Just wanted to mirror the sentiments of all the other comments below and thank you for another fantastic film John. It's always a happy moment when I see that you have posted up a new one. The mood you create with the images, friendly commentary and music is really special and much appreciated.
Yes and thank you thank you for all your efforts I always look forward to the next the next walk wherever that may be😍cannot imagine how important this is to me it is so relaxing and I learned so much about bits of England I might never learn by myself
My ancestors live on the canal in Hayes where Stockley Park now is, this was back around 1910. They had an old house by the canal which had stables for the canal horses and a pub for the men folk. Around where Stockley Park is was some brick fields where also my other great great grandparents worked too. I remember walking with my Uncle there with our dogs when it was just old fields. On the other side of the Canal and from where Stockley Park is now were some more fields where the industrial units are now, in the WW2 there was huge gun in placements there to protect EMI and the factories building spitfire airplanes. This area was heavily bombed in the WW2 and a V1 rockets hit a shelter near the Dawley Road and canal killing lots of people. That area also back in the 1600s was where the old Dawley house was, long gone now but where Dawley Hayes gets it’s name from around there. I miss it all terribly and my grand parents would upset and shocked as to how it looks now. Love your walks John keep going.
Thanks, I always your enjoy your walks. I enjoy walking too, and you have inspired me to be a bit less boring and instead of doing the same few walks, nice as they are, to get out and do new ones.
Great video again John. The first bit of your walk along the colne is very close to where I live and where I’ve done quite a bit of photography for my personal edgeland project. It is amazing how for somewhere so close to the city there’s hardly a soul to be seen.
Hi John, this walk was wonderful, they all are, but this one just seemed to have so much to see that I watched it a couple of times, I started to write down the times where the view was so wonderful, but there were too many places & of course the weather, thanks for braving all that, really enhanced some of the views. Your commentary was great, as well as good choice in music! Sorry for going on a bit, but I really loved this! 💖 😊Thank you for the walk...till next time...take care!
Hi John. I did this walk with my Daughter on Monday 18th May. We got lost as well, but we were going from Hayes and Harlington. We were fine until we got past Stockley Park following the go jauntily app. But we lost the path and couldn’t find it again, so we had to abort at where the John Guest factory is. But today 19th May in glorious weather we got it right, realising that the app had given the wrong instructions. We loved it. The highlight is definitely Little Britain lake and the river Colne walk. We took some lovely photos as well. Including a turtle in the grand union canal. Only disappointed that we couldn’t have a drink in the General Elliot pub, closed of course because of covid19.
Great walk John, love the Cigarette Machine, No10 was what you smoked if you couldn't afford No 6......perhaps it's beside water because they are the arteries and veins, or actually like the lymph system of the Urban Landscape and the walkable paths and green islands of tree flowers and bush are gathered around them, great that London boroughs have opened so many of them up again.... wonderful...
I used to take a walk from Station Road which was where my halls were in Brunel through Cowley and all the way to West Drayton station to take the train sometimes. Sometimes used to take the scenic route through Packet Boat Lane and through the park. I miss my uni days so much.
The swimming pool in stockley park is a good one... a while back when we had membership of Virgin active I used to drive out and swim a few lengths there... always nice and quiet
We did this walk today the other way round, we only saw two other people doing the London loop today. We really enjoyed this walk so much water. We also enjoyed watching you do the same walk once we got home.
I grew up in 50s and 60s around West Drayton, Hayes, Harlington. Stockley Park was originally gravel pits from which much of London's roads took their aggregates.They were then used as municipal refuse dumps for a generation until the golf course was laid over them. Much of West Middlesex and Buckinghamshire/Berkshire out as far as Reading was used for aggregates as a result of being laid down by the Thames meandering millions of years ago. Great video. Thanks. Glaxo Smithkline built the unsettlingly weird group of offices as a research park.
I live in France now (since 2007), but prior to that lived in West Drayton. I frequently walked the canal towpath between West Drayton and Uxbridge, and back. When I left, the towpath had been renovated and was a pleasant walk. It looks a bit ropy, now. The wharves and factories on the southside seem to have been replaced by housing now. The new warehouses look awful, too.
