Apsley Marina

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Apsley Marina
Apsley Marina, Grand Union Canal, Apsley (geograph 7412178).jpg
Apsley Marina
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Apsley Marina
Location within Hertfordshire
OS grid reference TL0505
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
Postcode district HP3
Dialling code 01442
Police Hertfordshire
Fire Hertfordshire
Ambulance East of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Hertfordshire
51°44′00″N0°27′35″W / 51.7333°N 0.4596°W / 51.7333; -0.4596

Apsley Marina, also referred to as Apsley Lock Marina, is a basin used for mooring narrowboats on the east side of the Grand Union Canal at Apsley, Hertfordshire, England.

Contents

History

This former greenfield site is on the east side of the Grand Union Canal, [1] [2] immediately opposite to the former location of Apsley Mill, [3] a flour mill on the west side of the canal, which was converted into a paper making factory in 1778, and then acquired by the papermaking inventor, John Dickinson, in 1809. [4] [5] Following a change in ownership, Apsley Mill ceased the manufacture of stationery in 1999. [6]

The site was acquired by Fairview Homes in the late 1990s, as part of a project to redevelop both sides of the canal for housing. [7] After much of the housing had been built and sold to householders, British Waterways took over ownership and management of the remaining land on the east side of the canal in November 2002. [8] Following the completion of extensive excavation, earth-moving and civil engineering activities, the new marina opened to boats in 2003. [9] [10] A new public house named "The Paper Mill" was erected on the west side of the canal, [11] [12] [13] and a footbridge, designed by Mark Lovell Design Engineers, was installed to connect the public house, on the west side of the canal, to the marina on the east side of the canal. [14]

Operations

The marina has 44 leisure berths for short-term customers and 20 residential berths for long-term customers. [15] It is operated by Aquavista, [16] formerly British Waterways Marinas Limited (BWML). [17] Boat access to the Grand Union Canal is on the southwest side of the marina, through a lift bridge: [18] a residential street, known as Dickinson Quay, runs along the other three sides of the marina. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Union Canal</span> Canal in England

The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter stretching for 137 miles (220 km) with 166 locks from London. The Birmingham line has a number of short branches to places including Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover, and Northampton. The Leicester line has two short arms of its own, to Market Harborough and Welford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemel Hempstead</span> Town in Hertfordshire, England

Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apsley, Hertfordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Apsley is a village in Hertfordshire, England, in a valley of the Chiltern Hills below the confluence of the River Gade and Bulbourne. It was the site of water mills serving local agriculture and from the early 19th century became an important centre for papermaking. Today it is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickmansworth</span> Town in Hertfordshire, England

Rickmansworth, is a town in south-west Hertfordshire, England; it is located about 17 miles (27 km) north-west of central London, 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Watford and is inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llangollen Canal</span> Canal in Wales and Shropshire, UK

The Llangollen Canal is a navigable canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, Shropshire. The name, which was coined in the 1980s, is a modern designation for parts of the historic Ellesmere Canal and the Llangollen navigable feeder, both of which became part of the Shropshire Union Canals in 1846.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Itchen, Hampshire</span> River in Hampshire, England

The River Itchen in Hampshire, England, rises to the south of New Alresford and flows 26 miles (42 km) to meet Southampton Water below the Itchen Bridge. The Itchen Navigation was constructed in the late 17th and early 18th centuries to enable barges to reach Winchester from Southampton Docks, but ceased to operate in the mid-19th century and is largely abandoned today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nash Mills</span> Human settlement in England

Nash Mills is a civil parish within Hemel Hempstead and Dacorum Borough Council on the northern side of the Grand Union Canal, formerly the River Gade, and in the southernmost corner of Hemel Hempstead. There is evidence of a mill in this location since the 11th century and the row of 16th century mill cottages still remain. John Dickinson established a number of papermaking mills in the area in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huddersfield Broad Canal</span> Navigation canal in West Yorkshire, England

The Huddersfield Broad Canal or Sir John Ramsden's Canal, is a wide-locked navigable canal in West Yorkshire in northern England. The waterway is 3.75 miles (6 km) long and has 9 wide locks. It follows the valley of the River Colne and connects the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Cooper Bridge junction with the Huddersfield Narrow Canal near Aspley Basin in Huddersfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery Canal</span> Canal in Shropshire, England, and Powys, Wales

The Montgomery Canal, known colloquially as "The Monty", is a partially restored canal in eastern Powys and northwest Shropshire. The canal runs 33 miles (53 km) from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to Newtown via Llanymynech and Welshpool and crosses the England–Wales border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hull Marina</span> Marina in Hull, England

Hull Marina is a marina for pleasure boats situated in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. It was opened in 1983 on the site of the former Railway Dock and Humber Dock and is managed by British Waterways Marinas Limited (BWML).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nash Mill</span>

Nash Mill was a paper mill near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The local residential area takes its name from the mill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dickinson Stationery</span> Defunct British paper company

