EPW006297 ENGLAND (1921). The River Gade and the Grand Union Canal, Batchworth, from the east, 1921

At the time of the photo, it was not a tip siding and wouldn't be for another thirty years or more. It was a siding that serviced the working gravel pits of the Rickmansworth Sand & Gravel Co Ltd by Long Valley Woods and the adjoining Croxley Hall Woods. These were worked until 1934, when gravel extraction activity moved further down the Colne Valley. As can be seen in the photo, the siding was connected to the Met mainline via an exchange siding. Within a few years this scene would have changed quite radically with the construction of the Metropolitan Railway branch to Watford. Additionally, from 1925 the mainline would have been electrified as far as Rickmansworth.



When the old gravel extraction site was eventually used from the mid 1950s by London Transport for the disposal of their engineering spoil, the junction with Croxley Tip was made from a connection with the Watford branch near to Watford South Junction.

There is a school of local thought that this wasn't actualy a tithe barn being referred to as Croxley Great Barn built by St Albans Abbey about 1400 as a storage barn

Yes, this is Lot Mead