It is just one of those things that the more adventures you have, the more chance that some will turn out to be grim and a disaster which is the reverse of that well known bit of graffiti ...... “You have to kiss a lot of toads before you meet your Prince Charming”.
I will have been about ten and on Saturdays, flush with pocket money I often took myself off down to the station, looking for adventure for just one shilling return. Sometimes we might push it to two shillings but that ate into the reserves which were for sweets and drinks along the way.
On this occasion we settled on the short journey of one stop from Queens Road to South Bermondsey. This alone should have been the warning that green fields and wide open spaces were unlikely to be what we found.
To compound it, the day started wet and grey and continued much the same.
But in that sense of adventure that took Marco Polo east to China, and Columbus west to the New World we bought the tickets and travelled north.
I don’t remember much other than on getting out of the station we headed down a long road and found a canal.
Now when you are ten water is fun, whether it is a lake, the River or as in this case a canal.
And I am sure that the Grand Surrey Canal was once a busy dynamic waterway with lots to see and marvel at, but in 1959 great stretches of it had been closed for a decade and a bit.
Our bit might still have been open, but it was a dismal spot that we had found.
We took shelter under a railway bridge and watched as the wind drove the rain across the canal, counting the various odd things floating towards us.
And our stay lasted no more than a quarter of an hour and while we ventured a little further along the road from the station, by common consent this had been a failure, .... one to mark down as a toad rather than a Prince Charming.
Recently I have been thinking about that adventure and once went looking for the canal only to draw a blank, forcing me to conclude I had imagined it or mixed two adventures up.
Looking at the map there is no canal any more, just a road, which turns out to be Surrey Canal Road.
And the clue is in the name and the fact that it runs pretty straight from Iderton Road to Fokestone Gardens.
Retracing our steps a full 59 years after our adventure, I rather think we walked down Iderton Road and sheltered under the railway bridge which now crosses Surrey Canal Road.
Since then I have read up on the Canal, which was first suggested in 1801 was opened by 1810 and closed by the 1940s.
In this I was helped by “my Bradshaw”* and the Canal Trio.*
Between them they offer up a fascinating account of our waterways produced when the canals were still at their peak. And it may be a surprise that Mr Bradshaw not only did railway guides much to Mr Portillo’s gain, but also Canals***.
His collection of coloured maps of the canal system are wonderful and sit beside the detailed descriptions of each canal company from the work of John Walker, Richard Nicholson, and Joseph Priestly.***
Looking back on the adventure it might have been fun to have had the two canal books with us.
Location; South Bermondsey
Pictures; me about the time of the adventure, 1959 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, South Bermondsey Railway Station, Tom Betts, 2007, on the public domain and detail of the Grand Surrey Canal, going towards Camberwell, 1830, The Inland Navigation of England and Wales
1830, George Bradshaw courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
* The Inland Navigation of England and Wales
1830, George Bradshaw
**Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout The United Kingdom, John Walker, Richard Nicholson, and Joesph Priestly, 1830
*** Great British Railway Journeys is a BBC documentary series presented by Michael Portillo. It premiered in 2010 on BBC Two, and has returned every year for a total of ten series.
 |
| Me, circa 1959 |
On this occasion we settled on the short journey of one stop from Queens Road to South Bermondsey. This alone should have been the warning that green fields and wide open spaces were unlikely to be what we found.
To compound it, the day started wet and grey and continued much the same.
But in that sense of adventure that took Marco Polo east to China, and Columbus west to the New World we bought the tickets and travelled north.
I don’t remember much other than on getting out of the station we headed down a long road and found a canal.
Now when you are ten water is fun, whether it is a lake, the River or as in this case a canal.
And I am sure that the Grand Surrey Canal was once a busy dynamic waterway with lots to see and marvel at, but in 1959 great stretches of it had been closed for a decade and a bit.
 |
| South Bermondsey Railway Station, 2006 |
We took shelter under a railway bridge and watched as the wind drove the rain across the canal, counting the various odd things floating towards us.
And our stay lasted no more than a quarter of an hour and while we ventured a little further along the road from the station, by common consent this had been a failure, .... one to mark down as a toad rather than a Prince Charming.
Recently I have been thinking about that adventure and once went looking for the canal only to draw a blank, forcing me to conclude I had imagined it or mixed two adventures up.
Looking at the map there is no canal any more, just a road, which turns out to be Surrey Canal Road.
And the clue is in the name and the fact that it runs pretty straight from Iderton Road to Fokestone Gardens.
 |
| Our bit of the Grand Surrey Canal, 1830 |
Since then I have read up on the Canal, which was first suggested in 1801 was opened by 1810 and closed by the 1940s.
In this I was helped by “my Bradshaw”* and the Canal Trio.*
Between them they offer up a fascinating account of our waterways produced when the canals were still at their peak. And it may be a surprise that Mr Bradshaw not only did railway guides much to Mr Portillo’s gain, but also Canals***.
His collection of coloured maps of the canal system are wonderful and sit beside the detailed descriptions of each canal company from the work of John Walker, Richard Nicholson, and Joseph Priestly.***
Looking back on the adventure it might have been fun to have had the two canal books with us.
Location; South Bermondsey
Pictures; me about the time of the adventure, 1959 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, South Bermondsey Railway Station, Tom Betts, 2007, on the public domain and detail of the Grand Surrey Canal, going towards Camberwell, 1830, The Inland Navigation of England and Wales
1830, George Bradshaw courtesy of Digital Archive Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/
* The Inland Navigation of England and Wales
1830, George Bradshaw
**Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways Throughout The United Kingdom, John Walker, Richard Nicholson, and Joesph Priestly, 1830
*** Great British Railway Journeys is a BBC documentary series presented by Michael Portillo. It premiered in 2010 on BBC Two, and has returned every year for a total of ten series.
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