm's Church Youth Club in Hatch End parked there in the 1960's!
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RE: RE: The View From The Top of Harrow Weald Common
I was born in Harrow in 1933 and lived in Wealdstone until 1958 when I moved to Suffolk I spent many hours in Old Redding and Harrow Weald Common with my two sisters and cousins who lived near to me. We got the bus from Wealdstone to The Hare public house with our picnic and gathered bluebells in the spring, got through the hedge into Grimsdykeand and played hide and seek around the grounds.
As Christmas approached we would gather holly and sometimes climb a fir tree and cut a piece for our Christmas tree.
My grandfather Frederick Turner was a retired Police Constable who had been based in Harrow Weald in the early 1900s. He was called to Grimsdyke on the evening of W S Gilbert's drowning incident in 1911 but was unable to save him. Gilbert's wife's maiden name was also Turner. No relation!
Brian Wyatt Grainge,
Suffolk.
Comment from Brian Grainge on Friday, 16th January 2009.