Chorleywood If It Could

Why is Chorleywood not horrible?
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[@RadioJonophone]

You missed a third massive impact happenings at Chorleywood had on the residents of London and beyond. In 1961 at the Baking Research Institute, a new method of making fluffy white bread was invented. Those sons of fun at the Institute dreamt up the imaginative name, The Chorleywood Process. This led to mass produced loaves of the Wonderloaf variety being churned out to the delight of housewives throughout the land. Hurrah for Chorleywood.

[@fredbloggs8072]

Quite so, the name Chorleywood is possibly more famous around the world for the bread-making process than anything else. Watch any documentary or KZbin video about modern bread manufacture & Chorleywood is bound to be mentioned.

[@Julius_Hardware]

Settlement at Chorleywood goes back to at least the Iron Age, and some things haven't changed. Also home to cheap bread, rebellious Chartists, various minor celebrities down the years and a Lutyens house worth a fortune. One thing about the station layout - if you step off the car park steps onto the north bound platform and see your southbound train come round the corner, you just have time for a mad dash through the tunnel to catch it. Which helpfully tells southbound passengers that their train is coming, and stand clear of the tunnel. Allegedly the quietest station on the Tube, which is a good thing - though mostly due to the cost of the car park versus Rickmansworth.

[@timelordtardis]

Chorleywood has another claim to fame in the Chorleywood process for baking bread, the best thing since sliced bread.

[@thomasfrederiksendk]

Or worst, depending on preferences.

[@TheEulerID]

I would called that infamous for the Chorleywood process... I suppose the good thing about it is that it broke much of the dependency on high gluten imported wheat, but these days the development of new varieties allows relatively high gluten wheat to be grown in the UK. However, back when I was young in the 1960s and 70s and, for a good period afterwards, mass market sliced white bread would turn into pap.

[@hairyairey]

I was going to write the same thing!

[@RadioJonophone]

Yes. Maybe I should read the comments before plunging in.

[@robbybobbyhobbies]

As a Brit now resident in Canada - man how I miss a good slice of Hovis. Canadian bread is second only to Canadian cheese in terms of badness and cost.

[@davidsummer8631]

A whole video about Metroland..Sir John Betjeman approves

[@KnotChinese]

I commuted to Chorleywood, from Watford back in the 80’s. Loved it, glad to see it hasn’t changed. Pity you didn’t show the Sportsman Hotel, opposite the station, l hope it’s still there. It’s where l lost my innocence to a delightful lady, who shall remain nameless but not forgotten!

[@ernestparker3648]

Sadly the sportsman is now a block of flats.

[@MrGreatplum]

The main instigator of the metropolitan green belt was Patrick Abercrombie, I suppose one of the “founding fathers” of town planning. I’m a planner in a borough largely consisting of the MGB and I’m ever thankful for his creation - having said that, what he did to Plymouth can only be described as “interesting”

[@thomasburke2683]

I used to like Abercrombie. Please don't say he was responsible for the ghastly soulless place called Plymouth.

[@MrGreatplum]

@@thomasburke2683 - I’m afraid so - the post war rebuild of Plymouth was him

[@rjjcms1]

Had a wander through that at night on a long weekend there for an FA Cup tie some years ago. It's a short walk inland and the other side of a busy main road from the green,monument-happy coastal parts around the Hoe but yes,that town centre was somewhat,er,interesting. Does it still have those lights,or is it water jets (could be confusing it with somewhere else there,not necessarily in Britain or even Europe) coming up from the pavement in the pedestrianised central precinct?

[@rjjcms1]

Do I get a gold star for guessing that Jago was going to say the War and the Green Belt just before he did?

[@robertcameron-ellis6518]

One quick shot of a tube map pointing out to us foreigners where exactly it is would be good. Alway interesting Jago. Thanks. 👍

[@TheCaptScarlett]

Up in the top left hand corner

[@zork999]

@@TheCaptScarlett The area of the underground that is, by far, the most distorted on the Beck-style maps.

