IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Norman Avenue, FELTHAM, TW13 5LW

From Saxon Avenue looking across the park to Nene Gardens

Crane Park Island is an area between the river Crane and a mill stream cut to power gunpowder mills which operated here until 1926. The main flow goes down the channel on the left in this picture. The right hand channel is the mill leat, which although it looks wider here is now silted up and overgrown and carries only a small flow. Remains of the powder mills can still be seen on the island. There are some foundations, water channels and mill wheel bays still visible in the undergrowth. The island is now a nature reserve run by the London Wildlife Trust.

This is the channel that once took the River Crane to the wheels of the old gunpowder mills which operated here until 1927. http://www.oldindustry.org/ShotTowers/local_history_river_crane.pdf The wheels are long gone, but the sluices are still visible. The millstream is now silted and overgrown as you see, but is no doubt a very good habitat. It's part of Crane Park Island nature reserve. Most of the river flow now goes down the channel to the south of the island.

This runs closely parallel to the main route of the river, which is just beyond the vegetation on the left bank. Separating the two routes is therefore a long very narrow island. Various buildings of the old gunpowder mills used to be on the right bank, and the 1874 map shows many small inlets made at right angles to this bank, some associated with buildings. This river branch is lower than the leat supplying the western set of mills, at the same level as the pond supplying the eastern set of mills. It seems very likely from the circumstances that this waterway was made for navigation, for transport from the main manufacturing area to rather spaced out buildings along the right bank here. These were probably magazines. There exists in Hounslow Local Studies Library an illustration c1795 showing a small punt with three items of cargo being navigated upstream on the mill pond. This may have been artistic licence, but the waterside features visible in this view and on maps point towards it being realistic. See http://www.hounslow.info/libraries/local-history-archives/charles-dickens/charles-dickens-and-hounslow-3/ .

This apparently rural scene is in Crane Park, just 100 metres wide with the river, a path, and bushy woodland.

Crane Park Island Nature Reserve is located in the Twickenham area and offers a peaceful haven for wildlife amid London’s suburbia. The island is man-made and is 4.5 acres in size. It is connected to the “mainland” by a short crossing through a gate and a walkway overlooking the river. The site was formerly the location of the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. The mills used the River Crane as a source of water power.

Shown as open water on the map, the middle of Crane Park Island is now more of a marsh. It was probably an old millpond at one time. Some of the reeds have been cut, maybe as habitat enhancement? The island is a nature reserve.

Crane Park is an attractive linear park following the River Crane in the Boroughs of Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. This view is immediately downriver of Hanworth Road and here the river is split in two - this is the southern channel. The London LOOP, which passes through much of Crane Park is to the north of the northern channel.

Crane Park is an attractive linear park following the River Crane in the Boroughs of Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. This view is immediately downriver of Hanworth Road and here the river is split in two - this is the southern channel. The London LOOP, which passes through much of Crane Park is to the north of the northern channel.