Stanmore Country Park Nature Trail
Post 26: Just down the slope to the left of the path are three trees with obvious horizontal banding. These are the wild cherry or gean Prunus avium, which unlike the cherry plum we met on the northern loop grows to be a full size forest tree. In March and April look up into the crowns to make out the blossom.

The large depression at the bottom of the slope is what remains of Blue Pond, a reservoir created in 1720 to hold water for supply to Cannons, a house built by James Brydges, First Duke of Chandos and famed as the most expensive of its day. The fragments of brick wall that can be seen at the foot of the slope presumably date from this time. From this reservoir, water flowed in pipes of hollowed elm tree trunk to a fountain in the garden. Cannons house lasted less than 40 years; it was demolished in 1747, and a much smaller villa built in 1760 in its place. This later house remains as the North London Collegiate School for Girls.

Up in Pear Wood to the northeast a second water reservoir for Cannons remains intact and is now maintained as a fishing lake.

To description for post 27

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