[@TheCaptScarlett]

@@zork999 i don't feel distorted living out here. I'd say either end of the Circle are the most. The Queensway/Bayswater separation or the Aldgate-Whitechapel area are more simplified by Beck. We're just a straight line that's shorter

[@annika_panicka]

4:45 Not only am I crestfallen that the house wouldn't have come with a cow-I'm also confused by the presence of the lone free-range horse and sheep and the faceless humanoid with a shiftless Border Collie who seemingly has no interest in rounding up this trio of wayward beasts.

[@frglee]

There's a continual battle going on about the London Green Belt. On one side, landowners, property developers and their political chums who want to make a fortune building little boxes made of ticky-tacky all over it. On the other side, local residents who quite like the area as it is, thanks, along with people of an environmentalist disposition who see the Green Belt as a relatively unspoilt bit of pleasant countryside ideal for rural walks and relaxation, as well as being a barrier to London sprawl. Politicians muck about with the Green Belt at their peril, as a recent by-election in that area showed.

[@sihollett]

The irony with the victory for the 'regressive alliance' that won that by-election is that the (now scrapped) Tory plans to allow building on the Green Belt would have given the result they wanted of less house building in Chesham and Amersham. Less attractive bits on the edge of London, that are only green belt for political reasons (and often aren't particularly green or pleasant) being built on would soak up a lot of the demand for edge-of-London living that is currently being served by knocking down lovely Metroland housing in places like Amersham and replacing it with low-quality and smaller Barratt boxes. Meanwhile, the other protections that pretty much all of the greenfield land in the constituency has (ditto the area around Chorleywood) would still apply, protecting the area from greenfield development.

[@sihollett]

Oh, and I should add - it's the landowners who want the green belt kept. Makes their land, which they often live on, more valuable.

[@highpath4776]

@@sihollett Even scrub land has a value to wildlife, humans are not the only creatures to need a home, and contribute to overall well being

[@oliverstemp9132]

Just add HS2 to the application, it will definitely be accepted. 😡😡😡

[@sihollett]

@@highpath4776 True, but human homes have to be built somewhere and it's greener if it's some scrubland (or, better yet, a golf course) close to where the stuff is than the same sort of land but 20+ miles further away from work and leisure. Especially as the beyond green belt stuff was built less dense to make up for being further away - it didn't save land. All the green belt did was lengthen journeys. Protect what is worth protecting, don't idiotically protect land purely because it is near the city that people want to live near.

[@corinnakroemer1749]

The more you mention the Green belt the more I try to come up with an amusing karate joke.

[@cargy930]

judo n't seem to be having much luck! :P

[@corinnakroemer1749]

@@cargy930 can't fight the impuls to like this!

[@jgodfrey546]

Informative indeed! Chorley others would agree....

[@bobwilcox1147]

Yes indeed! But don't call me Chorley!

[@emjackson2289]

"His practice was on Baker Street" [and I'm sure you'll agree he played a mean saxophone]. Seriously though, very interesting comment on "Metro-Land" -George Bernard Shaw wasn't it that vilified the mock-Tudor homes of the Era? Fun fact: Metro-Land was once the name of the fun fair attached to Gateshead's Metro-Centre shopping mall.

[@thomasburke2683]

Gateshead's metro centre is much more recent. Not at all so venerable.

[@boohaka]

Lovely! You've educated me yet again!

[@AnthonyBrown12324]

I have watched a lot of these videos ; mainly on the tv . very informative love your quirky humour too .

[@ianpeddle6818]

You really should write a book about the underground and suburbs etc. I’m an avid underground buff but I’ve learned so much from your videos although they are taster!!! May I say you have a voice and delivery perfect for KZbin! 🙏🙏

[@MikeWilliams-yp9kl]

The GREEN BELT, was oķ here . But where I live its all gone, built on by the council's own want for money/greed

[@Quasihamster]

"So what are we gonna do with this piece of land here?" "Golf course!" "Uhh... you mean a cemetary?"

[@johnentwhistlesurelysamsun1840]

Interesting to learn about towns in the green belt and also why it was established, london could have never ended, so one feels grateful that the green belt was put into place, thanks for an facinating video!

[@N330AA]

You're by far the most charismatic train nerd on KZbin

[@illyasvielemiya9059]

the existence of Chorleywood imply thaa chorleyiron also exist

[@TadeuszCantwell]

Very much enjoyed the video, it sure wasn't a chore to watch and it seems not a chore to visit!

