Water over the railway

After a sleepness night with a rather rough throat I thought I should do a Covid test this morning. Positive - how very annoying. Seems likely to have caught it on the train, but in only two days? I thought it took longer than that to appear.

One thing I particularly wanted to do on this trip was to finally find a way into the River Longford aqueduct. This artificial waterway was built for King Charles 1 in 1638 to bring water to Hampton Court from the River Colne, passing Heathrow Airport. Part of it runs through the Woodland Gardens in Bushy Park where I once worked back in the early 70s.

I've long been interested in the river and have always wanted to see the aqueduct which carries it across the British Rail Shepperton Line in Hampton. It can be seen from a distance from the Uxbridge Road bridge, but the aqueduct itself in hidden between several minor roads and is totally out of bounds to the public. The part which crosses the railway is part of a piece of garden which is leased to a local homeowner and today I finally made contact with his wife who unlocked the gate and showed me the garden. (All COVID restrictions were remembered in the carrying out of this communication!!)

She was thoroughly friendly and helpful, and let me take this photograph, tho' the whole aqueduct can't be photographed from the grass edge. It's hard to imagine that there's a deep cutting underneath! (I've put a pic I borrowed from the Internet on as an extra, taken from another bridge.) She promised me that next time her husband went out to cut back the vegetation he would send me a couple of photographs showing the whole thing. How nice can people be, when others occasionally open the door and say 'Bu**er off'!