Hardings Farm, Kennel Lane

[Cookham Webmaster]

"The Planning Officers recommended approval of an application to build three houses on the Hardings Farm equestrian site in Kennel Lane. At the Planning Panel meeting on 22 November the Cookham Society presented the argument that this development would damage the openness of the Green Belt. The majority of the Councillors agreed with them and the application was rejected. Thank you Cookham Society

[Paris]

Well done Cookham Society, thank you.

[Watchman]

Old Farmer Jim Ricketts would be spinning in his grave right now at all this kerfuffle about building new houses upon his old farm lands.

It was bad enough when Copas bought the two fields stretching down from Ricketts Farm to the Cricket Club.
We all know what those fields are pencilled in for, given time .... don't we!

The only two good things that came out of the piece meal sale of Jim Ricketts' farm lands after his passing were:
a. the sale to Cookham Dean Cricket Club of their beautiful ground - aptly named Ricketts Field, and
b. the sale to the Cookham farrier of the small field beyond the Cricket club - fronting on to Whyteladies Lane.

The rest of Jim's lands are now engulfed in greed.

Well done the Cookham Society in cutting short Richards' intentions of building 3 monstrosities on greenbelt land.

But rest not .... this one won't go away.
Be assured that they will be back within the year with yet another "redressed" application to build.

[CLIPPER]

Do you think these land owners were thinking 'Kennel Lane' was going to be used as an access point. I see the once narrow foot path has been turned into a road!

[chrisri]

Kennel Lane  has always been vehicle access...

[Watchman]

Define "vehicle access" ?

4 X 4's, Jeeps, SUV's, Chelsea tractors, Farm tractors and vehicles  - Yes.... maybe .... probably.

Regular saloon cars - An emphatic No.
Unless of course you are seriously looking for a broken axle or a polished underside of the car with a punctured petrol tank ! 

[CLIPPER]

Well said Watchman.

If Access was so easy - why is  / WAS IT only a footpath from one end to the other.... gate half way up.

Also, I am sure I read somewhere, its was only called 'Kennel Lane' as the hounds were exercised along this route.

 

[chrisri]

It has always been vehicle access; whether that is farm vehicle or other. There are cars etc going in and out of the stables all the time.

To say the ‘once narrow footpath has been turned into a road’ is simply not true.

In fact it is less of a road now than it was 20years ago but it is still a track that is more than suitable for vehicles driven at an appropriate speed.

Let’s keep the posts factually correct else you risk losing credibility.

[CLIPPER]

your pulling my leg..

You can NOT drive a car from one end to the other ! in fact there is a GATE and there used to be signs saying FOOT PATH !

[chrisri]

There is a gate there which remains locked but some people (including Copas and Harding's Farm and others) can open that gate to get vehicular access if required...it is a little overgrown at present but you could absolutely get a vehicle up and down that lane....and they have every right too...

[Paris]

Vehicle access for farm traffic yes, from either end; through road no. Footpath has been there since before the 70's but no one other than the occasional tractor will have gone end to end, it's not a lane as in the normal use of the word. In fact some older Cookhamites probably only know it as 'the cart track'.

[chrisri]

My original point was there has been traffic to and from "The Stables" for as long I can remember and this traffic has been all sorts of vehicles not just farm vehicles.

I think that the post "I see the once narrow foot path has been turned into a road!" is unfair to the current residents of Hardings Farm, I don't see anything has changed on this road/lane/track in the past 30yrs.

Whilst I agree there has been little traffic from top to bottom that is just through the choice of the current owners, they are well within their rights to use this for vehicular access to service various aspects of their land.

[James Hatch]

I remember it as a gravel lane back in the 1940's, when I use to accompany my mother to the old WI hut at the top on the south side of the lane. That was when Whist Drives were social life of the village. Yes every week we use to walk there every week from Widbrook. It was a green tin clad building with a tongue and groove wood clad interior.

[Watchman]

chrisri

The access to the stables is NOT from the bottom end ie., from Whyteladyes Lane but from the top -
ie., Church Road plus the tiniest bit of Kennel Lane.

So this kind of neutralises your misleading quote on the stable access ...viz.,

... There are cars etc going in and out of the stables all the time....

which could lead one to believe that these 'cars' access from the bottom of the lane!

Check out "Kennel Lane" on an Ordnance Survey map - it is barely a thin line from top to bottom - viz., a gated track.

I asked for your definition of "vehicle" - to which you replied as below - so once again I ask ... define "or other".

It has always been vehicle access; whether that is farm vehicle or other.

I walked my dogs up there for several years some 15 to 20 years ago(still do occasionally) ... and never once did I see "other" vehicles use it
other than the very occasional Copas tractor, labouring up the "lane". And as you so rightly point out, the track is now "less of a road" ...
which, by definition, (when it was never a road in the first place), would mean that it is just a tardy track now, only worse!
The word "Lane" therefore, is a tad misleading

It may well be that the owners of Hardings Farm have every right (not the sole right) to use the track known as Kennel Lane -
however, I would be astonished if access to the Hardings Farm stables has now been switched by the Richards' to come up from
Whyteladyes Lane!  Unless via a 4x4 or a tractor!
 
I know someone who bid for Hardings Farm long before the Richards bought it ... and therefore have a pretty comprehensive
knowledge of the whys and wherefores of the locality - hence my astonishment at the owners proposal to build 3 large dwellings
on the present stables footprint.

Your reference to words and phrases like "credibility" and "factually correct" are therefore, a wee bit erroneous, wouldn't you say?!  .

[James Hatch]

The lane got its name from the kennels that at one time housed Stag Hounds. Stag hunting was quite a popular sport in the area. Remember Windsor Great Forest ran all the way to Cookham at one time.