[@billsinkins361]

My late grandfather always pronounced the game "goff"

[@derabbink]

"The 2nd wold war, which was a pretty rough scene alround." The narrator is probably British.

[@sihollett]

Chorleywood, the village, had lost its space before the railway. But marketing...

[@ggkitchener1122]

Am from Staines dad took us on a Sunday afternoon trip to CW once.....recall the brick bridge underpass. Yes country feel still not ruined. Last time i looked lol

[@malcolmhill9266]

Another great, informative video. Thank you! One impact you didn't mention was the building of the M25 which severed the links between Chroleywood, Sarrat and Rickmansworth. Which leads to another link - the hideous impact on the 'green-belt' of the HS2 portal site just a few miles further along the M25. Which leads to a final link - given Edward Watkins vision and involvement in the Met, GCR and Channel Tunnel. Not only is the destruction of green-belt unsightly, but the current government's view on 'levelling up' has seen the Manchester - London link as all that HS2 will service: and it won't even join up with HS1 to deliver Watkin's century-old vision of through trains from the North to Paris!

[@channelsixtysix066]

Chorelynot and as it transpired, it didn't. 03:43

[@EonityLuna]

I wonder if London and its outskirts might have become something like Tokyo if not for the Green Belt: a sprawling metropolis full of low- to mid-rise suburban housing on the outskirts, connected by a complex network of hybrid commuter/rapid transit railway lines.

[@chromiumphotography5138]

Did everyone else miss the Hollywood director and the way he looks at an aspiring young actress comment. Priceless.👍🏻

[@trueriver1950]

Looking forward to seeing a video about Metroland

[@18robsmith]

There is Metroland, and to cap it all there is Chorleywood, and its oh so common.

[@PopeLando]

I suspect Jago knows this, but one great "goff"-sayer was John Betjeman, who pronounced it that way in *his* film about Metro-Land.

[@TheEulerID]

It's apparent from some old photos that the undulating fence is not one of the original design features of the station. nb. I always thought that JH exhibited urban, not rural charm.

[@Figulus]

I have heard on the news that the pandemic is worsening in Britain so I would like to wish you and your family safety and good health, especially over the coming winter months. Thanks for the video. Cheers.

[@chromiumphotography5138]

Don't believe MSM.

[@stuartmilerosborne]

The Green Belt was one of the most important acts passed as even in my modest lifetime I have seen towns grow and grow. Each week in local papers I see this developer proposal and that developer proposal with planning committees rather too fluid in their authorisation. Have they had their palms greased never crossed my mind guv....I do love Metroland and have visited various places over the years just for the sake of doing so. You might ask what I take with me apart from my sandwiches and pop....no not my MACE spray but a book of poems by dear old John Benjamin ♥

[@michaelmiller641]

Interesting video as usual, Jago

[@dave771]

Still summer in Chorleywood!

[@martyonline1957]

The Green belt (London & Home Counties) act of 1938 has much to answer for

[@keiththorpe9571]

Did anyone hear more about the person on tracks at South Wimbledon? Thought I'd ask here, this seems like the place someone would know. Yes, we would love to see a deep dive into Metroland!

[@mrd64]

Always saw it as an extension of Ricky. It would be interesting to see something similar on Moor Park as that was considered the more snooty area.

[@lawrencecarlin4023]

Brilliant

[@talibhussain7614]

My favourite place

[@tomasjones3755]

“Chorley, you must be kidding me” “No - I’m quite serious & quit calling me Chorley”

[@HuggyBob62]

As someone living in another part of London's Green Belt, I hope that development continues to be restricted in Chorleywood. (Never been to Chorleywood, but the pictures look nice.) Sadly, Green Belt doesn't usually mean no development.

[@sihollett]

All the Green Belt around Chorleywood is protected in other, far more meaningful, ways.

[@damedavidfrith55]

Very interesting 🤔 and lucky 4 the Green belt act

[@getmetothegeek4066]

My grandfather lived in Metroland and played a lot of "goff".