John Dickinson Stationery Limited was a leading English stationery company founded in southwest Hertfordshire. In the 19th century, the company pioneered a number of innovations in papermaking. It became part of Dickinson Robinson Group in 1966; after changes of ownership, the John Dickinson brand was retired in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Gade</span> River in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, England

The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watford through Cassiobury Park. After passing Croxley Green it reaches Rickmansworth, where it joins the River Colne. For its whole course the Gade is unnavigable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckingham Arm</span> English canal

The Buckingham Arm is an English canal that once ran from Cosgrove, Northamptonshire to Buckingham. It was built as an arm of the Grand Junction Canal in two separate phases, a broad canal to Old Stratford, which opened in 1800 and a narrow canal onwards to Buckingham, which opened in 1801. It was disused from 1932, and was dammed at the first bridge in 1944 to reduce leakage from the Grand Union Canal, as the Grand Junction had then become known, but was not finally abandoned until 1964. The remains were severed by the construction of new roads in the 1970s and again in the late 1980s. The section through Old Stratford and Deanshanger was sold off in the 1990s, and the route there has been lost to housing development. The Buckingham Canal Society was formed in 1992, and is actively pursuing a restoration programme. Some 440 yards (400 m) of the canal near Buckingham are now holding water, but the main focus in 2020 was at the Cosgrove end, where a restored channel would be accessible by boat from the Grand Union. Progress was made in September 2023, when 550 yards (500 m) of canal were reopened to navigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendover Arm Canal</span>

The Wendover Arm Canal is part of the Grand Union Canal in England, and forms part of the British canal system. It is usually known as the Wendover Canal, but historically its builders referred to their branch canals as Arms, hence its historical name of Wendover Arm. It was planned as a feeder to carry water from springs near the town of Wendover in Buckinghamshire to the main line of the Grand Junction Canal at Bulbourne near Startops End in Hertfordshire, but when it opened in 1799 it was made navigable, as the extra cost of making it was so small. Water supplies from Wendover were found to be inadequate, and a series of reservoirs were built. A pumping station at Whitehouses was superseded by the Tringford pumping station in 1817; its steam engines were replaced by diesel engines in 1911 and then by electric pumps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batchworth</span> Human settlement in England

Batchworth was once a hamlet and is now a civil parish and part of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. The parish of Batchworth was created on 1 April 2017 consisting of two Three Rivers District Council wards: Rickmansworth Town, and Moor Park and Eastbury. The first election to Batchworth Parish Council was on 4 May 2017. There are eight councillors; four in each ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cow Roast</span> Human settlement in England

Cow Roast is a hamlet within the civil parishes of Northchurch and Wigginton in Hertfordshire, England. It is between Tring and Berkhamsted, along the A4251, adjacent to the Grand Union Canal and the West Coast Main Line. Today it comprises a row of 20th-century houses and a marina, together with several older properties including a restaurant. There are three car dealerships and a petrol station beside the main road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canal & River Trust</span> Trust for waterways in England and Wales

The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as Glandŵr Cymru in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the Trust took over the responsibilities of the state-owned British Waterways in those two places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frogmore Paper Mill</span> Paper mill in Hertfordshire, UK

Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill situated in Apsley, Hertfordshire, near Hemel Hempstead. The mill is on an island in the River Gade, which forms part of the Grand Union Canal. It is the oldest mechanical paper mill in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apsley Mill</span>

Apsley Mill was a paper mill at Apsley, near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

References

  1. "EPW015685 England (1926). The Apsley Paper Mills and the Grand Union Canal, Apsley, 1926". Britain from Above. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  2. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1913. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  3. "The Grand Junction Canal: A Highway Laid With Water". Tring Local History and Museum Society. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  4. "Apsley Mill". Frogmore Paper Mill. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  5. Hassell, John (1819). Tour of the Grand Junction.
  6. "Timeline". Apsley Paper Trail. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  7. "Ovaltine factory, Kings Langley". Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  8. Annual Report and Accounts. British Waterways. 2001. In November 2002, we took over ownership of Apsley Marina, a new 65 - berth mooring basin, from Fairview Homes
  9. Davis, Eve (2011). Hemel Hempstead Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN   978-1848686069.
  10. "Apsley Marina (BWML)". Marina Insurance. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  11. Good Beer Guide. The Campaign for Real Ale. 2012. ISBN   978-1852493073.
  12. Cooper, John (2015). Hertfordshire's Historic Inland Waterway Batchworth to Berkhamsted. Amberley Publishing. ISBN   978-1445652986.
  13. "The Paper Mill, Apsley". Fuller's Pubs. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  14. "Apsley Mill Bridge". Mark Lovell Design Engineers. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  15. "Apsley Waterside Marina". Aquavista. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  16. "BWML becomes Aquavista". Harbour Assist. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  17. Jones, Tony (2019). The Liveaboard Guide Living Afloat on the Inland Waterways. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1472963680.
  18. "Apsley" (PDF). Canbal and River Trust. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  19. "Dickinson Quay". Street List. Retrieved 11 November 2023.