A great video as ever. I'm glad that cigarette machine is still there as it was during my teenage years in the late 1980s... I have an odd memory of a friend actually buying a pack of cigarettes from that machine - but sure I must be mistaken in this. Then that trip along the canal really captures the otherness of it all. It was very easy to slip from the bustling town centre to this odd, tangled countryside that felt secret and industrial and alluringly dangerous - though that danger was never really fully defined. Perhaps those three figures under the bridge were some kind of genus-loci of that - spirits of the edgeland canal...
hi John, when you said you had wrongly maligned the loop because it wasn't psychogeographical enough you were very right, sometimes the most obvious, beaten even touristy stretches are worth all of our attention after exploring other more remotes routes... thanks for a great video
I enjoyed that John. The old places of my youth. I lived the first 25 years of my life in Hayes. I fished at Little Britain and off that footbridge over the Colne many times as a teenager. Sadly Hayes and the surrounding area is not what it once was.
20:57 Reminds me of Wienerberg on the southern edge of Vienna which also used to be a brickfield and is now a recreational area including a golf course.
Another eerie video. Much love and thanks John. I regret not thanking you one day I saw you on Leytonstone's tube platform; it was during rush hour though hehe! Thanks, all the best!!
As a fellow lover of the London Loop, I think these videos are great. Next section for me will be Kingston Bridge to Hatton (I'm walking clockwise though). The walking and exploration of lesser known parts of London is quite magical.
If you're back over that way again John, and want to go slightly off the beaten track, you will find the remains of a very intriguing Medieval landscape just a short distance down the A437 at Cranford Park. There is an ancient church there at St. Dunstan's Cranford Park which is generally accepted to have been built over the remains of an earlier Saxon original which may date back to the seventh or eighth century. More here on the church website: www.saintdunstan.org.uk/section/4 There are also the remains of what appears to have been identified as a Medieval Moat on what was formerly the site of the old manor house of Cranford-le-Mote. The Templars are also known to have held lands in the vicinity and were at one time responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of Bull's Bridge on what was at that time the main London to Bath Road. More here: www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol3/pp179-181 Mary Caine, the author of 'The Kingston Zodiac' claims to have found the remains of a Druid grove enclosing a circular earthen rampart of some kind; and the fact that St. Dunstan's church is supposedly built directly over the remains of an early Roman roadside shrine could well denote that this claim is something more than mere speculation.
fantastic thanks john loved those old cigarette machines reallt like things like that top walk as usuall can not wait for the weather to warm up being diabetic this cold does me in how many miles was that one thanks again steve
OMG! What a small world the virtual world is. Here I am, in Japan, working at a university as an English language lecturer for the past 8 years, having to find some info about Hayes and Uxbridge because my Japanese wife of 22 years wants to find some farmers markets to visit when we emigrate back to London this Spring, 2022 because my son has been accepted on a PFAUK at Brunel University. So, I type into RUclips, Walking around Uxbridge. Hey presto, loads of videos. I click on a rather rustic looking gentleman vlogging his way along the Grand Union Canal. I pay no heed to much this chap is saying as I am remembering many of the instances that I too have walked along the same footpath. Anyway, I then clicked on another of his vlogs about the loop, this one from Hayes to Kingston. It is at this point that I clock the chap's name - John Rogers. A moment or two passes by without any cognitive disruption and then - BAM!!! No, it can't be he from way back when, can it? Can it really be the same guy that I knew, not very well, but in passing we exchanged a few pleasantries. Was it? Could it be? Russell Brand's old mentor? The man who brought the Callan School of English to its knees by starting a membership to the Union for dodgy payments clandestinely held back. Was it? Could it be him? OMG - it is YOU, John. What a lovely surprise, indeed. To be fair, you've aged a hell of a lot since then, 1999-2002 , the Callan Years. But hey, thank you so, so much for 1) getting me around £3000 when I joined the union at Callan, and 2) for making these lovely videos. All the best.
@@JohnRogersWalks You can tell - the choice of music really makes the videos. Although I'm sure many don't consciously notice the soundtrack - which is the mark of a good soundtrack I was told!
Great walk with lovely bits - the bridge, pillbox, Dead Slow sign, canal boats, Space Station signage (what does that signify?).... At one point I fully expected to hear you burst into a Doris Day-like rendition of Que Sera Sera (but luckily you didn't). Thank you for braving the rain, hail and some dodgy youths, John. PS Jung says water represents the unconscious, and rivers specifically have to do with directing the flow of life, or something like that.