[@Krzyszczynski]

You used to be considered one of hoi polloi if you pronounced the "L".

[@AndyG73]

Seems like Chorleywood escaped the huge PPP spending boom of the early-mid 2000s - it looks like it needs a refurb, at least in part. Had my career as an engineer taken a different path ( in terms of which employer I moved to around that time), I would've have likely been living in that area as the office was in Rickmansworth. Nice, but VERY expensive (I couldn't afford to move there!).

[@n17hero]

Ah so Charles Voysey was to blame for all those Bassetts liquorice allsorts with roofs on that plague most of the outskirts of London.

[@ajs41]

Did you film this on Wednesday 24th November? I was doing the Tube Challenge on that day, although I was at Chorleywood when it was getting dark.

[@Macarite]

My hometown 🥰

[@dominicsokalski6897]

Not sure the part on the hedge row border is right. Modern Herts and Bucks both traditionally thought to be part of Mercia from around 700 up to Anglo-Saxon unification with Wessex.

[@ivanoffw]

It appears that the last time the station was updated was the 1960's with the corrugated roofing with the mostly clear sections and the last time the underside of the entrance cover was painted must have been in the 1960's based on the condition of the paint. Does anyone know what type of covering if any there was for waiting passengers before the corrugated roofing?

[@neilforbes416]

Choreley can't be cherious! LOL

[@billbasherbill1364]

A well reasoned theses.

[@neilbain8736]

For some reason I've had an irrational fascination with Chorleywood, ever since I discovered it was off J18 on the M25. I keep imagining the Starship Enterprise stuck in a traffic jam. Look, I told you it was irrational. There's probably a Galaxy called M25 and the Satnav wasn't working that day.

[@Krzyszczynski]

Is that right about the Met and the GCR being rivals? I thought they were both components of Sir Edward Watkin's empire, his vision for which included a line to Paris through a Channel tunnel.

[@JagoHazzard]

At first they were, but after he retired, relations broke down.

[@1258-Eckhart]

If you wrote Chorley Wood it could be a place in Lancashire (S. of Preston), Chorleywood looks more its own man. Also I've heard a different version of the golf thing - you pronounce it "gofe".

[@russellnixon9981]

Nice box

[@roberthill6216]

Wow! A house for less than a fortnight's wage! (£725) I bet they are worth a lot more than that now! I hate inflation.

[@kidmohair8151]

out of curiosity, what are the property values like in ye dear olde Chorleywood e...?

[@Tevildo]

You're not going to get much change from £1M for a detached property. Maybe £600k for a semi.

[@johnmichaelcule8423]

The Chorleywood Process is to blame for the modern loaf. Fascinating trivia.... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process (And the research station is now a training centre for DWP and HMRC.)

[@TheCaptScarlett]

The Green Belt restrictions are under endless threat in Chorleywood. Some cynical local owners who develop golf courses that no one ever plays (gowf is the Scots pronunciation) while waiting decades before attempting to change the land use to residential by claiming its brown field development. The Chilterns are under phenomenal pressure - not helped by HS2 being drilled through it

[@joetheclaggingbrclass37pro13]

Hello!

[@TicTacToe3511]

Great story , at least we still have plenty of undeveloped land here down under (that is until the Chinese arrive) … Peter Western Australia

[@johnnye3160]

Metroland ep would be great. Have you ever ventured to Harefield?

[@QHarefield]

Alas, it is not served by any railway -- over- or under-ground -- and HS2 certainly does not count! 😬 Do you, perhaps, live there?

[@johnnye3160]

@@QHarefield I do, yes. Harefield did have a station on Harvil Road called Harefield Halt but it was too far out to be of any use. I mentioned Harefield in regards to Metroland as Harefield has largely maintained its working class, rural identity whereas other towns around it (with metropolitan stations) have all become London/suburban sprawl. I've been to many corners of the capital and considering its location, Harefield seems an oddity in this regard

[@QHarefield]

@@johnnye3160 As you might guess, I also live there. And, yes, Harefield Halt was over a mile away, even from S. Harefield. However, it is possible that the reason it has maintained its identity is down to that very fact : no trains go there!

[@Claytone-Records]

Natalie Would, too.

