4000 Bikes in Apsley, Hertfordshire
When Margaret and I first met I was working in Two Waters for a crash repair 'shop, just opposite the confluence of the Rivers Bulborne and Gade. In those days John Dickinson Ltd was still producing Croxley Script, Basildon Bond and other paper products in the numerous mills along the valley. When the afternoon shift changed the roads around Apsley and Hemel Hempstead resembled Beijing with the workforce all cycling home pell-mell. I used to walk along the canal occasionally to Rose's wharf where drums of lime juice were delivered by canal boat from London. This stretch of the Grand Union has changed considerably since that time. Rose's Wharf is now B&Q; the paper mills have all gone apart form Croxley and the Ovaltine farm and factory is now blocks of flats. Such is progress.