WD3 is the postcode district for Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Croxley Green and other surrounding Hertfordshire villages (and also WD's lowest-numbered, WD1 and WD2 having been unceremoniously subdivided in 2000). It should not be the postcode for any part of London... except it is, and so I've had to go there as part of my quest to visit every postcode district in Greater London this year. [map]
Middlesex's western boundary once followed the River Colne, as does Greater London's today, all the way up from Heathrow to Rickmansworth. After ten miles of north/south the Colne valley bends off to the east, and it's at this point that the London border breaks away from the river to pass between Moor Park and Northwood. A snout of land sticks up in the intervening space, a mostly-unnecessary corner of Hillingdon where horses outnumber people, and this is the outlying spot where WD3 trumps UB9. Having visited yesterday it makes perfect sense that the postie would arrive via Rickmansworth rather than Harefield, the intervening country lane being very minor indeed.
This is Drayton Ford on Springwell Lane, a small bridge over the River Colne and the mostnorthwesterly point in Greater London. It's incredibly close to all things Rickmansworth, specifically the suburb of Mill End, and within shouting distance of Junction 17 of the M25. The country lane that breaks off from the A412 offers no clues that London lies immediately ahead, but just around the first bend past a couple of cottages comes a large sign welcoming you to Hillingdon. Neither Hertfordshire nor Three Rivers Council have erected a sign for those travelling the other way, it's simply taken as read. For those who know what they're looking for, a lone coal tax post drops a subtle liminal hint.
The Colne is fairly languid here, a consequence of having split into several channels hereabouts, although also artificially stimulated by gushing outflow from Mill End Pumping Station. Some of its waterworks are in Hertfordshire - the attractive part - whereas London has been gifted a large off-yellow metal shed instead. We're now entering lake country, a string of former gravel pits transformed into nature reserves with a single country lane threading inbetween. Best known is the 'Aquadrome' at the Rickmansworth end whereas out here the lakes are quieter, the wintering birds more plentiful and the surrounding paths considerably muddier. If you have the time (and the footwear) then a loop round Springwell Lake or Stocker's Lake rarely disappoints.
The first London residents with a WD3 postcode live in a fortified redbrick pile called Watercress Beds. The cultivation of tiny wet green leaves was once a staple of Colne Valley agriculture, but the dozen strips that used to exist here are now lost beneath a perfectly-striped lawn. A lot more people live just across the next braid of river inside tall chunky blocks pretending to be mills, but which are in fact modern flats dressed up with timber overhang. The road out to civilisation isn't lit so everyone here has a car, hence most of the space outside has had to be appropriated for parking.
The most significant feature in London WD3 is the Grand Union Canal, here bending east just before it exits the capital and makes a break for Watford and the West Midlands. A few houseboats top up the local population, though in a practical rather than an attractive way. Springwell Lock is a fairly standard example of the genre, its most striking feature an arched white bridge spanning the canal below the lower gates. This is also the launch point for the Hillingdon Trail, a surprisingly adventurous 20 mile hike south to Cranford (or for a less demanding all-weather route try the towpath down to Uxbridge).
On the other side of the canal are two entrances to a giant chalk quarry, long disused. In the 1970s and 1980s it was often seen on Doctor Who standing in for a stereotypical alien landscape, and even Blake's Seven dropped in and pretended it was Cygnus Alpha. If you've never been to the overlap of WD3 and Greater London, rest assured that Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison have. These days most of the hollow is landfill but a significant chunk remains accessible as The Old Quarry Business Park, a glum hideaway used for haulage, panel-beating and other vehicle-related purposes. Nearby Stocker's Farm has an even better filming pedigree including Black Beauty, Downton Abbey and Withnail & I, but that's just over the border in Hertfordshire so of no interest here.
Clinging closer to the canal is a cluster of older cottages perched a little higher off the flood plain all than those newbuilds. Some are appealingly terraced, one's barn-style and will do you bed and breakfast, another has a boat moored in the back garden and at least one has what looks like a Calor gas tank because living off-grid can be expensive. It may peeve some residents that the ULEZ starts at the canal bridge, or will do in August, but I seriously doubt that TfL will bother to install a camera up this backwater so they can always escape to Rickmansworth fee-free. Driving to Harefield is already less appealing.
Springwell Lane now starts to climb and in doing so passes the final residence in WD3. My thanks to Tim and Lindy for painting their postcode (WD3 8UW) on the smart parcel box at the end of their driveway. What follows is half a mile of increasingly narrow country lane occasionally broken by muddy passing places. The hedges are high and prickly, and only once break to permit a view across the valley towards Bucks and the scar of HS2 devouring once verdant slopes. I expected to have to dodge a lot of traffic careering round blind bends but was pleasantly relieved when only one car (with horse box) eventually appeared, and I spent the rest of the walk enjoying the buds, birdsong and spring solitude.
When the houses start up again they are firmly in UB9 and also now within the separate settlement of Hill End. The Ordnance Survey rank it as a village but it exhibits considerably more features of a hamlet including no church, no shop and no longer a pub. What it does have are a linear string of cottages, a high proportion of paddocks and a pond that I suspect doesn't normally spread right up to the road. You might know it from London Loopsection 13 which zigzags through very briefly between the allotments and the nursing home, but otherwise this outlying outpost is very much off the London radar. It doesn't even merit a bus route, indeed Hill End is the only London 'village' thus deprived, so you have to walk half a mile down to Harefield Hospital and catch the U9 there.
