Navigating the Lea

but not by boat...

The sun was already beating down from an almost if not totally cloudless sky as we assembled at Stratford Station for a walk along the River Lea.

EFOG members were joined by three members of the 18-plus group from Goodmayes, two of whom Fozie and I recognised from our Norfolk Broads voyage earlier in the year, when EFOG members joined their holiday. Our next task was to find Ken, who'd said he'd be coming, but hadn't arrived by the 10am start-time. Phone calls failing, we went across the bridge to the Westfield complex to collect Louise, who was waiting for us outside a well-known store. Except that she wasn't there – or at least she wasn't where we were. This time the phone call worked, and she, plus Ken, both waiting at us at the level below, joined the already-eleven of us to get underway.

Of course Westfield's open-air concourses were already busy, so it was a relief to leave that and the crowds heading towards that tower thing in the Q.E. Olympic Park to take a quieter route through the 'wild' area. It isn't really wild – it was all planted in exchange for the natural wilderness that had been in these parts pre-2012 – but it is pretty and full of flowers and insects.

We joined the riverside path – again nothing like what it was (if it was) – but easy-going, and in spite of  Hackney and the A12 and other roads passing over and past, increasingly more rural-feeling as we strode northwards. The trees by the river – rather than the navigation – gave us some shelter from a hot sun, but it was still hot. At the Essex Filter Beds near Lea Bridge Road we joined the River Lea Navigation – that part of the Lea that has been converted into a canal for boats, with locks to maintain water levels.

It was still relatively early, so the Princess of Wales pub by the waterside was quiet, and so too was the relatively new west-bank pathway alongside the navigation. But the cyclists numbers were building up and we were always pleased when – particularly from behind – a bell was rung to announce their presence. I'd walked – at least on the Essex bank – this water numerous times in the past, but not recently enough to have experienced the almost continuous blocks of new – and probably expensive – dwelling places. Nor had I experienced the numbers of narrow-boats and other craft moored often on both banks of the river. Things have changed enormously around here.

Our objective was Stonebridge Lock, which is situated between the Lockwood Reservoir on the Walthamstow side and Tottenham Marshes on the Tottenham side. It is about level - northwards - with Highams Park in Chingford. However, it is a fair little walk from Stratford to there, and as we weren't on a major hike it was nice to sit and have a drink and a snack at the little cafe opposite Springfield Marina.

Jim demonstrating lock operations, whilst Trevor holds the boatContinuing towards Stonebridge Lock, the moored craft were almost continuous all the way. Many, I noted, were not the prettily-painted and well-kept narrow-boats or fine cruisers that one usually encounters on the canal system, but rather decrepit-looking craft, and sometimes covered in – what to me – appeared to be rubbish. It is evident that many are being used not for the pleasure of living on the canals, or using them, but as a cheap form of accommodation. I suspect that many were unlicensed.

As we approached Stonebridge lock – after an almost 6 mile walk – we could see lock-keeper Jim and club-member Lee waving to us from the lock-bridge.

There is another cafe at the lock, and there we met other club-members, Val and Lynne and Jill - who had cycled there - and there was opportunity for another drink or whatever before Jim demonstrated - courtesy of a conveniently passing-through narrow-boat – the operation of the lock. There are a pair of lock at Stonebridge, one mechanically operated by way of a key enabling button-controlled servers to operate, and the other manually operated in the more traditional manner. The second of these didn't look as if it had been operated for a while, and that may well have been due to the presence – when available – of volunteer lock-keepers such as Jim. He explained that as well as operating the lock, he was also helping to make the lock look more attractive by general tidying-up, renewing paintwork and some gardening.

We spent a while with Jim then, ready to return home, some of the group got on their bikes whilst others walked to a nearby bus-route. The return walking group was thus not quite as numerous as on the outward journey, and – apart from a delay caused by a red-eared terrapin – we made a faster journey back - not stopping for refreshments, either. We did loose a couple more walkers en-route, preferring to take convenient alternative transport rather than return to Stratford, so the final number that endured the almost shadeless hot sun, the increasing cyclists, noisy boats, riverside cafes and other amusements as we got closer to the Olympic Park, was seven. Our most difficult navigation exercise was possibly the final approach to Stratford Station through the crowds in the Q.E. Park, and I certainly felt that I'd done a hefty walk. My head was leaking.

The total distance was 11 miles, and although that was all on surfaced trackway, and an almost imperceptible incline and decline (the river and the navigation does flow downhill, after all) the heat - and at least for me – some of the cyclists, made it feel all of that distance. Good walk though, and thanks to Sue for organising and leading it and to Jim for showing us his lock.

Paul Ferris 16th August 2016