Thanks for this vlog John, just followed part of this route this week, Hayes up to West Drayton, but it’s thanks to you that I decided to do it (very strange as there are now Covid vacation facilities at Stockley Park now, sign of the times ) your vlogs continue to inspire me to get out and walk, so thank you so much. Plus I have the vlogs to enjoy, when I’m at home being lazy 😂😂 looking forward to the next one.
Another fantastic vlog, interestingly Stockley Park is the home of VAR. Always a topic of great debate for any football fans, I suspect with Stockley Park being a "tech hub" The ideal base would be there, I guess.
On the Uxbridge / River Colne section I got an overload of memories. I lived in Iver as a kid, and explored the Colne. The Slough arm of the canal was overgrown and impassible then. Little Britain lakes were where my interest in birdwatching started. I wish I could have been there with you. I would have bored you for hours with pyschogeoaphical bollocks.
I just wonder how many years it will before the industrial units expand to the other side of the Loop. Seems to be any number of empty and abandoned industrial buildings around the outskirts of London. Why don’t they knock them down and rebuild something to suit the modern day world. I’ve noticed this in many of your walks. Broken windows. They’re so unsightly. Nevertheless, we always enjoy your walks. Thank you John.
Lovely walk, lovely commentary, shame about the junkies but might be worth remembering that they're someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, mom or dad, usually seen as criminals or low life but a more generous view would see them as victims or those that need a challenging kind of understanding but hey we're normal so ....
Thanks Martin. Quite agree - I've got some close friends in recovery, some people now see addiction as an illness that goes untreated or at least often inadequately treated
Just wanted to mirror the sentiments of all the other comments below and thank you for another fantastic film John. It's always a happy moment when I see that you have posted up a new one. The mood you create with the images, friendly commentary and music is really special and much appreciated.
thanks so much for that Henry
Thank you John for another interesting and relaxing walk.Look forward to your next.Appreciate all your efforts
thanks Humble. The next one is waiting to be edited - a lovely walk in Epping Forest
Yes and thank you thank you for all your efforts I always look forward to the next the next walk wherever that may be😍cannot imagine how important this is to me it is so relaxing and I learned so much about bits of England I might never learn by myself
Thanks for the lovely video. We walked this section on a very sunny but icy January day. It's a lovely walk
I've just done the next two sections down to Kingston - always a great experience
My ancestors live on the canal in Hayes where Stockley Park now is, this was back around 1910. They had an old house by the canal which had stables for the canal horses and a pub for the men folk. Around where Stockley Park is was some brick fields where also my other great great grandparents worked too. I remember walking with my Uncle there with our dogs when it was just old fields. On the other side of the Canal and from where Stockley Park is now were some more fields where the industrial units are now, in the WW2 there was huge gun in placements there to protect EMI and the factories building spitfire airplanes. This area was heavily bombed in the WW2 and a V1 rockets hit a shelter near the Dawley Road and canal killing lots of people. That area also back in the 1600s was where the old Dawley house was, long gone now but where Dawley Hayes gets it’s name from around there. I miss it all terribly and my grand parents would upset and shocked as to how it looks now. Love your walks John keep going.
I do love watching videos on my local area it’s always quite interesting
Thanks, I always your enjoy your walks. I enjoy walking too, and you have inspired me to be a bit less boring and instead of doing the same few walks, nice as they are, to get out and do new ones.
Another beautiful, mood altering walk, John. Thanks for lending your amazing eye.
thanks for watching and that kind comment Todd - love making and sharing these videos
I grew up in this area, nice trip down memory lane watching this video.
Thanks, John. I grew up around Watford and Rickmansworth, so it's nostalgic for me to see stretches of the Colne and 'the cut'.
Thanks John, your enthusiasm is admirable ! Another brilliantly edited and produced film, respect !
Thanks very much Ralph, I love making these films
Great video again John. The first bit of your walk along the colne is very close to where I live and where I’ve done quite a bit of photography for my personal edgeland project. It is amazing how for somewhere so close to the city there’s hardly a soul to be seen.
