Heston Canal
I am puzzled by the canal spur that shows on the old maps and which has been mentioned in these forums.
Was it ever actually fully built and connected to the Grand Junction (Union) Canal (is 'built' the right word for a canal - 'navigated' maybe)?
I was brought up in the area in the fifties and sixties and can't figure out how the spur could have linked up to the main part of the canal where it is shown as there was no bridge that I recall (or even room for one I don't think) on Wentworth Road near North Hyde Lane that it could have passed under. Also its course on the map shows it passing through what is an open grassy space in North Hyde Lane (in front of a row of houses set back from the road - still there on the current aerial pic) before its right angled turn (on the map) into the aerodrome (about where I can recall an old nissen type wartime shed or something having been for many years - used by a small engineering company I seem to recall). A family friend lived in one of those houses and I don't recall any mention of a canal spur - though I suppose the question never came up.
I have a vague recollection that there may have been a depression which may have been the part filled in (or uncompleted) course of the canal behind and parallel to the houses in Wentworth Road (about where Convent Way was built).
I also think there was a minor widening of the canal at about the point where it shows the spur joining the main canal near the North Hyde Lane canal bridge (almost opposite the Old Oak Tree pub) as if a start had been made on a junction but it didn't seem to go anywhere, or have anywhere to go, as far as I can recall. I do remember, as a child, idly wondering why the widening was there.