[@richardirvine1997]

This was fascinating for me,, as I lived in Chorleywood from the age of nine to the age of eighteen when I left to go to University in 1969. I remember the place most fondly. I used to go the Church of England Primary School on the other side of the common (we lived in the :village: side around the station). Then I went to Rickmansworth Grammar School, which meant commuting every day from Chorleywood station to Rickmansworth. It was about the best place to grow up in.

[@markusher1621]

Same here. Born in Chorleywood in the 60s on Collyland, went to Russell School. Gone by the early 70s but idyllic memories.

[@fredbloggs8072]

From the video I can see that the Sportsman Hotel opposite the station is no longer the Sportsman Hotel. I'm quite sad about that. Must've walked past it thousands of times in my youth.

[@AndrewMcColl]

Jay Foreman has a great video about Metroland, but I'd love to hear your take. I suspect it wouldn't involve you kicking his grandmother's house, but I don't want to limit your creative process.

[@Larry]

Is this the same Chorleywood where modern breadmaking was born? But I used to fly kites there on the common as a kid! Also my brother got his radio control plane stuck in one of those huge trees, and we had to go home and bring back a sacrificed gazebo tent for the poles to put them all together anf try and poke it out. which we actually managed to!

[@simonabbott7323]

Yes. The Chorleywood process was invented in 1961 and its chief difference to the usual method is a faster mixing process and a shorter initial proving time. It makes the production process quicker and allows lower gluten flours (like the ones grown here) to be used in place of imported higher gluten flour.

[@dukeofaaghisle7324]

The process was developed at the Flour Milling and Bakeries Research Association (FMBRA) in Chorleywood. It enabled cheap mass-produced bread using flour from British wheat varieties as opposed to US, Canadian or Australian wheats that had dominated before the Second World War. The process was aided by a big wheat breeding drive from UK research centres like Rothamsted Experimental Station, also in Hertfordshire.

[@JagoHazzard]

That’s the one! A lot of people have asked about the bread...

[@beardyface8492]

@@JagoHazzard Calling that stuff bread is stretching the definition though.

[@mrrolandlawrence]

@@JagoHazzard people knead to know..

[@BrianSeaman]

Just trying to imagine the casting couch that Chorleywood had to endure. Form an orderly queue please!

[@adonaiyah2196]

Can you please elaborate

[@tomkent4656]

Don't call me Shirley!

[@bryan3550]

More on Metro-land please! A fascinating subject. Just love Sir John Betjeman's dissertation on the subject. 🧐

[@SlartiMarvinbartfast]

Another excellent, highly informative and amusing video from Mr Hazzard, thank you good sir for your continued contributions. I honestly have no idea why you don't have a million subscribers or more, your content also appeals to those who have only a passing interest in the Tube (such as myself for example).

[@johntyjp]

Did you know that Mr Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, drowned in a garden pond here, trying to rescue two ladies swimming!? Well you do now!!😄

[@andrewmcculloch7891]

W S Gilbert did indeed die of a heart attack whilst trying to rescue a young lady who had got into trouble whilst swimming in a lake in the grounds of his home, Grims Dyck. That home is now a Best Western hotel but it is not in Chorleywood, rather it is in the grey area between Harrow Weald and Stanmore. I've stayed there on several occasions; the lake is still there and the building has been sympathetically converted with many original features retained, indeed there is a blue plaque by the front door commemorating the fact.

[@johntyjp]

@@andrewmcculloch7891 Hi Andrew, thanks for verifying that! I play G&S on piano and still marvel at his clever lyrics !!😄

[@andrewmcculloch7891]

It's a lovely house in wonderful grounds.

[@Castlebank_Sidings]

My house came with a cow! But I later divorced her and I'm much happier now 😊

[@cargy930]

Unless you were particularly lucky, it's usually the case that the house and the cow stay together!

[@thhseeking]

Marriage: Find someone that you hate and buy them a house :P

[@michaelalexander2306]

I went to Chorleywood some years ago and quite frankly, was surprised how such a nice place is within commuting distance of the Metropolis. Didn't bother ask the price of the houses though!