Enjoyed as usual. Thanks. Have a wonderful day.
thanks Joen - same to you
Thanks for the journey John.
My pleasure Paul
Hi John, this walk was wonderful, they all are, but this one just seemed to have so much to see that I watched it a couple of times, I started to write down the times where the view was so wonderful, but there were too many places & of course the weather, thanks for braving all that, really enhanced some of the views. Your commentary was great, as well as good choice in music! Sorry for going on a bit, but I really loved this! 💖 😊Thank you for the walk...till next time...take care!
thanks so much K - the walks on the London Loop have been a real revelation, can't wait to get back out there
Thanks for taking us along! Greetings from NYC!
Another great little walk! You find romance in every new view, and its infectious! Thank you!
thanks so much for watching Sandra
Hi John. I did this walk with my Daughter on Monday 18th May. We got lost as well, but we were going from Hayes and Harlington. We were fine until we got past Stockley Park following the go jauntily app. But we lost the path and couldn’t find it again, so we had to abort at where the John Guest factory is. But today 19th May in glorious weather we got it right, realising that the app had given the wrong instructions. We loved it. The highlight is definitely Little Britain lake and the river Colne walk. We took some lovely photos as well. Including a turtle in the grand union canal. Only disappointed that we couldn’t have a drink in the General Elliot pub, closed of course because of covid19.
Great to hear of other walks on the London Loop. These walks really do stay with me. Can't wait to get back out there
Love your landscape poetics.
Thanks very much Kevin
Had a few pints in the brick makers arms and the packet boat in the past years . Being local to the area. Thanks for another brilliant walk John...
Enjoying the contrast between the old and new there John - it was a right old mix this walk nature, dodgy underworld and all. All the best. Mark
Great walk John, love the Cigarette Machine, No10 was what you smoked if you couldn't afford No 6......perhaps it's beside water because they are the arteries and veins, or actually like the lymph system of the Urban Landscape and the walkable paths and green islands of tree flowers and bush are gathered around them, great that London boroughs have opened so many of them up again.... wonderful...
Hi John, you got the camera to show the twilight rather than brightening it up. It looked so good too. Love that time of the day.
Glad you noticed brY an - I always remember your comment now as it starts to get dark and I'm tempted to put the camera into auto
Great video. Thank you.
I used to take a walk from Station Road which was where my halls were in Brunel through Cowley and all the way to West Drayton station to take the train sometimes. Sometimes used to take the scenic route through Packet Boat Lane and through the park. I miss my uni days so much.
The swimming pool in stockley park is a good one... a while back when we had membership of Virgin active I used to drive out and swim a few lengths there... always nice and quiet
Thank you John, very enjoyable and informative.
We did this walk today the other way round, we only saw two other people doing the London loop today. We really enjoyed this walk so much water. We also enjoyed watching you do the same walk once we got home.
I grew up in 50s and 60s around West Drayton, Hayes, Harlington. Stockley Park was originally gravel pits from which much of London's roads took their aggregates.They were then used as municipal refuse dumps for a generation until the golf course was laid over them. Much of West Middlesex and Buckinghamshire/Berkshire out as far as Reading was used for aggregates as a result of being laid down by the Thames meandering millions of years ago.
Great video. Thanks.
Glaxo Smithkline built the unsettlingly weird group of offices as a research park.
I live in France now (since 2007), but prior to that lived in West Drayton. I frequently walked the canal towpath between West Drayton and Uxbridge, and back. When I left, the towpath had been renovated and was a pleasant walk. It looks a bit ropy, now. The wharves and factories on the southside seem to have been replaced by housing now. The new warehouses look awful, too.
A great video as ever. I'm glad that cigarette machine is still there as it was during my teenage years in the late 1980s... I have an odd memory of a friend actually buying a pack of cigarettes from that machine - but sure I must be mistaken in this. Then that trip along the canal really captures the otherness of it all. It was very easy to slip from the bustling town centre to this odd, tangled countryside that felt secret and industrial and alluringly dangerous - though that danger was never really fully defined. Perhaps those three figures under the bridge were some kind of genus-loci of that - spirits of the edgeland canal...
