Walking the Capital Ring from Richmond to Horsenden Hill

A walk along sections 7, 8, and part of Walk 9 of London’s Capital Ring

This glorious walk feels a long time ago now. It was early March and looking for ideas for a walk I found the leaflets for the Capital Ring I’d picked up in Islington Libraries about 20 years ago. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so the walks being divided into roughly 5-mile sections was handy. In the end I walked Sections 7, 8 and the first half of Walk 9 which took me to the top of Horsenden Hill for a Glorious sunset.

Walk 7 – Richmond Bridge to Osterley Lock. This route takes us along the Thames Path to Isleworth, then through Syon Park to Brentford Bridge where we pick up the Grand Union Canal to Osterley Lock.

Walk 8 – Osterley Lock to Greenford. Continuing along the Grand Union Canal we then follow the River Brent beneath the Wharncliffe Viaduct at Hanwell and on to Greenford.

Walk 9 – Horsenden Hill and Sudbury Hill. With the light fading I continued to the summit of Horsenden Hill before continuing in the gloom to Sudbury Hill.

Remembrance Sunday Walk

Hanwell Map

Map illustration by Nicolette Craven from This Other London – adventures in the overlooked city

This is the walk I did on Remembrance Sunday in 2012 following a neolithic trackway from Sudbury Hill to Hanwell. A walk that takes you over the summit of Horsenden Hill, according to legend the final resting place of the Saxon chieftain Horsa. Then down through Perivale where Sylvester McCoy’s Dr Who kept visiting in the late 80’s with one episode spookily referencing Horsa’s ghostly steed as told in The Legend of Horsenden Hill. Perivale was also where Horsa’s wife consorted with the little folk giving the name of ‘Fairy Vale’  (ok, there are more prosaic and plausible explanations for the name such as ‘Pure Vale’ for the quality of the corn grown there – or ‘Pear Vale’ due to the orchards).

St Mary's Perivale

Through the lychgate of St Mary’s you find this ancient church dating from 1135 with a C16th white weatherboard tower.

You pass through ‘Blood Croft’ where the bodies of seven Saxon warriors were excavated still wrapped in hemp cloaks fastened by bronze brooches (did they die in the epic battle between Horsa and his rival Bren who had married then dishonoured Horsa’s daughter Ealine? The point where Bren forded the river and was slain in battle took his name – Brentford)

The walk ends beneath the great cathedral of the Industrial Age – Brunel’s Wharnecliffe Viaduct opened in 1837 – the first Grade I listed building in the country. Stand beneath its cavernous arches and hear the whoosh of the turbo trains bound for Slough.

 

From This Other London – adventures in the overlooked city

‘The Lost Elysium’ – London walk – Sudbury Hill to Hanwell

'The Lost Elysium' - London walk from Sudbury Hill to Hanwell from fugueur on Vimeo.

Here’s a video I shot on the walk for Chapter 5 of This Other London, following the traces of a neolithic trackway from Sudbury Hill to the Wharnecliffe Viaduct at Hanwell, passing over the top of Horsenden Hill with its wonderful legend of Horsa and his ghostly steed, and through Perivale, the ‘pure vale’.