[@emjackson2289]

It's in Zone Seven Figures

[@calmeilles]

@@emjackson2289 A bit different from £725.

[@oldman1734]

It’s not that nice a place. The village (or whatever it is) has a disorganised sort of of layout. Not pretty. Not homely.

[@rogerkearns8094]

_Chorleywood if it could_ As you seem already to be aware, it's the only underground station that's ever been referenced by a Simon and Garfunkel song, i.e.: _I'd rather be a hammer than a nail_ _If I could_ _If I only could_ _I Chorleywood._ ;)

[@sproutstanding]

what about Bridge Over Troubled Waterloo? Homeward Bounds Green?.... The Only Living Boy In New Cross doesn't count as it's on the Overground....

[@trickygoose2]

@@sproutstanding The Only Living Boy in New Cross is actually the title of a song by the early 90s indie duo Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, who liked their puns.

[@iankemp1131]

Very appropriate given that one of Simon ad Garfunkel's hits was written at Widnes station during a tour (Homeward Bound) - though arguments have been also put forward for Wigan or Ditton.

[@iankemp1131]

@@sproutstanding If you saw a Great Central engine going through you could say Hey Mr. Robinson ...

[@paulprescott7913]

@@iankemp1131 this very true.

[@dumbbellenjoyer]

Is it just me or isn't that just some fantastic drainage on the platform? Usually they have distasteful grimy metal grills tucked away

[@rainyfeathers9148]

I want to hear more about this metroland. Troublemakers🦹🏾 HO!!!

[@TefiTheWaterGipsy]

Oh I would love a whole Metro-Land video. Having lived in Pinner for a few years and then moved to the other side of the Chilterns, served by what was then (maybe still?) called the Chiltern Turbo, the Met line is and always will be my favourite line. The magenta map colour is a favourite too. It was the old trains (not the steam, I'm a decade too young for that), the carriages were bigger and laid out more like railway trains than tubes, getting the right train to work and back, could mean a nice long sit down all the way without changing, or working out which train would get me there faster and should I change at Wembley? Or go to Harrow and take my chances. I was rather disappointed when they renamed the Hammersmith branch. I love the concept of Metro-Land, if not always the reality, and the houses and estates are way better than a lot of other places in other parts of London from the same era. It was also the last bastion of chivalry on the tube, if there wasn't a seat when I got on, some gentleman would almost always offer me his seat. I also loved watching the different trains right outside my flat in Pinner. Some sped past, others were going fast enough to know they weren't stopping in our still almost village like dwelling place and others had the tired look as they slowed, as if they were as challenged as I was just getting up the hill to Pinner station. I love the whole area and would happily live in the Chilterns somewhere again. A video would by you about Metro-Land would be a great video and I'd watch it over and over.

[@groupcaptainbonzo]

Nice shot of Horstead Keynes…

[@future057]

Another brilliant and informative video Jago. Also, good evening!

[@mkendallpk4321]

For that kind of money, for a house back then, they should have thrown in the cow! Glad that Chorleywood stayed more idyllic than suburban.

[@caw25sha]

Move to Milton Keynes 🐄🐄🐄🎈🎈🎈

[@archstanton6102]

To Geordies of a certain age Metroland will always be the indoor rollercoaster and amusements at the Metro Centre

[@sirrliv]

Would I be right in surmising that the Green Belt was one of the reasons why the Central Line ended up abandoning Ongar Station and terminating at Epping, thus leaving the last couple miles in the countryside to become the Epping & Ongar Steam Railway?

[@JagoHazzard]

Not quite - already-existing railways were fine. The Ongar line closed because it just didn’t have many passengers.

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@@JagoHazzard But surely the green belt is kind of why it didn't?

[@iankemp1131]

@@Inkyminkyzizwoz Yes, my understanding was that the green belt firmly limited any potential housing development in that area. Everywhere between Loughton and Ongar, and well beyond, lies in the Green Belt, apart from existing settlements. Hence LT's reluctance to take over the Ongar section after WW2 and the delay in electrification from 1949 to 1957, when it was done on the cheap. Similar to their dropping the Bushey Heath extension.