I wouldn't be at all surprised if that machine was working in the 80's and also they were the genus-loci on the towpath
🚶Thank You John.☺
thanks for watching Scott
hi John, when you said you had wrongly maligned the loop because it wasn't psychogeographical enough you were very right, sometimes the most obvious, beaten even touristy stretches are worth all of our attention after exploring other more remotes routes... thanks for a great video
thanks Alexandre - yes I was so wrong about the London Loop, every section has opened my eyes
Such a diverse walk - you have sold me on The London Loop John - thanks
I enjoyed that John. The old places of my youth. I lived the first 25 years of my life in Hayes. I fished at Little Britain and off that footbridge over the Colne many times as a teenager. Sadly Hayes and the surrounding area is not what it once was.
20:57 Reminds me of Wienerberg on the southern edge of Vienna which also used to be a brickfield and is now a recreational area including a golf course.
Thankyou.Lovely walk.
The only thing i hate about your videos is the end of them. Great walk thanks john
Another eerie video. Much love and thanks John. I regret not thanking you one day I saw you on Leytonstone's tube platform; it was during rush hour though hehe! Thanks, all the best!!
thanks for watching - no worries about the tube station encounter, I'm always around sure we'll meet another time
🚶♂️That was another interesting walk with enough map time to keep me happy 😊
that's a relief, I was thinking there was a lack of maps but there was an interesting variation in this one at least
@@JohnRogersWalks l was happy with the map content. That said you can never over do it as far as l am concerned 😊
Brilliant walk John, I'd love to walk the Loop one day,, who knows?
Thanks Ronnie- highly recommended
Great video John. Worth the wait (I check in every day to see if you've uploaded any new ones, sad git that I am haha).
As a fellow lover of the London Loop, I think these videos are great. Next section for me will be Kingston Bridge to Hatton (I'm walking clockwise though). The walking and exploration of lesser known parts of London is quite magical.
Just great 👍
thanks David
Greetings from Peachtree City, Georgia. My husband and I love your videos and long to visit London again soon.
Wonderful to hear from you in Peachtree City - what a great name. Hope you make it back to London soon
If you're back over that way again John, and want to go slightly off the beaten track, you will find the remains of a very intriguing Medieval landscape just a short distance down the A437 at Cranford Park. There is an ancient church there at St. Dunstan's Cranford Park which is generally accepted to have been built over the remains of an earlier Saxon original which may date back to the seventh or eighth century. More here on the church website:
www.saintdunstan.org.uk/section/4
There are also the remains of what appears to have been identified as a Medieval Moat on what was formerly the site of the old manor house of Cranford-le-Mote. The Templars are also known to have held lands in the vicinity and were at one time responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of Bull's Bridge on what was at that time the main London to Bath Road. More here:
www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol3/pp179-181
Mary Caine, the author of 'The Kingston Zodiac' claims to have found the remains of a Druid grove enclosing a circular earthen rampart of some kind; and the fact that St. Dunstan's church is supposedly built directly over the remains of an early Roman roadside shrine could well denote that this claim is something more than mere speculation.
Thanks Rupert- oddly that church has been on my list for a while..... but as the final resting place of the great Tony Hancock
@@JohnRogersWalks Or 'Toe, Knee, Hand......' as he used to style himself in sign language. :)
@@JohnRogersWalks I got married in that church. There is a plaque commemorating Tony Hancock but he died in Australia.
fantastic thanks john loved those old cigarette machines reallt like things like that top walk as usuall can not wait for the weather to warm up being diabetic this cold does me in how many miles was that one thanks again steve
thanks Steve - it was a great walk. I think it was around 8-miles
Fun once again. Continued good walking.
great video and vlogging once again
thanks John
OMG! What a small world the virtual world is. Here I am, in Japan, working at a university as an English language lecturer for the past 8 years, having to find some info about Hayes and Uxbridge because my Japanese wife of 22 years wants to find some farmers markets to visit when we emigrate back to London this Spring, 2022 because my son has been accepted on a PFAUK at Brunel University. So, I type into RUclips, Walking around Uxbridge. Hey presto, loads of videos. I click on a rather rustic looking gentleman vlogging his way along the Grand Union Canal. I pay no heed to much this chap is saying as I am remembering many of the instances that I too have walked along the same footpath. Anyway, I then clicked on another of his vlogs about the loop, this one from Hayes to Kingston. It is at this point that I clock the chap's name - John Rogers. A moment or two passes by without any cognitive disruption and then - BAM!!! No, it can't be he from way back when, can it? Can it really be the same guy that I knew, not very well, but in passing we exchanged a few pleasantries. Was it? Could it be? Russell Brand's old mentor? The man who brought the Callan School of English to its knees by starting a membership to the Union for dodgy payments clandestinely held back. Was it? Could it be him? OMG - it is YOU, John. What a lovely surprise, indeed. To be fair, you've aged a hell of a lot since then, 1999-2002 , the Callan Years. But hey, thank you so, so much for 1) getting me around £3000 when I joined the union at Callan, and 2) for making these lovely videos. All the best.