[@sihollett]

The creation of the green belt why they closed the Mill Hill East - Edgware line rather than finish converting it to tube (and extending it to Bushey) Central line to Denham also didn't get built for the same reasons. And because Britain is significantly poorer as a result of it and similar later acts, it's also why pretty much any proposed post-war improvement that doesn't exist didn't happen.

[@sirrliv]

So basically the answer is "Eh, not really, but kinda." Well, at least London got its own Tube-accessible steam railway out of it. I've heard tell off and on that they plan to extend steam train operations all the way to Epping itself to directly interchange with the Underground, rather than the current terminus at North Weald. From what I've seen in Google Maps and a recreation in Train Simulator, the track is still there, albeit rather overgrown in some places. The main trouble would be getting TfL to agree to the scheme and working out how the steam trains would return to Ongar without interrupting the Tube services; if there would be enough gap in services to allow engines to run-round or if they'd have to top-&-tail with two engines, one at each end, or if the Epping section would be restricted to only their DMU stock that has a cab at each end.

[@Rog5446]

When will it all end? When Jago runs out of stations.

[@rontanser9369]

Thank you that was interesting about Chorleywood

[@ttrjw]

I live in a 1930s part of Wembley. The housing is nice, although some modernisations are not.

[@Leonard_Smith]

The more of these videos that I watch, the more I begin to think that the world is being run for the benefit of sign-writers and printers. How much do they benefit each time one of these stations is renamed? Keep them coming.

[@likklej8]

Among my Railway Books Ive one with photos of Metroland under steam as well as part of London Transport. As a train spotter in the 60s we used to get trains from Harrow on Hill to Baker Street and the old Met coaches had a buffet section in one coach.

[@highpath4776]

Something about Verney Junction would be Brill

[@cargy930]

People would come just to Gawcott it. (yeah, I know there was never a station there, but it was the best I could come up with!)

[@TheCaptScarlett]

I'll share this on the local Rickmansworth/Chorleywood FB, so incoming comments

[@irongoatrocky2343]

So in the UK early Rail Barron's were Land Barron's as well? Here in the US the early days of railroading the companies were granted Deeds for swaths of land for 5 miles on both sides of the mainline many of which the railroads still owns some of to this day by subsidiaries like the Great Northern Railway's Glacier Park Company!

[@zork999]

Land speculation by railroads was normally outlawed in the UK. Any surplus land after the railroad was finished had to be sold. Pretty much the sole exception was Metroland. On the other hand, UK railroads did have air rights above stations and the government can tax the increase in worth from having a line or station built in an area, something that is usually outlawed in the US.

[@randomroveruk6715]

Thank you Jago! Always a pleasure to travel out this way.

[@peteryoung4957]

Thank you for doing Metroland. I recognise all the places.

[@marklatimer7333]

Did I see a Condor Pass? - nice word play.

[@RamsFan93]

Excellent content once again Sir!

[@ashleyhamman]

A deeper dive, or perhaps a mapped one of Metroland would be great! As for the suburbs and greenbelts, I do have very mixed feelings. As with the extreme example of the US, transportation techlogies produced now mass low-density development, which does destroy the natural environment, however I think the metroland-type development was pretty acceptable because it still generates decent walkability and of course mass transit usage. As a result, while I think it would have been fine to have more rail-centric development, the green belt does mean that the city can work on denser infill development, which I think we're finally starting to figure out how to implement well in general, not just over there in London, but here in the US as well in examples such as Portland.

[@alexandraclement1456]

Another charming tale for a charming town.

[@KravKernow]

If you pace out ten steps along a hedge, and then count how many plant species are in that section, that's the age of the hedge in centuries.

[@2H80vids]

Interesting. I just had to google this and, apparently, it's known as "Hooper's Law". Who knew?😁👍

[@tompao7832]

As some of you might know the origins of "golf" lies in the Netherlands. And as all of you know dutch words are imposible to pronounce if dutch is not your native language. The only exception might be if you are born in Denmark... end of discussion!

[@caw25sha]

Waits for hordes of angry Scotsmen...

[@tompao7832]

@@caw25sha Living in Sweden I don´t fear the Scotsmen... They are our next of kin - we share the same values, except maybe on gowf!