Fantastic- lovely to hear from you. They were interesting times. Best of luck with your move back to London
I like the way you use music to enhance the video.
thanks Lee - I take a lot of time over the music
@@JohnRogersWalks You can tell - the choice of music really makes the videos. Although I'm sure many don't consciously notice the soundtrack - which is the mark of a good soundtrack I was told!
Great walk with lovely bits - the bridge, pillbox, Dead Slow sign, canal boats, Space Station signage (what does that signify?).... At one point I fully expected to hear you burst into a Doris Day-like rendition of Que Sera Sera (but luckily you didn't). Thank you for braving the rain, hail and some dodgy youths, John. PS Jung says water represents the unconscious, and rivers specifically have to do with directing the flow of life, or something like that.
Another nice walk. Was that an Egret rather than a heron?
Yes it was. Little Egret. Mr. Rogers has made this mistake before.
Ah indeed- hope I eventually learn the difference
A great video John, as usual. Have you noticed that it is very often towards the end of the day when the sun decides to come out?
Thanks for this vlog John, just followed part of this route this week, Hayes up to West Drayton, but it’s thanks to you that I decided to do it (very strange as there are now Covid vacation facilities at Stockley Park now, sign of the times ) your vlogs continue to inspire me to get out and walk, so thank you so much. Plus I have the vlogs to enjoy, when I’m at home being lazy 😂😂 looking forward to the next one.
Very beautiful scenery,I really hope that i would be there one day.Actually,I like UK very much！！
thanks John - hope you make it here someday
The Ballad to J.G. Ballard. That's how I'll remember this film. In his Interzone; on the edgelands of Self :) and his will.
Wonderful Keith - love that
I read once that there was no bad weather in the UK, only bad clothing choices! ;)
A frame Bridge its called. Up on the hill 360 view up there
Another fantastic vlog, interestingly Stockley Park is the home of VAR. Always a topic of great debate for any football fans, I suspect with Stockley Park being a "tech hub" The ideal base would be there, I guess.
splendid on my 5k retina display
That’s great to hear Kalle
Hey gr8 video. My dad's originally from Hayes.
thanks monty
thanks buddy
cheers David
I used to live opposite teesla and used walk my dogs over Stockleigh park
Look at that utopian vision that is Uxbridge station. When I was last there it was a dump.
Must be one of the finest on the network
grew up, fished it and drank it later on. General Elliot was my old mans boozer.
The Weir just before delvere many s fish to me.
On the Uxbridge / River Colne section I got an overload of memories. I lived in Iver as a kid, and explored the Colne. The Slough arm of the canal was overgrown and impassible then. Little Britain lakes were where my interest in birdwatching started.
I wish I could have been there with you. I would have bored you for hours with pyschogeoaphical bollocks.
Fantastic terrain Rob - would have been fascinating to hear. I grew up not so far away down the A40
I just wonder how many years it will before the industrial units expand to the other side of the Loop. Seems to be any number of empty and abandoned industrial buildings around the outskirts of London. Why don’t they knock them down and rebuild something to suit the modern day world. I’ve noticed this in many of your walks. Broken windows. They’re so unsightly. Nevertheless, we always enjoy your walks. Thank you John.
Lovely walk, lovely commentary, shame about the junkies but might be worth remembering that they're someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, mom or dad, usually seen as criminals or low life but a more generous view would see them as victims or those that need a challenging kind of understanding but hey we're normal so ....
Thanks Martin. Quite agree - I've got some close friends in recovery, some people now see addiction as an illness that goes untreated or at least often inadequately treated